Hopeful

Omid was born in Chelsea, London, to Iranian Bahá'í parents and is a Bahá'í himself. The first significant success of his stand-up comedy career was at 1995's Edinburgh Fringe. This was in “Short, Fat Kebab Shop Owner's Son”. He followed this with “The Arab and the Jew” in 1996. Djalili has also appeared in many films, most notably Gladiator. Others include The Mummy, The World Is Not Enough, Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End, Sex and the City 2.

With such a varied background, you would expect his autobiography to be full of hilarious anecdotes. And it is! His book covers his birth through to the awful TV show, Splash! If you've ever seen Omid you'll notice he tends to keep intimate life stories out of his stand-up. And the opposite is true in this book: he keeps most of his comedy out of his life story. Saying that, Omid does have a skill of pulling together various tales and details, that are at first unrelated. However, these ultimately come together and to form an inspiring message. This is persistence and being a nice guy, in the long run, pays off.

If you've ever seen Omid you'll notice he tends to keep intimate life stories out of his stand-up. And the opposite is true in this book: he keeps most of his comedy out of his life story.

An entertaining read which I recommend.

The abridged version is available from the BBC here