Great storytelling that gets bogged down often by intricate detailing of seemingly every single project he’s ever written. That stuff is likely interesting to young comedy writers but I am not one of those. ( )

A book about a life in comedy and show business that manages to be neither funny nor interesting. ( )

I guess it shouldn't be surprising that one of the best comedy writers of a generation can write about nothing, when he's not writing comedy, except the business of comedy. The trouble is that he writes about it as a business. He doesn't describe his own sketches, or even talk much about the work of others that impressed him, except in the most general terms. This is Bob Odenkirk's life as a series of employments and projects, described as such.

It would be easy to dismiss Odenkirk, on the basis of his memoir, to be a kind of idiot savant of humor: almost unbelievably gifted at innovative hilarity, but with little underneath. But that wouldn't explain how he became the really fine, nuanced dramatic actor he's shown himself to be. That's an unusual transition in which there's got to be a story. But maybe he's not the one to tell it, because there's no insight here.

As a fan of Odenkirk's since The Ben Stiller Show (1990-1992), I'm disappointed, but remind myself that no one expects a Rembrandt or a Beethoven to write a memoir. The art stands on its own. ( )

Maybe 2.5 stars. I wasn't familiar with his early work - if I were, maybe I would have enjoyed this more. ( )

Reactions will vary, depending on how familiar people are with Odenkirk and why they love him. My familiarity and love is all from recent work—Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul—and the inside scoop on those experiences only makes up a very small percentage of this book. Fans of his comedy career and indie fringe comedy in general will probably find more to delight them.
I liked learning more about this actor I’ve grown to admire, and I appreciated his honesty about the failures as well as successes of his career. I got a little bored with all the name naming throughout the book. It’s great that he’s honoring so many people who influenced his career, but it’s a long list and not the most compelling reading material. The people naming and comedy sketch describing of the book kind of made my eyes glaze over after a while. I did like what he had to say about Chris Farley, Janeane Garofalo, and David Cross when he was talking about comedians. His affection, admiration, and respect was moving and sweet. His few descriptions of his BB and BCS costars made me like them more than I already did. Finding out Michael Mando’s first language is French was a gem for me. I just wish there had been a bit more about this part of his career.
It’s clear comedy is his first love (its triple billing in the title should have clued me in), regardless of all the branching out he’s done and success in other areas. Since I’ve never seen the comedy work most dear to his heart, I’m perhaps not the ideal audience for this book. I’m glad I read it, but I didn’t love it as much as I expected I would. ( )