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A review by vimcenzo
Suck Less: Where There's a Willam, There's a Way by Willam Belli
3.0
Equal parts memoir and self-help audiobook, although it comes with the frequent frustration of Willam constantly insisting we check the attached .pdf. I get it. Drag is a visual medium, but I came here for Willam's comedy. I'd be looking at the YouTube page if that was what I was in for, but that's just a minor point.
Willam was the first drag queen I became fascinated by and figured would be the obvious winner of Season 4 when I first got into the show. So I got this book ages ago, listened to most of it, but never finished it. In the interest of looking for background noise, I found this in my old purchases and kicked it back up and had... well, not such a fun time.
Willam's personality sells this book. The unprofessionalism of just belching during recordings is ignorable because they pass it off with charisma and not caring what anyone thinks. To that end, I want to stress the low rating doesn't have to do with any of the morally objectionable content of the book, which is to say Willam's takes on incest, spousal abuse, bulimia/anorexia, and a few others. Most can be written off as Willam being excruciatingly honest and dipping more into the memoir side than the advice side. But ironically, the strange thesis of the book is to hate yourself a little less and to act like it--and to take this book, or any self-help book for that matter, as absolute gospel is stupid beyond belief. This person is not you no matter how much you like them, and Willam is quick to shut down any level of parasocial interaction.
So, with all that being said, I think I'm a little sad I didn't get more out of this book. I think I would have wanted something more on the memoir side, as I don't really relate to drag and a lot of it washed over me, particularly after years of not keeping up with drag or RuPaul's Drag Race. (I think the golden years were Seasons 4-8.) There are plenty of memoir-adjacent tidbits; no start-to-finish narrative, just more like we slingshot around from time to time as Willam uses an anecdote to drive a point across.
This is all still very well-written and funny. Willam puts themselves down near the end, saying their act is one of a stunt queen because Bianca Del Rio's conquered comedy. For someone who exudes such confidence, that self-deprecation, however subtle, made me a little sad. Louis C.K. is my favorite comedian but that doesn't mean I'll turn my nose up at any other comedian. Willam can be downright hilarious, adroitly wielding insults like knives, and this book is hilarious all throughout and reminded me why I'd followed Willam's exploits for a while.
I think the kairos of the book must be what made it suffer. Most of what was in it was a little reliant on the times and a pop culture snapshot, and didn't feel so universal nearly ten years later from the book coming out. Even so, I'm vacillating on whether this is a 3 or a 4. I might edit this review later. I mean, I read some real shit this year, and this isn't shit at all. I think I just wanted more, and I can't put into words what it might be or what was missing. But something was.
Willam was the first drag queen I became fascinated by and figured would be the obvious winner of Season 4 when I first got into the show.
Spoiler
So when Willam did not win and was instead cast out Paradise-Lost-style from Heaven, I was devastated.Willam's personality sells this book. The unprofessionalism of just belching during recordings is ignorable because they pass it off with charisma and not caring what anyone thinks. To that end, I want to stress the low rating doesn't have to do with any of the morally objectionable content of the book, which is to say Willam's takes on incest, spousal abuse, bulimia/anorexia, and a few others. Most can be written off as Willam being excruciatingly honest and dipping more into the memoir side than the advice side. But ironically, the strange thesis of the book is to hate yourself a little less and to act like it--and to take this book, or any self-help book for that matter, as absolute gospel is stupid beyond belief. This person is not you no matter how much you like them, and Willam is quick to shut down any level of parasocial interaction.
So, with all that being said, I think I'm a little sad I didn't get more out of this book. I think I would have wanted something more on the memoir side, as I don't really relate to drag and a lot of it washed over me, particularly after years of not keeping up with drag or RuPaul's Drag Race. (I think the golden years were Seasons 4-8.) There are plenty of memoir-adjacent tidbits; no start-to-finish narrative, just more like we slingshot around from time to time as Willam uses an anecdote to drive a point across.
This is all still very well-written and funny. Willam puts themselves down near the end, saying their act is one of a stunt queen because Bianca Del Rio's conquered comedy. For someone who exudes such confidence, that self-deprecation, however subtle, made me a little sad. Louis C.K. is my favorite comedian but that doesn't mean I'll turn my nose up at any other comedian. Willam can be downright hilarious, adroitly wielding insults like knives, and this book is hilarious all throughout and reminded me why I'd followed Willam's exploits for a while.
I think the kairos of the book must be what made it suffer. Most of what was in it was a little reliant on the times and a pop culture snapshot, and didn't feel so universal nearly ten years later from the book coming out. Even so, I'm vacillating on whether this is a 3 or a 4. I might edit this review later. I mean, I read some real shit this year, and this isn't shit at all. I think I just wanted more, and I can't put into words what it might be or what was missing. But something was.