I Killed: True Stories of the Road from America's Top Comics

by Mark Schiff and Ritch Shydner

Book Overview

In a hilarious look at real life on the comedy circuit, some of America's most famous comics share their own stories of life on the road, gigs gone wrong, and unexpected zany moments, with... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0307341992
• ISBN13: 9780307341990
• Release Date: October 2006
• Publisher: Crown Publishing Group (NY)
• Length: 264 Pages
• Weight: 1.21 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 7.0" x 9.5"

Customer Reviews

Great Material from the Road

I can manage saying something now and then to make someone else laugh. And I while I don't do much in the way of public performance, I don't have anything like stage fright. But I got shivers of anxiety when reading some of the stories in _I Killed: True Stories from the Road from America's Top Comics_ (Crown Publishers) by Ritch Shydner and Mark Schiff. There is a strong prospect of anxiety in anticipation of being shoved onto a stage with the assignment of getting laughs from a paying audience, perhaps an audience that would feel itself better entertained if you fell flat on your face, and is willing to take steps to make this happen. The anxiety is apparent in the title of the book, the comics' aggressive cry of success, of victory over an opposition seated on the other side of the footlights. Yet the anxiety feeds back into the humor; most of the stories here are better labeled "I Died", for they are not success stories at all. But the stories of failure here are resurrected into funny stories that are bound to get laughs this time around. These true stories (true, but no doubt colored in varying degrees by the tellers, scores of now-famous comics) are a wonderful record by practitioners of a very peculiar art form. Many of these stories come as memories of the bad old days when the comics were just starting out and if the pay was forthcoming (it wasn't always) it was measly. Many stories here involve getting stiffed of a paycheck and perhaps therefore having to sneak back into the club late at night just to have a place to sleep. Plenty of the clubs you would not want to sleep in; Judy Tenuta remembers, "It's the winter of 1981 in Chicago, with maybe ten people in the audience, when a rat (the four-legged kind) runs across the stage. Suddenly the club owner takes out a gun and blasts it, then motions for me to continue with my show." Another consistent theme here is hecklers, a real job hazard. Judy Carter withstood a barrage of thrown shot glasses, and when "... that didn't work, a guy grabbed a table cloth, charged onstage, threw it over me - and lit me on _fire_." Another theme is bombing, which happens to new comics, and practiced ones too. It sounds awful. There's even a name for a physiological reaction in such a disaster, as Kathy Griffin recalls: "I started my act and it was just a disaster... The experience was so awful that I had actual flop sweat." There are plenty of raunchy jokes and language here; after all, these are stories generally from young people (or about what happened to the tellers when they were young people), energetic, on the road, independent, and lonely. Even Bob Hope gave a tip to Dan Bradley having to do with gaining sexual favors from the waitresses at the clubs. There are other star turns here, like a recollection by Bob Zmuda about how Zmuda would perform disguised as Andy Kaufman's alter ego Tony Clifton, whereupon Kaufman in disguise would come to the theater and heckle Zmuda ("We know

Buy this Book (used): it'll save you money

I am amazed that no one thought of writing this book sooner. Hysterical, brilliant, an enjoyable read. A few stories aren't so funny but that just gives you a chance to catch your breath from laughing so hard. BTW: After reading this rent Seinfeld's movie "Comedian" which goes well with this book.

Will Not Be Able To Put It Down!!!!!

As soon as I started reading this book, I could not put it down. I quickly was engrossed in story after story of interesting anecdotes as to a comic's true life on the road. There are definitely some chuckles in this very entertaining book, but the reader will quickly be deeply engrossed in the faceted sides of comedy, and to the totally unknown non-glamorous side of being a stand-up comic. If I ever had illusions of being a comedian and basking in the applause and endearments of the audience, these illusions have disappeared. This is definitely not a life for the sensitive personality. By the middle of the book I felt as if I knew all of the comedians personally, and I could comprehend their varied experiences and anguishes of being on the road. I can easily visualize this book as a weekly television series of comedian's experiences on the road. I am sure that there are many more stories which the authors have up their sleeves, and I anxiously await book 2 which I would call "I Killed Again". The authors are to be congratulated.

Really fun read

The Publishers' Weekly review on this page says this book is fantastic "bathroom reading." I guess they mean that it's perfect for people who don't always have time to sit down and read for an hour or two at a stretch. Because the stories in here are so short, it's easy to read for ten minutes, get a few complete stories and good chuckles, and then put the book down for next time. There are well over a hundred stories in here so if you read the book this way it'll last you for a while! The feeling of the book is a bit like the documentary The Aristocrats-- you get the feeling that the comics are not "performing" but just sitting back and exchanging their favorite crazy stories. Not all the stories are hilarious, but most of them are very entertaining and there are some that will stick in my mind for a LONG time. Some of the stuff these guys confess to is great--Chris Rock talking about call girls, Tom Arnold about murdering goldfish, many, many stories of one-night stands and drug use. I think my favorite story has to be Doug Stanhope's one about the 5-dollar streetwalker who turns out to have a couple of surprises hidden away. I also loved the one about the comic's mother and Rodney Dangerfield. This is also a good book for anyone interested in the history of comedy--along with all the contemporary stuff, there are lots of stories about legendary comedy greats like Rodney Dangerfield, Johnny Carson, Richard Pryor, Andy Kaufman (Bob Zmuda contributes a great story about the Tony Clifton character). This book doesn't go for the gross-out humor nearly as much as The Aristocrats did, but because it shows comics talking how they REALLY talk, it is definitely PG-13 or R-rated. But if you don't need your humor to be squeaky, sit-com clean (I certainly dont) then you will really get a kick out of this book.