Product Description

In this electrifying autobiography, Rik stands naked in front of his vast legions of fans and disciples and invites them to take communion with the blood he has spilled for them during his thirty year war on show business. He invented alternative comedy with "The Young Ones", he brought down the Thatcher administration with "The New Statesman" and he changed the face of global culture with his masterpiece "Bottom". Not only was his number one single 'Living Doll' the saviour of rock 'n' roll but he also rescued the British film industry with the vast revenues created by his legendary movie "Drop Dead Fred". In 1998, he survived an assassination attempt and spent five days in a coma before he literally came back from the dead. Having completed countless phenomenal feature films, TV series, live extravaganzas and radio voice-overs since then, Rik Mayall is now poised on the brink of a whole new epoch-shattering revolution. For the first time ever, Rik reveals in print the deep inner truth behind his gargantuan ascent to the pinnacle of international light entertainment - the mental hospitals he has broken out of, the television executives he has assaulted, the drugs he has definitely not taken, the charities he has bankrupted, the countless pregnancies he has engendered, and so much more.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #19292 in Books
• Published on: 2006-04-03
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 328 pages

Review
'a ludicrous...very funny - fusion of fact and comic fantasy' The Times '! a dense clootie dumpling of a book.' Sunday Herald '! hilariously irreverent !' Daily Express 'It's a masterpiece in tongue-in-cheek ego-mania, a comic tour de force or - if you are the ghost of Mary Whitehouse - a nasty, smelly, subversive book about an incurable bighead who shouldn't be on the telly, let alone in print.' The Journal, Newcastle upon Tyne '! should get a few old farts in Tunbridge Wells trying to work out how to send emails ! Mayall's disciples will love this nook and he might win over several million more followers with it.' Sport Lads Mag (plus four stars) '! full of fun and laughter, just like the man himself. A word of warning: don't read it in public !the belly-laughs may cause embarrassment.' Nottingham Evening Post ***** Nuts Magazine

About the Author
Rik Mayall is one of Britain's most prolific and outrageous comedians and has been creating masterpieces for the large and small screen for over twenty years. Although his private and public life may have made the headlines on numerous occasions, Rik has remained relatively allusive ! until now ! well, sort of.

Customer Reviews

Crazy Read
Well this is certainly no follow the formula biography - it is as zany and `out there' as the man himself. I really enjoyed the book being a big Mayall fan but can understand that it could drive others mad trying to stick with it. Best read in bite size chunks and you will be laughing out loud.

Filthy, Rich and Codswallop
I assume that if you're interested in reading about Rik Mayall then you would be familiar with his work. I think the best comparison I can draw to sum up this book is the film "Guesthouse Paradiso".

Remember how excited you were at the thought of sitting down to a feature length version of "Bottom", only for it to fall flat on it's backside when you realised it somehow seemed tedious and a joke that had been stretched out too far? That's the exact feeling you get when trawling through this book.

The first few pages will make you laugh, it seems fresh and fun. After 50, then 100, then 150 pages the joke is starting to wear very thin, leaving you with such a bad taste you will not want to read it to it's conclusion.

For a man that seems to pride himself on his self confessed comedic writing genius it is a sad state of affairs that he seems incapable of actually stringing together the story of his own life in a sensible and interesting format.

It is such a crying shame because, like "Guesthouse Paradiso" this book COULD have been the funniest thing since sliced bread, but alas it misses the target by such a wide berth it ends up being an embarrassment.

I give this book 2 stars for two reasons. The cover art made me smile and i thought it was a clever eye catching design with a title that drew me into believing this was a book I HAD to read (as it is supposed to do) and for the reason that at least Mr Mayall wrote this himself (even though a dyslexic 12 year old would possibly have made a better stab at telling a coherent tale).

To summarise - avoid like the plague. it might seem like a good idea but in truth you'll regret parting with your cash.

For VERY big fans of Rik Mayall only
I love Bottom and just about everything else Rik has done and that sort of devotion to the cause is a pre-requisite if you plan to read this book.

If you are not a serious Mayall fan you will hate it. If you like Mayall's work a lot you will enjoy it as it is like having a mad conversation with Rick from the Young Ones, Richard Richard from Bottom and other sundry charaters all mixed together.

It is also hysterically funny - one of the funniest books I have ever read. I snorted with laughter on the toilet, in bed, on the bus, on trains etc as I read it. The laugh quotient is very high - at least one every few pages with some absolute gems. But again, it depends on whether or not you think the sort of wordplay Rik indulges in in Bottom is funny or not.

The book certainly has its faults and at times they threaten to overwhelm the reader. The constant mis-spellings, inane footnotes, snippets that go nowhere and are abandoned, made up letters etc become very annoying - especially the spelling mistakes and silly letters which just grated.

But overall a very good laugh and therefore worth a read (but for fans only).