Comedian Biographies

SlimJ

Any you've read and would recommend or recommend to steer clear of.

Born Standing Up, Steve Martin: Great stuff. Loved it.

Billy, by Pamela Stephenson: I had no idea Billy Connolly's childhood was so ****ty. Like, I knew he was a poor and a Scot, but there's some terrible **** that goes down. The book gets annoying towards the end though, when he meets his future wife, who is also the author of the book. She's a psychiatrist and I find her irritating. I saw the sequel to this book in the same Oxfam bookshop and I didn't get it because of her.

American Scream: The Bill Hicks Story, by Cynthia True. Only forty pages in and it seems good... the danger with Hicks books is that they get way too fawning, which happened in Bill Hicks: Agent of Evoloution. I'm holding out hope that this one won't go down that road.

Thoughts?

RobbieBonham

Frank Skinner's is quite good.

American Scream: The Bill Hicks Story, by Cynthia True. Only forty pages in and it seems good... the danger with Hicks books is that they get way too fawning, which happened in Bill Hicks: Agent of Evoloution. I'm holding out hope that this one won't go down that road.

Thoughts?

Nah, it's a good read, with a punchline at the end that'll kick you in the balls.

SlimJ

Dammit, now I want to skip to the end for a ball-kicking punchline. CURSE YOU, BONHAM!

RobbieBonham

SlimJ wrote: »

Dammit, now I want to skip to the end for a ball-kicking punchline. CURSE YOU, BONHAM!

Too late!

abouttobebanned

Frank Skinner and Richard Pryor's are brilliant.

Someone bought me that Billy one cause I like Billy Connolly but it's the worst book in existance.....really bad....just going on about all the famous people they know, all the money they have and fancy parties they throw...while trying to make us feel sorry for him at the same time

Damon Blake

Yeah, i'd back the Frank Skinner. I loved Steve Martin's, listening to the Audio Book at the moment.

Russell Brand's is suprisingly really good. Never cared for the chap beforehand (only saw that Big Brother's Little Brother that was my sister was addicted to) but I wouldn't be so quick to flick the channel after reading it (I still would eventually though). Although bits of Ponderland I saw were alright. Nice format for a show.

Jim Norton's is interesting, it's all about his sex-addiction. Great stories in it.

The best one I've ever read is Live from New York: An Uncensored History of Saturday Night Live. They interviewed everyone associated with the show (except for Eddie Murphy who refuses to have anything to do with that time of his life) and cut it all together, so there's no questions, it's a narrative made from what people have said. I must have read it twenty times.

kovski

Groucho Marx's autobiography is excellent and you should check out Peter Cook's book "Tragically I was an only twin"

elshambo

Damon Blake wrote: »

I loved Steve Martin's, listening to the Audio Book at the moment.

Although bits of Ponderland I saw were alright. Nice format for a show.

Steve Martin's is a top book

Er um format for a show:
I give thee "Bob Mills In Bed with MeDinner"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DPExH3Tqq84

yahoo_moe

Frank Skinner's autobiography as has been said - great read.

And not strictly a biography but I'd recommend "Are You Dave Gorman?" by Dave Gorman if you haven't read it - very funny and loosely grounded in reality.

branners69

Frank Skinner's was great as was Peter Kayes!

Billy's was good at the start, talking about the shipping yard but went down hill!