A serious memoir with jokes, self-deprecating yet rarely self-diminishing.
A funny but critical look at the depredations of life as a woman comic.
Friedman is an acclaimed stand-up comedian, a writer for programs like The Daily Show, and a TV host. While this book chronicles her rise from improv bit player to Adult Swim personality, she stresses the minefields she encountered along the way. As she notes throughout a narrative that emphasizes a litany of grievances, personal and otherwise, comedy is an unregulated industry, which leaves room for sexual abuse, pay disparity, and everyday microaggressions. Being a woman in the business sometimes means bombing when taking on touchy subjects: The author opens with her being met with silence on election night 2016, when Trump’s victory was clear and she quipped, “Get your abortions now” on a panel with Stephen Colbert. For a book that turns on taboos and industry humiliations, Friedman is an amusing writer who happily dives straight into uncomfortable territory. For example, she recalls writing a satire of American Girl dolls targeting xenophobia, considers the lasting appeal of dead baby jokes (“a reflection of a traumatized society trying to heal itself through culture”), and transcribes her asking the likes of Jon Stewart and Patton Oswalt the kinds of dunderheaded and/or sexist questions she’s fielded—e.g., “What’s it like to be a man in comedy?” The author is thoughtful on cancel culture, at once seeing how it can be overblown (“It’s always kind of funny when a famous comedian whines about cancel culture on a platform where we all can hear them”) while describing how former colleagues and supporters like Roseanne Barr and Jeff Garlin were impacted by it. The prose is sometimes exaggerated, and the text is repetitious and padded in parts, filled with old sex-advice columns, a review of a Jeff Koons exhibit, and other ephemera. Still, Friedman’s attitude of refusing to tolerate sexism—and willingness to mine it for comedy—prevails.
A serious memoir with jokes, self-deprecating yet rarely self-diminishing.Pub Date: April 18, 2023
ISBN: 9781982178284
Page Count: 256
Publisher: One Signal/Atria
Review Posted Online: Jan. 20, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2023
A blissfully vicarious, heartfelt glimpse into the life of a Manhattan burlesque dancer.
A former New York City dancer reflects on her zesty heyday in the 1970s.
Discovered on a Manhattan street in 2020 and introduced on Stanton’s Humans of New York Instagram page, Johnson, then 76, shares her dynamic history as a “fiercely independent” Black burlesque dancer who used the stage name Tanqueray and became a celebrated fixture in midtown adult theaters. “I was the only black girl making white girl money,” she boasts, telling a vibrant story about sex and struggle in a bygone era. Frank and unapologetic, Johnson vividly captures aspects of her former life as a stage seductress shimmying to blues tracks during 18-minute sets or sewing lingerie for plus-sized dancers. Though her work was far from the Broadway shows she dreamed about, it eventually became all about the nightly hustle to simply survive. Her anecdotes are humorous, heartfelt, and supremely captivating, recounted with the passion of a true survivor and the acerbic wit of a weathered, street-wise New Yorker. She shares stories of growing up in an abusive household in Albany in the 1940s, a teenage pregnancy, and prison time for robbery as nonchalantly as she recalls selling rhinestone G-strings to prostitutes to make them sparkle in the headlights of passing cars. Complemented by an array of revealing personal photographs, the narrative alternates between heartfelt nostalgia about the seedier side of Manhattan’s go-go scene and funny quips about her unconventional stage performances. Encounters with a variety of hardworking dancers, drag queens, and pimps, plus an account of the complexities of a first love with a drug-addled hustler, fill out the memoir with personality and candor. With a narrative assist from Stanton, the result is a consistently titillating and often moving story of human struggle as well as an insider glimpse into the days when Times Square was considered the Big Apple’s gloriously unpolished underbelly. The book also includes Yee’s lush watercolor illustrations.
A blissfully vicarious, heartfelt glimpse into the life of a Manhattan burlesque dancer.Pub Date: July 12, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-250-27827-2
Page Count: 192
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: July 27, 2022
An engrossing and ominous chronicle, told by a master of the form.
Documenting perilous times.
In his most recent behind-the-scenes account of political power and how it is wielded, Woodward synthesizes several narrative strands, from the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection and Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel to the 2024 presidential campaign. Woodward’s clear, gripping storytelling benefits from his legendary access to prominent figures and a structure of propulsive chapters. The run-up to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is tense (if occasionally repetitive), as a cast of geopolitical insiders try to divine Vladimir Putin’s intent: “Doubt among allies, the public and among Ukrainians meant valuable time and space for Putin to maneuver.” Against this backdrop, U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham implores Donald Trump to run again, notwithstanding the former president’s denial of his 2020 defeat. This provides unwelcome distraction for President Biden, portrayed as a thoughtful, compassionate lifetime politico who could not outrace time, as demonstrated in the June 2024 debate. Throughout, Trump’s prevarications and his supporters’ cynicism provide an unsettling counterpoint to warnings provided by everyone from former Joint Chief of Staff Mark Milley to Vice President Kamala Harris, who calls a second Trump term a likely “death knell for American democracy.” The author’s ambitious scope shows him at the top of his capabilities. He concludes with these unsettling words: “Based on my reporting, Trump’s language and conduct has at times presented risks to national security—both during his presidency and afterward.”
An engrossing and ominous chronicle, told by a master of the form.Pub Date: Oct. 15, 2024
ISBN: 9781668052273
Page Count: 448
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Oct. 15, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2024
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