I'M A LOT

A millennial comedian reflects on the experiences and predilections that have shaped her extra-large personality.

With Bossypants and The Girl With the Lower Back Tattoo, Tina Fey and Amy Schumer opened the door for women in comedy to try their hands at personal essay and memoir, and Leiby is one of the horde who has recently joined the club. One can see why it might be a natural fit, as comics are practiced at mining their lives for appealing stories, at pacing and spinning them in entertaining ways, ultimately fine-tuning a voice. Her version of this is summarized by her title: She’s complicated, overwhelming, and proud of it. Chapters with such titles as “I’m Not Dead,” “I Had an Abortion,” and “I Don’t Have a Best Friend” fill in the details. She was a star athlete in her freshman year at Cornell—the university is humble-bragged 22 times in the book, “way too often given that it’s the safety school of the Ivy League”—when she was struck down by a herniated disk and back surgery that almost killed her, followed by a life-saving miracle treatment that did not preclude later additional surgeries and years of chronic pain. You will read a lot about this because a lot is what this is all about, interspersed with accounts of her successes and flame-outs on Twitter, her soul-killing work in late-night television, and her intense relationship with reality shows, particularly Real Housewives. It’s lot of shtick and perhaps not enough storytelling about her life. Among the stories she does tell that involve people (as opposed to media or medical issues) is the one about how she lost a close friendship. Having been asked by a college pal to serve as a maid of honor for her wedding, she decided to skip the bachelorette party when she was accepted to perform at an important comedy festival—a critical first step in her career. This upset the bride to the extent that Leiby was stripped of her honorary role. Often, this type of self-implicating anecdote can build a connection between reader and author, but, somehow, that doesn’t happen here.

Like other comedians-turned-memoirists, Leiby speaks potently to those in her demographic: ’80s babies, this one’s for you.