This memoir chronicles his early years, from childhood to the height of comedy stardom. In it he talks about his personal life without ever getting creepy about it. His style is straight forward and honest much like he was telling you stories after dinner, in the living room. His intelligence, thoughtfulness and humour seep into every passage making this a wonderful experience.
Hearing how he felt and dealt with lack of fame then and abundance of it was refreshing. I was very happy to get the pay off I wanted from this: why did he turn his back so completely from stand up? His answer is honest, intelligent, understandable and respectful to his audience. I have come away from this only wanting to know more about this unusual man and with the desire to embrace the other aspects of his entertainment career, namely his novels and music.
I experienced this as an audio book and I recommend anybody to do so as well. There are many benefits from this format; firstly it is read by Mr. Martin with his rich, warm voice, plus he also replays some of his best bits on stage and some things that did not make the show. With his ability to deliver lines, you don't want to leave it to yourself to get it right. The added bonus of the audio book are the musical interludes between chapters and the short performance at the end, all performed by Martin. The audio book is a very rich experience.
Better yet buy the paper book and the audio version, it would make a terrific set.
