Joey Diaz

Tremendous (2023) by Joey “Coco” Diaz & Erica Florentine. If you do not know who “Coco” Diaz is, this probably not the book for you. If you are “Coco” curious, you might be interested. But be forewarned. There is cussing in this biography detailing the life of comedian Joey “Coco” Diaz.
A lot of cussing.
Perhaps the most defining thing about this book is the amount of cussing in it. If there is a world’s record for cuss words in a nonfiction book, this is certainly a contender, if not the hands down winner.
That is to say, there are some dirty words in the book. In each chapter. In each paragraph and, I’m not certain, but I think just about every sentence contains some cuss words. But Coco seems to use them not so much to shock but to get across the point of who he is and where he comes from.
He has had a hard life from childhood onward. Violence was a big part of it. Crime was another major factor. But both of those take backseat to the drugs he was involved with. You name it, it went into him.
But this story isn’t really about all of that although it does occupy 2/3 of the book. What is fascinating about Coco is how he managed to pull his life out of the fire through comedy. It saved him. Somehow this F****** up kid and teen and young man found a salvation in making people laugh. At him or with him didn’t matter, it was the feedback from the crowds that pulled him through. And into larger and larger tour venues and eventually into films. His story is to be admired.
And even though I realize it is just him being himself, and he’ll probably S*** on this idea, but now that he has managed to escape his presumed destiny, he might think about toning down his language. I’ve spent thousands of hours in different Army motor pools and some of the tirades presented herein would make my entire teams blush.
Just saying.… (mehr)