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.
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