Billy CrystalRecensioni

My review of this book can be found on my YouTube Vlog at:

https://youtu.be/dkF5v6Ghac0

Enjoy!

Very entertaining survey of the comedian's life. I recommend listening to the audiobook version to get the extra inflection of Billy Crystal's voice.

The reader/listener will be shocked (shocked! I say) to learn that Billy grew up in a happy home, has always been pretty funny, and didn't go into comedy right away. I should have recalled, but learned more deeply here, that Billy has a love of baseball, especially the New York Yankees, that is long and deep and is rooted in the limited time he had with his father.

This is a love story between Billy and life, with a little death thrown in for added poignancy and drama. Recommended for any fan and even non-fans.

2.5 stars. I mostly know Billy's Crystal's later work - from City Slickers to his award-hosting stints to appearances on late-night talk shows. He seems like a nice guy, and this book wasn't bad. It's a combination of stand-up type material (some performed in front of a live audience) and memoir. I found some parts slow, and I also found some of his language extremely jarring. I just wasn't expecting so many f-bombs from him!

Cute children's book

A bit about the format. This was my first audio book. I listened to it on my way to and back from work. In my opinion, this format is great for something just like this, a memoir, or maybe an historical biography. However, I just can't see myself listening to a novel. For me, fiction is meant to be read.

With that said, this memoir made me laugh, made me get misty, made me a tad bit angry in a few parts, made me reminisce, and it made me think. That's five stars for me. Pick it up, it's a great read, or listen.

I’ve enjoyed quite a few celebrity memoirs on audio and after we recently rewatched the movie City Slickers I added this to my audio library.

I’ve always enjoyed Billy Crystal as and actor and comedian. This memoir was excellent. He wrote is about the time he was turning 65 and it’s a look back at his life, career, and other milestone birthdays.

He actually recorded several chapters in front of a live audience which given his standup comedy career worked very well. I was glad the whole book wasn’t recorded that way but for some chapters it was great.

It’s a great listen and I definitely recommend it. He’s quite a sports fan and prominent sports figures and of course his beloved New York Yankees are as much a part of the book as his personal and working life.

I laughed out loud many times, I got a little emotional several times, and I thoroughly enjoyed listening to this.

Here is my review, from the Staff Recommendations pages of the BookGuide readers advisory site of the Lincoln City Libraries in Lincoln, NE: https://lincolnlibraries.org/bookguide/staff-recommendations/staff-recommendatio...½

Beautifully written & performed. Touching & hilarious, the tears were from laughing and crying.

The audiobook of this is particularly funny in places, as Billy Crystal reads it and actually performed parts of it as a comedy sketch in front of an audience. The first 10 minutes I was dying with laughter. Then it turned to the more ususal "let me tell you about my life" type of memoir, which was interesting enough as Billy Crystal has led quite a life. But the best parts are definitely the comedic reflections that are spread throughout the narrative. I will say that the humor is definitely R-rated so be careful who is in the car with you when you listen to this! Crystal doesn't hold anything back, so this book may not be for the easily offended. Otherwise, enjoy - but pull over to the side of the road if you are laughing so hard you can't breath.½

First word that comes to mind is engaging. I'm about 15 pages in, and subsequently digging it very much. Billy's written voice is very similar to his spoken in that you can easily hear him speak the words in his trademark friendly conversational tone. Funny stuff too so far-

What an excellent audio book!

In his mid sixties now, Billy Crystal recounts his life by decade, (my twenties, my thirties, etc...), interspersed with portions set in the present which were performed in front of a live audience. What an interesting man!

Starting with his early home life, the death of his father and his first career milestones, Billy tells his story with warmth, humility, humor and poignancy. Recounting his relationships with Muhammad Ali and Howard Cosell, Johnny Carson and Mickey Mantle, this is a behind the scenes look into building a successful career and family life.

The live audience portions of this performance were all about the aging process- they were very funny and all true. Towards the end of this autobiography he addresses the big issues-the loss of extended family members and facing one's own death. There is a real focus here on family and I enjoyed that. It also lent a sense of poignancy when he discussed the losses his family has experienced.

Funny and genuinely interesting, I enjoyed the hell out of this audio book. I laughed out loud, I teared up and I learned a lot. What more could a reader ask for?

Highly recommended!

Most of people know him
for his large screen roles,
or put into other words,
for all kinds of large screen movie roles
he's had throughout
his entire movie career,

but not everyone knows
that this man is actually
a dearly devoted family man,
who by the looks of it,
would have done everything
for his family if his family
would have ever encountered
a truly terrible crisis.

I was deeply moved by
his words of knowledge
and wisdom,

I was deeply moved
by sincerity within
his truly touching words,

and especially by his humility,
humbleness, and kindness,

for he didn't talk on and on
about his movie career and
all other things and all other stuff
connected to whatever's been going on
in Hollywood industry at the time,

but he's actually shared his softer side with me
as his book's avid reader and made me see
that family, even though we sometimes
don't understand each other,
argue over pointless things
we shouldn't even argue about,
is very important,

and should always remain
on the first spot in our lives.

This man puts his family first
and I truly respect him for that,
and I find it truly admirable,
that success he's had with
all of his large screen movie roles
didn't convince him
to choose a different path
and try to handle things
differently.

An absolutely lovely piece from Billy Crystal. Witty and timeless. Love is the best legacy!

I really enjoyed this selection that was offered for free from Audible, to subscribers.

Written by Billy Crystal, this quick audiobook makes us ponder life and death and what we'd willingly give for the sake of others.

Fluffy Good Time
Review of the Audible Original audiobook edition

This was one of the November 2018 free Audible Originals for members. It is a very clear recording of a live cast reading performance of a comedic play by Billy Crystal with little distraction from the audience or extraneous ambient noise. Crystal has assembled quite a star-studded cast and everyone gives a great performance. The plot is a sort of take on "Death Takes a Holiday/Meet Joe Black" where the Death role is played as a lower "repo-man" in the Death hierarchy (voiced by Billy Crystal) who comes to claim the life of the American President (played by Kevin Cline). There were several twists to the plot that were quite unexpected. The President isn't a parody of any recent actual POTUS, although some current events such as an Oil Pipeline and Indigenous RIghts play a subplot role.

This is a touching and funny memoir.

Tags: Nonfiction, Audiobook, Billy Crystal, Comedians, Reflections, Essays, Growing Older

Overview: I listened to this one on audio read by Billy Crystal, one of my favorite comedians and actors growing up. This one was really reflections on his getting older, looking back on his career and how he got to where he is today, stages of his family (marriage, children, grandchildren), and a few little rants here and there (that are incredibly entertaining).

Highlights: Some of the audio was recorded in front of a live audience, so having an element of other people responding live (laughing, commenting, etc.) made the audio really fun to listen to. There were parts that made me guffaw, they were so funny, and there were parts towards the end that made me really tear up, they were so heartfelt and human.

Pre-Requisites: A good sense of humor and the ability to laugh!

If you like: comedy, Billy Crystal, short pieces/reflections, reminiscing on the past, quick reads, thoughtful discussion on life and death (and all the in between things)

LOVED this book. NYTimes bestseller. Hundreds of reader reviews, and I'm about five years late in reading it. Loved his 700 SUNDAYS too. Not surprised how hard I laughed, but he can make you cry too, and I did. He's that good a writer. Thanks for all of it Billy. LOVED every page, every word! Enough said.

- Tim Bazzett, author of the memoir, BOOKLOVER

Mostly hilarious, poignant at times. I am now revisiting all my old favorite Billy Crystal movies and even discovering some new ones!

Mr. Chrystal has written a funny, warm tale of his life. Very enjoyable, especially as an audio book, since the author read it, and some of the chapters were done in front of an audience.

This is going to sound strange. After all, Mr. Crystal is a very funny man. This book was...boring. It read like any old person's biography. The man has no juicy tidbits in his past! Which is refreshing, but certainly doesn't make for an interesting biography. I liked the in-between bits, that focused more on his stand-up and humor, rather than the history of himself.

How could you ever actually READ this book instead of listen to it? Billy Crystal does voices so well, the stories are a thousand times better heard.
It's a bit of a memoir, going back through his life talking about his family and his career, and part reflection on what it means to get "old" (65 specifically) and start thinking about death.
It's funny, charming, delightful autobiography with lots of "laugh out loud" moments.
Crystal is certainly obsessed with the Yankees, so it helps to know a bit of baseball if you read/listen to the book.

It's Billy Crystal. He's a very funny man. He also says some very poignant things. His life so far has been very interesting. It'll be fun to hear about how it all pans out.

Listened to him read his book. He did a good job- all the people in the book should be proud.½

Listening to the audio book! My first!!



Listened to the whole audio book and it was good. Funny and silly and well written. Its read out loud by billy crystal so it def adds to it. :)

discusses a grandfather that already knows he loves his granddaughter and all the fun things that they are going to be doing together as she grows up.
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