Phil Vischer

'If you like to talk to tomatoes...'

If you've been in a Christian household containing children and a VCR/DVD player at any time over the last ten years, there's an excellent chance you've heard these words sung (get Lily to sing them if you'd like to know the tune). They began each episode of VeggieTales, an American animated Christian television series featuring talking vegetables that became a phenomenon, selling millions of copies around the world. Their creator, Phil Vischer, had a show more dream of his company becoming a new Disney, a shining beacon of Christian values amid the dross of secular media. And he had the talent to do it, too. Watch any episode to see what I mean - like all the best children's entertainment, it worked for adults too.

So why am I talking in the past tense here? Surely God would pour out his blessing on such an enterprise? What happened? Well, those are the questions Phil Vischer had, too. 'Me, Myself and Bob' is his story, and how he - and when he got around to listening, God - answered those questions. It's written with all the humour that made VeggieTales great. There are some really valuable lessons for anyone involved in managing a business, too. Highly recommended. show less

Me, Myself, & Bob follows Phil Vischer through his childhood and then the spectacular rise and tragic fall of his company, Big Ideas, which produced the much-loved (at least in my household!) Veggie Tales animated video series. Phil explores his nerdy but entertaining childhood and his passionate dream to build a media empire for God. We meet Larry, the cucumber, and Bob, the tomato, and learn how Phil used lattice deformation to animate his characters. We discover who the voices were behind show more Jr., the asparagus, and the silly Pirates Who Don't Do Anything. Very witty, with insights mirroring Malcolm Gladwell’s Outliers conclusions, we watch how Phil developed his individual talents and then how he ultimately failed to incorporate his vision into his company. Written with a light hand (as in both funny and not overly religious), this is a wonderful book about a great vision and a great guy and I wish him lots of future success with his new company Jellyfish Labs. show less

Mr. Nezzer has convinced all of Dinkletown that Christmas is all about "getting" and whining for more toys. But one brave Buzz-Saw Louie doll takes matters into his own hands to spread the true message to the Veggies of the world.

I have never seen a VeggieTales video, but I’ve heard of them. And even though I wasn’t really interested in reading about how this business was created and became a success in the world of children’s videos, what did intrigue me was how author and VeggieTales founder Phil Vischer described his experience building a business – told his story of how God used his failures and the death of a dream to point him to true success.

Despite the not-very-interesting-to-me business descriptions show more of profit and loss, what kept me turning the pages was the personable writing style and the story of Phil’s heartfelt pursuit of his dream to change the world for Christ. We have the hindsight to see his mistakes and poor decisions as he grew VeggieTales, and it isn’t until the conclusion that we learn this book originated as a commencement address – and he only wrote it at the urging of many people who heard his story and thought he should share it with as many people as possible.

Whether or not you have any familiarity with VeggieTales or other children’s faith-based video series, this is a fascinating memoir of a man with a dream who learned through his inspiring success and breathtaking failure to really listen to God’s voice. As the book jacket says, “Phil shares an amazing story that shows how God can use our failures and the death of a dream to point us toward true success.” show less