Review of "It’s Not Easy Being Me," Rodney Dangerfield

Review of

It’s Not Easy Being Me, Rodney Dangerfield ISBN 0786270497

Five out of five stars

 Although his public persona was one of living a very difficult life where nobody treated him decently, in this book Dangerfield admits that he did indeed have it pretty good as an adult. While his childhood was a difficult one, like many successful people, he turned his early struggles into the driving force that made him a star.

 Born Jacob Rodney Cohen, Dangerfield was initially a failure as a comic, so he ended up selling aluminum siding. As amazing as it sounds, he also performed as a singing waiter and an acrobatic diver early in his career. Yet, he never gave up his dream of being a comic, continuing to write jokes when he wasn’t selling. A divorce, a name change to Rodney Dangerfield and a couple of lucky breaks and Dangerfield was on his way to stardom.

 When reading this book you realize that Dangerfield was an exceptional writing talent as well as a gifted comic with a superb delivery of his own material. As he states in this book, Dangerfield was also a principal writer of many movies that he starred in. He also was instrumental in helping many aspiring comics, some of them were Jerry Seinfeld, Sam Kinison, Jim Carrey, Rosanne Barr, Tim Allen and Rita Rudner.

 Dangerfield was arguably the best stand-up comic of all time. His delivery was precise, well-timed and the jokes never required a great deal of insight. Unfortunately, like so many great comics, he suffered from internal demons, in his case it was depression. He self-medicated with alcohol, marijuana, sex and harder drugs and was under a doctor’s care for decades. His story is one of success after struggle for recognition and then with himself after he received the recognition.