A review by aimeeverret
Sick in the Head: Conversations About Life and Comedy by Judd Apatow

3.0

So hard to review this, because it felt so uneven. Some of the interviews were fascinating (among my favorites, Harold Ramis, Jerry Seinfeld, the cast of Freaks and Geeks, Steve Allen), others were kind of okay. Some of them are transcripts of live panels or audio DVD commentary, and you kind of miss the visual or audio component to get on board with the joking around. Another thing is that Judd Apatow, whose work I enjoy and who I find interesting, is really involved in the interviews and often speaks about himself. Which, really, is fine at first. But over the course of more than 500 pages, he ends up repeating the same stuff and anecdotes about his anxiety and broken home, so he kind of sounds like a broken record (sorry) and at some points I wished it was more about the interviewees. Good news is, you can totally spread out this read for a while, since all the interviews are independent.
But there is still a lot of interesting thoughts about the creative process, that can speak to anyone, comic, writer, actor, musician, etc. I would definitely give it a try; maybe start with the people you find most appealing.