A Ding Dong Of A Read (Look Who it Is!: My Story - Alan Carr)

Member Name: hollywoodmum

Product:	Look Who it Is!: My Story - Alan Carr
Date:	06/07/09 (48 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Very funny, interesting a page turner

Disadvantages: None

Look Who It Is
Alan Carr

The Blurb
(Wriiten By the author)
From the grimness of doing data entry for Mr Dog to the dizzy heights of The Friday Night Project and performing for Her Majesty on The Royal Variety Performance. My Life's been a log flume - up and down with a couple of damp patches in the middle.

Take my hand I want to lead you through my life. within these pages you will come face to face with my parents, my dog Minstral, my friends and a whole load of waifs and strays that have helped to make my journey that little bit more memorable. When you read Look Who It Is! I'm sure you'll agree - it's just been one thing after another.

The Author
Alan Carr was born in Weymouth in 1976 and grew up mainly in Northampton. He is the son of football manager Graham Carr. He won the BBC New comeidan of the year in 2001 and his stand up DVD Tooth Fairy was a best seller. Alan co-presents Channel 4's The Sunday Night Porject and his own shoe celebrity Ding Dong and more recently Chatty Man. This is his first book.

The Book
The book starts with thr Preface (obvioulsy). With Alan now a success presenting the Friday/Sunday Night project dressing up, dressing up in ridicously outfits and getting to work with huge celebrities a lot of the time. He takes a step back and thinks back to the evnts in his life that got him to this point.
Alan begins by describing his home life, his family and his dad's job as a footballer (then later on a manager) and takes us through his family holidays, pets, relocating with his dad's job.
Although he was bullied Alan was the class clown and had a natural love of performing and decided to carry this on when he went to university. the last thing he wanted to do was become a stand up comic yet this turned out to be his life line and saved him from a sting of crap data entry and call centre jobs. Once saved alan began winning awards for his routines and eventually was offered television work and is fast becoming a household name.
The book has twelve chapters, all the chapters are named with a footballing phrase or theme that ties in with a certain stage in Alan's life. This is beacuse of Alan's dad love of football and his job and because Alan himself hated football and was no good at it.
The book also contains lovely glossy photos of Alan at variuos stages throughout his life.

My Experience
I've always liked Alan Carr since himself and Justin Lee Collins took over as the presenters on the second series of The Friday Night Project I didn't really know much about him, I just thought he was a TV presenter and didn't realize that he was first and foremost a stand up comedian until I saw his show, Tooth Fairy Live on DVD. after that I was hooked even adding him as friend on Facebook and following him on Twitter (sad I know but he really is hilarious).
I'd been eyeing this book up for a while, I really wanted to buy it but at the time I couldn't justify spending more money as I'd been having quite a splurge at the time. So I decided to wait for it to come out in paperback.
I could not put this book down from the preface I was laughing out loud at Alan's thoughts and anicdotes. it's a real page turner.
I really enjoyed the fact that the book is actually written how Alan speaks you can easily imagine the words coming from Alan's mouth.
With a lot of Bigraphies/Autobiographies these days there seems to be a trend for celebrities telling their stories of abuse, illness and drug or alcohol addiction but Alan had a normal family background and apart from a bit of bullying and dealing with his sexuality he'd had no major hardships and that's quite refreshing. And although he may have thought his father was disapointed him for not being interested in football there's no whinging or whining on these pages. Infact generally take the piss out of himself most of the way through.
A few years back I read Peter kay's The Sound Of Laughter but I actually found this book far funnier.
I would highly recommend this book to anybody who likes a laugh or needs cheering up whether you know who Alan Carr is or not I think his comedy has wide appeal and most people will enjoy it.

Price
ASDA: £3.98
Amazon £.86
ISBN: 978-0-00-727823-7

www.alancarr.net
www.harpercollins.co.uk

Summary: It's a funy old life