I seem to have been reading lots of autobiographies by comics this year. The latest is Thanks for Nothing - Jack Dee's life story in his own words. At least some of it is - much of it is a series of gripes and whinges that sound like the premise for episodes of his sit-com Lead Balloon.
I saw Jack Dee's stand-up show in a Newcastle theatre in the early 1990's. It has to rate as one of the funniest shows I've ever seen - I was gasping for breath towards the end although that may have been to do with the number of people smoking in the cheap seats. In fact, he nearly got himself Lynched after his opening remarks about Geordies and deep fried whippets or something. He nicely manoeuvred himself out of that one by asking if there were any students in and directing the irate Geordie tattooed half-wits in their direction.
The book's format is a potted history of what made Mr Dee the arch miserablist and misanthrope we know and love. The chapters alternate between some event in his life which helped to develop his sunny outlook and a following chapter on whatever happened to be annoying him that day. So we get anecdotes about flunking school, a misspent trip to France, various odd-jobs in the catering industry and the start of his comedy career; interspersed with this is his confirmation of Jean-Paul Sartre's ascertation that Hell is other people.
It's probably not the best written autobiography I've ever read - but it is one of the funniest.
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