Intimate, hilarious conversations with the biggest names in comedy - including Mel Brooks, Jerry Seinfeld, Jon Stewart, Roseanne, Harold Ramis, Louis C.K., Chris Rock, and Lena Dunham.
Intimate, hilarious conversations with the biggest names in comedy - including Mel Brooks, Jerry Seinfeld, Jon Stewart, Roseanne, Harold Ramis, Louis C.K., Chris Rock, and Lena Dunham.
Before becoming one of the most successful filmmakers in Hollywood, Judd Apatow was the original comedy nerd. He took a job washing dishes in a local comedy club so he could watch endless stand-up for free. He hosted a show for his local high school radio station on Long Island - a show that consisted of Q&As with his comedy heroes, from Garry Shandling to Jerry Seinfeld.
Thirty years later, Apatow is still that same comedy nerd - and he's still interviewing funny people about why they do what they do.
Sick in the Head gathers Apatow's most memorable and revealing conversations into one hilarious, wide-ranging, and incredibly candid collection that spans not only his career, but his entire adult life. The comedy legends who inspired and shaped him, from Mel Brooks to Steve Martin, the contemporaries he grew up with, from Spike Jonze to Sarah Silverman. And the brightest stars in comedy today, from Seth Rogen to Amy Schumer.
And along the way, something kind of magical happens- what started as a lifetime's worth of conversations about comedy becomes something else entirely. It becomes an exploration of creativity, ambition, neediness, generosity, spirituality, and the joy that comes from making people laugh.
Loaded with the kind of back-of-the-club stories that comics tell one another when no one else is watching, this fascinating, personal, and borderline-obsessive book is Judd Apatow's gift to comedy nerds everywhere.
Royalties will be donated by to 826LA, a nonprofit writing and tutoring center in Los Angeles.
Industry Reviews
"Open this book anywhere, and you’re bound to find some interesting nugget from someone who has had you in stitches many, many times." - Janet Maslin, The New York Times
"Anyone even remotely interested in comedy or humanity should own this book. It is hilarious and informative and it contains insightful interviews with the greatest comics, comedians, and comediennes of our time. My representatives assure me I will appear in a future edition." - Will Ferrell
"These are wonderful, expansive interviews—at times brutal, at times breathtaking—with artists whose wit, intelligence, gaze, and insights are all sharp enough to draw blood. Judd Apatow understands as well as any of them the pain that holds the knife, and the glee that wields it." - Michael Chabon
"Sprawling and insightful . . . The candidness of the interviews also exposes the peculiar community of comedians with anecdotes and cameos unlikely to be heard elsewhere. A delightful and hilarious read for anyone interested in what makes comedians tick." - Kirkus Reviews
"Incandescent . . . an irresistible, ultimate-insider’s comedy-interview extravaganza . . . Apatow never loses his unabashed fan’s enthusiasm even as he asks canny questions that yield superbly illuminating conversations rich in shop talk and musings on the lure, demands, and resonance of comedy." - Booklist (starred review)
