As I am often the last person to join the bandwagon, feel free to laugh as I say... my first exposure to British comedian Russell Brand was 2008's Forgetting Sarah Marshall. {Go ahead, I don't mind.} His performance and pitch-perfect delivery as the disinterested megalomaniac Aldous Snow was the highlight of the film.
His performance there, as well as a MUST GOOGLE interview on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno and fellow Brit Gordon Ramsey {HYSTERICAL} was the sole reasoning behind this purchase.
My Booky Wook: A Memoir of Sex, Drugs, and Stand-Up relates Brand's troubled childhood and drug addiction that shaped the comic. His memoir is ugly, bare, and overwhelmingly depressing. But he writes with a refreshing emotional honesty that the reader will respect. Exposing your addictions--much less owning them--takes courage.
Russell Brand writes conversationally which often finds the author side-barring and interrupting the cadence. Plus his constant references to obscure British pop culture can be annoying. But when he's not sharing his inner dialogue, he writes with an incredible observational tone. Those observations are funny, but when taken out of context are even funnier. For instance... in the middle of retelling 'stick it to the man' heroics during a flight, Russell makes this one:
Of all the consumer products, chewing gum is perhaps the most ridiculous: it literally has no nourishment--you just chew it to give yourself something to do with your stupid idiot Western mouth. Half the world is starving, and the other's going, "I don't actually need any nutrition, but it would be good to masticate, just to keep my mind off things."
It's these gems that make My Booky Wook worth picking up. Be warned: Brand is gratuitous with his drug and sex addictions--his truthfulness is blunt.
No comments:
Post a Comment