Books by comedians can be a really mixed bag; often the performer's act, or even stage personality, doesn't translate well to the page. Well, Hall's book struck me as resting at the higher end of the scale. Turns out he is as funny, charming, and interesting here as he is when performing. Indeed, since this is an engaging version of a comic's life story hero quest it's more fun than just a bunch of random humorous essays and bits. I was entertained, and happy to learn more about Mr. Hall and his career.

Tried to get into this one, and just wasn't for me. Tended to ramble, and not go anywhere. I have read other books by Rich Hall, and I did enjoy those. Maybe I just wasn't in the mood for this.

I know Rich Hall from his brief stint at SNL and for the fact that he is bigger in England than in his native country, the USA. That always struck me as odd and it was interesting getting to know more about his long and varied career. This book might even make me pick up a Snigglet book next time I see one in my local bookstores bargain bin.

"These are stories about the crux of the comedy moment - in both my professional and personal life - where I had to nail it. Screwball turn-of-events, wayward characters, unplanned disasters, and something-wonderful-right-away moments that made my life funny by happenstance. They're not all triumphs, but if someone propped me up at the end of the comedy bar and put a quarter in me, these are the tunes I would spin."

Hall presents a memoir-like cavalcade of funny tales. (I'm not sure if cavalcade is the right word, but, dammit, how often do you get to use that one, so, yeah - it stays.) It's sort of like a memoir in that Hall relates humorous happenings from his life, more or less in chronological order, but huge chunks are left out. For instance, he skips over the birth of his daughter, though one expects she came to the world in the usual way (and she did indeed learn to walk while Hall was away), in favor of the tale where he introduces her to the Montana ranch he bought without his wife's knowledge, and/or permission.

Most of this is freakin' hilarious. I lost count of how many times I LOLed. I particularly enjoyed Hall's retelling of his reluctant participation in the 1987 theatrical release Million Dollar Mystery, a film so awful it prompted an audience member to say "That movie was so bad, I want everybody's money back."

This is a fun collection of anecdotes, packed with plenty of laughs.

And, Rich, you really should go fishing with Roger Daltrey. Nobody's getting any younger here.
Just sayin'.


*Note to publisher - the mighty Amazon will only allow reviews from verified purchasers. Sorry.

Nailing it! Tales from the Comedy Frontier by Rich Hall

BLURB: "A collection of hilarious and often absurd epiphanies in the legendary comedian's life that defined him - more in a for worse than for better kind of way - and all delivered in his unique deadpan style."

I picked up this book because of Otis Lee Crenshaw. A white trash, ex-convict, country singer alter ego that Rich Hall created sometime around the late '90s. Sure, I vaguely remember watching Not Necessarily the News back in the 1980s and I kinda, sorta, almost remember the sniglets*, but I'm here mostly because I think Otis Lee Crenshaw is comedy genius.

This isn't really a traditional memoir, it's more a collection of anecdotal essays ostensibly concerning the hit-and-miss nature of life lessons. Because Mr. Hall is a long established comedian, who apparently has developed a large following in the UK, there is more substance (not to mention cultural variety) to the stories shared here than your average celebrity of the moment tell-all. It's basically the tale of someone who found what he loves to do and somehow stumbled into a career doing it.

It's often humorous, sometimes thoughtful, occasionally hilarious, and, a time or two, a bit profound. Most of the tales contained in this memoir pertain to some significant moment in the arc of Rich Hall's life. Both personal and professional moments - usually a combination of the two. Towards the end it gets a little too pompous for my taste as Hall laments the current state of stand-up comedy with an extended rant about the lack of any real edginess in the profession these days. There may be some truth to it but it still gets tedious quickly.

All-in-all, I enjoyed this collection of anecdotes written from the perspective of a somewhat more working-man celebrity... And not just because: Yes! There is a chapter featuring Otis Lee Crenshaw (a surreal moment of real life/performance art colliding at a funeral service in Scotland). It's more witty fun than roll on the floor hilarious but I found NAILING IT! by Rich Hall to be an entertaining read.


*Rich Hall is the creator of sniglets; which are made up words to describe things for which no words currently exist.

Reads like listening to Rich Hall speak. Disjointed, maddeningly obscure, but fun. The stories read like campfire tales or yarns of days past. Which I guess they are.

My thanks to both NetGalley and the publisher Hachette Book Group for an advanced copy of this memoir and recollections of a life spent being funny.

Back in the early 80's through ways that were more grey market than black my father got an illegal cable box that somehow had all the channels a young person would want to watch. My favorites, at my young age, were the comedy shows on HBO. Specials, movies and original programming I loved them all. My favorite was Not Necessarily the News a news parody, commercial satire that had a segment entitled Sniglets that I found mostly odd, sometimes humourous sometimes fall off the couch hysterical. Sniglets was defined as "Any word that doesn't appear in the dictionary but should", and the bits were always hosted by Rich Hall. Later I would see him on a few comedy specials, missed the first movie he made, but I always found him really smart and very very funny. His latest is Nailing It: Tales from the Comedy Frontier a memoir of his youth, a Bidungsroman on his growth and a really funny, surprisingly touching collection about his life.

Rich Hall grew up always wanting to be a writer, submitting stories in the men's adventure theme to publishers, and never hearing anything, until one Christmas morning his father gave him a scrapbook of all the rejection notes sent to Mr. Hall that his father intercepted. An odd life lesson but one that seemed to happen alot to Mr. Hall. Leaving for a job in journalism he knocked the side mirror off his girlfriend's father's car, maybe causing them to break up, which might have made the newspaper life not as interesting as pretending to be a street preacher for animals as he later found himself doing. From street performance the jump to comedy seemed natural, moving east and gaining skills he soon found writing jobs in New York, a movie better left undiscussed, life on the Fringe Festival, more TV shows, marriage, RVs and turning down offers to fish with Roger Daltry. Books were written, shows were made and songs about rum in Australia were sung, a career that anyone would be happy to have.

I have read Mr. Hall's other books on America, Self help, and the book on his alter ego Otis Lee Crenshaw, which I have to find again as it was funny as heck. This memoir is not only funny, with great stories, and odd situations, but a lot of moments and passages of writing that come as quite a surprise in how sentimental and poignant they are. The thoughts on comedy, where it is going and where and how Mr. Hall creates it are expected but his thoughts on family, and various people who enter and leave his life are beautiful sketches on odd people. The opening section alone has some of the best writing that I have read and felt in awhile, going from dog preacher, to early standup, and writing messages to his (ex)? girlfriend in books that he would have delivered to her ski resort house. Writing that I would not think to find in a memoir about comedy.

Not only one of best memoirs that I have read in awhile, especially on comedy, but one of the best books of nonfiction that I have read, and I have read a lot. Not many books can make you think about life, laugh at loud, and go darn I wish I could write like that in the same sentence. Highly recommended for fans of early cable comedy, country song parodies, and memoirs that reach dip into what makes a person go. Also Mr. Hall's other books are very good also, and highly recommended.