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91 of 101 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
A David Cross Fan Says: Don't Even Bother..., September 3, 2009
First of all, I have to admit I'm a rabid David Cross fan, seeing all his movies (yes, even Alvin and the Chipmunks) and collecting all of this stand-up cd's including bootlegs where I couldn't pay for them otherwise. This book came out on my birthday, and it was at the top of my list for gifts my g/f could give me. She preordered it, and gave it to me on my birthday.
I was stoked to read it in the downtime while we were on vacation, only to be highly disappointed. There are numerous, and I mean numerous, spelling and grammatical errors in the book, to the point of distraction. A professional publishing house should be appalled at the level of errors made.
The book itself starts off funny, but then dissolves into list after pointless list, some taking up 3-5 pages of nonsense. Some sections are written as (unfunny) fictional characters. I found myself skimming over large parts of the book. Example: "Eleven Vitamins You Will Have in Limbo: B12, C, K, C+, D-," etc. This is all in a vertical list, double spaced, meaning the list of letters took up a whole page. On stage, in Cross's voice, hilarious. In a book, it's filler status.
I don't need a tell-all bleeding heart story about Cross's life, but a little more insight into what makes him David, life on the road as a comic, and even mundane Hollywood observations would have been fantastic. All I ended up with was what seems to be a collection of things previously written, numerous pointless lists, and a very few gems (the open letter to Larry the Cable guy is hilarious, but also freely available on Cross's website). Hell, I found more humor and insight from David in the Mr. Show book (a fantastic buy). All in all, it seems pretty lazy. If you must have this, at least purchase it used and save yourself a few dollars. David, what gives?
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37 of 40 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
What a disappointment., August 31, 2009
I've long been a fan of all that is David Cross. If you were to ask me who my favorite comedian is, my immediate and unqualified response would be "David Cross." I own pretty much all of the Mr. Show-related material which has been released, all of David's comedy albums & DVDs, and I've seen David's stand-up act live (which was amazing). So you can imagine that I've been quite excited about the release of this book.
Boy, was I ever disappointed. There are definitely some laugh-out-loud moments in this book (and an unexpected mention of an old friend during the "free list of quirks"), but on the whole it's an uneven work which was very, VERY poorly edited. When I'm paying good money for a professionally-produced book, I expect it to be professionally edited, not filled with the kinds of grammatical mix-ups and misspellings you'd expect from a high-school dropout's job application at McDonald's (page 87: "Mormans," for instance. They apparently didn't even run a spellchecker on this thing before shipping it off to the printer). I'm sure that some people will be quick to point out numerous grammatical errors I've made in my review, but as I'm not producing this in any sort of professional capacity, they can bite my shiny leather grammar Nazi goosesteppers.
I can't say that I hated this book, because I didn't, but overall it proved to be extremely unsatisfying on several levels.
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22 of 24 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Brilliant mind, tough read., September 15, 2009
There is a long tradition of comedy being rooted in anger and a long history of comics who do well with sets that play like primal scream therapy. The humor that arises is usually gut-wrenchingly funny, because a good portion of the audience can relate. They're frustrated by the same things as the man or woman on stage.
What happens when the comedian hates every thing and every one and tells you so with anger, contempt, and a sense of superiority? How long can you spend in a atmosphere of rage and condescension? Even if you can see that the person is genuinely intelligent and creative, and happens to generally agree with you on a number of issues, how long before you want to escape?
David Cross is brilliant in many ways, but reading his book was a slog. I like pointed humor, but his dislike of mostly everything he encounters and repetition of his top dislikes made this an almost joyless affair. There were times I chuckled or appreciated a turn of phrase, but mostly I just wondered what he actually liked and if I could make it through to the end.
Instead of taking on a topic or dislike, riffing on it, and moving on, he kept going back to the well with his comments often not even being humorous, but just bitter. The funny thing is that at one or two points he acknowledges that people see him as condescending and superior.
Were there good moments? Yeah. He did a piece on Larry the Cable Guy and showed him for a snake oil salesman. There are lines when he skewers people or institutions that are astute and brilliant, but I found myself having to take breaks from this to read things that where the author likes people, and has the occasional positive.
Cross is a smart guy and funny in shows and skits, but this book doesn't make him seem the least bit likable. Even for someone familiar with Cross and a fan of Mr. Show and Arrested Development, this was not a good read.
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