Comedian Larry Miller (you know the face, even if you don't recognize the name) has appeared in dozens of films ("Pretty Woman," "The Nutty Professor," and "Waiting for Guffman") and television programs, usually as comic relief, but sometimes as the heavy ("The Guardian").

Always appealing, the comic actor has now taken his brand of humor to the printed page with the publication of his first book, "Spoiled Rotten America: Outrages of Everyday Life." The collection isn't Miller's first stab at written comedy: His columns have appeared for years in "The Weekly Standard," and his tribute to Johnny Carson Carson's death was preserved in the magazine's 10th-anniversary collection of its best writing. Those who have smiled at Miller's columns and acting over the years are in for a treat with "Spoiled Rotten America," a collection of stories about home life and Hollywood told from Miller's perspective of hopefulness and shared moral values.

"I'm a religious Jew who believes every Christian is a son or daughter of Abraham," he told me during a recent appearance promoting his new book. A religious impulse "absolutely" underpins his comedy. Miller, who writes for Shady Acres, the production company of film director and professing Christian Tom Shadyac ("Bruce Almighty," "Ace Ventura"), got married after years of living the single life, and now has young children who feature prominently in his comedy.

"Sunday, Bloody Sunday," one of the book's stories, recounts a Sunday morning when a groggy Miller unwittingly granted his boys permission to turn the family's hallway into their personal golf course. The amusing results are predictably destructive, but offer an opportunity for Miller to elaborate on the moral underpinnings of his worldview. "My wife and I love our house, and the life that's in it. Not the things in it. In fact, if I ever get to heaven, I'll bet it looks a lot like my house on Sunday morning."

It's Miller's desire to tell stories about the human experience, stories to which all of us can relate. "We've lost a sense of hope and joy in our storytelling, especially in American moviemaking," he says. "People used to leave even sad movies knowing there was hope. Not anymore. "I don't want to feel soiled anymore. Every day is a brand new creation for me. This makes me an evangelist for comedy. Comedy has wisdom to it, when it's performed well, and written well."

Miller insists that the darker characters he's played nonetheless fit into his view that art should be inspiring, not dispiriting. "The characters I play in dramas are awful people. I want the characters to be dark so we can see that we don't want to be that way.

"It teaches us about hope when a director directs something well, or a writer writes a character well. My definition of hope is this: Tell the story well."

If a story is well told, the audience will be affected, and that's the bottom line, for Miller. "Art is entertaining even if it's full of sorrow, because it's gripping," he says. "The audience wants to be moved." 

Comments? Send them to me at crosswalkchristian@earthlink.net.