Like many memoirs, the early years started a little slowly. It was nice to see where Steve Martin came from, but the real fun came in the second half, and the book became a real page turner.
Pure Billy Crystal in this memoir mixed with comedy bits on aging. I'm not in the 65 year-old age group, so I didn't identify as much with the “people our age” angle of some of the chapters. These were interspersed with decade-based chapters chronicling his rise to fame. Everything was conversational and I could imagine Billy Crystal saying it. That made some sections verbose, but it was usually worth the laughs. The approach of the book flowed so well, it didn't have the “slow opening” of some memoirs. It was an easy, delightful read.
Don't read this book. Listen to it.
I'm not sure this would have been a five star book had I held it in my hand, read each word, and turned pages. I grabbed the audio book so I could read while my wife consumed the hard cover book.
I'm so glad I listened to this book, because the author's came through even benign passages. There were guest readers, including her family, friends, and random famous folk like Patrick Stewart. The Parks and Recreation chapter included co-creator Michael Schur (former SNL writer and friend of Amy Poehler) is a can't miss. It was more like a podcast conversation, with Schur interjecting frequently, as the two bantered about some memories.
As I said, don't read this book. You really must listen to it.
The big takeaways here are the enumeration of the 19 traction channels and the discipline to give each one consideration. Each channel (i.e., content marketing, ads, etc.) has great examples from interviews with people who have used them successfully. The reader is urged to think: if I had to use this channel, how would I?
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