Book info

• Title Mack the Life
• Author Lee Mack
• Year 2012
• Genres Non-fiction, Memoir

Growing up in his parents’ pub, small and wiry in a world of bigger and chunkier specimens, Lee quickly learned that cracking jokes was a way to get attention. After a somewhat random series of jobs, which included being Red Rum’s stableboy and a bingo hall barman, it was as a Great Yarmouth holiday camp entertainer that he had his first crack at telling jokes on stage. It got him some laughs, the sack and a punch in the face. Now, as Lee Mack, he’s one of our best loved and most successful comedians, both as a live stand-up and on television. In Mack the Life, Lee tells the story of how he got there and gives extraordinary insight into what really makes comics tick. Hilarious and brilliant, it’s the kind of book which reminds you why you learned to read in the first place.

Thoughts

I feel like I’ve read this before but I don’t have a review of it anywhere so I figured I’d give it another go. Whether I’ve read it before or not, I’m glad I got to experience it again. Mack deep dives into what drives a comedian to choose this career, and what makes someone funny, by examining his own history in a unique and hilarious way. Usually dipping too much into childhood and early days can be dull but this was never boring.

Of course I’d love to have heard more about making Not Going Out and Would I Lie to You but equally, those two endeavours have moved on significantly in the last decade so I’d probably want a second book to get all the juicy gossip. I liked that Lee was honest about not knowing how to finish the book and I even more enjoyed how it actually did end. Good times,

Rating: 5 / 5