Customer Reviews

Superstud: Or How I Became a 24-Year-Old Virgin

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"Superstud", the sequel to "Freaks & Geeks" creator Paul Feig's childhood memoir "Kick Me", bills itself as a humorous recollection of the author's struggles dating the opposite sex. For those of us who know about being a casualty of love, there's undeniable appeal to such a project, and Feig delivers with comedy and surprising poignancy on occasion.

But I've always been suspicious of people whose claims of geekdom lead to the golden lights of Hollywood, and that suspicion builds reading this book. Feig claims to suffer the shame of being a geek, but it reads more like he wasn't a jock. He not only goes out on dates with attractive girls, but takes the initiative in breaking up with a couple of them. His lack of sex is something he blames as much on a strict religious upbringing as a lack of opportunity, and his parting thought saying people should just be happy doing what they feel like doing doesn't sound like someone who really knows about suffering over love.

The real story of Feig's frustrations boils down to what he calls "dating math": "She wants me = I don't want her/She doesn't want me = I want her."

So real geeks and recovering geeks should be forewarned. Take it from me: I asked 19 girls to my junior prom before getting a yes. A woman I once declared my love for wound up bilking me out of $265 for an imaginary trip to Rhode Island. I once managed to score tickets to the Letterman show for a girl I liked, only to have her announce in the middle of it: "By the way, this is not a date."

Reading this book, I felt like a 'Nam vet listening to some ex-Coast Guarder tell me about his weekend in Grenada. Feig actually was a fairly attractive young man, as the book cover shows, blessed with a quick wit, Han Solo hair, and access to pretty females who often found him entertaining.

The funniest section of the book is an early date with a high school girl that worked much like my Letterman non-date, except the show was an REO Speedwagon concert (Feig gets a lot of early 80s references in, which entertained me) and there is much vomit. Vomit is a recurring theme in this book, along with some other bodily fluids we won't mention.

Feig's description of some auto-erotic moments are both bold and funny, getting intimate with fashion magazines much like George Costanza once did, dealing with sudden public "equipment issues" while perusing photography books, and the like. All this is funny, but a bit forced, like the self-conscious footnotes he inserts in a series of late 1981 journal entries describing one of his courtships, replete with lines like "Let the downfall begin!" and such like.

The part I was most moved by didn't have to do with love or sex at all, but rather a strange burst of homesickness Feig suffers while leaving for college, after he itemizes all the tiny things of his parents' house he has come to identify with. "It felt like the minute I left the house for California, everything was going to be incinerated or ransacked by looters who would leave these sentimental items broken and scattered all over the street in front of our house."

There's one authentic-feeling moment of geekhood I recognized all too well. And truthfully, it's probably a more readable book with Feig not being so much of a geek. If he was, this would read like a 300-page version of Janis Ian's "At Seventeen", and how much fun would that be?

But I would have felt more at home with it than this.

This is a man who bares his soul in the universal quest to find love. He also shares the shame and the cringe-worthy hilarity of the all-consuming attempts at finding love especially as an adolescence. I think many will find this book screamingly funny as he tells stories of awkward attempts at luring the opposite sex and discovering his sexuality. It is strangely sweet as well because really everyone has been there, (maybe not nearly ending up in a hospital trying out something new) and he reaches the dorky romantic in all of us who just wants someone to hold our hand and love us despite being uncool.

When the dedication page of a book makes you laugh, you can assume one of two things: 1) either this is as good as it's going to get, or 2) this book is going to be outrageously funny.

Fortunately, it's option #2. I generally take awhile to get through a book, generally taking several months to several years. But this was a book I bought from the day it was released, and finished it in less than a week. Not only was this book fun to read, it made me cringe in places, and often mull over my own life. Paul Feig's life certainly put things in perspective of my own (whether for good or bad).

For all of the detail and writing that he spent on describing his past relationships, when Judgment Day finally came, it almost felt like that the author was just trying to finish off the book. Or maybe I am just waiting for the 2nd part of this story to read how everything ended up in life, between his old friends, his wife, his current life, etc. But perhaps, he might even create a more comprehensive autobiography someday to continue from the time of the early 80s, to his (varying) successes as a writer of various entertainment mediums.

In Paul Feig's memoir of adolescent lust and desire, "Superstud", he regales us with his lusty tales of ripping the bodices off nubile young women and having his way with them...okay, more like getting stuck watching someone else rip off those bodices. You see, Feig was something of a "late bloomer" when it came to the art of love and sex. The fact that he's willing to talk about it, openly and honestly, makes for a good tale.

Feig starts with tales of his first initiation into the "rope-burn" club (yeah...that...I don't need to elaborate, do I?), which is almost stunted by sudden feelings of guilt over his chosen "self-pleasuring" path. Then he comes into actual contact with members of the opposite species and...where he goes, trouble follows. Not to mention disaster, disgrace, embarassment, and (in one particular adventure) skating all by himself during a "couples skate" due to his inability to find a partner.

Feig recounts all the near-misses and almost-rans of his dash to the "losing my virginity line", but with a wit and gift for narrative that takes you in and gives you a bird's-eye view of Feig's foibles. He finds one girl who wants to go all the way, but finds himself not that attracted to her; another offers to perform "a Lewinsky"; still another leds him to believe he'll have a wonderful homecoming after a sojurn in California, only to cause him indirectly to lose his lunch. And I won't even bother to hint at the self-love method that almost ruins his life.

In the end, Feig does lose his virginity, of course. The way in which he describes it (arranged like a section from the Bible) makes you feel for him, really. It's easy to see why Feig has so much cache in the world of snobby nerds like myself. He knows of what he speaks, and never more so than in his love life (or lack thereof).

It's not a perfect book, by any stretch, and there might be some people put off by some of Feig's amorous adventures (especially those with himself). But overall, the book moves at a quirky, conversational pace that allows the reader to live through all the angst of an adolescent who just wants to experience the greatest act between a man and a woman (or other, in case you're inclined that way) and all the problems that can cause. Because as anyone can tell you, the burst that you get from hormones makes for a dangerous cocktail when coupled with awkward teenager problems.

So sit back, relax, and laugh yourself silly at Paul Feig's "Superstud". If you can't help from blushing from recognition of something you yourself might've done or experienced. Love is a mystery, but Paul Feig sorta figured it out. It doesn't mean "never having to say you're sorry", but "never bending yourself into a pretzel and nearly breaking your neck".

And that's a lesson I think we can all depend on...

Paul Feig is awesome...his TV show was awesome, his first good was quite good, but this book, oh this one is fantastic. It is so incredibly honest (and a bit uncomfortable) that he wins your heart. FOr anyone who has had the least bit of trouble with the opposite sex, parts of this book will ring true. It works so well because it is so focused. You can't help but laugh and perhaps even be a little touched. I will read or watch anything he does. Way to go Mr. Feig.

The creator of the brilliant series "Freaks and Geeks" really comes alive on paper. His stories about his youth are just plain fun. "Super Stud" is a laugh-out-loud book about his young life in pursuit of a sex life (and multiple failures to land bragging rights to one). The material is anecdotal and full of great humor and humanized stories we can all relate to. I also recommend: "My Fractured Life", "My Horizontal Life", and "A Long Way Down."

As any other hot-blooded American, Paul Feig spent much of his teenage years trying to solve the enigma that are women. Paul's disadvantage was his gangly height, love for musical theater and the death blow- being a tap-dance student (see cover).

This memoir is infused with the same wit and humor that brought his first book, Kick-Me, to life. Anecdotes include: his fest date' to an REO Speedwagon concert; how he accomplishes his first break-up, by cross country move; Feig's hilarious journal entries, complete with present day foot notes, many of which have him strangling and slapping the young Feig; his practice of a self love technique that almost landed him in the hospital; and the voice of God, asking "you're not really going to do that, are you?" whenever he thinks of doing anything sexual.

Paul Feig will remind anyone who's ever been there of the humiliation and degradation that is being a teenage dork. If you were, are or are turning into a geek, read this and learn from Feig's follies before you fall into any of the same traps.

Paul Feig's "Superstud" is a funny book in part because Feig is obviously a talented writer with a gift for comedy. But it's also entertaining because it's a book about those excruciating experiences all members of the male species go through but rarely discuss with one another. Most men are happy to discuss their conquests and victories in the bedroom department; not nearly as many are willing to discuss their outright failures and embarrassments in the same area. Paul Feig on the other hand has written a highly entertaining book on the subject.

The book starts off with tales from Feig's early years of, to put it politely, "self-discovery". Truth be told, I'm sure many guys have, like Paul, visited a bookstore "Photography" section for reasons other than to learn more about shutters, lenses and filters.

The book really takes off once it gets to the stories from Paul's love life (or perhaps more appropriately, the lack thereof) with other actual human beings. No story in the book is ever less than amusing, however, three stories in particular - the one detailing Paul's utter humiliation on a crowded roller rink on a day he thought was going to be his moment of glory, one about Paul's "date" (date is in quotes because it is highly questionable whether the girl was aware she was on one) with the bustiest girl in his high school and one that uses real entries from a diary Paul kept in the early 80s to illustrate the highs and lows of his relationship with a not-so-closeted racist - reach the level of absolute hilarity.

Fans of "Freaks and Geeks", the critically acclaimed TV series Feig created, will also have fun picking out the bits from Paul's life that also made their way onto the TV series.

Paul Feig once dressed up as a woman for Halloween, as a kid, because he secretly wanted to. He didn't turn out to be gay, but he did turn out to be the director/producer of the Office (& also worked on Parks and Rec, Mad Men, 30 Rock and Arrested Development). There is something to be said about being different & uncool that makes you genius. I also recommend Paul Feig's book, Kick Me. Reading them together got my husband and I through the critical illness of our son last yr.

I'm a little late to the Feig party, as I've neither seen one episode of Freaks & Geeks, nor have I read any of his other books. I am on a mission to change all that, figuring I'll track down seasons of DVDs to watch F&Gs and pick up the other books when I can. Maybe because I related to Feig's Michigan roots, or that I started out as a Geek with many of the same predilections and fears, but I found myself saying, "Yes!" throughout most of Feig's memoir, a journey of sexual realization, frustration and finally, consummation. There's an irreverent quality to the story and a sparse telling of experience that at times is like watching The Office, that is to say, you're laughing, but you're uncomfortable doing so. From the descriptions of recapturing "The Rope Feeling" (masturbation) to his date with the girl with the biggest boobs in school (a forgettable REO Speedwagon concert) to "Please Do Not Read This Chapter" which all I can say is, I sort of wished I hadn't! But that's the thing; you can't walk away from reading this book without respecting Feig's honesty. Although, I have to say, seeing that his parents are both deceased must've made it a bit of an easier decision to write it (though he is married!). A great book for anyone out there who is a hopeless romantic and likes to see that good guys sometimes finish first.