Random

By: Penn Jillette

Narrated by: Penn Jillette

Length: 7 hrs and 14 mins

Publisher's summary

Two weeks before his twenty-first birthday, Las Vegas native Bobby Ingersoll finds out he’s inherited a crushing gambling debt from his scumbag father. The debt is owed to an even scummier bag named Fraser Ruphart who oversees his bottom-rung criminal empire from the classy-adjacent Trump International Hotel. Bobby’s prospects of paying off the note, which comes due the day he turns twenty-one, are about as dim as the sign on the tower’s façade.

The two weeks pass in the blink of a (snake) eye, but before Bobby’s luck runs out, he stumbles upon enough cash to pay Ruphart off and change his family’s fortune. More importantly, he finds himself with a new, for lack of a better word, faith.

Bobby does not consign his big break to a “higher power"—what Penn Jillette hero ever could? Instead, he devises and devotes himself to Random, a philosophy where his life choices are based entirely on the roll of his “lucky” dice. What follows is a hilarious exploration into not so much what defines us as what divines us when we give over every decision—from what to eat to whom to marry to how or when to die—to the random fall of two numbered cubes.

Combining the intellectual curiosity of Richard Dawkins with the humor and grit of an Elmore Leonard antihero, Jillette’s up-on-his-luck Ingersoll is the character we need to help us navigate the chaos of the post-truth era.

Well, unless his roll runs cold.

©2022 Penn Jillette (P)2022 Blackstone Publishing

Meh, it's alright.

Review contains Avery very mild spoiler.


I love penn, he's one of my "mentors". With that being said, this book is just okay. The story has plot armor to spare and is both predictable boring at times.

While I think there is a storry here, it needed to be fleshed out a bit. It was a bit too predictable and far fetched. Personally, I think it would have been amazing if it would have ended in a realistic way. That would have been hilarious.

The book was quite graphic with some sexual stuff that pushed the limit of what I was comfortable with. However, I'm glad it was in there to give representation to other sexual orientations and provided a broad sexual spectrum than to what others may like.

Drama was lost a bit because there wasn't a sense of risk. It seemed impossible to do wrong and that's where this book fell short.

We all want the hero to win. We watch super hero movies. We expect it. We are okay with it. But, bmthere has to be that feeli g of loss. That feeling of failure.

This just didn't have that.

However, the book itself was written pretty well and I hope penn continues to write. He did a great job as a whole and I can't wait to see what he comes up with next.

The title pretty much covers it.

Yes, random. It's random.
I enjoy the rantings of Penn Jillette, so I gave this story a whirl. There's no real rhyme or reason to this story, however, I'm no better or worse for having listened to it. At times I giggled at the funny comments and antics that came in passing, perhaps you will too.

thanks penn

1: write a review explaining what i liked about the book

2: write a review explaining how reviews are bullshit and are full of lies and manipulation so leaving one is pointless

3: write a review about how i missed out on the dice bag, so now my balls are cold because i have nothing to put them in

4: write a review about how free will is bullshit, anyway. so letting dice decide my decisions is the ultimate form of atheism. include vaguely-related tangents about how much mushrooms ive done

5: write a mean, untrue review saying "I would give it LESS than 1 star!!", but give it 5 stars instead

6: write out my list of options in place of a review

AMAZING STUPENDOUS FUNNY THRILLING

Just a taste of what Mr. Jillette can do well. I loved it alot

I rolled a seven so now I’m writing this

Penn is most like himself and I’d like to be more like that. Robert Ingersoll is a incredible combination of the most incredible people. The story is fun fast and wild I love it. I’ll continue to relisten to this often.

Great story, Fun ride!

I’m a big fan of Penn and I love his story telling and wit. Can’t wait until the next form of entertainment. Thanks Penn

Teens will like this story. Rest of you Mmmm

Penn has always been entertaining. Even on the radio with Alex Bennett hilarious. Not so much this story. It has a good premise and enough of crazy. No body except maybe the kiddies would be entertained by the stupid sex talk. Maybe he's frustrated having to be Mr Clean in his shows. If he finally gets on with the story about half way through trying to prove Las Vegas is crazy the concept of random is a good premise and could have been a lot of fun. He needed the guy from two and a half men to read the story and it would have been a great series. Oh well nice start. Loved his bringing his Vegas buddies into the story. He needed a bottle of Mazola in the group grope scene.

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

I’ve been a fan of Penn and Teller since I saw them on the Drew Carey Show once as a kid. Over the past decade, I’ve increasingly been a fan of Penn’s solo work product as well, the Penn’s Sunday School podcast, his other books, Directors Cut, et Al.

I began reading this book with the comfortable understanding that ours (mine and Penn’s) was a classic, everyday, run of the mill parasocial relationship, wherein I was a fan, and Penn had no knowledge of my existence.

Imagine my surprise when, sentence by sentence chapter after chapter, Penn gradually unmasks himself; making it increasingly clear that the lions share of his time and energy over at least the past decade has in fact been covertly observing me (possibly stalking), and harvesting all of my life experiences to use in this book.

^^^

That’s kinda sorta maybe a little bit of how I felt about reading this. To be clear, the broad brushstrokes of the story don’t overlap. My name isn’t Bobby, I’ve never lived dice life, and don’t have any memorable feuds with killer criminals. But those primary details are always secondary in a story. It’s the minutiae that matters, in life and in story. And my god.

I’ve sat alone in that golden nugget Starbucks for hours in quiet contemplation while Fremont street flows by. I’ve stayed in the suite, alone, and masturbated on the bed. I’ve seen the Tiesto billboard on the late, lonely drive from Phoenix, after a fight with a girl. I’ve taken flights to cities with no purpose, just for the feeling of being somewhere nobody knew where I was, and loitered in the airport because I had no place I was meant to go. I’ve left worthless things that appear to be quite valuable with partners to see how they’d handle it. I regularly mention to people who are not from where I am from what fluffernutters are and how they are the best thing. There’s a girl from Newfoundland. It’s all there.

I, sitting alone in my room, on a hill, on an island, in a country thousands of miles from any place I have ever had any sensible reason to be, had several audible outbursts of “WHAT???” with a disbelieving laugh as yet another line came through that was clearly lifted from my most private thoughts.

To be clear, and I really want this to be clear on this before famously litigious Penn unleashes his army of lawyers to take me out, I am not saying Penn has devoted several years of his life to stalking me, across states and countries, to loosely base parts of random on obscure details he gleaned from his efforts. That’s not for me to say. I’m saying it’s a question worth asking and that you, like Penn, should DO YOUR OWN RESEARCH!

I’m in the book. ❤️

A fun and enjoyable story

This novel stands alone as an enjoyable work of fiction. If you enjoy Penn’s work at all, it is especially compelling.
There are plenty of Easter eggs for those who follow his public appearances and side gig as a public intellectual. (The whole “carney trash” bit is just a self deprecating part of his charm). Penn is wicked smart.
The book is filled with Pennaphorisms like “crazy as a shithouse rat”. This is entertainment that doesn’t take itself too seriously.
The premise is well described elsewhere.

So good I don’t know what to listen to now

I fly and drive quite a bit for my job, so I listen to a lot of audible titles, and I rarely run across a title I don’t like. Most in fact a really good stories and decent narrators. Every now and then the story is not great but the narrator makes it better. Then there are stories like Random (which I came across randomly by the way) where the story and narrator are so good, you wish there could be a sequel, but you know there can’t. You are left wondering what in world you could possibly listen to next that would be just as good or better.