Book Reports

Backstage after the show: Fred Willard and Weird Al.

Spent a laugh-filled evening last evening at Celebrity Autobiography, a show that pops up around the country from time to time, though not often enough. I explained about these last time I attended one but for those who don't remember: Celebrity Autobiography is where a bunch of celebrities come out and read excerpts from autobiographies from other celebrities. The texts are real and unaltered except, at times, via emphasis and performance. But for example, Fred Willard read a few pages of Don't Hassle the Hoff, the autobiography of David Hasselhoff. It was quite funny. So were all the other readings by (at this outing) Fred, Lainie Kazan, Laraine Newman, Rita Wilson, Rob Reiner, Florence Henderson, Weird Al Yankovic, Illeana Douglas and the show's founders, Eugene Pack and Dayle Rayfel.

The audience howled at, for instance, Ms. Kazan reading chunks of Ethel Merman's memoirs while Ms. Henderson read from Snooki's. Since we were in a theater downtown at the Grammy Museum, the emphasis was on music. Rob Reiner read from two different books by rappers. Dayle Rayfel read from the autobiography of Diana Ross — who, we were told — was performing right next door to where we were. There was also a reading of the poetry of Suzanne Somers, a medley of diet tips from the stars, a lot of naughty quotes from Madonna's book, Sex, and many other delights. I especially enjoyed a rerun from the first time I saw one of these shows: The story of Elizabeth Taylor, Debbie Reynolds, Eddie Fisher, Richard Burton and a few of Liz's other hubbies, drawn from the autobiographies of most of those folks.

There's no real schedule as to when these shows pop up except that they seem to do one a month at the Triad Theater in New York. The next one there is April 9 and the readers will include Brooke Shields, Mario Cantone, Darrell Hammond, Gina Gershon, Jackie Hoffman, Steve Schirripa, Eugene Pack, Dayle Reyfel, Jennifer Tilly and Alan Zweibel. If you can't make that and you want to see one of these — and believe me, you do — you'll have to keep an eye on their website for the next opportunity. I sure enjoyed myself.