DNF. Not for me. Seems like Spade is a little stunted at middle school. We get it, dude, you like women. Maybe expand your vocabulary beyond language that objectifies and demeans them, and women might feel more positively about you as well. Just an idea.

There were a few amusing moments but not enough to justify finishing it. He promises in the intro that it’s not a spectacular book, though, so… at least he’s honest. ( )

My review of this book can be found on my YouTube Vlog at:

https://youtu.be/s1STPzxam2M

Enjoy! ( )

There are a few different approaches to comedy memoirs. You can go with the actual story of your life (with jokes), a la Amy Poehler: This requires you to a) have an interesting life, and b) be funny. You can try for the structured set approach: You set the book up as a connected strand of narratives, each one with its own theme, and riff as you go. This is the most common approach, at least as practiced successfully: Patton Oswalt's Zombie Spaceship Wasteland, Jim Gaffigan's Dad Is Fat and Tina Fey's Bossypants.

All of this is by way of saying that David Spade could have really used a thoughtful approach here. The book's a bit schizophrenic: The first part is a pretty straightforward narrative of his life coming up in comedy. It's not peppered full of jokes, but memoirs don't need to be — it's about the person's life, and in Spade's case that life is worth reading about.

He of course covers Saturday Night Live, where most people know him from, and it's a worthwhile addition to the numerous full books that have been written about the show from Studio 6H. He also touches a bit on his most-well-known partner, Chris Farley, which I mention only because I've read him in other places talking about the emotional bond between the two. There's plenty of Farley information (with new stories), but Spade doesn't delve as deep into himself and his own feelings as he did in the beginning, so it winds up feeling a little bit like fanservice. Which is understandable — maybe he didn't want to linger too much on Farley (whether because of genuine emotion or not wanting to be eternally Farley's sidekick is immaterial) yet knew there would be an expectation for it — but it's noticeable, nonetheless.

But then it gets weird. We hear a genuinely terrifying about attempted murder, a pretty egregious theft by his housekeeper and ... Spade's thoughts on women? The general reader might not know it, but Spade possess a fairly sizable filmography post-Farley: Joe Dirt, Joe Dirt 2, Grown-Upses, Just Shoot Me, Emperor's New Groove, Benchwarmers, Dickie Roberts ... These get name-checks, at best. I'm not saying a memoir has to include absolutely everything that's ever happened (that's what the sequel's for!), but in this case the latter half of the book is just random stories. Personally, I would have much preferred jettisoning it entirely (except where it made sense in the narrative of his life) and gotten more about his work rather than what sounds like rehashed standup material. ( )

I’ve always been intrigued by David Spade. His Hollywood Minute bits on Saturday Night Live were hilarious and so well-written. He’s been a scene-stealing supporting cast member in the TV series Just Shoot Me and Rules of Engagement. In both shows, he played a womanizing jerk. However, in his appearance on talk shows, he is self-deprecating to the point where it seems like he really does have low-self-esteem. Yet at the same time, he’s kind of a womanizer like his characters. But then, he dated Heather Locklear?! He’s an enigma. I picked up his book, hoping I could get to the bottom of who the heck is David Spade.

Almost Interesting starts in David’s childhood but the bulk of the book is about his career leading up to and as a cast member of Saturday Night Live. If you want an in-depth look at how an episode of SNL is put together, this is the book for you. I enjoyed learning about how the writer’s room at SNL works. David was there for five years and had imposter syndrome (that’s my diagnosis, not his) basically the whole time. He was always worried that he was going to get fired. I think that the self-deprecating humor he portrays on talk-shows comes from a place of genuine vulnerability that is in this book as well.

There are also some stories about the movies he made with Chris Farley, who was a close friend. He doesn’t go into much detail about Chris’s personal demons but I wouldn’t expect him to. There’s almost nothing about the two TV series he was in. The biggest disappointment is that there is NOTHING about Heather Locklear. I can only hope that he held back some info to include in a second memoir.

Memoirs from comedians can be hit or miss. Often their humor doesn’t translate well to the page. While some of the humor in the book was on the obnoxious, swarmy side, I thought that the sincere parts of the book made up for it. Recommended, especially for SNL fans. ( )

If you enjoy Spade's snarky sense of humor, you'll probably enjoy this autobiography.

Spade did not have an easy life and I enjoyed learning about his childhood and family. For me, though, the best parts of this autobiography were easily the parts about when he got to Saturday Night Live.

All the behind the scenes info on how SNL works, how the skits are pitched, written and rehearsed-it's all here. I was hoping for a lot of this info when I listened to both Tina Fey's and Amy Poehler's autobiographies, but in both of them, SNL only played a small part. Here it plays a big part, as does, of course, Chris Farley. The Farley parts are both poignant and hilarious. I felt my heart crack a little bit when Spade mentioned talking to Dan Ackroyd about how it was to lose such a close friend/partner to drugs.

There were a few irritating things involving the writing and narration-the need to abbreviate a lot of things into annoying little words-using sitch for situation, for example. I didn't like that and it got on my nerves. Luckily, Spade was entertaining enough that I could overlook it most of the time.

I'm surprising myself by giving this audio 5 stars. I thought Spade's snarky sense of humor would bother me, but it made me laugh more than ever. He's funny, seemingly honest and as the title suggests-Almost Interesting.

My highest recommendation to fans of Spade's humor and for fans of SNL.
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