It must be sweet to be an award-winning television-comedy script writer but maybe not if it's been fifteen years since your last major success and your ideas have dried up. Especially not if your agent is constantly on the phone demanding the next script whilst at the same time shattering your confidence with news of other clients' roaring successes, as well as demanding unswerving loyalty. In fact it's a fragile, nerve-racked existence and one where this writer begins to realise that only the strongest survive. By turns hilariously funny, shockingly honest in its brutal deceptions and full of raw emotion, "Set Up, Joke, Set Up, Joke" gets to the core of Hollywood society whilst holding a mirror up to all of our basest desires.
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`A delightfully appalling look at Hollywood. Read it and be glad
all this stuff isn't happening to you' -- Harry Shearer of This Is Spinal Tap and The Simpsons
`His novel within a novel within a script is an hilarious,
shocking and honest account of how Hollywood really works' -- Daily Mirror
`If you liked Larry Sanders, you'll love this' -- William Leith, author of The Hungry Years
`My book of the year ... There's simply no more reliable guide to
contemporary Hollywood' -- Toby Young, Evening Standard Books of the Year
`Very, very funny ... as riveting and real as gossip ... brilliant
... hugely enjoyable' -- Frank Cottrell Boyce, Guardian
all this stuff isn't happening to you' -- Harry Shearer of This Is Spinal Tap and The Simpsons
`His novel within a novel within a script is an hilarious,
shocking and honest account of how Hollywood really works' -- Daily Mirror
`If you liked Larry Sanders, you'll love this' -- William Leith, author of The Hungry Years
`My book of the year ... There's simply no more reliable guide to
contemporary Hollywood' -- Toby Young, Evening Standard Books of the Year
`Very, very funny ... as riveting and real as gossip ... brilliant
... hugely enjoyable' -- Frank Cottrell Boyce, Guardian
About the Author
Rob Long is a writer and producer in Hollywood. He began his career writing on TV's long-running 'Cheers', and served as co-executive producer in its final season. He has co-written several feature film scripts, including Just a Shot Away, currently in pre-production with a France-based production company. He is a contributing editor of National Review and Newsweek International, and writes occasionally for the Wall Street Journal. His book, Conversations with My Agent, chronicled his early career in television. He serves on the Board of Directors of My Friend's Place, an agency for homeless teens in Hollywood and the American Cinema Foundation.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
By Post Scriptum
VINE™ VOICE
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
I was a tiny bit disappointed by this after the very impressive predecessor. Take away the pages of double-spaced dialogue, and there's not much here at all, and you could easily read the book from cover to cover in a couple of hours, if not sooner. Having said that, this 'part fact, part fiction' account is very bright and breezy, with quite a few sharp gags, clever lines and the odd insight into the madness of today's entertainment business. Personally I like Long enough to prefer a more open, honest and detailed account of his travails, because he IS a witty man who has genuinely perceptive things to say, but if you just want a slick comic 'turn,' this will amuse you on a train trip or a waiting room.
6 of 8 people found the following review helpful
By oldbillie
Format:Paperback
I was wary of this sequel to Conversations with my Agent, thinking it would be more of the same. And I was right. It is more of the same. And it's still hilarious. Nearly ten years have passed, and our man is still trying to get to grips with Hollywood and its absurd logic, his sitcom projects are still failing to get off the ground, and his monstrous agent continues to turn churlishness into high art. Despite all the back-biting and greed and vanity on show, these books also have a Wodehousian charm to them. This Hollywood is as far removed from the real world as Blandings Castle, its plots are as absurd, its characters as comic. And running through these books is the constant joke that the slipperiest customer of all is language itself:
ME: What was his tone?
MY AGENT: (V.O.) In a word, 'elegiac'. His tone was 'elegiac'. Some, with a smaller vocabulary and a lack of appreciation for nuance, which is not something I do not have, might say 'funereal'. But I think 'elegiac' conveys the proper ambiguity.
Hollywood satire is plentiful, but Rob Long manages to do it while insisting on the humanity of its players. Money aside, he seems to say, people do this because it's fun. Even when it's hell.
7 of 12 people found the following review helpful
By A Customer
Format:Paperback
Once again, Long takes us on a rollercoaster ride 'behind the scenes' in the land of show. This standalone 'sequel' is edgier and funnier than his earlier book.
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3.8 out of 5 stars
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1.0 out of 5 stars
Tripe!!!!!!!!!
Without a doubt, this is quite the WORSE book I have ever 'attempted' to read,and believe me, I do not give up easily! Read more
Published 10 months ago by S. Parker
5.0 out of 5 stars
A modern review
If you've ever laughed at Sienfeld, Curb Your Enthusiasm or Larry Sanders then just buy the book.
Published on 2 Jun 2006 by 2cleverbyhalf
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