BOOK REVIEW: WILD AND CRAZY GUYS by Nick De Semlyen

BOOK REVIEW: WILD AND CRAZY GUYS by Nick De Semlyen

Picador
June 2019
Paperback, $32.99
Reviewed by Shane Pinnegar

Non fiction, movie, comedy

79%

Nick De Semlyn catalogs the leap from Saturday Night Live’s iconic TV comedy stage to film stardom for many of its major players in the late ‘70s and ‘80s.

John Belushi, Dan Ackroyd, Bill Murray, Eddie Murphy, Steve Martin, Chevy Chase, John Candy, Rick Moranis – it’s impossible to imagine comedy without these heavyweights and the roles they brought to life, the scripts they wrote, the comedy they performed, and – in many cases – the excess they indulged in off-screen.

It’s all laid out here in anecdotal glory, and Semlyn seems to be having a glorious time bringing it all to life again on the page. Overlooking the author’s tendency towards verbosity, fans of the artists involved and the work they created will have much to get excited about here.

De Semlyn isn’t only interested in those sordid excesses mentioned above, he takes us deep into the studio mechanisms behind the films, and touches on the personal lives of the major players. The result is part expose, part chronicle, part cautionary tale – all of these stars made bad movies, all were savaged by critics, all had personal dramas to contend with and overcome, something both Belushi and Candy failed to do, paying the ultimate price.

The end result is a fascinating look at a movement, a group of comedians who for all their faults and mistakes, transitioned from TV to the movie world and changed the entertainment world in the process.

Category: Book Reviews