In 2006, Duke Law School grad Tucker Max published I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell, a real life roundup of his drunken, sexual misadventures that unexpectedly shot him to the top of the New York Times Best Seller list and cemented him as the leader of the “fratire” (male chick lit) literary genre.

Following last year’s release of the film version of IHTSBIH, Max is back with a new digest of debauchery, Assholes Finish First. The book’s launch this week kicked off a coast to coast 34-date signing tour starting in Manhattan, and I spoke with the controversially hilarious author about his interest in Japan and future plans.

What kinds of things do you enjoy about Japanese culture?
Well, obviously, I love Japanese food. My favorite TV show of all time, without exception, is Iron Chef. Not the stupid American version; Iron Chef Japanese; the real one, the one that was on in Japan…my DVR for years was set to record almost every single Iron Chef episode. I can talk to you about Battle Porcini, when [Chef Masaharu] Morimoto did the porcini crème brûlée…the original Iron Chef is, quite literally, along with The Wire, my favorite TV show of all time.

Have you ever been to any of Morimoto’s restaurants?
I actually know Morimoto pretty well. In a totally weird coincidence, his restaurant in Philadelphia, Morimoto’s…the GM of that place for a couple of years was my buddy Paul Ardaji. So Paul knew that I loved Iron Chef Japan; he brought me in one night [with] Morimoto and we had dinner. And Morimoto, for whatever weird reason, we hit it off and became friends. And Morimoto actually did a charity event with me in New York.

And this is a true story...this [is] actually going into my third book; it’s not in the second book. But Morimoto and I—it was basically, we were supposed to be celebrity bartenders, and so of course everyone wanted us to mix cool shots and stuff…so we did it just like Iron Chef. He would have them pick an ingredient, so people would bring nacho chips over from the kitchen, and then he would make a shot with nacho chips that was amazing…we got fu*kin’ plowed. Anyway, long story short, one guy over there got belligerently drunk, and he got into a scuffle with one of the bartenders who worked there, and ended up getting me and him kicked out of my own charity event…I could not have been more happy that I got kicked out of something with Iron Chef Japan when I’m not Japanese; it was the best.

How did you come up with the title of the book?
There’s a saying in America, an aphorism, that nice guys finish last, you know? So I basically just took the reverse of that into the title of the book, Assholes Finish First.

Do you think that’s always the case? Some might expect people like that to get their just desserts one day, while you seem to get away with everything.
That’s kind of the thing—it’s not that I necessarily get away with everything. [From the first book] I had the story of how I sh*t myself in the hotel lobby, and the story where the girl fakes her chlamydia test or whatever; I’m obviously on the receiving end there, you know? The title doesn’t really have any deep significant meaning, it’s just sort of a play, a reversal, of a very commonly heard aphorism in America.

You have a big national tour planned for the book’s launch, and it’s also being released by a major publisher this time. Are there any particular expectations you have for how this one will be received?
Not really, to be honest…I don’t really think I’m pushing this one more than the first one; it’s just that the first one was so successful [that] people were paying attention to it a lot more, you know? Nobody cared when the first one came out because no one knew who I was. Now they know who I am, that I’m a big deal, but I don’t really have any expectations. The only thing that I want to do is—I hope I wrote a book that my fans of the last book can read and say, man, this was a worthy sequel. This was really entertaining and I’m glad I bought it. If I can do that, I’ll be pretty happy.

What do you think you’d be doing right now if you didn’t write I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell?
[Laughs] I don’t know, dead or in jail. [laughs] I don’t know; I really don’t. It’s a really good question, but I totally cannot think of anything else for the life of me.

After the success of the first book, are there any real standouts where you thought, I can’t believe this is happening to me because I wrote these stories down?
The second half of this book is basically answering that question. The first [part] is all the hookups or whatever I had; they’re basically the same stories that any guy who goes out and drinks can have…the whole second half of the book is a separate section I call "The Post-Fame Sex Stories," and it’s about what happens when girls come to you to hook up because you’re famous, how is that different? And it tells the same type of stories, but told in a similar way, but there’s a twist on them…now they’re coming to me instead of me going to them. And that sort of changes everything.

Any plans to turn the new book into a film?
There’s nothing as of right now, but there’s always potential possibilities that something can happen later.

If you were to do a second film, what would you do differently compared to the first one?
Well, the big thing that I would say would be that the co-writer Nils [Parker] and I would direct it. We had a director on the last one, and he just didn’t—we thought he understood the vision, and we thought he got it, and it turns out he didn’t…it seems like it's a little thing, but it makes a difference if you understand movies. I think the movie is lit really poorly...we spent $7 million on the movie, which is not a small amount—it’s not a huge amount for a movie by any stretch, but definitely more than enough to make a movie look professional, you know? And that version looked very indie and very gritty, and I just thought it looked like sh*t; it didn’t look good. And that’s the director’s fault…he fuc*ed up; he lit it incorrectly. And that seems like a small thing, but it makes a huge difference. That’s one thing I would do differently. And I don’t know, there’s probably a million other little things that we would do differently, but that’s the big thing.

What did your friend SlingBlade think of his portrayal in the movie?
He loved it. He actually came to the set and met Jesse [Bradford] and he loved it. He thought Jesse actually did a pretty good job.

How did you cast Traci Lords for her role?
We sent her the script and she loved it. And she said, “I’d love to do it,” yeah. She was fantastic, really good.

What’s next for Tucker Max?
After this, I’ve got another book to write, book three. I’ve got to finish that and tour for that, and then after that, I don’t know. Maybe I’ll settle down; who knows?

Any other messages for your fans here and in Japan?
I wish Iron Chef in Japanese would come back on the air. I miss everybody, man. I miss [original Japanese Iron Chef] Rokusaburo Michiba and all those guys.

Would you like to visit Japan?
I would love to visit Japan. I really, really do. It’s on my to do list at some point to go.

You can write some more stories—Tucker Max Around the World.
Exactly.

Assholes Finish First is in stores now. Visit Tucker’s homepage at www.tuckermax.com for book tour dates and more stories.

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