Newsletter – March 27, 2026
Matthew Perry and I apparently wore the same Chandler Bing smirk to our photoshoots! Mine was about 1993, Perry’s was published on the cover of his memoir in 2022.
Could our smiles be any more similar?
I yield all future copyright for the Chandler smirk to him, but I want it to be known that my photoshoot was at least a year prior to the debut of Friends. Maybe two. I could hardly copy an expression that I had never seen before.
I bought the memoir shortly after he died in 2023. Ketamine overdose. I finally pulled it off the shelf because my wife found a TV channel that plays about four episodes of Friends back-to-back every afternoon.
Seeing Matty—as he refers to himself throughout the book—grow from a young 25 year-old into a mature 35 year-old over and over again drew me like a moth to his flame.
I had no idea about the intensity of that flame.
He was an addict from early, early, on. At two months, when he wouldn’t stop crying, the doctor prescribed phenobarbital to give some relief to the baby and his parents. Matty spent the rest of his life, taking drugs, drinking heavily, and smoking. Today, a colicky baby is treated with a nice round of probiotics, maybe some baby gas drops, and a warm belly rub. He is NOT given a highly addictive drug in the earliest days of his brain’s development.
Matty’s journey was a tough one and he’s brutally honest about it, but he also treats the reader to insights about his career, his relationships, and his dearest friendships.
The saddest part of the memoir is the conclusion where he’s finally out of the woods, saying that OxyContin will not rule his life again, the daily jugs of vodka are all in the past, and that he gave up smoking. To hear him say those words—literally, if you’re listening to him narrate the audiobook—while knowing he sank slowly into his swimming pool while Ketamine surged through his veins, is not easy when you think of him as one of your Friends.
God bless you, Matty, and may your afterlife provide all the remedies you spent 54 years trying your best to find.
TTFN
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In the spirit of Matthew Perry’s quick wit and love of laughter, I offer you my latest entry in the weekly caption contest from “The New Yorker.” Perhaps I’ll win one of these days.
I mean, it’s like she expects me to be an Everything Bagel!
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My middle grade novel, The Most Amazing Museum of Los Angeles is available through The BookBaby Bookshop at https://store.bookbaby.com/book/the-most-amazing-museum-of-los-angeles
Eric Margerum 