Monday, January 25, 1999
Shandling shares Sanders’ secrets
BOOKS: ‘Autobiography’ confounds fact, fiction while delivering
laughs
By Elena Powell
Daily Bruin Contributor
Larry Sanders is famous. He’s very, very famous. Well, at least
he thinks he is, and he’ll be the first to tell you in his new
book, "Confessions of a Late Night Talk Show Host: The
Autobiography of Larry Sanders."
"Confessions" tells the not-so-touching tale of Sanders’ rise to
super-stardom. The only problem is, Larry Sanders doesn’t
exist.
Although he starred in "The Larry Sanders Show" on HBO and is
now an author, Sanders relies on actor and comedian Garry Shandling
to walk, talk, host his popular show, and yes, write his
autobiography. Having created Sanders (a late night talk show host
a la Johnny Carson) in the first place, Shandling is now able to
reap the benefits of this self-described legend.
Any autobiography of a fictional character keeps the line
between reality and fantasy at a safe distance, but none so much as
this.
The blurring of this line is mainly due to the similarities
between the character Sanders and his creator Shandling. Both
started out as comedians, became Johnny Carson’s permanent guest
host and then went on to have their own shows.
When Sanders describes hearing Mitzi Shore announce his name
during the Comedy Store’s amateur night, it might be Shandling
drawing from his own experiences as a struggling stand-up comic.
However, the guise of a fictional alter ego gives Sanders the
freedom to make outrageous claims, relaying stories like Dick
Cavett’s failed attempt to have Johnny Carson "bumped off."
Sanders includes a series of pictures of true celebrity guests
accompanied by humorous captions and supposed anecdotes explaining
everything from sketch comedy to Norm MacDonald’s penis.
Sanders goes on to claim that not only did Steve Martin steal
his famous catch-phrase "Exxcuuuusee meee" from him, but Jimmie
Walker’s classic refrain "dy-no-mite" was also pilfered from his
stand-up act.
Shandling’s sharp wit makes each page of this carefully-crafted
book seem effortless. His style of comedy varies from subtle to
absurd, yet somehow he manages to keep his sardonic wit well intact
while teetering on the edge of buffoonery.
"Confessions" doesn’t always alert the reader when it is being
funny. The jokes in this book are not as straightforward as they
are in other books written by comedians, like Drew Carey’s "Dirty
Jokes and Beer." Much of the humor in "Confessions" lies within the
incongruous nature of various statements contradicting themselves
as they go along, such as "I can tell Shandling thinks I’m shallow
just from the intensity with which he says it to me."
"Confessions" follows Sanders from his humble beginnings as a
fat little boy growing up in Mound, Minnesota, all the way to the
end of "The Larry Sanders Show." Along with a humorously detailed
description of his obscenely-dysfunctional family, he also brings
up the difficulties he faced growing up as the only Jewish kid in
his family. Disliked by the other children in school, Sanders was
afflicted with the cruel moniker "Four-eyes" in second grade (even
though he didn’t wear glasses). This continued until he began
wearing glasses in the fifth grade, in which case his classmates
aptly re-named him "Six-eyes."
Perhaps this created a need for daily love and acceptance that
drew him to the high-profile, fast-lane lifestyle of a successful
talk show host. Then again, it could have been the fine cars and
the fast women … most likely the women.
Here, once again, the freedom of fiction allows Sanders to
describe his numerous sexual exploits with every female in
Hollywood, in as much fantastic detail as desired (including a
description of his tryst with Joan Embry in the coyote cave of the
San Diego Zoo).
Proving himself a veritable sex addict, Sanders finds it easier
to simply include a list of over fifty famous women with whom he’s
had sex. With an entire page of the book devoted to his conquests,
this illustrious list houses every name from Uma Thurman to Andy
Dick.
It is this type of modesty and humility that makes Sanders (the
apparent Don Juan of the talk show world) such a joy to read.
Nowhere else can a less vain, egotistical, self-centered and
hilarious character be found.
Sanders, the man who dedicated his own book "To me," said it
best. "It is with a deep sense of compassion and caring about
others and with no ego whatsoever that I come back to you just like
Jesus did, to speak to you one last time about something even more
riveting than that of which Jesus spoke… Maybe I’ll be thought of
as the real Son of God."Simon & Schuster
"Confessions of a Late Night Talk Show Host" is a Hollywood
tell-all told by Gary Shandling’s
character Larry Sanders.
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