Customer Reviews

Belly Laughs: Adventures with Celebrities and Other Unusual Characters

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

I'm disappointed in this book, I picked it up at a belly dance workshop, and figured it would be full of laughs. It's not exactly a book of funny stories, some of them are just plain weird, not funny, or didn't have anything to do with belly dancing.

One of the things that disappointed me most about the book is the story telling style. Long states at the beginning that he's not trying to embellish the stories or take them over, but we constantly get little bits of Long-ese (definitions of words he uses), and somehow I don't think all these belly dancers used Long-ese a lot. It's like he's constantly trying to remind us who's writing the book. He also crams the table of contents onto two pages in small type, but has no problems putting a definition of Long-ese on the page in large type, and then devoting the entire next page to a definition of 'buckwheat.'

A lot of the stories weren't funny, or didn't have a whole lot to do with belly dancing. The last story of the book is a narrative about one belly dancer's obsession with The Artist Formerly Known as Prince. There isn't any mention of belly dance in it, other than the person who was obsessed with him saw his wife dancing. Another one deals with one belly dancer's husband accidentally eating 'funny' brownies and then driving 10 miles an hour down the road.

The book isn't a total waste though, there are a few funny and interesting stories, one about a python that farted feathers, another about how a belly dancing cousin warmed up a somber wedding, and another about a mishap a dancer had when she danced with Omar Sharif. Other than that, there's not a whole lot of really good stories. If you're really interested in sorting through the bad to find the good, then order the book. If not, try to pick one up used or see if the library has a copy.

I wanted to like this book. I really did. But I found Long's narrative style to be very, very annoying. Every time I was just getting comfortably settled into reading one of the anecdotes in this book, I'd get jarred out of it by one of Long's not-very-funny made-up words. I felt as if he was a child trying to call attention to himself rather than letting the stories speak for themselves.

I also got annoyed with the emphasis on celebrities. Many of the stories featuring celebrities were simply not all that interesting, and would have been too weak to include in such a book if the main characters had been no-names. To me, they came across as gratuitous name-dropping.

Still, it was nice to see a book that painted a realistic picture of what it's like to be a belly dancer, and some of the stories were rather funny.

This book is absolutely terrible. Maybe a couple of funny stories but overall it is an incredible waste and a torture to read.

The only reason I give this book one star is that Amazon won't let me give it a zero or negative rating. I hope it was printed on recycled paper, because it would be a crime against the universe to have cut down a tree for this bumfodder.
Most of the stories don't even have a humorous element as they are little more than celebrity name-dropping, and even the potentially funny stories are killed by Long's lack of talent and his trying to make himself the center of attention.
If this book is an example of Long's comedy, his live "performances" must violate the Geneva Convention.

I waited from this book to find funny stories about dancers from all over the world but there were just few stories that really were funny. Book was filled with stories by Jodette and Dallal, of which the first was really boring: maybe it was fun to live that life but for sure it was not fun to read... and what has the last story about Prince fan do in this book? There could have been so much more to read if the author was more concentrating to really fun and interesting stories instead of dropping famous names.

Yes, folks, belly dancing really are entertainers and it does count as "show business". Although this review is a bit gratuitious since I've got a chapter in this book, it's still nice to know my colleagues in belly dance have these "close encounters of the absurd kind"! I'd recommend this book for anyone who likes to read about the "real", funny and bizzare side of show business.

If I read a book twice, it's good. If I finish the last page and start right back to read it again, it's excellent. When I started reading Belly Laughs, I wasn't so impressed. Sometimes the sentences seemed a little choppy. Of course, it is funny -- the situations are so bizarre you know it must be true. Who could think up things like that? But with this book, the whole is a lot more than the sum of the parts. After I read it all, I had so many glorious images and concepts -- really multicultural, interesting things -- I literally started right over again from page one. Deceptively simple, easily read book with more substance than I expected.

Well,first of all I've caught Rod Long's stand up act and heard him many times on the local sports radio station,so i was familar with his style of humor! Well honey,his wrting dosen't disappoint it's just as funny as his live act........I loved the star gazing aspect.what it's actually like behind the scenes.I loved The Prince saga as well as all the Jodette stories.I've actually been to see some real belly dancers since buying this book!Great for the mind and soul.Right on Rod Long

I was drawn to this book by its' very eye catching cover-surprise-this book is filled with unusual stories by belly-dancers about some of their famous clients.Mr. Long is a very good satire writer .this book is filled with gems that at first reading you might miss.One thing is for sure-this man is funny and can write.Now I want to go and actually experience the culture of belly dance---not to be mistaken for those that remove their clothing for a living>5 STARS AND TWO THUMBS UP FOR THIS BOOK!!