"Comedy Comedy Comedy Drama" by Bob Odenkirk

Bob Odenkirk

- 7 minutes read - 1477 words

Author: Bob Odenkirk

Rating: ★★★

Bob Odenkirk is one of the most impactful comedians of my life. He brought life to one of the funniest SNL characters ever: Matt Foley (played by Chris Farley):

Also, Julia Sweeney, Phil Hartman, David Spade, Christina Applegate…just…so much comedic talent on one stage. And, my god, Applegate and Spade trying to resist breaking.

And then, on top of that, he and David Cross produced the sketch comedy series that quite possibly broke one of my ribs, Mr. Show.

WHO SPEAKS ILL OF PORNOGRAPHY?

And then, when you’re like, that’s cool, what else, he gives the cripplingly haunting portrayal of Saul Goodman / Jimmy McGill on Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul. Unbelievable.

OK, so how’s the book? It’s good! It’s a pleasant chronology about how this unique comedic mind got started, and it shares some enjoyable anecdotes about the scenes and players he encountered along this storied path. If the book communicates anything it’s:

  1. You never know where your failures are going to take you
  2. Never stop at that grind

It’s enjoyable and fun to read. Odenkirk doesn’t really surprise with unforeseen depth or reveal a closet philosophical side. He doesn’t reveal a secret for writing great comedy or for touching the sublime in dramatic performance. I don’t know if that’s because he didn’t think that would sell or if he’s still too modest to admit that he’s a great actor. I’d love to hear more about his acting approach or his writing approach. Ultimately the advice seems to be, “Just Do It.”

But there are sections of pretty profound emotion. In particular his kindness to comedians who have been taken from us (Phil Hartman) and Chris Farley really stand out. The Farley section was particularly jarring. Many of Odenkirk’s characters have a frothing white-hot angry streak (likely a remembrance of Odenkirk’s reportedly own lousy and angry father). It’s remarkable to see that righteous anger and depression lash out as he describes the torture of watching Chris Farley, in an obvious, hackneyed and trite way, kill himself:

The worst part of watching Chris’s downfall play out over the next few years was the inevitability of the whole damn thing. It drove me nuts. His rise to fame, blazing moments, assured destruction—it played out just as everyone said it would. Said it to his face.

If you’re a fan of the Breaking Bad-iverse (I am, midldly) or a fan of Mr. Show, then this is a pleasant plane or beach read.

{
  "title": "Comedy Comedy Comedy Drama: A Memoir",
  "author": "Bob Odenkirk",
  "highlightCount": 27,
  "noteCount": 0,
  "annotations": [
    {
      "highlight": "so, fortuitous timing, this is a good moment to look backwards, and forwards, and…inwards.”",
      "location": 191,
      "annotation": ""
    },
    {
      "highlight": "Beyond the Fringe, the classic sketch group that included the greatest comic mind of all time, Peter Cook,",
      "location": 331,
      "annotation": ""
    },
    {
      "highlight": "Fringe’s live show and recognized a deeper quality to the comedy: “This was anger, but it was being used for laughter.”",
      "location": 333,
      "annotation": ""
    },
    {
      "highlight": "To me, the best comedy has an anger in it,",
      "location": 334,
      "annotation": ""
    },
    {
      "highlight": "Python was like my Bible, and in many ways it provoked contemplation just like that ratty old book. Also, it was kinder and more truthful.",
      "location": 345,
      "annotation": ""
    },
    {
      "highlight": "“This Bloke Came Up to Me,” is still, to me, the smartest, simplest example of the improvisational rule of “Yes, and” that exists.",
      "location": 380,
      "annotation": ""
    },
    {
      "highlight": "Show. For those who care (and everyone should), in the late seventies they recorded a hilarious masterpiece album called Floats, wherein they built comedy bits around the actual Pasadena Rose Parade—check it out.",
      "location": 389,
      "annotation": ""
    },
    {
      "highlight": "“The Stand-Ups.” Check it out: it’s a document of truth and shame.",
      "location": 562,
      "annotation": ""
    },
    {
      "highlight": "you have to give some thought to how the audience comes to it, and what they signed up for. They’re good people, that ol’ audience, but if they paid for a greasy hamburger, then a deftly seared steak will only bum them out.",
      "location": 574,
      "annotation": ""
    },
    {
      "highlight": "Commitment is key! Still, it can be overrated. Deranged conspiracists are also gifted with commitment; only a select few become highly regarded actors.",
      "location": 662,
      "annotation": ""
    },
    {
      "highlight": "I imagine it was an echo of every sports coach, gym teacher, and camp counselor he’d ever had, and saying the same things they’d told him: “Look at you, you’re headed to nowhere, you clown! You loser!” Everybody always had a lecture for Chris about how he was messing up his life.",
      "location": 1053,
      "annotation": ""
    },
    {
      "highlight": "Anything for a laugh. ANYTHING. And there were a ton of laughs. Right up to the end. And the end was no mystery, right from the start.",
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      "annotation": ""
    },
    {
      "highlight": "The worst part of watching Chris’s downfall play out over the next few years was the inevitability of the whole damn thing. It drove me nuts. His rise to fame, blazing moments, assured destruction—it played out just as everyone said it would. Said it to his face.",
      "location": 1082,
      "annotation": ""
    },
    {
      "highlight": "Chris tried. He did fight back. But he also, not so secretly, embraced and even maybe found purpose in fulfilling the hackneyed arc of it all.",
      "location": 1087,
      "annotation": ""
    },
    {
      "highlight": "He liked helping cool new voices find their place just as much as he liked making big, stupid money—when he should have liked that big, stupid money MORE! But, like everybody who is in this business for the right reasons, he couldn’t help himself. He was broken that way. I felt it immediately, and we had a great time over the next decade-plus.",
      "location": 1487,
      "annotation": ""
    },
    {
      "highlight": "Working around Garry on the Sanders show was inspiring and intimidating. He was maniacally focused, utterly consumed in the pursuit of perfection. But is there such a thing as perfection in what we do? There is not. Everyone has to come to their own terms with that conundrum; Garry never quit wanting to achieve total mastery.",
      "location": 1556,
      "annotation": ""
    },
    {
      "highlight": "There was no show like The Larry Sanders Show before it on American TV.",
      "location": 1568,
      "annotation": ""
    },
    {
      "highlight": "We parted friends and both knew we almost screwed up a good friendship with that romantical unpleasantness.",
      "location": 1585,
      "annotation": ""
    },
    {
      "highlight": "Chris dialed it in for us: “It doesn’t matter if people actually watch the show, just so long as they think they should watch it.” He talked about The Larry Sanders Show’s numbers—not great, but how that didn’t really matter; it generated attention and excitement and commentary. So…he was saying, “Fuck the ratings—make something worth talking about.” We would, happily, fuck the ratings.",
      "location": 1756,
      "annotation": ""
    },
    {
      "highlight": "Around this time, some dangerous artist had done a similar statement piece dubbed Piss Christ, where he mixed urine and religious symbology in such a potent combination that the Catholic Church shook their heads, locked their doors, emptied their bank accounts, and threw in the towel.",
      "location": 1779,
      "annotation": ""
    },
    {
      "highlight": "Lesson: karma is a bitch! be nice to people! you can be right without being a dick about it!",
      "location": 2259,
      "annotation": ""
    },
    {
      "highlight": "One more failure I have to alert you to before we get into worldwide success and golden days. Because, you fool, failure is where it’s at! It tells you more about anyone’s talent and drive and self than anything that works. Pay attention—it all works out in the end.",
      "location": 2371,
      "annotation": ""
    },
    {
      "highlight": "my mother was told by her priest that she had to sit outside during the ceremony, as it wasn’t a church-approved wedding. Ah, religion…bringin’ people together for centuries!!",
      "location": 2426,
      "annotation": ""
    },
    {
      "highlight": "Vince is so good at what he does that he has no need for bombast or stroking his own ego. His work leads the way, and he drives from the backseat, calm and confident, or at least putting up a damn good front.",
      "location": 2828,
      "annotation": ""
    },
    {
      "highlight": "Acting is a trick, and you can get better at tricks with practice.",
      "location": 2857,
      "annotation": ""
    },
    {
      "highlight": "The biggest reason to say yes to this offer was what I’d learned from the Del Close School of Trying Crazy Shit. Do something hard, something that you will probably fail at, something that tests you and excites you and takes you places you didn’t know you would ever go to.",
      "location": 3056,
      "annotation": ""
    },
    {
      "highlight": "“All comedy is critical”—John Cleese. It is. There isn’t a good joke alive that can’t be found insulting or insensitive by someone.",
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      "annotation": ""
    }
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}