The market for this sophomoric book likely consists of men who don’t read many others.
Another comedian extends his brand to the printed page.
Though stand-up comics once shared their material primarily in clubs, onstage, the career has gone multiplatform: social media, viral video, TV development deals, film projects and, once sufficient name recognition has been achieved, a book deal. Kreischer doesn’t really have a book in him, and by his account, it’s unlikely that he’s read many, for pleasure at least. On his honeymoon, someone offered him a James Patterson novel, but he didn’t see how that could add to the fun of the beach and the booze. (The opening line of the book is, “Bong hits are like strippers: they’re best shared with a group of friends.”) Some books within the expanding genre of comedian memoir help aspiring readers learn how to emulate the career progression or at least illuminate what sort of character traits are likely to lead to success. Kreischer’s path was singular—while still in college (six years without graduating), he received a cold call from a Rolling Stone reporter who wanted a tour guide to partying on campus, which turned into an extended feature in the magazine on the premier party animal, which inspired the movie National Lampoon’s Van Wilder, which led to comedy clubs and TV programs. Many of his stories are like many other peoples’ stories—fumbling adolescent sex, frat hazing, drugs and drinking—balanced by what appears to be surprising maturity as a husband and father, though he’s not above using his daughters for jokes that might make other fathers cringe: “I hope [they] will take advantage of all that college has to offer (except, obviously, for the designer drugs and virginity-saving anal sex).”
The market for this sophomoric book likely consists of men who don’t read many others.Pub Date: May 27, 2014
ISBN: 978-1-250-03025-2
Page Count: 256
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: April 7, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2014
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
The author's youthfulness helps to assure the inevitable comparison with the Anne Frank diary although over and above the...
Elie Wiesel spent his early years in a small Transylvanian town as one of four children.
He was the only one of the family to survive what Francois Maurois, in his introduction, calls the "human holocaust" of the persecution of the Jews, which began with the restrictions, the singularization of the yellow star, the enclosure within the ghetto, and went on to the mass deportations to the ovens of Auschwitz and Buchenwald. There are unforgettable and horrifying scenes here in this spare and sombre memoir of this experience of the hanging of a child, of his first farewell with his father who leaves him an inheritance of a knife and a spoon, and of his last goodbye at Buchenwald his father's corpse is already cold let alone the long months of survival under unconscionable conditions.
Pub Date: Jan. 16, 2006
ISBN: 0374500010
Page Count: 120
Publisher: Hill & Wang
Review Posted Online: Oct. 7, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2006
© Copyright 2025 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
