Big Kiss: One Actor's Desperate Attempt to Claw His Way to the Top

by Henry Alford

Book Overview

"I'd like to thank the Academy and all of the little people who made Henry Alford's hilarious book possible. Mr. Alford delivers a performance that is laugh-out-loud funny and written with high... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0679438734
• ISBN13: 9780679438731
• Release Date: March 2000
• Publisher: Villard Books
• Length: 240 Pages
• Weight: 0.90 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 5.8" x 8.6"

Customer Reviews

Boffo!

The topic of this book made me a little doubtful--making fun of show business is sort of like shooting fish in a barrel. But Alford delivers: he has very unusual takes on the topic, and, on several occasions (the chapter about being in the movie Godzilla, for one) made me literally cry with laughter. Wow. Does he have a column somewhere? I'd love to read it.

Fantastically Funny Read

A wonderfully amusing look at actors and acting. Alford has a terrific eye for the absurd. Parts of the book will make you laugh out loud. This is as funny as his last book. READ BOTH!

An Uplifting Treat

Henry Alford is brilliantly witty, yet he displays an internal angst that resonates within the reader. You'll be right alongside him on his hilarious and occasionally pathetic journey to the promised land of stardom. A reviewer wrote of Alford's previous book that it was "dessert-like." This book is an uplifting treat, too, and reading a chapter or two shall surely brighten your day.

Fiendishly Funny!

This book had me falling out of the settee so often I had to move my fanny elsewhere. Alford is a very clever boy and one of the funniest writers alive. I would pay good money to witness he and David Sedaris talking about anything. I recommend this book to anyone who needs a laugh. Which should be just about anyone. Bravo.

Brilliantly Funny

This may be the funniest book I have ever read. It captures what it's like to try to break in--in this case, to showbiz, but in a larger sense, to anything you don't belong to. His chapter about being a phone sex operator (Caller: Do you like it with the teacher? Alford: Yes. I wrote my paper on "Mrs. Dalloway" Caller: [Click!]) is wildly hilarious, possibly the best thing he has ever written. I also liked it when he was an extra in Godzilla, and punchy from having screamed in fright at the giant lizard for a whole day, starts to scream "in an accent vaguely Caribbean, vaguely Cockney, "`Zilla monster ate me baby!" You have to like a guy who says, "I have bushy eyebrows, so I thought I could get cast as someone who just invented something."