Powers continue to spout the lines that pay for his beach front condominium, or will he take the professional risk of being true to himself? Warner Horizon Television has optioned the rights to the novel. Clowns to the Left of Me, Jokers to the Right (2018) is Smerconish's seventh book, a compilation of 100 of Smerconish's more memorable newspaper columns in The Philadelphia Inquirer and Philadelphia Daily News, each with a new Afterword, drawn from the 1,047 he published between 2001 and 2016. As characterized by Foreword Reviews: "Michael Smerconish's collection is compelling and entertaining—not as a filtering of daily news through a predictable ideological lens, but as a group of insightful entries into conversations about current events and issues….This sampling of Smerconish's columns exemplifies the kind of discourse, based on reason and evidence, that makes a newspaper, in print or online, indispensable to citizens of democracy." As characterized by The Daily Beast, "[The columns] make for enjoyable reading and remind us that journalism properly practiced requires a good deal of nerve, honesty, and insight, along with openness to dialogue and the determination not to live in a bubble." All author proceeds are being donated to the Children's Crisis Treatment Center, which provides social services to children in Philadelphia who are the victims of trauma. After the release of Clowns, Smerconish composed a one-man show in which he draws on columns reprinted in the book and weaves them together with his explanation of the political divide. He has since toured the country in support of what he calls "American Life in Columns", appearing at the Paley Center in Los Angeles, Hobby Center in Houston, Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, Park Square Theatre in St. Paul, Sellersville Theatre outside of Philadelphia, the Crofoot Ballroom in Pontiac, Michigan, and at City Wineries located in Boston, Chicago, New York City, Atlanta and Nashville. References External links Smerconish's Home Page CNN page for Smerconish Smerconish's Soundcloud featuring cuts from The Michael Smerconish Program Smerconish's Kline & Specter bio American columnists American political writers American male writers American social sciences writers American talk radio hosts Television anchors from Philadelphia Writers from Philadelphia Lehigh University alumni People from Doylestown, Pennsylvania American people of Montenegrin descent American people of Rusyn descent American people of Lemko descent American people of Yugoslav descent University of Pennsylvania Law School alumni Living people 1962 births CNN people