Today, I finished my first book of 2020, David Spade’s autobiography, Almost Interesting. I originally used an Audible trial to purchase this book when it released back in 2015, but like all the other Audible books I’ve collected over the years, I never listened to it. When I was searching for something light and hopefully funny to read a few weeks ago, I recalled the book and I snagged a copy to digest. It was a pretty decent choice.
The first two-thirds of the book are basic bio fare, with a discussion about early home life, high school, college, and the beginning of his stand up career. From there it goes into the SNL years, which is by far the most interesting part of the book. Sadly, Spade abandons the typical biography format and spins off from the SNL chapters into Tommy Boy, then Chris Farley, then his attack by his assistant, a robbery by his maid, and tips for picking up chicks. We never hear why he left SNL, how Just Shoot Me came to be, thoughts and stories about filming Joe Dirt, or anything really post 1995 and that’s a shame because that was some of the stuff I was most interested in. I especially wanted to hear some thoughts on Lost and Found, one of my favorite under the radar 90’s films.
Spade’s sense of humor doesn’t translate super well to the written word, and I have a feeling the audio book is better. I know he did a follow-up Audible exclusive performance called A Polaroid Guy in a Snapchat World but from what I read it’s more of a mixture of a comedy book and standup routine, which probably suits his sense of humor a bit better than a traditional autobiography.
If I had to rate the book, I’d say it’s three stars out of five. The two-third is a solid four for me, and the last third a two. I definitely would have liked to have a more complete story about his time in Hollywood and the making of his hit TV shows and movies.
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