Comedy Comedy Comedy Drama: A Memoir (Hardcover)

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER - In this "essential" ( Entertainment Weekly ), "hilarious" ( AV Club ) memoir, the star of Mr. Show, Breaking Bad , and Better Call Saul opens up about the highs and lows of showbiz, his cult status as a comedy writer, and what it's like to reinvent himself as an action film ass-kicker at fifty. "I can't think of another entertainer who has improbably morphed so many times, and all through real genius and determination."--Conan O'Brien ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: The New Yorker, Vulture, Newsweek Bob Odenkirk's career is inexplicable. And yet he will try like hell to explicate it for you. Charting a "Homeric" decades-long "odyssey" from his origins in the seedy comedy clubs of Chicago to a dramatic career full of award nominations--with a side-trip into the action-man world that is baffling to all who know him--it's almost like there are many Bob Odenkirks! But there is just one and one is plenty. Bob embraced a life in comedy after a chance meeting with Second City's legendary Del Close. He somehow made his way to a job as a writer at Saturday Night Live . While surviving that legendary gauntlet by the skin of his gnashing teeth, he stashed away the secrets of comedy writing--eventually employing them in the immortal "Motivational Speaker" sketch for Chris Farley, honing them on The Ben Stiller Show , and perfecting them on Mr. Show with Bob and David . In Hollywood, Bob demonstrated a bullheadedness that would shame Sisyphus himself, and when all hope was lost for the umpteenth time, the phone rang with an offer to appear on Breaking Bad --a show about how boring it is to be a high school chemistry teacher. His embrace of this strange new world of dramatic acting led him to working with Steven Spielberg, Alexander Payne, and Greta Gerwig, and then, in a twist that will confound you, he re-re-invented himself as a bona fide action star. Why? Read this and do your own psychoanalysis--it's fun! Featuring humorous tangents, never-before-seen photos, wild characters, and Bob's trademark unflinching drive, Comedy Comedy Comedy Drama is a classic showbiz tale told by a determined idiot.