Book-It 'o12! Book #31
The Fifty Books Challenge, year three! (Years one, two, and three just in case you're curious.) This was a library request.
Title: Girl Walks into a Bar...: Comedy Calamities, Dating Disasters, and a Midlife Miracle by Rachel Dratch
Details: Copyright 2012, Gotham Books
Synopsis (By Way of Front and Back Flaps): ""Rachel Dratch, I know that name.... Yes, that's right, she was hilarious on Saturday Night Live!"
"Yeah! I haven't seen her on TV in a while. So...what happened to her?"
In Girl Walks into a Bar..., Rachel Dratch, the brains behind everyone's favorite party pooper, Debbie Downer (cue the trombone: WAAAH WAAAH!), tells us just where she's been. After sharing her auspicious beginnings as a child performer (for her parents in their suburban Boston living room), Rachel takes us from her college improv days to the Second City Mainstage. And then, finally, her dream job on Saturday Night Live: the sublime joy of creating a hit character, the torturous late nights in the writing room, and plenty of boozy after-parties.
But Rachel learns that showbiz ain't all glitz and glamour, shrimp cocktails and pinot grigio. After a short-lived part on 30 Rock, her career hits a low point and suddenly she has time for yoga, dog-sitting, learning Spanish-- and the biggie: dating. Rachel reveals the joys and terrors of putting herself out there in a quest to find love and then becoming a mother when she least expected it-- at the age of forty-four. She recounts the adventures of pregnancy and new motherhood once you've hurled What to Expect When You're Expecting out the window: breaking the news to her bewildered parents, the awe of her single lady friends, romance and coparenting with her baby-daddy, John, and the awkwardness of an infant-care class where the instructor kept tossing out the f-word.
Girl Walks into a Bar... reveals the highs and lows of struggling to make it as a comedian. But it is truly a story of second chances, managing to laugh at adversity, and realizing adversity is actually the best thing that ever happened to you. It's a refreshing alternative to the "happily ever after" story, full of sensitivity, candor, and plenty of comic relief, as only Rachel Dratch can tell it."
Why I Wanted to Read It: I've been on a kick this year about reading books by comedians and I'd (mostly) enjoyed Dratch on Saturday Night Live.
How I Liked It: You might be reading this book for a peek behind the scenes at SNL. You might be reading this book for an uplifting story. You might be reading this book for funny essays. You might be reading this book for insight into Rachel Dratch's comedy. You might be reading this book to learn more about Dratch's life. You might be reading this book for an insider look at Hollywood.
The good news is the book is all of those things. The bad news is the fact those things aren't in any particular order, so it's a massive jumble to pick through.
The reason for this is fairly obvious: by Dratch's own admission, the book started out as funny stories (since she wasn't getting work as an actress/comedian, she turned to writing) and the course changed drastically when what is framed as the center of the book, Dratch's unexpected pregnancy, happened while she was writing. So within a short period of time, the book turned from David Sedaris to Oprah in terms of genre and targeted audience.
It's not that the book isn't interesting, funny, and relatable. It's certainly all of those things. But it's the fact Dratch apparently lacked a proper editor to smooth and streamline her writing. Surely other books have straddled as many genres or more but produced a much smoother product. The target of Dratch's book wobbles back and forth from her disappearance from show business (in one of the weaker sections, she awkwardly attempts to defuse the gossip surrounding her replacement in the role of Jenna on 30 Rock, a move undercut by the fact throughout the book she dwells on the role as one of her last "real" ones) to the uplifting "miracle" of her pregnancy (I'm sure it's a matter of personal proclivity, but she appears to believe that her life, despite having been extremely successful on SNL and enough on 30 Rock to garner scuttlebutt, wouldn't be a success until she found the right guy. The continuing theme of her "failure" to date successfully despite being in her forties got unsettling).
To both main themes that the book rocks unsteadily between, there is plenty of enjoyable reading for both, no matter how haphazardly they appear to be thrown together. For the former, Dratch wryly recounts the triteness of the roles she offered (and the type casting that became practically a joke), particularly in the wake of success enjoyed by her contemporaries, Tina Fey, Amy Poehler, and Maya Rudolph. She details calls from her agent, her audition at SNL (including a step by step walk-through of a typical week on SNL), her work at Second City, and disastrous missteps both on stage and on the set. As for her dating life, she details her teen years through the series of hilariously bad dates she had during her post-30 Rock career slump (she also details, somewhat uncomfortably, at least to me, her relationships with ALL men, including her male cast-mates on SNL who she refers to as her "comedy non-boyfriends" with whom you can "stay out late, and even flirt, but that's as far as it goes").
Those looking for a inside look at SNL and show business will find it in this book. Those looking for an inspiring story will also find it in this book. The shame of it is the fact you've got to pick through the jumble to find what you want.
Notable: Reading so many books by comedians this year, I was actually surprised to find out that the blurbs on the back of the book are genuine and not (completely) humorous. Girl Walks into a Bar... is praised by no less than Tina Fey (author of another book from this year's challenge!), Amy Poehler, Mike Birbiglia, and Sarah Silverman ( another one! No Mindy Kaling, though).
Title: Girl Walks into a Bar...: Comedy Calamities, Dating Disasters, and a Midlife Miracle by Rachel Dratch
Details: Copyright 2012, Gotham Books
Synopsis (By Way of Front and Back Flaps): ""Rachel Dratch, I know that name.... Yes, that's right, she was hilarious on Saturday Night Live!"
"Yeah! I haven't seen her on TV in a while. So...what happened to her?"
In Girl Walks into a Bar..., Rachel Dratch, the brains behind everyone's favorite party pooper, Debbie Downer (cue the trombone: WAAAH WAAAH!), tells us just where she's been. After sharing her auspicious beginnings as a child performer (for her parents in their suburban Boston living room), Rachel takes us from her college improv days to the Second City Mainstage. And then, finally, her dream job on Saturday Night Live: the sublime joy of creating a hit character, the torturous late nights in the writing room, and plenty of boozy after-parties.
But Rachel learns that showbiz ain't all glitz and glamour, shrimp cocktails and pinot grigio. After a short-lived part on 30 Rock, her career hits a low point and suddenly she has time for yoga, dog-sitting, learning Spanish-- and the biggie: dating. Rachel reveals the joys and terrors of putting herself out there in a quest to find love and then becoming a mother when she least expected it-- at the age of forty-four. She recounts the adventures of pregnancy and new motherhood once you've hurled What to Expect When You're Expecting out the window: breaking the news to her bewildered parents, the awe of her single lady friends, romance and coparenting with her baby-daddy, John, and the awkwardness of an infant-care class where the instructor kept tossing out the f-word.
Girl Walks into a Bar... reveals the highs and lows of struggling to make it as a comedian. But it is truly a story of second chances, managing to laugh at adversity, and realizing adversity is actually the best thing that ever happened to you. It's a refreshing alternative to the "happily ever after" story, full of sensitivity, candor, and plenty of comic relief, as only Rachel Dratch can tell it."
Why I Wanted to Read It: I've been on a kick this year about reading books by comedians and I'd (mostly) enjoyed Dratch on Saturday Night Live.
How I Liked It: You might be reading this book for a peek behind the scenes at SNL. You might be reading this book for an uplifting story. You might be reading this book for funny essays. You might be reading this book for insight into Rachel Dratch's comedy. You might be reading this book to learn more about Dratch's life. You might be reading this book for an insider look at Hollywood.
The good news is the book is all of those things. The bad news is the fact those things aren't in any particular order, so it's a massive jumble to pick through.
The reason for this is fairly obvious: by Dratch's own admission, the book started out as funny stories (since she wasn't getting work as an actress/comedian, she turned to writing) and the course changed drastically when what is framed as the center of the book, Dratch's unexpected pregnancy, happened while she was writing. So within a short period of time, the book turned from David Sedaris to Oprah in terms of genre and targeted audience.
It's not that the book isn't interesting, funny, and relatable. It's certainly all of those things. But it's the fact Dratch apparently lacked a proper editor to smooth and streamline her writing. Surely other books have straddled as many genres or more but produced a much smoother product. The target of Dratch's book wobbles back and forth from her disappearance from show business (in one of the weaker sections, she awkwardly attempts to defuse the gossip surrounding her replacement in the role of Jenna on 30 Rock, a move undercut by the fact throughout the book she dwells on the role as one of her last "real" ones) to the uplifting "miracle" of her pregnancy (I'm sure it's a matter of personal proclivity, but she appears to believe that her life, despite having been extremely successful on SNL and enough on 30 Rock to garner scuttlebutt, wouldn't be a success until she found the right guy. The continuing theme of her "failure" to date successfully despite being in her forties got unsettling).
To both main themes that the book rocks unsteadily between, there is plenty of enjoyable reading for both, no matter how haphazardly they appear to be thrown together. For the former, Dratch wryly recounts the triteness of the roles she offered (and the type casting that became practically a joke), particularly in the wake of success enjoyed by her contemporaries, Tina Fey, Amy Poehler, and Maya Rudolph. She details calls from her agent, her audition at SNL (including a step by step walk-through of a typical week on SNL), her work at Second City, and disastrous missteps both on stage and on the set. As for her dating life, she details her teen years through the series of hilariously bad dates she had during her post-30 Rock career slump (she also details, somewhat uncomfortably, at least to me, her relationships with ALL men, including her male cast-mates on SNL who she refers to as her "comedy non-boyfriends" with whom you can "stay out late, and even flirt, but that's as far as it goes").
Those looking for a inside look at SNL and show business will find it in this book. Those looking for an inspiring story will also find it in this book. The shame of it is the fact you've got to pick through the jumble to find what you want.
Notable: Reading so many books by comedians this year, I was actually surprised to find out that the blurbs on the back of the book are genuine and not (completely) humorous. Girl Walks into a Bar... is praised by no less than Tina Fey (author of another book from this year's challenge!), Amy Poehler, Mike Birbiglia, and Sarah Silverman ( another one! No Mindy Kaling, though).