If comedy has taught me anything, it's that trauma is hilarious. I have laughed much too often at the horrible things comedians do to themselves. When I read about their lives, they do their best to put a funny spin on awful things, and I just can't put the books down.
Artie Lange made his name on the Howard Stern Show and Mad TV, but his autobiography, Too Fat to Fish, contains a long list of troubled times and bad decisions. He quits reading the audiobook himself about halfway through, just before the point in the book where his life spirals into heavy cocaine addiction and an attempted suicide. He claims he's just too lazy to finish reading the book on his own, but you can't help but think that he really didn't want to relive that part of his life.
Darrell Hammond's memoir is equally frightening. Known for his wide array of impersonations, Hammond had the longest run of anyone on Saturday Night Live and recently replaced the late, great Don Pardo as the show's announcer. It turns out he was abused as a child, developed a habit of cutting himself and became addicted to any number of drugs.
But any great comedian knows how to use pain. In Becoming Richard Pryor, Scott Saul relates how the groundbreaking stand-up artist transformed his troubled childhood and chaotic lifestyle into performances that change lives.
So if you're at a party and find yourself laughing at some anecdote or another from a natural-born storyteller, remember it could be coming from a place of deep trauma. And trauma, like I said, is hilarious.
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