I did not set out as the new year broke us ungently into 2010 with a resolution to read more books by comedians this year, but that is what has happened. In 2009, I read no books by comedians. In fact, my dislike of the celeb book craze is generally so profound as to be akin to a personal, anti-crap crusade. But now I find myself weakening, and maybe that’s because in my early adult years (1970s) most of the books by comedians were, it seemed to me, nothing more than sad confessionals, ghost written on behalf of shabby racists who spent their working lives trading weak punch lines in rooms full of small-minded bigots. Now there are at least alternatives.
The four titles by comedians I’ve read this year are by four very different types of comic: Jeremy Clarkson, Frankie Boyle, Paul O’Grady and Stewart Lee and I’d say that of the four, only the first three fit into the celeb book category.
The Clarkson and Boyle tomes I picked up from my teenage son’s bedroom floor. It is a trait of my reading habits that I really dislike that I am so easily distracted into reading almost anything that comes my way at the expense of reading time reserved for books I think I should read.
I’d bought him these volumes for Christmas in the ridiculous hope that I might lure my son into an interest in reading by making available such material. I know that is like giving a bottle of Bucky to a man dying of thirst but believe me, I’ve tried all other tricks of the trade including buying him copies of mags such as The Wire and Stuff (which is quite a good gadget mag but which has the most pointlessly gratuitous lad’s-mag type pics on the front cover).
My son might might of course have been interested in the books I’d spent ages wrapping up and secreting underneath the christmas tree had it not been for his father purloining them at just the moment boredom was taking hold of his (my son’s) Xmas hols.
What of the books themselves:
Clarkson, I suggest, wilfully writes in a tone that is unrelentingly mundane. He does this because he hinks that people who read, who actually like reading, are all French or as boring as Belgium and he does not want to alienate his following by making them feel that they are actually in danger of becoming nationals of these countries by enjoying reading a book.
Frankie Boyle’s ‘My Shit Life So Far‘ is, on balance, actually worth reading. I digested it in two short sittings, and found myself at times indulging in a light titter or two. The extended anecdotes that make up the greater part of the content of this book are in the most part strung together quite well, some are very funny, but they do highlight the fact that Frankie’s principle experience of life is not just that of everything being largely shit, but of an almost zen-like ennui that he has done nothing much to cure other than becoming a dab hand at onanism. I enjoyed it quite a lot (the book that is) whilst thinking that Frankie could actually do far better.
Paul O’Grady meanwhile is actually a very good writer, and the latest part of his on-going biog is a genuinely good read (I haven’t read the earlier vols). Of course, O’Grady brings to the table life experiences that are far broader and more intersting than those of Clarkson or Boyle, which are explored with incredible honesty, frankness and humour because, I guess, such awareness has been key to his personal strength and survival and it retells well on the page.
Finally, and this being Celeb Book Thursday, on which every large publisher stacks high a selection of celeb auto-biogs with the soul view to finding some way of surviving in the business through 2011, Stewart Lee’s ‘How I Escaped My Certain Fate – The Life and Deaths of a Stand-up Comedian.’
This is not a celeb book, though Lee has in recent years ceayed a substantial following and some ofnthe most original comedy on TV. Lee is a celeb but not all books by celebs are celeb books. Lee’s book is an erudite exploration of the writer’s craft as a comedian, and a genuine insight into the at times precarious life of the alternative comedian. In this volume Lee juxtaposes chapters of selected biographical material, not BMDs but incidents relating mostly to the development of his work, with annotated transcriptions of three of his shows from the last 5/6 years. The annotations point at times to the origins of the material but are at their most interesting when he analyses the structure of the material / narratives and the recent history of alternative comedy; the uses and abuses of extreme material, especially with regard to religious beliefs, and the stage craft of the contemporary comedian. The shows themselves are to me extremely funny and engaging, and they write well to the page from the stage, and of course, there is also plenty on the fall-out from Jerry Springer: The Opera and the blasphemy prosecution.
Towards the end of the book, Lee comments that his aim is to create material that does not work so well on the page and which is in a sense pure stage comedy. Now, having seen a good deal o Lee’s work live and on TV it is difficult to remove his voice from the experience of reading this book, but having now had experience of the same material on stage and the page, I’d say that it might be a mistake for Lee to change the current balance without first mining what is a very rich seam indeed. To anyone considering developing a career as a stand-up I’d recommend this book as a must-read before you stand wrong side of the mic stand.
