May I Have Your Attention Please‪?‬

Enjoyable stories from a guy who’s managed to change his life for the better

This book pleasantly surprised me — it’s not a typical celebrity bio, slickly crafted to showcase the subject’s most marketable qualities. For this reason, I’d like to thank James Corden for making me re-examine my own biases.

It helps that I got the audio version, some time after reading it as an e-book. I’m not as sold on audiobooks as my brother is, but in this case it turned out to be an excellent upgrade — Corden reads well, and since he’s a trained actor, he inserts accents for various characters that might be fairly true to life. As a bonus we get to hear Corden singing songs he and his friends wrote as teens, and share in his mortification. It’s really quite a joy to listen to him.

Admittedly, one’s early 30s seems relatively young to be writing an autobiography. James Corden cheerfully admits up-front that he’s an unlikely person to be famous, and that talking about his life “makes me feel a little strange”.

However, if reading a biography — especially a person’s own memoirs — is supposed to help us understand another human being’s personality and way of thinking, it shouldn’t matter how old the writer is or what he or she might be known for. And so much the better if the writer grew up in a different culture or has very different desires and motivations.

You don’t have to be a fan of James Corden to enjoy this book — I confess that I didn’t know a lot about him before, since I live in another country where most of his television work isn’t available. So to me, it came across as a story told by a young man who’s on the verge of an enormous change in his life, and he’s very much aware of it. Charmingly Corden admits that he is writing the book in a hurry due to his wife giving birth earlier than expected, and is a bit distracted by his worries about whether he’ll be a good dad.

A big advantage to this time pressure is that the author’s had less time to filter and polish the chapters, so we’re more likely that we’re seeing his true writing voice and personality. Corden’s earnest, at times shockingly honest. We see a lot of the boy he was, and the man he’s becoming — leaning over his kitchen table and speaking confidingly to us. He’s excited, bewildered, apprehensive … and very much in love with his wife and infant child.

As one might expect for someone who’s made a career as a comic actor, there are a lot of lighthearted moments. Very pronounced at times — the story of Corden’s childhood attempt to snag a starring role in his church’s nativity play has the air of a shaggy dog story. I enjoyed the epic account of what happened when he and a bunch of other misfit students are thrown together into a rugby team.

Fortunately there’s enough material to appeal to a wide audience — people who like pop music or sports, are interested in acting and theatre, or have seen and liked his stage, film, or TV work. I especially enjoyed his descriptions of how he got into writing, and how he collaborates with other artists.

If you work with young people, as a teacher or counsellor for example, you may find it has some helpful insights into students who may be written off as “unteachable”. Occasionally in class I meet people who are very bright and creative, but have problems with motivation, just like Corden did.

In psychological terms, it’s a very interesting glimpse into modern celebrity and the problems it can cause. The book contains some solid advice for people trying to cope with self-doubt and failure, which isn’t restricted to artists.

One thing that really comes out in Corden’s story is the toxic side of pop culture and the entertainment industry. After the sitcom that Corden co-wrote with Ruth Jones took off in the late 2000s, he was increasingly drawn into an image-obsessed, unreal world of fame. Although he’d been hoping for a career in entertainment since his childhood, he wasn’t prepared for this situation. The young James Corden had imagined that success would ensure that he’d be praised rather than bullied by those he longed to impress. He’d also assumed that life would be easy and his days of rejection would be over.

Instead, he comes to the painful realization that success is only the beginning of even harder work, to show people that it wasn’t a fluke and that you’re deserving of recognition.

The book isn’t always a comforting read. There's a really unsettling scene early on, where Corden describes the time he lied repeatedly to teachers and administrators to avoid being expelled from college. In many ways the book can be viewed as a cautionary tale. He confesses the fear and insecurity combined with loneliness that haunted him, especially after his relationship ended. It becomes evident that even people who appear to be supremely confident in public may be shy and introverted in some ways — you can’t always tell by looking at the way they present themselves on camera. Corden was feeling lost and miserable, and possibly on the verge of a breakdown. He credits the patience and kindness of his family and friends for bringing him back to a safer place.

There are definitely indications in the book that Corden’s had to do some uncomfortable self-examination and take responsibility: “what happened next … No, I’ll rephrase that: what *I did next* I will regret as long as I live”.

I think that James Corden genuinely wants to be liked as a person. No doubt it hurt to be branded as a shallow untalented phony, but I suspect that what deeply horrified him was the realization that he’d let down his family, and others who’d trusted him. I’ll be interested to see how he evolves over the next few decades — he’ll meet a lot of people and try many new things, so it could end up being a really amazing opportunity for him to learn and grow. I’m wishing him the best, because if becoming a better person were easy, there would sure be a lot more of them around.