Actor H. Jon Benjamin, star of the concurrent animated hits "Bob's Burgers" and "Archer", says that he never really had a strong calling for comedy. Or for voice work. And maybe that's the secret of his success in comedy and voice work. His new book "Failure Is an Option: An Attempted Memoir,", which he discussed on "Salon Talks," does for the printed word what he does for dialogue - makes the absurd brilliantly deadpan.

Tracing a life that's been blessed with a multitude of setbacks and disappointments, Benjamin advises that sometimes the only way you can move forward is when every other option has refused to pan out. "The book is a bunch of stories of personal failures in my life, but I think I tried and failed to provide the argument that failure works," he told Salon's Mary Elizabeth Williams. "Because I developed a sense of detachment from wanting to succeed in [my] specific occupation early on, I learned as I went…. I think that attitude helped me adjust slowly and progressively to do what I do, and I think that ended up affording me a better attitude."