Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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4.0 out of 5 stars
(Sigh), 22 Dec 1998
By A Customer
I tend to agree with the writer from Detroit - my time would have been better spent reading the stuff this guy actually wrote. However, this is what I feel to be the next best thing. And, unlike other bios where you have to wade through seven chapters of diaper changes and drunken uncles just to reach the subject's first grade school, this fine little tome dives right into the meat surrounding the bone. My only criticism (and probably damned unfair) is the feeling I got when setting this book down - the feeling that the author felt somehow slighted in not being born O'Donoghue himself. A very good book.
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4.0 out of 5 stars
Good Bio Could Have Been Better, 15 Jul 1998
By A Customer
I'm a big fan of Mr. Mike, and was really looking forward to reading this book. It's fairly well-written, detailing Michael O'Donoghue's life from his illness as a child, his initial (and not very good) plays, through his successes with National Lampoon and SNL. Unfortunately, after this period the biographer writes like he's got to meet a deadline, and whole years of O'Donoghue's life are just skimmed over. On the whole, it's a very interesting read, but I would have really preferred a) a separate section of his written work (rather than summarizations), and b) more details about his later life, the medical causes for how he died, etc. But then, I don't expect to see too many bios of Mr. Mike, so I guess this one will do. And he was one funny (and mean!) guy!
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5.0 out of 5 stars
If only all biographies were like Mr Mike., 17 Jun 1998
By A Customer
Michael O'Donoghue's influence on contemporary comedy is analagous to the Velvet Underground's influence on alternative music. Only a hip minority appreciated O'Donoghue during his lifetime, but a lot of them went on to become stand-up comics, screenwriters, journalists, etc. Perrin does a marvelous job describing O'Donoghue's odyssey from obscurity in Rochester in the fifties to the undergound epicenter of The Evergreen Review and then the National Lampoon. In 1975, O'Donoghue won an Emmy as one of the founding writer/producers of Saturday Night Live. Through SNL, O'Donoghue unleashed a savage yet strangely lyric brand of satire on television audiences. Sadly O'Donoghue was never able to bring this remarkable talent into film despite penning several dark, but tantalizing screen projects that remain unproduced. Perrin's book is not only written with the same sharp wit and intelligence of its subject, but it is also rigorously researched. While Perrin makes a strong argument for O'Donoghue's achievements and brillance, he is not blind to his subject's mood swings and self-destructive career moves. Last but not least, the book is extremely well edited. For a change, photos and illustrations co-exist with the text not as a cheap five page insert of randomly selected pics. Ah, if only all bios were this user friendly, fun and illuminating. Perrin has made me love Mr. Mike all over again and reminded us that satire means never having to say "that's not funny, that's sick."
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