An amiable, largely amusing ramble down the back roads of the comedian’s art.
The renowned comic puts his online talk show series between covers.
Want to get a cup of coffee? The operative verb, insists Seinfeld, is get, an active word that, he writes, “is really a way of saying, ‘I like you enough to do absolutely nothing with.’ No higher compliment, to my way of thinking.” The conceit is to get coffee, and maybe a nice nosh, in a variety of unique cars from every era. Seinfeld, like frequent interlocutor Jay Leno, is a die-hard car guy, affording a topic of conversation that is of interest only to car guys (and used sparingly here). Though there are some throwaway bits, Seinfeld and the dozens of comedians here have more substantive things to say. There’s a lot about comedy, naturally. David Letterman muses about watching Richard Pryor do a bit about having sex with a dog, concluding, “Well, okay. There are many facets of genius.” Judd Apatow remembers that his near-broke mother bought a Mercedes, and when he asked her why not a Camry, she replied, “Because I’m not an animal.” Money is a preoccupation, but Apatow wisely adds in another conversation, “We’re not in the money business. We’re in the fun business.” Some comics muse on race, some on religion, some on what might have been—e.g., when Don Rickles reckons that he might have made “a damn good psychiatrist.” Perhaps surprisingly, the deepest comments come from the late Garry Shandling—unfortunately, too many of Seinfeld’s interviewees are no longer with us—who told Buddhist monk Thich Nhat Hanh a side-splitting joke about the Buddha and then concludes of comedy, “It doesn’t have any value beyond you expressing yourself spiritually, in a very soulful, spiritual way. It’s why you’re on the planet.” The book features vivid color photos, and the interviewee list is a comedy lover’s dream.
An amiable, largely amusing ramble down the back roads of the comedian’s art.Pub Date: Nov. 22, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-982112-76-9
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Oct. 4, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2022
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Well-told and admonitory.
Young-rags-to-mature-riches memoir by broker and motivational speaker Gardner.
Born and raised in the Milwaukee ghetto, the author pulled himself up from considerable disadvantage. He was fatherless, and his adored mother wasn’t always around; once, as a child, he spied her at a family funeral accompanied by a prison guard. When beautiful, evanescent Moms was there, Chris also had to deal with Freddie “I ain’t your goddamn daddy!” Triplett, one of the meanest stepfathers in recent literature. Chris did “the dozens” with the homies, boosted a bit and in the course of youthful adventure was raped. His heroes were Miles Davis, James Brown and Muhammad Ali. Meanwhile, at the behest of Moms, he developed a fondness for reading. He joined the Navy and became a medic (preparing badass Marines for proctology), and a proficient lab technician. Moving up in San Francisco, married and then divorced, he sold medical supplies. He was recruited as a trainee at Dean Witter just around the time he became a homeless single father. All his belongings in a shopping cart, Gardner sometimes slept with his young son at the office (apparently undiscovered by the night cleaning crew). The two also frequently bedded down in a public restroom. After Gardner’s talents were finally appreciated by the firm of Bear Stearns, his American Dream became real. He got the cool duds, hot car and fine ladies so coveted from afar back in the day. He even had a meeting with Nelson Mandela. Through it all, he remained a prideful parent. His own no-daddy blues are gone now.
Well-told and admonitory.Pub Date: June 1, 2006
ISBN: 0-06-074486-3
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Amistad/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2006
This autobiography might almost be said to supply the roots to Wright's famous novel, Native Son.
It is a grim record, disturbing, the story of how — in one boy's life — the seeds of hate and distrust and race riots were planted. Wright was born to poverty and hardship in the deep south; his father deserted his mother, and circumstances and illness drove the little family from place to place, from degradation to degradation. And always, there was the thread of fear and hate and suspicion and discrimination — of white set against black — of black set against Jew — of intolerance. Driven to deceit, to dishonesty, ambition thwarted, motives impugned, Wright struggled against the tide, put by a tiny sum to move on, finally got to Chicago, and there — still against odds — pulled himself up, acquired some education through reading, allied himself with the Communists — only to be thrust out for non-conformity — and wrote continually. The whole tragedy of a race seems dramatized in this record; it is virtually unrelieved by any vestige of human tenderness, or humor; there are no bright spots. And yet it rings true. It is an unfinished story of a problem that has still to be met.
Perhaps this will force home unpalatable facts of a submerged minority, a problem far from being faced.
Pub Date: Feb. 28, 1945
ISBN: 0061130249
Page Count: 450
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: Oct. 7, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 1945
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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