Like Steve Martin's Born Standing Up, Alan Zweibel's jaunty and laugh-out-loud funny Laugh Lines serves as both a compelling memoir and an invaluable primer to anyone hoping to succeed writing comedy. Before he became an Emmy Award-winning writer (Saturday Night Live; It's Garry Shandling's Show) and novelist (The Other Shulman won the Thurber Prize for American Humor), Zweibel was a college graduate living with his parents and selling jokes to Catskill comedians for $7 apiece. In 1975, Lorne Michaels hired him as one of the original writers for Saturday Night Live.
At SNL, he enjoyed partnering with Gilda Radner ("Our chemistry was magical"); their friendship lasted until her early death in 1989. The TV series brought him acclaim, awards and long-lasting friendships with many top comedians of that time. After five seasons, he left the show and found even greater success co-creating Garry Shandling's innovative sitcom. There were a few career missteps, including a 1991 sitcom starring Ryan O'Neal and Farrah Fawcett ("a romantic comedy for a couple who are neither romantic nor comedic," he remembers) and the big-budget film adaptation of his novel North (film critic Roger Ebert famously wrote, "I hated this movie. Hated, hated, hated, hated, hated this movie"). He also co-authored Billy Crystal's one-man Broadway show, 700 Summers, which won the 2005 Tony Award for Special Theatrical Event.
Laugh Lines is a delightful and moving memoir, filled with sweet and sour star-studded behind-the-scenes tales of dealing with egos and creating or polishing material to make other comedians even funnier. --Kevin Howell, independent reviewer and marketing consultant