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kerry2046's review against another edition
5.0
The Great Book
From page one I was giggling hysterically.
I have never laughed so much at a book in my life. By one of my favourite comedians of all time ever, he made me pee a little on numerous occasions, and on all the others, hold it in just in time.
But occasionally, he would move me to shed a tear. He set aside, a few moments to say something incredibly moving and to be honest, I cried. This book has it all for me,
It is pure Rik. The humour I love. Thanks to The Rik Mayall for being one of the greatest human beings to have ever walked this earth
RIP Rik
You are sorely missed, thank you for leaving us such wonderful work to cry over, laugh over and enjoy again and again!
The one and only, The Rik Mayall
From page one I was giggling hysterically.
I have never laughed so much at a book in my life. By one of my favourite comedians of all time ever, he made me pee a little on numerous occasions, and on all the others, hold it in just in time.
But occasionally, he would move me to shed a tear. He set aside, a few moments to say something incredibly moving and to be honest, I cried. This book has it all for me,
It is pure Rik. The humour I love. Thanks to The Rik Mayall for being one of the greatest human beings to have ever walked this earth
RIP Rik
You are sorely missed, thank you for leaving us such wonderful work to cry over, laugh over and enjoy again and again!
The one and only, The Rik Mayall
batbones's review against another edition
5.0
It seems it is impossible for Rik Mayall to write a conventional autobiography. And it is to his credit and the reader's good fortune that he already intuited that to write serious reflection about his career in comedy from the 1980s to early 2000s would be very boring and out of character. So instead he writes about "tear[ing] up serious acting like a freshly napalmed jungle". The result is a strange chimera, the facts of his life in a mixing bowl with lies, fictions and exaggeration. Truth, reflection and speculation, and indeed the very nature of the universe, are not pivotal anchors for a life story in showbiz, but fluid little playthings, scrapbooked pieces of a real experience now freely arranged, butchered and coloured in with crazy colours for the pleasure of the writer and reader. This reads like the publisher gave the writer some money and said he could write whatever he wanted and call it a 'life story'. There are momentous unbridled ad libs where it reads as if Mayall fished a phrase out of nowhere and did the literary equivalent of an extended car chase scene. (See: "I'm a white hot triple-barrelled hell-trousered dirty-bottomed anarchist riding bareback on one of the four horsemen of the apocalypse's horses which I personally nicked") Amongst the truths what is most interesting is the list of shows / commercials he stars in that he mentions occasionally and where he fleetingly opines on the experience, and other smaller scale shows/offerings, purposed as a neat checklist for the aspiring afficionado of his work. The more serious tone he takes to reflecting on his near-fatal quad bike accident is quickly replaced by an otherworldly triumph - "every couple thousand years, give or take a couple of years, along comes a Christ figure. It just so happens that it's me this time around." Possibly the crowning achievement of all is his account of his performance in Noel Coward's play "Present Laughter", where the reader is witness to violent civil war breaking out in the theatre between rival factions of Mayall's fanclub and between the lines of the carnage reads like a list of acting credits from all the shows and characters he has been from his past.
Mayall's narrative 'self' is a more prosey version of the humourous persona that emerged from his later interviews (such as Believe Nothing): a winsome, vain, mock bravado mediated by self-deprecating humour and friendly asides. Any exaggeration here is a knowing wink to the reader, and The Rik Mayall's style is strongest in its charming, conspiratorial tone ("you're my friend and I dig you, viewer, it's you and me together.") It is probably a complicated mix of character and his real person, but no matter - his energy in paper, as on screen, is mersmerising. The themes remain the same but they never tire this reader: the self-mythologising of his own greatness and prominence with a schoolboyish awareness of how one falls short, scatological humour, jokes about sex, orgies... they serve as strange reminders of how much the nature of media and humour has changed from the early 2000s to the present day.
This reader's favourite whole section is the special chapter by 'guest writer' Kevin Turvey. It was so delightful to see Kevin Turvey faithfully reproduced for one last time.
Mayall's narrative 'self' is a more prosey version of the humourous persona that emerged from his later interviews (such as Believe Nothing): a winsome, vain, mock bravado mediated by self-deprecating humour and friendly asides. Any exaggeration here is a knowing wink to the reader, and The Rik Mayall's style is strongest in its charming, conspiratorial tone ("you're my friend and I dig you, viewer, it's you and me together.") It is probably a complicated mix of character and his real person, but no matter - his energy in paper, as on screen, is mersmerising. The themes remain the same but they never tire this reader: the self-mythologising of his own greatness and prominence with a schoolboyish awareness of how one falls short, scatological humour, jokes about sex, orgies... they serve as strange reminders of how much the nature of media and humour has changed from the early 2000s to the present day.
This reader's favourite whole section is the special chapter by 'guest writer' Kevin Turvey. It was so delightful to see Kevin Turvey faithfully reproduced for one last time.
missnicelady's review against another edition
I really wanted to like this memoir, but Mayall's writing in the voice of his typical "needy, obnoxious bastard" character got exhausting very quickly.
anawilson05's review against another edition
2.0
I wanted to love this, oh how I wanted to love this. But I just didn't. The jokes didn't land right without his tone and his facial expressions. It fell flat for me which hurts me inside to say as I love Rik Mayall
woolfardis's review against another edition
5.0
If you're wanting to know about Rik's early life, his family and career, I suppose you could say you're in the wrong place. If, however, you are looking for more of his pure humour and genius then welcome, friend, please take a seat.
Now that Rik's gone, there's just a massive hole left in the world and nothing will ever fill it.
Now that Rik's gone, there's just a massive hole left in the world and nothing will ever fill it.
lynn_k's review against another edition
5.0
Fucking hilarious.
I had to put this book down many times because I was laughing so hard I couldn't breathe.
I had to put this book down many times because I was laughing so hard I couldn't breathe.
sparkle_bea's review against another edition
funny
informative
inspiring
lighthearted
medium-paced
4.5