Accurately Titled

I best know David Spade from Just Shoot Me because I was 4 when Spade debuted on SNL and 7 when Tommy Boy came out. Now, as an adult I’ve seen reruns of Spade’s early nineties SNL run as well as butchered showings of Tommy Boy on Comedy Central but that was after he was an established star.

“FYI this book is not that serious. This is meant to be read when super bored, then forgotten fifteen minutes later. It should be read cover-to-cover during one medium- to- severe case of diarrhea”

I almost didn’t read Almost Interesting because it is only available as an e-book from my library and I am not usually a e-book fan however Spade is correct about it’s brevity and it only took two and a half lunch breaks to get through. He covers his early life, growing up poor in Arizona after his father abandoned his mom, his high school antics and his start in stand up.

After a few rejections Spade managed to get on HBO’s Young Comedians which lead to an SNL audition with friend Rob Schneider. Rob took to SNL a little faster than David which led to a friendly rivalry; Spade formed friendships with fellow SNL newcomers Chris Rock, Adam Sandler and, most importantly, Chris Farley.

“I sometimes feel I have a kinship with Dave Grohl, because both of the guys we were very close to got famous very quickly, and then died, and we stuck around to field questions about them for the rest of our lives. It is an honor, but not an easy one sometimes.”

Chris and David shared an office and became fast friends. While Spade struggled to find his footing at SNL, for most of his tenure, Chris was a break out star right out of the bat. I couldn’t believe the Chippendale’s sketch with Patrick Swayze was only his fourth episode! Their chemistry lead to Tommy Boy and Black Sheep.

He doesn’t talk that much about his career after SNL, only vaguely mentioning Joe Dirt, Just Shoot Me and the Emperor’s New Groove, which goes to show you Spade knows where he stands in the grand scheme of comedy. This is a good read if you like SNL and want behind the scenes dirt on some of the goings on from the early nineties. It’s a mediocre to poor read if you care about David Spade’s career as a whole (but I’m guessing that is a small minority). You can skip Chapters 17 and 20 regardless of which category you fall into.