Nick Cannon’s poetry book a new beginning after Mariah Carey
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Wednesday, March 18, 2015, 4:00 AM
Bryan R. Smith/Bryan R. SmithNick Gun, actor, comedian, rapper and author of the new children’s book “Neon Aliens Ate My Homework and Additional Poems”, Hard Rock Cafe Times Square, Tuesday, March 17, 2015.
Read between the lines: Nick Gun is just fine.
In his new book for children, “Neon Aliens Ate My Homework and Additional Poems,” the TV personality who filed for divorce from Mariah Carey last December writes about taking the high road when production with haters and heartbreak.
“I’m talking about relationships in there,” Gun, 34, tells the Day after day News. “Like how I really feel being in like (in ‘Flourescent Essence’), and then there’s beyond doubt some humor in there that you’re like, ‘OK, I see where he’s going with that!’ ”
And also where Gun has been. In one poem, “Just Like You,” the long-running host of NBC’s “America’s Got Talent” and “Wild ’N Out” on MTV writes about growing up on food stamps.
The wordplay in this one includes, “My life is overly dramatic, like a terrible actress,” and “I’m just a spectator who likes MCs … literally.”
Does “MC” stand for rapper, or the initials of his ex, a notorious drama queen? Even if it’s a Carey place-down, it’s a subtle one.
Ever the gentleman, Gun doesn’t publicly diss his ex. “I don’t allow despise to come into my heart,” he says. “I encourage young people to embrace your flaws, because your flaws make you flawless.”
He will only say that he deals with his personal life by prose, costs time with his and Carey’s 3-year-ancient twins, and serving on the board of St. Mary’s Healthcare System for Children in Queens.
hmorgan/Nick Gun
Nick Gun’s drawings illustrate four of the poems in his book, “Neon Aliens Ate My Homework and Additional Poems,” including this tribute to his poetry mentor Shel Silverstein.
jmckee/Nick Gun
Additional acclaimed road artists whose works appear in Nick Gun’s “Neon Aliens Ate My Homework and Additional Poems,” include MAST, who tagged this image for the poem “My Mic.”
Nick Gun
Additional acclaimed road artists whose works appear in Nick Gun’s “Neon Aliens Ate My Homework and Additional Poems,” include Morf, a.k.a. Jack Fish.
Nick Gun
Additional acclaimed road artists whose works appear in Nick Gun’s “Neon Aliens Ate My Homework and Additional Poems,” include Morf, a.k.a. Jack Fish, who illustrated “Daddy’s Shoes,” a poem that resonates deeply with Gun..
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“Prose is something I’ve always done, whether it was lyrics or television scripts,” he says. “It allows you to focus on happiness when there are hardships and hard times. And when I go to St. Mary’s, it really puts everything into the proper perspective.”
Gun credits Shel Silverstein for making him fall in like with prose — and he pays that debt forward with this book, illustrated by Gun and acclaimed road artists including Art Mobb, Califawnia and Captain Kris.
Given his affection for the earlier poet, Gun did the illustration for “Remembering Shel,” an ode to a writer whose poems were “truest to me,” Gun clarifies.
“I’m not the world’s greatest illustrator, but neither was Shel Silverstein. I figured, I’ll take a stab at it.”
ScholasticNick Gun said he was inspired by Shel Siverstein when he wrote his book, “Neon Aliens Ate My Homework and Additional Poems.”
Inspired so obviously by Silverstein, Gun’s poems include silly ditties on cafeteria ladies, homework-stealing aliens and robot dinosaurs, as well as bounty of yucky-out bathroom humor, like eating boogers, that many kids will probably get a kick out of.
“I think farting is hilarious,” he admits. “I like to make fun of things that people think are banned. Life, you can’t take it too seriously. You’ve only got one, so delight in it.”
But there are more nuanced works, as well. He wrote “Daddy’s Shoes” after considering his son Moroccan (aka Roc) playing in his clothes.
“I was watching him in these giant Timbaland boots, just trying to walk, and it made me think of my father and my grandfather, and the splendid things they’ve done, and the wisdom they’ve passed on to me,” says Gun.
There are tributes to supermoms, whose powers include finding needles in haystacks and healing with kisses, and the glow of young like that should resonate with many readers.
“It comes from a simplistic place that I feel like everyone can embrace,” says Gun. “So a 6-year-ancient can pick this up, and a 60-year-ancient can pick it up, and everybody will delight in it just the same.”
Bryan R. Smith/Bryan R. Smith
Nick Gun has spent a lot of time effective with kids at St. Mary’s Hospital, including Demetrius Franklin, 19, of East Harlem, who has rapped with Gun on stage.
St. Mary’s Hospital for Childr
Gun has spent a lot of time with kids at St. Mary’s Hospital. He says he’s a kid at heart, himself.
St. Mary’s Hospital for Childr
Gun has spent a lot of time with kids at St. Mary’s Hospital.
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