The Best Books Authored By a Comedian (or About Comedy) in 2024!
The Best Books Authored By a Comedian (or About Comedy) in 2024!
This is one of the most fun categories to review every single year and the most overlooked. It’s a smaller field in 2024, but its still mighty. Comedians write great books. Memoirs and comedic essays can be a lot like reading a podcast- where your favorite comics share their most intimate personal moments, personal stories and insights. Or it can read like stand up, turning crazy or embarrassing stories into huge laughs. Here are ten of our favorite books in comedy this year. We love each and every one of them.
So let’s look back at our past winners. In 2014, you voted Joan Rivers ,”Diary of a Mad Diva” as the best book authored by a comedian and in 2015 Colin Quinn’s “The Coloring Book” grabbed top honors. Doug Stanhope won the prize in 2016 for “Digging Up Mother: A Love Story” and pulled a repeat win in 2017 for “This is Not Fame. ” In 2018 you gave Jim Florentine the best book of the year award for “Everybody is Awful (Except You)”. In 2019, Judd Apatow’s loving tribute to Garry Shandling, “It’s Garry Shandling’s Book” took the prize. And in 2020, Colin Quinn returned to the best of the year list with “Overstated.” In 2021, the king of the comedy book was Tom Scharpling and his fantastic memoir, “It Never Ends.” And in 2022, another Tom took the title- Tom Segura with “I’d Like to Play Alone, Please.” Last year, Joey Coco Diaz took the prize with his memoir, Tremendous.
And now it’s time to name the ten best books, all must reads, that came out in 2024.
Don’t forget you can also Vote for Comedy Movie of the Year! Vote for Comedy TV Series of the Year!
COMING SOON: Comedian of the Year! Vote for Comedy Special of the Year!
IAN KARMEL: TSHIRT SWIM CLUB: STORIES FROM BEING FAT IN A WORLD OF THIN PEOPLE Written with help from his sister, Dr. Alisa Karmel, Tshirt Swim Club shows you a world you may know nothing about: the daily humiliations of being overweight and why it’s so hard to talk about it. This is not a weight loss book, its about the micro aggressions and uncomfortable moments Ian has experienced in his life: gym class, football practice, chicken wings, airplane seats and rollercoasters. Hearing fat jokes, crying in the big and tall section, prediabetes and gout. And its written with the love and self deprecation that only a skilled (and Emmy winning!) comedian can pull off. Karmel was the head writer for Corden’s Late Late Show, and wrote both the Grammy Awards and the Tony Awards.
MOSHE KASHER: CULTURE VULTURE: A MEMOIR IN SIX SCENES. Whether or not you believe in life after death, Culture Vulture will convince you that you don’t need reincarnation to lead many lives. Mosher Kasher has lived at least six, and in his new National Bestselling book, he takes you through them. Not many people bottom out, get institutionalized and get sober before they’re 15. Not many recovering and sober addicts promote raves, DJ, and deal ecstasy in a warehouse scene in the years that follow. Kasher did all of those things, and they were only the beginning. Later in life he turns to his roots an immerses himself in deaf culture (he’s a CODA), and tries to get to know his Hasidic Jewish roots and of course, then there’s the comedy scene. Moshe’s a great guide into worlds you may have never visited let alone lived in, and its not only a funny and human tale, but also you’ll feel like you’re learning something. This story of finding your people over and over may even inspire you.
SIMON RICH, GLORY DAYS. Simon Rich is a writer through and through. One of the youngest ever to be hired to be a writer on Saturday Night Live, he also created and wrote the FX tv series Man Seeking Woman, and is a staff writer for Pixar. He’s already written six books (two novels) and a play. Glory Days is his seventh. The books cover features a broken participation trophy, which sets the tone for Glory Days – one of the first humorous looks at millennials entering middle age. That participation trophy has thoughts feelings and memories. Super Mario just turned 40 and is having an identity crisis. What we learned the David and Goliath story through Goliath’s eyes and in modern times. Why its difficult to be a Tooth Fairy- more difficult than you think. What Rich does best is use surrealism to make you laugh while connecting about real humanity. Check out the Audiobook to hear it read first hand from a middle age millenial- John Mulaney.
JENNY SLATE: LIFE FORM. Stand up comedian, voice artist, national best selling author, actor, and filmmaker Jenny Slate’s latest book who has often written and performed about loneliness, connection and humanity takes these topics next level in Life Form. A tale of being Single, finding True Love, experiencing Pregnancy, adjusting to Baby, and Ongoing (beyond), Life Form is a hilarious series of essays full of reality, surreality and buckets full of emotion. A story of motherhood for the next generation which is both universal and specific to her experiences. You’re too late to attend her book tour in which she read passages while a live harpist plays, but you’re not to late to read the book or listen to the Audio book (sans harp) which she narrates along with help from Vanessa Bayer, Will Forte and George Saunders.
PAUL SCHEER: JOYFUL RECOLLECTIONS OF TRAUMA. A memoir through essays in which, Scheer comes to terms with childhood trauma, which, if your not familiar with some of his backstory, is shocking. We all know and love Scheer, from The League, Veep, Fresh Off the Boat, Black Monday, his popular podcasts, and some of us go all the way back to I Love The Eighties. But you could have followed Paul his entire career and not known about his dark childhood experiences, largely stemming from an abusive stepfather. It’s dark. Like when his stepfather threw a pitchfork at his back. Or lashing his ass with a belt at a second grade birthday party in front of all Paul’s friends. And the other adults who would let this man off the hook time and time again. If you didn’t know, its because he didn’t really talk about them until now. His New York Times Bestselling book explores those experiences, his mechanisms for processing them, and moving forward. The ability to be uplifting in the midst of all this, is what makes this book one of our ten best.
MICHAEL RICHARDS, ENTRANCES AND EXISTS. After decades out of the public eye following Richards infamous N-word filled rant in a club, he’s back with a New York Times bestselling memoir. Following a foreward from long time friend Jerry Seinfeld, the man who shot to fame as “Kramer” pulls the curtain back on Seinfeld through of decades of journals to give a behind the scenes look at his character and the show. He also examines his own self doubt and inferiority, and what he learned from his cancellation and behavior in 2006. Seinfeld fans will want a copy in their stocking this year.
BILLY CONNOLLY: RAMBLING MAN: MY LIFE ON THE ROAD. Comedy fans, travel fans and those with a spiritual side will all love Billy Connolly’s writings about his unique take on world travel. Billy is an international treasure, and an ARTIST his take on travel is pure romance. For Connolly, travel is not about 5 star accommodations or luxuries, its about the experiences. On boats and trains, under trees, and around monuments. He slept in bus stations, under bridges and on strangers’ floors. He has wandered the world, experienced its people and observed all it has to offer full of curiosity and philosophy.
From riding his trike down America’s famous Route 66, building an igloo on an iceberg in the Arctic, playing elephant polo (badly) in Nepal and crashing his motorbike (more than once), to eating witchetty grubs in Australia, being serenaded by a penguin in New Zealand, and swapping secrets in a traditional Sweat Lodge ritual in Canada, Rambling Man is a truly global adventure with the greatest possible travel companion.
MIKE RAINEY, DELCO DIRTBALL. A novel by comedian Mike Rainey. Tommy & Fats are two neighborhood dirtballs who share bunkbeds and a dream to make it out of Delco. When Tommys estranged crackhead father brings him into a check cashing scheme that would turn their lives around…things look up. But instead Tommy and Fats are accused of murdering their pervert boss. They navigate the streets of delco to commit check fraud, rip off drug dealers, and getting pussy from dirt footed chicks.
CARRIE COUROGEN: MISS MAY DOES NOT EXIST: THE LIFE AND WORK OF ELAINE MAY, HOLLYWOOD’S HIDDEN GENIUS. Through countless interviews, and tireless research Carrie Courogen has tackled the life and work of one of our America’s great comedic geniuses. The result is a fascinating portrait not only of Elaine May’s work and history, but also the difficulties women faced when trying to break through in Hollywood. Miss May Does Not Exist is a remarkable love story about a prickly genius who was never easy to work with, not always easy to love and often punished for those things. But Elaine May also revolutionizing the way we think about comedy, acting, and what a film or play can be both in her solo work and in her teamwork with her long time comedy partner Mike Nichols. As an actor, a comedian, a writer and director, May has helped to define comedy as we know it.
DANIEL DE VISE, THE BLUES BROTHERS: AN EPIC FRIENDSHIP, THE RISE OF IMPROV, AND THE MAKING OF AN AMERICAN FILM CLASSIC. The story behind The Blues Brothers- characters, musicians, and film- is epic, mythic, and compelling. De Vise’s book encompassing the colorful childhoods of Belushi and Aykroyd; the comedic revolution sparked by Harvard’s Lampoon and Chicago’s Second City; the birth and anecdote-rich, drug-filled early years of Saturday Night Live, where the Blues Brothers were born and the behind- the-scenes narrative of how the film was made, scene by memorable scene. Based on original research and dozens of interviews, The Blues Brothers is a perfect gift for comedy fans in your life.
