A fond and funny look at the process of trying to succeed in the movie business and an inspirational tool for aspiring...
Director and actor Chandrasekhar (Super Troopers, Beerfest) gives a candid account of how he and the rest of the Broken Lizard comedy troupe broke into the movie business.
Readers don’t have to be fans of Broken Lizard’s sophomoric shenanigans on film to appreciate its ringleader’s infectious DIY spirit and can-do attitude. The author sets the self-deprecating stage early, reviewing his formative years as the scion of medically minded Indian parents who spent his high school days partying hard and then setting his sights on a “preposterous” list of colleges, including Harvard, Yale, Dartmouth, Brown, and “no safety schools.” Always aware that brown skin and a multisyllabic name didn’t exactly equate to Hollywood acclaim, Chandrasekhar refused to abandon the dream. Instead, the author devised a make-it-or-break-it test for himself involving Chicago’s toughest stages. “Most Colgate juniors spend a semester studying overseas,” he writes. “I decided to head to Chicago, where I would perform improv and stand-up comedy on real stages, in front of real audiences. Only if I could get strangers to laugh would I be willing to give acting a try. And if I couldn’t, then my plan would be to follow in my sister’s footsteps and go to law school.” He could, and emboldened by his experience, Chandrasekhar settled back down at Colgate, an indispensable incubator that would prove pivotal for everyone in the Broken Lizard gang. Talent and a gonzo zeal for moviemaking would not guarantee success, however. For one thing, there was another rising comedy troupe called the State that also demanded Hollywood’s attention. The author recounts how initially losing out to the State for an MTV gig almost crippled the Broken Lizard crew long before Super Troopers ever achieved its cult status.
A fond and funny look at the process of trying to succeed in the movie business and an inspirational tool for aspiring filmmakers.Pub Date: March 28, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-101-98523-6
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Dutton
Review Posted Online: Feb. 5, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2017
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
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
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