White Male Stand-up

I took a break from reading Discworld books back-to-back (more on that later), when I heard Alan Davies had a new autobiography out.

This is not his first autobiography, but covers his years starting his stand-up career, through TV, Jonathan Creek, Qi and on. I was expecting some fun background insight into a life of show-business, but I wasn’t expecting the level of names he would be dropping. Along with contemporaries like Jo Brand and Bill Bailey, Alan writes about meeting a whole host of comedians, minor and major celebrities, including a run-in with Jennifer Anniston at the height of Friend-mania. I knew he was something of a comedian’s comedian, but to read about his frequent tours of the Canadian and Australian stand-up scene were really eye-opening. This guy works hard all over the place.

I also wasn’t expecting Davies to be so incredibly honest and forthright about some extremely sensitive childhood trauma. You might expect this, I suppose, if you’ve read his previous works, but as he writes in the book, he’s only just started talking about his childhood abuse on stage, let alone writing a book about it. Alan speaks tactfully and with his typical down-to-earth style about it all, but I’d recommend checking for trigger warnings before you start.

If you happened to pick up Ivo Graham’s book this year based on my recommendation - or not - this is a similar heartwarming, tear-jerking memoir that I thoroughly enjoyed.