Nailing It: Tales from the Comedy Frontier

Product Information

These are stories about the crux of the comedy moment - in both my professional and personal life - where I had to nail it. Screwball turn-of-events, wayward characters, unplanned disasters, and something-wonderful-right-away moments that made my life funny by happenstance. They're not all triumphs, but if someone propped me up at the end of the comedy bar and put a quarter in me, these are the tunes I would spin. Hall’s origin story is suitably quixotic, starting life as a comic street performer, going from campus to campus in the guise of an evangelical preacher spreading the word of dog, proselytising all the canines in his ad-hoc crowd. It sounds like a great act.

I was doing this long before I met you’ may have been one of his best lines: I think of Joseph Hayden’s wife using the composer’s manuscripts for wrapping vegetables: ‘Behind every great man…’. I was performing in Las Vegas and haphazardly walked up on stage and said: “What’s with all the recreational vehicles in the parking lot? What’s with all these Winnebagos? Who would pay hundreds of thousands of dollars to live like the homeless?” People got up and walked out. I just kept making fun of these RVs, and then I realised it was an RV owners’ convention. I reached the point some comedians experience where you just get this feeling of vindication by seeing how many people you can lose during a show. I cleared out about two-thirds of the room by the end. This isn't really a traditional memoir, it's more a collection of anecdotal essays ostensibly concerning the hit-and-miss nature of life lessons. Because Mr. Hall is a long established comedian, who apparently has developed a large following in the UK, there is more substance (not to mention cultural variety) to the stories shared here than your average celebrity of the moment tell-all. It's basically the tale of someone who found what he loves to do and somehow stumbled into a career doing it. Publisher Katy Follain said: ‘I am so excited for people to read Rich Hall’s book. It’s sharp, it’s witty and it’s extremely funny. A collection of hilarious and often absurd epiphanies in the legendary comedian's life that defined him - more in a for worse than for better kind of way - and all delivered in his unique deadpan style.

Hall doesn’t always come out of them all covered in glory – far from it – but if someone propped him up at the end of the comedy bar and put a 50p coin in him, these are the tunes he would spin. And you’d be laughing all night.

His honesty makes me think Diogenes the original Cynic must have been like this, or an Old Testament prophet: they were probably performers too. If you're coming to Coles by car, why not take advantage of the 2 hours free parking at Sainsbury's Pioneer Square - just follow the signs for Pioneer Square as you drive into Bicester and park in the multi-storey car park above the supermarket. Come down the travelators, exit Sainsbury's, turn right and follow the pedestrianised walkway to Crown Walk and turn right - and Coles will be right in front of you. You don't need to shop in Sainsbury's to get the free parking! Where to Find Us

Rich Hall has been around our comedy consciousness for some time now (his Otis Lee Crenshaw won the Perrier Award at Edinburgh in 2000) and whether he’s on TV with QI, doing standup, or presenting documentaries — where he showcased his fine musical taste — Hall has always proved enjoyable company. You could say he’s reached “classic album” territory in terms of judging his work and legacy, so now is as good a time as any for a memoir. It’s rare for comedians to be as funny on paper as they are on stage, but Rich Hall nails it ‘– CARL HIAASEN We learn of his time in Edinburgh when he was nominated for the Perrier Award. We learn of his time singing with Roger Daltrey at the Royal Albert Hall. The formation of his band, and the development of his alter-ego, the grouchy singer-songwriter Otis Lee Crenshaw.