Comedy Comedy Comedy Drama
A Memoir
-
-
3.8 • 96 Ratings
-
-
- $12.99
Publisher Description
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • In this “essential” (Entertainment Weekly), “hilarious” (AV Club) memoir, the star of Mr. Show, Breaking Bad, and Better Call Saul opens up about the highs and lows of showbiz, his cult status as a comedy writer, and what it’s like to reinvent himself as an action film ass-kicker at fifty.
“I can’t think of another entertainer who has improbably morphed so many times, and all through real genius and determination.”—Conan O’Brien
ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: The New Yorker, Vulture, Newsweek
Bob Odenkirk’s career is inexplicable. And yet he will try like hell to explicate it for you. Charting a “Homeric” decades-long “odyssey” from his origins in the seedy comedy clubs of Chicago to a dramatic career full of award nominations—with a side-trip into the action-man world that is baffling to all who know him—it’s almost like there are many Bob Odenkirks! But there is just one and one is plenty.
Bob embraced a life in comedy after a chance meeting with Second City’s legendary Del Close. He somehow made his way to a job as a writer at Saturday Night Live. While surviving that legendary gauntlet by the skin of his gnashing teeth, he stashed away the secrets of comedy writing—eventually employing them in the immortal “Motivational Speaker” sketch for Chris Farley, honing them on The Ben Stiller Show, and perfecting them on Mr. Show with Bob and David.
In Hollywood, Bob demonstrated a bullheadedness that would shame Sisyphus himself, and when all hope was lost for the umpteenth time, the phone rang with an offer to appear on Breaking Bad—a show about how boring it is to be a high school chemistry teacher. His embrace of this strange new world of dramatic acting led him to working with Steven Spielberg, Alexander Payne, and Greta Gerwig, and then, in a twist that will confound you, he re-re-invented himself as a bona fide action star. Why? Read this and do your own psychoanalysis—it’s fun!
Featuring humorous tangents, never-before-seen photos, wild characters, and Bob’s trademark unflinching drive, Comedy Comedy Comedy Drama is a classic showbiz tale told by a determined idiot.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Comedian and actor Odenkirk (A Load of Hooey) spills on the good, the bad, and oftentimes hilarious moments of his life in this gleeful and irreverent memoir. His love of sketch comedy was cemented in middle school when he discovered Monty Python, or as he calls it "the hip-hop that saved my life." "It was comedy with a kick... that said, ‘We're in, and whoever doesn't get it is out.' It felt great to find my people." In 1983, following a chance meeting with comedian Del Close, Odenkirk moved to Chicago (where the wind was "cold enough to hurt your face and your feelings") to become a comedian. Never missing a beat—or a bit—he hits the highlights of his impressive career, including writing for SNL from 1987 to 1991 ("My grades for the SNL experience: a solid C-minus, but with an A for effort... and an F for citizenship"), cocreating the underground hit '90s comedy series Mr. Show, and portraying crooked attorney Saul Goodman on Breaking Bad and its spin-off Better Call Saul. Above all, he frankly demonstrates how hard work, pure dumb luck, and "learning to grab your junk and jump" can pay off in the most gratifying ways. Comedy fans will find plenty of laughs and some heartening lessons, too.
Customer Reviews
Comedy, Comedy, Comedy, Drama
I love Saul Goodman and Bob Odenkirk, but, as the title suggests, this memoir is mostly about a comedic life I didn’t even know existed and brushes over the years on Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul. The comedy years odenkirk covers goes into way too much detail of every sketch ever written and performed or not performed and every comedian he ever met or worked with. Occasionally you can here saul’s sarcastic voice in the manuscript but over all, I was disappointed. I think Odenkirk forgot who his actual reading audience would be.