Review by New York Times Review
Tiffany Haddish and Vivica A. Fox - who narrate their memoirs with snap and spirit - have a message for listeners. THE LAST BLACK UNICORN By Tiffany Haddish Read by the author 6 Hours, 29 Minutes. Simon & Schuster Audio. EVERY DAY I'M HUSTLING By Vivica A. Fox Read by the author 8 Hours. Audible Studios. TIFFANY HADDISH IS HILARIOUS. But you knew that already. What you probably don't know is that she has an indomitable spirit that helped her to survive a difficult, often harrowing past. In the audiobook of "The Last Black Unicorn," Haddish narrates her journey from growing up poor in South Central Los Angeles, to touring on the comedy circuit, to becoming the breakout star of last year's "Girls Trip." There's some tough stuff here. When Haddish is only 8, her mother suffers a severe brain injury in a car crash. Afterward she is never the same, becoming emotionally abusive and physically violent - in one particularly gutwrenching scene, she beats her daughter in a Walmart parking lot. Haddish spends time in the foster care system, where an older man abuses her. Then, as an adult, she suffers domestic abuse at the hands of her now ex-husband. Haddish does not sugarcoat these experiences, and the audiobook is sometimes painful to listen to - not only for what she says, but for the way she says it. At times, you can hear the hurt thrumming in her voice as she recounts missing the mother she had before the car accident or explaining why she stayed so long with an abusive husband. "Maybe it was just that I didn't know any other way to be loved," she says, with a rawness as devastating as it is affecting. Haddish's life is not only heartache. There is joy and hilarity here too, narrated in a raucous style reminiscent of her stand-up routines. She spends some of her teenage years as an "energy producer" at bar mitzvahs. When she is first offered the job, she hesitates, assuming the words "bar mitzvah" mean she will have to climb atop a bar, strip and show her "mitzvah." It's only after she talks to her grandmother that she realizes a bar mitzvah is a party, and an energy producer's job is to make sure all the partygoers are letting loose and having a great time. Because of her chaotic home life, Haddish often acts up at school. When she is 15, a social worker tells her that her behavior must be addressed, then offers her the choice between Laugh Factory Comedy Camp or psychiatric therapy. She chooses comedy camp, which, as she says, is "the first time I felt safe." At the Laugh Factory she meets a host of comedians, most memorably Richard Pryor, who interrupts her midset to critique her performance. "People don't come to comedy shows because they want to hear about your problems," he tells her. "When you're onstage you need to be having fun. If you're having fun, they're having fun." She takes the advice to heart: "I try to take that philosophy and apply it to everything I do in life. That's why I think my life has turned out as good as it has." Some of the funniest and most entertaining parts of the book come when Haddish talks about her ups and downs on the comedy circuit. Here her excellent comedic timing and delivery come into play; the narration really shines. There's the show where she prays into the microphone for the power to beat up a woman who's been heckling all the comedians. Then there's the one where she bombs in front of 4,000 black students at Howard University because she is nervous, and another where only 30 people show up (most of them her in-laws) and she falls down onstage. The road to comedy success is not without bumps. Thanks to the #MeToo movement, we are all aware of the sexism and harassment that women in entertainment face. These injustices are even more pronounced for black women, who must work against a narrower set of stereotypes grounded not just in sexism but in racism. It's a testament to Haddish's spunk and tenacity that she has managed to not only survive but thrive in the comedy world. "The Last Black Unicorn" is an inspiring story that manages to be painful, honest, shocking, bawdy and hilarious. WITH CHAPTER TITLES like "Don't Let Anyone Work Harder Than You," "You Can't Aim if You Don't Have a Target" and "Ttirn Your Haters Into Congratulators," Vivica A. Fox's "Every Day I'm Hustling" is part memoir, part selfhelp. The actress alternates between recounting her road to success and offering listeners advice on achieving their dreams. Her narration is folksy and intimate, drawing listeners in as if they were sitting and chatting over a glass of wine. What's refreshing about Fox's book is her willingness to be open about her mistakes. She wasted time waiting to be discovered, chased after empty material success and pretended to be someone she didn't even want to be. In that way, "Every Day" gives its readers permission to be gentle with themselves - to forgive their mistakes - while at the same time offering practical tips on how to stay focused in a world full of distractions and haters. Two standout anecdotes in "Every Day" clearly helped shape her philosophy. The first happens on the set of Quentin Tarantino's "Kill Bill: Vol. 1." Following days of frustration, Fox boils over after an angry lecture from Tarantino and lashes out at him in front of the whole cast and crew. It takes a quiet conversation with Uma Thurman to make her realize that she's approached the issue in the wrong way. "What you need to do is learn how to manipulate the situation better.... Learn to attack intelligently," Thurman tells her. On set, Fox watches as Thurman gives a "master class," successfully lobbying Tarantino for changes. Fox's subsequent fight scene takes four days to film and leaves her with 30 bruises. She says "Kill Bill" is the work she's proudest of, and she credits Thurman with helping her to stay focused and for teaching her about the power of sharing power. The next memorable story occurs on the set of "Independence Day," where Fox's trainer - who happens to be Will Smith - gently reprimands her for lounging by the Jacuzzi on her day off, margarita in hand, treating her once-in-a-lifetime opportunity as if it were just another job. This sounds like obvious advice. Opportunities in the entertainment industry do not appear with any kind of regularity, and when they do, success is never guaranteed. The trick, Smith tells Fox, is to think about where you were before the opportunity, and where you might land afterward. This is the essence of hustling: staying hungry even when you've scored a big meal. On the surface, the books share an impassioned struggle for success - a story that has been covered in quite a few memoirs. But what makes both "The Last Black Unicorn" and "Every Day I'm Hustling" stand out is their authors' emphatic belief that if you're true to yourself, you will open up more opportunities. The biggest obstacle to wisdom and your own success, in other words, might just be you. So get out of your own way. NICOLA YOON is the author of "Everything, Everything" and "The Sun Is Also a Star."
Copyright (c) The New York Times Company [August 30, 2019]
Review by Library Journal Review
Comedian Haddish was not born to a life of laughs. After an accident her stepfather later confessed to staging, her mother experienced severe brain damage and wild mood swings. Placed in the foster care system as a teen, and struggling to read at a basic level in ninth grade, Haddish found that humor and jokes helped her endure. When offered a choice between the Laugh Factory comedy camp or counseling to help recover from issues within the foster system, she chose the former and found her calling. In her first book, Haddish recounts her early life straight through to her powerhouse success both on the comedy circuit and in Hollywood with the 2017 film Girls Trip. She spares nothing in this no-holds-barred account, from laughable accounts of failed pimps for boyfriends and taking Will and Jada Pinkett Smith on a swamp tour to graphic descriptions of a memorable one-weekend stand to unfiltered honesty on her struggle as a domestic abuse survivor. With an informal and conversational style, Haddish directly addresses readers, dares to be herself, and says, "You can't fake funny." VERDICT A bawdy, laugh-out-loud tell-all with a liberal dose of heart.-Stacy Shaw, Orange, CA © Copyright 2017. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
The stand-up comedian and actress opens up about her past and the perils of being a woman in comedy.In her uncensored and often hilarious debut memoir, Haddish reveals pivotal events from her personal life that helped propel her toward the stage. "I got into the entertainment business so I could feel accepted," she writes. "And loved. And safe." After learning about the trials of her early years, readers will appreciate how trying to make a roomful of strangers laugh could prove easier than negotiating the minefield of the author's home life. Though somewhat dismissive of her uncanny ability to rise above adversity, Haddish provides a colloquially written rags-to-riches story that is both impressive and harrowing. Abandoned by her father at age 3 and forced to live with her grandmother at 8, after her mother was in a devastating car accident that caused permanent brain damage, Haddish spent years taking care of her younger siblings or being abused while in foster care. She turned to humor as a defense mechanism, getting her comedic start as a teen working as an "energy producer" at bar mitzvahs around Los Angeles. Once her grandmother learned she would no longer receive financial support for caring for her granddaughter, she turned Haddish out, causing her to become homeless at 18. At 21, the author's stepfather told her that not only was he responsible for the accident that had forever changed her mother, but that it had been meant to kill her and all her siblings so he could cash in on the life insurance. After learning this, Haddish says she started dating policemen. "It's always good to have police friends," she writes, "especially black police, because there aren't a lot of them." The author's unrelenting positivity and openness about how insecurities about her own self-worth led to poor decisions later in life offer important lessons and hope for others seemingly trapped in toxic relationships.Both entertaining and grippingly introspective, Haddish's take-no-prisoners tale is a testament to self-will and how humor can save your life. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
