Comedy Comedy Comedy Drama

If you like Bob Odenkirk, you will probably like this. If you do not like Bob Odenkirk, you will probably not like this.

This is a pretty standard autobiography from a working actor with nothing too revelatory in it, but it was fun to listen to Odenkirk talk in my ear for a half dozen hours and here a few behind-the-scenes anecdotes.

This was an interesting read. I felt like I already knew maybe 1/3 of it just from various podcasts/interviews/etc, and the style of this is kind of podcast-esque too in that it's mostly a series of vignettes. I appreciated his prickly honesty in here–there are definitely stories where he comes off like a jerk, and he knows it now. In the last chapter he literally said something like, “My wife told me I should say something about white privilege and I guess that's what this whole book has been about,” which is well, true. His stories of the heyday of 90s alt comedy are very white and he's at least now aware of how hostile to women the crowd was, though he seemed to have been oblivious to it at the time.He cited that his impetus for writing this book was reading another Hollywood memoir and realizing that his kids had no idea who that person was (he doesn't name the celeb in question, perhaps to save them from shame) and that he had a quickly-closing window of relevance. But interestingly this was written and finalized before his heart attack, which...I mean, not to make him drag himself through it or anything but seems like maybe that would have been worth tacking on another chapter or something if possible?? This might have been better on audiobook but it was fine as a print book. Honestly if you're a big enough fan of Odenkirk to consider reading it you'll probably like this. It's not one of those celeb memoirs where I'm like, “Wow even you don't care about this person's career it's a great book!” (See: [b:Just Kids 341879 Just Kids Patti Smith https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1259762407l/341879.SY75.jpg 332242], [b:Greenlights 52838315 Greenlights Matthew McConaughey https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1604281659l/52838315.SX50.jpg 78998213], etc for examples of that).

4-5
I'm unsettled on the score, haha

This is a bundle of so many things that I like and a few little nit picks


I enjoy Odenkirk's voice. So much so that I'm tempted to rate this a 5 to help the algorithm tip anything else Odenkirk might narrate my way.

Love the mix of biography and philosophical thought.

I loved hearing his admiration for comedy and his willingness to explore other things. Bob Odenkirk's is not one note and that makes me happy.

I appreciated the perspective of the skit writer as I more frequently hear from the stand up or essayist. I liked hearing about SNL, Odenkirk's sejour was not without unpleasantness but he takes lessons from his experience.

I also love Monty Python (looking for John Cleese's book Creativity)
Do I have the correct idea of who Andy Dick was? Eh after briefly double checking, I do have the correct idea. Comedians aren't always admiral people. I need to get over my bias — I also don't love Sarah Silverman but I don't need to in order to hear about Odenkirk's anecdotes.

I find it somewhat interesting the cohorts that celebrities, especially those with a comedic bent, form. So I like when the author names off other people and familiar things.