Laugh Lines

Starred review from March 9, 2020
This zippy memoir by comedians’ comedian Zweibel (The Other Shulman) offers laughs on nearly every page. Though Zweibel’s name isn’t well known outside of comedy circles, he has worked with a who’s-who of stars, including Milton Berle and Larry David. A Jewish boy from Long Island, Zweibel started out in 1972 working in a deli in Queens and writing gags for Borscht Belt comics at $7 each. (For Rodney Dangerfield: “My mother wouldn’t breastfeed me. She said she liked me as a friend.”) Industriousness, luck, and a binder stuffed with 1,100 jokes got him on staff for Saturday Night Live’s inaugural season in 1975. He knocked out quips for “Weekend Update” and bonded with Gilda Radner, a work relationship that, to his annoyance, became lopsided (he would write sketches at his desk, while she would call in from such places as Studio 54 for notes). Zweibel’s itinerant collaborator existence encompassed helping create It’s Garry Shandling’s Show and turning material from Billy Crystal’s childhood into the hit show 700 Sundays. On the more serious side, Zweibel delivers a heartfelt depiction of Shandling’s vast talent and often overlooked sense of humanity. Comics and comedy fans alike will delight in this hilarious and self-deprecating memoir.

March 1, 2020

Zweibel was lucky enough to have been hired by Lorne Michaels to work on the first season of Saturday Night Live, where he wrote for five groundbreaking years. But in this lively memoir, Zweibel stresses that a writer's life is governed by more than luck--passion and persistence through sometimes hilariously spectacular failures are vital, as are endless rewrites. The author recounts his humble beginnings writing set ups and punch lines for aging Borscht Belt comics at seven dollars a joke. He went on to earn four Emmys and a CableACE Award for his television work; a Tony Award for the play 700 Sundays, which he cowrote and produced with longtime friend Billy Crystal; and a Thurber Prize for his novel The Other Shulman. Though Zweibel punctuates his narrative with humor, he holds nothing back when reflecting on dark times in his life and career, among them the death of his soulmate comedian Gilda Radner and the unexpected passing of collaborator Gary Shandling. VERDICT This funny, wise, and touching memoir will resonate with fans of comedy and anyone seeking an intimately told life story.--Jeffrey Hastings, Howell Carnegie Dist. Lib, Howell, MI

Copyright 2020 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

March 1, 2020
A memoir from an award-winning comedy writer whose collaborators and projects have often garnered a higher profile than him. Zweibel--who has won multiple Emmy and Writers Guild of America awards, along with a Thurber Prize for his novel, The Other Shulman--has plenty of material to dish about, but his memoir is refreshingly light on dirt and scandal. As his lifelong friend Billy Crystal writes in the foreword, "If life were a forties movie, Alan would be called 'a big lug.' He is a large man with a sensitive persona and a heart of gold." This is an amiable, big-lug, heart-of-gold sort of book, whether Zweibel is recounting the formative years of Saturday Night Live, where he seemingly got along with everyone; or detailing his bitter split with Garry Shandling, with whom he'd partnered on It's Garry Shandling's Show and with whom he later reconciled. The author's writing partner at SNL was Gilda Radner, and his book about their relationship gave him his highest-profile publishing success. The deaths of Radner and Shandling bring the narrative into emotional depths that contrast with the rest of the breezy account. Zweibel chronicles how he got his start by selling jokes to the Catskills generation of comedians, at a price that "had soared to ten dollars a joke." But the 1960s and '70s experienced a generational sea change, and the author wanted to write and tell the jokes that these older comedians couldn't. So he took to the stage himself, mainly to advance his writing career, where the man who would introduce him to Lorne Michaels and change his life told him he "was one of the worst comics he'd ever seen." The career that followed ranges from early exposure to Larry David and Andy Kaufman to recent Broadway collaborations with Crystal and Martin Short. A pleasant, amusing tale of a life in jokes, suitable for budding comedians and students of the form.

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March 15, 2020
This memoir by comedy writer Zweibel includes all the elements of a polished routine: one-liners, funny stories, running gags, a bit of adults-only material, and general musings on the human condition. The best part is that Zweibel's chosen persona?a slightly oversize, thoroughly likable Jewish kid?remains constant, so readers feel like they really get to know this nice guy, loyal friend, devoted family man, and talented writer. The chapters unfold chronologically, beginning with joke-writing submissions to a diminishing population of Catskills comedians, to his big break as a writer for a new show called Saturday Night Live, through a few disastrous crash-and-burn ventures, to his enormously successful collaborations and lifelong friendships with comedy luminaries Gary Shandling and Billy Crystal. Zweibel also chronicles his fervent (and, alas, unrequited) love for Gilda Radnor, a coconspirator and faithful, ever-goofy buddy. SNL fans will appreciate the cameos and references to iconic skits, and all readers will find plenty of new, behind-the-scenes details and celebrity anecdotes. This is a truly fun romp.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2020, American Library Association.)