Sick in the Head: Conversations About Life and Comedy

by Judd Apatow

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER •  NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY THE A.V. CLUB •  From the writer and director of Knocked Up and the producer of Freaks and Geeks comes a collection of intimate, hilarious conversations with the biggest names in comedy from the past thirty years—including Mel Brooks, Jerry Seinfeld, Jon Stewart, Roseanne Barr, Harold Ramis, Louis C.K., Chris Rock, and Lena Dunham.

Before becoming one of the most successful filmmakers in Hollywood, Judd Apatow was the original comedy nerd. At fifteen, he took a job washing dishes in a local comedy club—just so he could watch endless stand-up for free. At sixteen, he was hosting a show for his local high school radio station in Syosset, Long Island—a show that consisted of Q&As with his comedy heroes, from Garry Shandling to Jerry Seinfeld. They talked about their careers, the science of a good joke, and their dreams of future glory (turns out, Shandling was interested in having his own TV show one day and Steve Allen had already invented everything).

Thirty years later, Apatow is still that same comedy nerd—and he’s still interviewing funny people about why they do what they do.

Sick in the Head gathers Apatow’s most memorable and revealing conversations into one hilarious, wide-ranging, and incredibly candid collection that spans not only his career but his entire adult life. Here are the comedy legends who inspired and shaped him, from Mel Brooks to Steve Martin. Here are the contemporaries he grew up with in Hollywood, from Spike Jonze to Sarah Silverman. And here, finally, are the brightest stars in comedy today, many of whom Apatow has been fortunate to work with, from Seth Rogen to Amy Schumer. And along the way, something kind of magical What started as a lifetime’s worth of conversations about comedy becomes something else entirely. It becomes an exploration of creativity, ambition, neediness, generosity, spirituality, and the joy that comes from making people laugh.

Loaded with the kind of back-of-the-club stories that comics tell one another when no one else is watching, this fascinating, personal (and borderline-obsessive) book is Judd Apatow’s gift to comedy nerds everywhere.

Praise for Sick in the Head

“I can’t stop reading it. . . . I don’t want this book to end.” —Jimmy Fallon

“An essential for any comedy geek.” — Entertainment Weekly

“Fascinating . . . a collection of interviews with many of the great figures of comedy in the latter half of the twentieth century.” —The Washington Post

“Open this book anywhere, and you’re bound to find some interesting nugget from someone who has had you in stitches many, many times.” —Janet Maslin, The New York Times

“An amazing read, full of insights and connections both creative and interpersonal.” — The New Yorker

“Fascinating and revelatory.” —Chicago Tribune

“For fans of stand-up, Sick in the Head is a Bible of sorts.” — Newsweek

“These are wonderful, expansive interviews—at times brutal, at times breathtaking—with artists whose wit, intelligence, gaze, and insights are all sharp enough to draw blood.” —Michael Chabon

“Anyone even remotely interested in comedy or humanity should own this book. It is hilarious and informative and it contains insightful interviews with the greatest comics, comedians, and comediennes of our time. My representatives assure me I will appear in a future edition.” —Will Ferrell

Genres: Nonfiction, Humor, Comedy, Memoir, Biography, Pop Culture, Biography Memoir

489 pages, Hardcover

First published June 16, 2015

About the author

Judd Apatow is an Emmy Award-winning American film producer, screenwriter, director and former stand-up comedian. He is best known for producing a distinct series of critically and commercially successful comedy-style films, including Anchorman, The 40-Year-Old Virgin, Talladega Nights, Knocked Up, Superbad, Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story, Forgetting Sarah Marshall, Step Brothers, Pineapple Express, and Funny People. He is the founder of Apatow Productions, a film production company that also developed the critically acclaimed cult television series Freaks and Geeks and Undeclared.

Reviews

[Taylor · Rating 2 out of 5]

I started to get really annoyed half way into this book for one reason: Judd Apatow isn't likeable. He markets this book as a collection of "interviews" he has had with comedians and yet, they aren't interviews at all. It's mainly Judd Apatow forcefully interjecting his own complaints and experiences as a means of validating his own credibility to these celebrities. It comes off as whiney and self depricating. I would've enjoyed the book more if it had been purely focused on those he was interviewing rather than reading the SAME anecdotes about his life in every chapter. I feel like Apatow considers himself to be the ring leader of the comedians of his generation, but with multiple failures and few successes under his belt, it's hard for him to justify this notion. Oh and just for the record, Funny People is awful.

[Fabian · Rating 5 out of 5]

A gem for a few comedians & most comedian enthusiasts. I don't know where I fit in that demographic, but this is certainly indispensable to certain members of the artistic community, that's for damn sure. As much as I tried to ignore the self-aggrandizing, its undeniably present in this collection of interviews that range from snoozefest to almost-bitchfest! The better ones include Seinfeld, Roseanne & Steven Colbert; the lamest ones are from his "heroes", i.e. the elder comics such as Mel & Al brooks (mostly they recount accolades too much).

No, his angle is that of Father: he loves to ask modern comedians mostly how they deal with their families and their success. Never about how they got there, but how they enjoy the spoils & not feel too guilty about it afterward. We totally KNOW Mr. Apatow is an outstanding member of this current comedy circle, but hot-damn! his tentacles are EVEReewhere!

[Diane · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book about comedy has gotten me through some difficult times. My mother has cancer, and this book kept me company at doctor's offices, in hospital waiting rooms, and at the end of long days, even if I only had enough energy to read a few pages before falling asleep.

Judd Apatow loves comedy, and so do I. But Judd Apatow loved it enough to go interview his favorite comedians and performers, asking them about their career, their process and their lives. It's an interesting and delightful read, and the pieces are organized alphabetically, so it's easy to jump around and read about your favorite people first.

The first interview I read — and the reason I ended up buying my own copy of the book — was with Jerry Seinfeld. I started reading the piece while browsing in a bookstore, and it was so thoughtful that I couldn't wait to tell my friends how awesome it was. There are so many great quotes in it that I had trouble picking a passage to post here, but this is a favorite:

Judd: For me, I wanted to be a comedian and I wanted to work from a very early age because I was afraid of being broke. What was your core motivation?

Jerry: To never have to do anything else. I learned very young in this business that you bust your ass or you get thrown out of the kingdom. My motivation was not wanting to leave the kingdom. Plus, I just love the life of it. I love my independence and the joy of hearing laughs and making jokes. It's as simple as that.

Judd: Does the TV show seem like this weird little dream that happened in the middle of your stand-up career?

Jerry: That's a very good description of it.

Judd: Like this odd distraction for eight or nine years and then back to real life?

Jerry: Obviously, after the show, I saw there were many other avenues available for me. I missed the solitude. I missed the grimness and the simplicity of the life. I remember working it out with a friend of mine, James Spader. I said, "What do I do with my life now?" And he said, "Well, what has been the best experience that you've had so far?" And I said, "For me, it has been performing for live audiences." You kind of get to do that on TV, but TV is so much work and the pipeline is just too long. In stand-up, you get addicted to that intensity: You have an idea for something, and then you're onstage that night and people are reacting to it. That's very intense."

There are also great interviews with Albert Brooks, Amy Schumer, Chris Rock, Garry Shandling, Jay Leno, Jimmy Fallon, Jon Stewart, Key & Peele, Louis C.K., Marc Maron, Mel Brooks, Sarah Silverman, Stephen Colbert, and Steve Martin, and that doesn't even cover everyone. If you're interested in comedians and comedy, this is a marvelous and enjoyable book. I highly recommend it.

[Kristen · Rating 2 out of 5]

I DID IT, I DID IT, I DID IT! I'm FINALLY done with this book!!!!!! It only took multiple borrows from the library (massive props to the LAPL--you da #1 champ here!) and a couple of hours on several planes to finally finish it, BUT I DID IT.

This book SHOULD NOT have been as much of a labor as it was. I tend to like Judd Apatow movies (whether directed or produced) and he's written for a lot of comics that are generally pretty funny. Not only that, but he interviewed a ton of comedians that are well-respected and that I personally love, like Jim Carrey, Steve Martin, and a bunch of others.

BUT OH. MY. GOD. NO ONE HAS EVER BEEN SO UPSET ABOUT THEIR PARENTS GETTING DIVORCED AS JUDD APATOW HAS! Sweet CHRIST man, you were 48 when this book was published, and the interviews happened throughout the course of a lifetime; you'd THINK at some point, you'd moveon.com or change.org or fucking anything and ACCEPT what happened, BUT NOPE. It's especially infuriating to hear about how depressed he was about his parents' divorce when you compare it to actual tragedies some of these comics had, like Jim Carrey and being homeless with his family at 16, or Stephen Colbert's father and brother dying on a plane crash when he was 10. SHADDUP ABOUT YOUR DUMB PARENTS, YOU'RE FINE, MAN. Or, IDK, if you're not, GO TALK TO A THERAPIST.

Part of reading a good interview means that the interviewer has to be willing to 1) ask interesting questions, 2) be able to be vulnerable enough to get the interviewee to open up and be revealing, and 3) be a good listener. While Apatow does frequently enough ask decent, and sometimes, great questions, he is only really able to be "vulnerable" about his parents divorce, being upset about Freaks and Geeks getting cancelled too soon, not getting enough recognition for Funny People, or feeling generally anxious. So boring, and especially in comparison to the people he's interviewing. Not only that, but he's not a good listener. Reading the transcripts, you can see he interrupts his subjects frequently and then does a little rant about his own neuroses.

I'm so frustrated because I really love to listen to comedians talk about comedy and get into the art of what makes something funny and get into the machinery of jokes. Some interviews were great, just because the person who is talking is always wonderful, like Albert Brooks (whose birth name is Albert Einstein--how about that?!), Steve Martin, Stephen Colbert, Maria Bamford, Harold Ramis, and a few others. I think he didn't do justice to some comedians, like Amy Schumer, or Sarah Silverman, or Sarah Berhard. Jeff Garlin, David Sedaris, and Keye & Peele are also great, but can you mess up those interviews? Also, how dare you whine about your parents being divorced when you're talking to someone who was abandoned by their dad? Shut up, at least your dad was still there for you.

I skipped the Marc Maron interview because FUCK THAT 100%. Definitely don't need to read two idiot man-boys circle-jerking about their anxieties when nothing really terrible has actually happened to either of them. NOPE. I don’t even need to know how much they talked about divorce and being anxious about the world despite being rich, white men. Nobody should care.

Although I read this book in eBook format on my Nook, because I borrowed it from the library, and I'm not savvier, I can't find out how many times the word "divorce" or its derivatives come up, but if I had to estimate, I'd put it at roughly 829 times. If only I could get a dollar for each time it came up, what a time to be alive.

No dogs barked in the distance, but that's because it's transcripts of interviews. A dog probably did actually bark in real life somewhere in the distance. Who knows? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[Ashley · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was an overall interesting book full of conversations. It is not comedic itself but ABOUT comedy and the people who create it. So, if you're going into the book expecting to laugh, you're really setting both yourself and the book up for failure. This book isn't for people looking for empty laughs, it's for people looking to read sometimes very personal conversations about comedy behind the scenes, what it takes to do the work, how it effects comedians personally, what kind of person becomes a comic, and their experiences with success (or lack thereof). It is very inside baseball. If you like that sort of thing, you will like this book.

I happen to love listening to people talk about being good at their jobs, so I knew I would love this. It's also a neat conceit that half the interviews are from 1983/1984 and the other half after 2005 (most of them are from 2014, as he was preparing this book, but there a handful of press appearances, magazine interviews, commentaries and panels included from previous years as well). As a precocious sixteen year old comedy nerd, Apatow was in possession of a high school radio show, and he basically tricked a bunch of up and coming (and in some cases already successful) comics to let him interview them, and most of the time when they realized he was just a kid, it was already too late. It's fun to watch them respond to his earnest questions.

The later interviews are much more personal. Oftentimes, he's interviewing friends or co-creators, so there's a personal bond there that comes through in the conversation. Oftentimes, the conversation becomes just as much about Apatow's life and career as his subjects, which is why this book is subtitled 'conversations about life and comedy' instead of 'interviews about life and comedy'. 'Conversations' implies a back and forth, give and exchange.

I only had a couple of complaints about this as a collection. First, Apatow totally shoehorns in interviews with Eddie Vedder and Spike Jonze, mostly because he just wanted to, even though they really don't fit in with the tone of the rest of the book. They're just as introspective, but it was still jarring when the conversations shifted away from comedy in their chapters (I did end up skipping through the Jonze chapter, in the end, because I had twenty minutes to finish the book before it was due back at the library, and really wanted to read the Stephen Colbert and Steve Martin chapters). And second, some of the stuff Apatow would talk about with his subjects got a bit repetitive after a while, as he would tell variations of the same stories/sentiments to many of them. I see how he does as an interview technique, but it was still a little annoying after a while to get the same story over and over again, even if it was in the service of facilitating conversation.

Definitely recommend this if you are an Apatow fan or interested in comedy even a little bit. Some of the stuff he gets these guys to say is super fascinating. Steve Martin, Stephen Colbert, Amy Schumer, Roseanne Barr, Jon Stewart, Louis C.K., Harold Ramis, Chris Rock, and even Lena Dunham, whose stuff I tend to avoid, were all excellent reads. Even the stuff that wasn't technically interviews, like panels with Larry Gelbart and Mel Brooks, and the Freaks and Geeks oral history were super interesting. It was also interesting to me as a person who aims to create things to see all these successful creators/artists, and what they all have in common.

[Lee Anne · Rating 2 out of 5]

First, let's get this out of the way: even if you didn't write your own dust jacket blurb, you have to approve it, and it takes a lot of balls to allow yourself to be called "one of the greatest comedic minds of [your] generation." Even if it's financially and commercially true.

OK, now the actual review: when Apatow was out promoting this (I heard him on Howard Stern, and Gilbert Gottfried's podcast), he talked about his teen years, when he became obsessed with comedians, and, using his gig at his high school radio station as an in, would interview all the famous comedians of the day, and how he still to this day had the tape recordings. So I was safe to assume, I thought, that this book would be all those interviews. That is not the case. A handful of them are here, but most of these interviews are reprinted magazine interviews, transcripts of panel discussions or film festival appearances, and, in one case, the DVD commentary from "The Cable Guy." So while some of the material is entertaining, funny, philosophical, etc. (I really liked Spike Jonze, and Apatow's clear love of Garry Shandling moved me), it kind of feels like a ripoff, and if you're a big Apatow fan, or consumer of pop culture, you may have read or seen the bulk of this already. Apatow himself comes across as neurotically bitter, and one of those people who has those stock stories about himself that he probably feels define them, so he goes back to them again and again. This, combined with my sister seeing "Trainwreck" right when I started this book, and railing against its "be normal and you'll get the love you deserve" ending (one of her pet peeves), made me like him less than I did when I started the book. Too bad.

And the Eddie Vedder interview doesn't belong in here, no matter how Apatow tries to justify it in the forward to that piece. You can tell he just wants to show off that he knows him, and I hate those worshippers who have made Vedder into the Gen-X Bruce Springsteen/Bob Dylan poet of the people.

And, at nearly 500 pages, this book, like most Apatow movies, is about 1/3 too long.

[Jaga · Rating 2 out of 5]

Yes, this book actually inspired me to prepare my own stand-up routine and it begins like this: So what's the deal with interrupting people while interviewing them... Judd...

[Snotchocheez · Rating 4 out of 5]

4 stars

Literary purists might have a tough time with the interview format of Sick in the Head, which is stuffed to the gills with transcriptions of conversations with many of the greatest minds of the comedy, television and film-making worlds.

It occasionally feels overstuffed as Judd Apatow's been interviewing folks in the comedy world since he was a bepimpled high school student, long before embarking upon his stellar career in the comedy biz. The book itself is not precisely a rip-roaring trove of laffs, but it quite fascinating to see how Apatow's path has intersected with many of these incredibly talented people. Close to 40 different folks are interviewed; the best ones by far are those that Apatow's had a working relationship with (the obvious: Seth Rogen, Adam Sandler and Ben Stiller) but it becomes increasingly clear as the book progresses just how full Apatow's life has been. He's been associated with or has admired damn near everyone. Some great surprises for me in here: interviews with authot/filmmaker Miranda July and. sk8r boi-turned-film-auteur Spike Jonze. My fave of the the bunch: "Curb Your Enthusiasm"'s Jeff Garlin (reminiscing their early stand-up comedy days together). Biggest surprises: I had no clue Apatow was a joke writer for Roseanne Barr's series, or the producer of Lena Dunham's HBO series "Girls".

No there's not much writing on display here, but I didn't care. If you're at all interested in the comedy world (past or present) or Judd Apatow's career arc, chances are you'll be enchanted by this book, too.

[Amanda · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is a book about comedy, but it is not a comedic book. Comprised entirely of interviews between Judd Apatow and various other comedians that he conducted between the 1980s and today, the focus is more on what led these people to comedy than the humor itself. It isn't really a memoir, though Apatow does reveal some things about his own past and process during these interviews as well. I wasn't a fan of the writing style as the interviews are presented as a straight back and forth, with no embellishment or outside description beyond an introductory paragraph at the beginning of each one. I think it would lend itself better to a recording than print. He talks to a lot of big names, so I recommend it to people interested in celebrity interviews, or any young artist, not just comedians, looking for validation of the struggles they have to go through to "make it" from people who have been there.

*I certify according to FTC regulations that I received this book through the Goodreads First-Reads program.*

[Jenny · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was very repetitive. Judd was a better interviewer when he was in high school. As an adult he talks too much about himself and his parent's divorce for the comedians to share much of anything. Plus, he constantly name drops and keeps digging for compliments about his movie Funny People.

[Arthur Graham · Rating 4 out of 5]

Admittedly, some of these conversations were better than others, but on the whole this was a real treasure trove of interview material. Even just the span of time it took to compile (30 years!) is simply staggering. Pick it up; you'll be sure to learn at least an interesting thing or two about some of your favorite comics.

[Rob · Rating 4 out of 5]

There's this notion that as you get older you eventually come to peace with who you are. The hardest part of that process for me was realizing I'm too insecure to do what I really want with my life. I've always loved acting, and for a time I loved writing (until academia beat that passion out of me). Growing up, I just always assumed I'd get involved with TV or movies or theater, doing something for a living that genuinely made me happy. And while I do love teaching, the most fulfilling times of my life were when I was doing improv or writing sketches in college or teaching high school kids to do improv or acting and directing in community theater. But when I had the chance to make the leap – I lived near Los Angeles for fifteen years – I couldn't make myself do it. I even wrote a couple screenplays, but the thought of subjecting myself to the grind of judgment and evaluation was just too much. So I gave up on it. And now of course I hate writing and my teaching schedule eliminates even the possibility of doing some local theater in the evening. The closest I get these days to the thing I love is watching as many movies as I can.

All of which is a lengthy, navel-gazing setup to explain why I'm still irresistibly attracted to books about the creative process, even though as a frustrated, wannabe artist I'm no longer engaged in that process myself. Viewed from that angle, Judd Apatow's Sick in the Head is a delight, a 550-page series of interviews with various comedians, actors, and directors that could've been double the length and I still would've devoured it. As a high school student, Apatow recognized his desire to be a comedian and suckered various managers into letting him interview their up-and-coming comedians, never letting on he was actually a teenager lugging around a tape recorder for his high school radio station. The book starts with his first interview – a 1984 talk with the still relatively-unknown Jerry Seinfeld – and ends with (in this new, expanded edition of the book) a 2016 interview with author David Sedaris. In between we get conversations about comedy and creativity from such diverse pesonalities as Steve Martin, Garry Shandling, Jim Carrey, Sarah Silverman, Harold Ramis, Mel Brooks, Jon Stewart, Key and Peele, Louis C.K., Lena Dunham, and more – essentially a murderer's row of the best comedic minds of the last 50 years.

It's a fool's errand to try to condense a book like this into a couple paragraphs, but there's no denying the big takeaway from these interviews (especially in light of how I opened this review): the common thread among all these comedians is an unerring faith in their ability and the ways in which they could add their voice to the larger artistic conversation. That isn't to say they didn't have moments of doubt, but it's fascinating to hear firsthand accounts of how their drive to do what they loved overcame whatever insecurity they felt. Interestingly, this is especially true of Apatow himself, who speaks freely with his guests of how critical he is of his own work (and worth). I'm not sure what lesson I personally should take from this; at 43, whatever creative ship I might have hopped aboard has almost certainly sailed. But as someone who lives vicariously through the lives of those doing what I wish I were doing, it's compelling stuff.

(Tangent: It's particularly fascinating for me to hear from the people who are Apatow's contemporaries. They [and he] are roughly my age, and it's fun to hear how we all prize the same pop culture touchstones – Carlin, Monty Python, SNL, Pryor, et. al. – even if they eventually went on to do something with their obsessions.)

A bunch of interview transcripts may not sound like the most entertaining read in the world, but trust me: it is. Especially if you consider yourself a fan of comedy, Sick in the Head is essential reading.

[Stephanie Laurenza · Rating 5 out of 5]

This collection is amazing. I have so much that I could, that I want to say about it but don't want to ramble. What I will say is this: this was the book I talked about while reading it...to my husband, to my co-workers, to my friends. "I'm reading Judd Apatow's book - it's SO good - he says Jimmy Fallon is EXACTLY who you think he is!" This book is a dream come true for a pop culture loving person.

[Lynne Spreen · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a goldmine of conversations between Judd Apatow and successful people in the entertainment industry (mostly comedians). I enjoyed seeing how decent and hard-working the majority were. How much they slaved to get to where they are. How smart they are. Some of it resonated for me as a writer, to see how another creative person works.

What I liked the least: when interviewees recited their job histories.

What I liked the most: when they spoke about the bigger issues about life. Here are a few examples.

Harold Ramis: "...you’re famous. Now what? Now it becomes a measure of character, growth, and development. Who do you want to be from that point on?...Growth is hard...When you’re almost sixty years old there’s got to be something more going on. What are the challenges of being a grown-up in the world?" (Lynne: I loved this, because I'm all about rethinking things when you're around 50, 60, and older).

Jerry Seinfeld on being a dad: "...my son (insulted me) even worse than that. We were making up words as a game at dinner one night and I said, 'You know, I've made up a lot of words that people actually use as words.' And my son said, 'Uh, really, like what? UNFUNNY?'"

Larry Gelbart: "I don’t worry about what (the audience will) get. I write for myself on the assumption that there are a number of people who have similar sensibilities and will appreciate what it is..."

Lena Dunham: "There are always people telling you that your experience doesn’t matter, that it’s navel gazing or unnecessary. 'We don’t need to hear about twentysomething girls who feel like they’re ten pounds overweight. We don’t need to hear about forty-year-olds getting divorced.' But we do need to hear it, because...it can be the difference between someone feeling like they have a place in the world and someone feeling they don’t." (Lynne: I write for people who are 60-something, so thank you for the validation, Lena.)

Louis C.K. on not being chosen for gigs: "I'm glad I didn't get it. I'm glad for every single thing I didn't get."

Great interview question: Judd asks, "Who's voice is in your head that's wise?"

Mike Nichols: every scene is either a fight, a seduction, or a negotiation.

Judd: "When your parents behave in ways that make you feel unsafe, you think, 'Oh, I guess I’m in charge of myself.' And when you’re fourteen, that’s not a great thing. It kind of never goes away. As a producer, I’m always assuming things are going to crash and I’m trying to figure out what could go wrong before it happens. It’s helpful for work. But it’s a terrible way to live your life." (Lynne: amen, brother.)

I could go on, but you get the idea. I think Judd Apatow poured his considerable heart and soul into this book, and I recommend it.

[Po Po · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very Enjoyable.

Favorite chapters were interviews with (1) Leslie Mann, (2) Amy Schumer, (3) Sarah Silverman, (4) Lena Dunham and (5) Miranda July. Listed in no particular order, except for (1) Leslie Mann. I especially liked her chapter most of all.

The major takeaway from this book is: success (as measured by society --fame and fortune) doesn't necessarily bring you happiness. I could give you the astoundingly long list of featured folks in the book who are surprisingly miserable, but will let you read it for yourself.

[Jeremy · Rating 4 out of 5]

This isn't a funny book, this is a book about funny.

Apatow has put together a veritable treasure trove of comedic interviews! Jerry Seinfeld, Albert Brooks, Steve Martin, Chris Rock, Amy Schumer, Mel Brooks, Sarah Silverman, Jon Stewart, Stephen Colbert, Roseanne, Louis CK, Jay Leno--Judd interviews 'em all over a span of 30 years!

Since Apatow he has been immersed in the comedy world for so long (whether as a lonely child transcribing SNL skits, a teenager conning his way into interviewing Jerry Seinfeld, a stand-up comedian, a TV writer, or as a creator of some of the greatest comedic movies of all-time), he is able to connect with each comedian personally, and contextuliaze their work in a way a regular journalist couldn't.

If you're someone who loves WTF with Marc Maron, you will really enjoy these interviews--in the sense that the interviews aren't necessarily funny, it's more about how to be funny and what life is like for funny people. But Apatow is pretty emotionally detached, so these interviews aren't nearly as raw as Marc Maron's can be (though Apatow does have some heartfelt moments). There's something about comedians that even if they don't like each other, they share a weird bond.

I'm not a stand-up or anything, but I'm a bit of a comedy nerd who grew up idolizing Chris Rock, Adam Sandler and Louis CK. These are the kinds of people who make sense to me, but they're kind of damaged, and that often shines through in the interviews (the Roseanne one was very rough).

Don't read this book if you want to laugh, read this book if you are fascinated by comedy.

[India · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is seriously one of the best books I’ve ever read. I’m already a huge fan of interviews and comedy and I love Judd Apatow and hadn’t realized he’d been interviewing for so long. To spend time immersed in these words and conversations was really wonderful for me and felt therapeutic and connecting, somehow. I laughed, I cried, I learned about things and people I may not have otherwise. Such a good read.

[Lena · Rating 4 out of 5]

Judd Apatow is best known as the producer of films like Knocked Up and This is 40. But he has been a self-described obsessive comedy nerd since his teens, when he first began interviewing stand-up comics for his high-school radio station in effort to learn as much as possible about the form. In the intervening years, his curiosity about comedy has not diminished, and this book is a collection of those early interviews combined with more current discussions with the many famous performers he has become friends with along the way.

For those with an interest in comedy, there is a lot of fascinating material in his conversations. His life-changing original interview with pre-Seinfeld Jerry is continued in a second talk from 2014, in which the changing (and unchanging) views of both success stories are rich with insight.

Other highlights among the 36 interviews included discussions with current comedy rock stars Louis C.K., Lena Dunham, John Stewart, Key and Peele, and Marc Maron, as well as classics including Harold Ramis, Garry Shandling and Mike Nichols. Reading this book is a significant education in the history of comedy; Apatow's obsessive study of it makes him uniquely qualified to draw out the stories behind the creation of some of the most groundbreaking work that is now so much a part of our culture many of us don't recognize how radical it was at its time.

As a fan who follows both comedy and discussions of comedy, there was some material in here that was redundant for me. Seinfeld covers similar ground in his web series Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee, so there were several interviews that were mostly echos of stories heard elsewhere. I also skimmed past maybe 15% of the interviews with people whose work I wasn't familiar enough with to be drawn into the conversation.

An unexpected benefit of reading the book came from the particularly fascinating oral history of Apatow's first TV series, Freaks and Geeks, where Apatow, James Franco, Seth Rogan and Jason Segal began their lifelong working collaboration. Their attempt to create an intelligent show about the less pretty people in high school was cancelled after not even a full season, but the story was so interesting we promptly binge watched it on Netflix and really enjoyed it.

Though Apatow is interviewing others in this book, he reveals quite a lot about his rather neurotic self in the process. This, including a joint interview done with his wife Leslie Mann, discussions about the use of his own daughters in his films, and talks how family changes comedy with other parent comics is one I found particularly interesting as it is less well covered territory.

At a time when thoughtful personal revelation has become more and more a part of entertainment, this book is a great read not just for the comedy itself but also as an education for those aspiring to it.

[Theresa Alan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Although this book is interviews with comedians, it also has a lot of inspirational words of wisdom for people who are pursuing any career in the arts. It’s also fun for me to hear the inside scoop on how movies get made—the ups and downs and rewrites ordered from non-creative executives, and this book provides ample insider info.

This is definitely a must-read for aspiring comedians, comedic writers, and comedic actors.

Apatow started interviewing comedians when he was just fifteen years old for his high school radio station. He’d call the comedian’s agent and the agent wouldn’t look up what radio station it was and then young Apatow would show up for the interview, and in the stories he shared, the comedians were always gracious despite the fact he was just a kid. It was the most fun for me to read stories where he interviewed the performer back in 1983 and then again thirty years later. For example, he interviewed Seinfeld before his name became synonymous with being one of the best sitcoms on television and then again in 2014. My favorite chapter was on Roseanne Barr—it was so fascinating to read about her personal and professional struggles and successes.

Parts of this read like Apatow’s autobiography—he attributes a tremendous amount of his personal angst at his parents’ divorce and all I can think is: Join the club, buddy, zillions of us are children of divorce and that didn’t cripple us. Other parts read like a self-help book. Apatow is awed by comedians who are actually happy people (like Jimmy Fallon) and don’t turn to comedy as a way to chase the demons away. I was a little disappointed that my favorite comedian wasn’t included—Wanda Sykes—but he included several comedian/writer/actors that I admire and was thrilled to learn more about.

This is not a fast-paced read (it’s 500 pages) and while there are definitely some chuckles, it’s mostly about struggling through failure and continuing to work and not let self-doubt and self-sabotage defeat you. He quotes the amazing and brilliant Chris Rock as saying, "You learn more from f*cking up than you do from success, unfortunately. And failure, if you don't let it defeat you, is what fuels your future success."

[Timothy Seibel · Rating 2 out of 5]

I love Judd Apatow, I’ve seen just about everything he’s done and rewatched many of his movies, but book did not do it for me. It is interviews with different actors, comedians, and writers from Judd’s past. At first I was interested and thought it was a cool concept. After about 300 pages of interviews, some of whom I didn’t know and didn’t find interesting, I skipped around to the people I wanted to read and called it a day. The interviews were repetitive and the most depressing part, majority of people said they had their big break around 27, my age. Not what you keep wanting to read riding the train home to your parent’s house after work.

[Debra Komar · Rating 4 out of 5]

Apatow in conversation with some of my favorite comedians (and Eddie Vedder, for reasons never fully explained). I, too, am a comedian freak and found this really fascinating. As a teenager, Apatow began calling up comedians and interviewing them, trying to learn the tricks of the trade. The result is more interesting than funny, but what is surprising is how different yet similar so many of these comedians are. The chapters with Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert are standouts. David Letterman is conspicuous in his absence, although he is referenced by almost everyone. If you love comedy, this is a great book.

[Kira · Rating 5 out of 5]

For fans of stand-up, Sick in the Head is a Bible of sorts, and Apatow’s interviews with Seinfeld, Leno and Rock serve as its de facto gospels. For everyone else, the book is a glimpse into the mind of a comedian—or 38 of them—and the legacy of laughter-inducing honesty they live to protect. Which makes this an extremely relevant book.

[FULL REVIEW]

[Jennifer · Rating 2 out of 5]

To be honest, I gave up on this book about 80 pages in. If you are interested in pursuing a career as a comedian, then this is a perfect book for you. If you are in search of a humorous read (as I was), this is not for you.

[Steve Barton II · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of my favorite directors interviewed a few different people from the world of comedy and I loved it!

[Bruce · Rating 3 out of 5]

You are probably familiar with some component of Judd Apatow's professional comedic output, whether as pitchman, gagman, writer, director, and/or producer (see, e.g., Freaks and Geeks, The Cable Guy, Funny People, and, oh, okay, Anchorman, The 40-Year-Old Virgin, Knocked Up, This is 40, and Trainwreck... and The Larry Sanders Show, and Girls, and... I could go on, but won't). Irrespective of your feelings about any of those or other works bearing his involvement in some way, this book comes off as only two-and-a-half stars in the reading, if at least three in the analysis. What you need to know here is that Apatow has here lazily compiled 38 interviews with comedians and celebrities he either conducted or participated in. I say lazily, since the compilation is assembled alphabetically by first name, with no attempt to impose a grander, editorial or artistic theme.

Still, it's a weighty collection that dates all the way back to 1983, when the teenaged Judd first checked a boombox-sized cassette recorder out of his high school's parking-lot reach radio station to meet rising star Jerry Seinfeld. The book's list of covered creatives ranges from Steve Allen to Jimmy Fallon with a double dollop of Seinfeld, if for no other reason than it seemed to make sense to check back in with the man who (for purposes of the interview conceit) started it all.

If Seinfeld's influence on the book is inadvertant, it's not insignificant, as Sick in the Head shares much in common with Seinfeld's own Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee. It's no knock against Apatow that Seinfeld's is much the better work. For one thing, Comedians in Cars more strictly adheres to the promise of having a conversation about funny concepts and routines (what constitutes humor, what kinds of jokes land and why, and what doesn't and why not). For another, Seinfeld's show does what Apatow's text cannot, namely allow you to see and hear the actual delivery of the talent involved. Those interested in the machinery that drives contemporary comics can do worse than to watch Seinfeld's webisodes.

Still, outside the limitations imposed by print, what Apatow's book manages that Seinfeld's cameras cannot is to shine indirect light on Apatow's monomaniacal obsession with family life. His parents undertook an acrimonious divorce starting when Apatow was in 5th grade that blasted an angry swath over his adolescence. About half of these interviews were conducted between 2014 and 2015 with this book specifically in mind, and in nearly all of them, Apatow shows far more interest in his subjects' parenting philosophies and depictions of work/life balance than in their approach to or expression of humor. His questions almost coalesce into a quest for personal validation as he repeatedly takes advantage of interview byplay to relate his own experiences and epiphanies, with the result that Sick in the Head offers neither a synthesis of standup performance/comedic writing approaches nor an Aristotelian attempt at cataloging stylistic idiosyncracies. Don't get me wrong. It remains interesting and at times bittersweetly humorous (as with the best of Apatow's mature creative output), it's just not the metaconversation on comedy you might reasonably expect from an edited anthology of interviews.

Not to say that the book is utterly devoid of such material. Over 38 interviews, something's going to stick. Here are two excerpts I bookmarked when I ran across them, quoting first Harold Ramis (writer/director of Ghostbusters and Groundhog Day at page 123), then Steve Martin (writer/star of The Jerk, Roxanne, and Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, to name only those movies you should not die without first having seen, at page 488):

Grandiosity is the curse of what we do. There's a great rabbinical motto that says you start each day with a note in each pocket. One note says, "The world was created for you today," and the other note says, "I'm a speck of dust in a meaningless universe," and you have to balance both things.... I'm as much a product of our culture as I am a participant in it. It's very gratifying on a personal level to know that people responded so much and cherish those films...[, but o]ur audience could be an audience of one, like when you grab your best friend and say, "Read this. What do you think?" Our little hearts pound as our friends read our poem, look at our painting, or read our script. If they like it, our spirits soar. It's great. We can get grandiose from the approval of very few people.

-- and --

JA: "You've developed a different comic persona now..."
SM: "Yeah, I have.... I love playing the egotistical asshole."

For me, these two quotes are Sick at its healthiest, cutting to the heart of what it means to be funny and to want to be seen as a comic. Comedy can be viewed as an overt power play in the ways that it humiliates the powerful, subverts intent, and (temporarily, and usually in a context perceived as safe) wrongfoots the receiver. However, and to the extent that successful attempts at humor grant the instant gratification of a laugh response, comedy will briefly assuage insecurity or assert the joker's humanity, the former by way of narcissistic assertion, the latter (especially for self-deprecating types) by humility. Presenting over 30 years of his own captured dialogues, Apatow reveals himself both ways, with the primary weakness of his interview collection lying in the recurring, blatant, banal, and on-the-nose outing of his needs. It's intimate and occasionally enjoyable, but not nearly as entertaining, generalizable, or insightful as his thematically-equivalent work in film and television.

[Stewart Tame · Rating 4 out of 5]

For some reason, I had it in my head that this was Apatow’s memoirs or something like that. And, while I wasn't averse to reading such a book, I wasn't really familiar enough with his work--I kind of knew who he was, but that’s about it--to feel like I would get much out of it. So the book was sort of on my radar, but at a fairly low priority.

But then I chanced upon a copy at an attractively low price. And, flipping through it, I realized it wasn't autobiography so much as Apatow interviewing a slew of top notch comedians and comedy writers. Needless to say, the attractively low price became a bargain too good to resist, and I started in on the book at my earliest convenience.

Judd Apatow has been a comedy fan for pretty much his entire life. While working at his high school radio station, he noticed that a fellow student was getting interviews with new bands like REM and Siouxsie & the Banshees. His first thought was something like, “Wait? You can DO that?” And his second was, “Maybe I can do that with comedians.” He’d contact their agents and ask to interview their clients for his radio program, carefully neglecting to mention the station’s broadcast radius (barely beyond the school's parking lot) and his age (fifteen). His subjects were taken aback by his youthfulness, but gave graciously of their time and expertise. Apatow continued to interview comedians off and on throughout his life.

Some of the interviews in this book date back to his high school days, and some were conducted new for this book. Jerry Seinfeld gets two, one from the high school radio days (1983) and one especially for the book (2014). Some of these have previously appeared--the conversation between Apatow, Jim Carrey, and Ben Stiller was originally the commentary track for the DVD release of The Cable Guy. Hardcover purchasers take note: there are several interviews--including one with Eric Idle--that were added for the paperback release.

The book is fascinating. Apatow is an excellent interviewer, eliciting all kinds of anecdotes and insights from his subjects. As a longtime fan of comedy myself, I almost literally couldn't put this down. It's compulsively readable. I’d think, “Okay, after this current interview, I’ll put the book down. Wait. The next interview is Sarah Silverman!? Okay, gotta read that …” Normally I have a few books that I’m reading at any one time and switch between them according to my mood. But all of them went on hold for the duration of this book.

I’m moderately curious as to whether this is available as an audiobook, and, if so, how they worked it? Did they just use Apatow’s original interviews? Have someone (or several someones) try to imitate the various voices? Try to get the original interviewees to reread their parts? It seems like a book that would lose something to have just one person reading it.

Needless to say, if Apatow wants to do further volumes of interviews, I’m definitely interested. Highly recommended!

[AdiTurbo · Rating 3 out of 5]

On the one hand, this book gives an interesting peek into the world of movie-making and stand-up. It has interviews with some very intelligent and original people, who tell interesting stories and anecdotes, and expose a lot about their emotional and personal lives. But on the other hand, it's a lot of very insecure people trying to reassure each other that their brilliant and fantastic and the universe's gift to humanity. There's a very distinct lack of perspective - it's true, you contribute a lot to the well being of people (mainly very young people), but you guys haven't cured cancer yet or gone to the moon. All this self-enchantment is a bit off-putting, and I am also not very interested in your "terribly difficult" problems at work. People who have to manually scrub toilets for 14 hours a day have troubles at work. You guys really don't, so enough with the self pity. Also, how many times can you hear about Apatow's sad childhood? I'm sorry if I sound callous, but it's really enough to hear about it once or twice, not in almost every interview. In short, this book has its interesting points here and there, but is not great unless you're looking to go into the business.

[Kathy Ding · Rating 2 out of 5]

I really wanted to love this book; not like it, love it. I ended up skipping 1/3 of this book because of the sheer number of interviews I did not care 2 sh*ts for.

What a lazy book, Judd Apatow! Seriously, the whole book was just transcripts. It didn't have a single sentence that he crafted. For all the talk about how he wrote jokes for all these other big shot comedians, why didn't he write a book with some original jokes? With all the repetition and name dropping, it felt like the entire thing was to glorify the industry and justify his life.

The one star is for his proceeds going to a charity. The other star is for the 2 or 3 interviews that were mildly amusing: Sarah Silverman's (surprisingly), Seth Rogen's and Mel Brooks's.
Skip this if you can. Readers can do better than read old interviews that are probably better in video form anyways. Bossypants simply massacres this book. I found myself yearning to read history textbooks during the middle of trying to get through this.

[Yvonne Pasquini · Rating 3 out of 5]

I like Judd Apatow's work. I like the people he interviews, and I love a good conversation about the creative process. The problem with this book is that all of these essays work well as stand alone pieces, but not lumped together. Because what ends up happening is that you hear Judd's story about his divorced parents and his neurosis and his radio show and his heartbreak over Freaks and Geeks about 50 times and by the time you are done with the book, you are completely over Judd Apatow. An editor should have went in and cleaned that up so it was not so repetitive, and this book would have been so much more enjoyable. It was also surprising that someone as successful as Judd should be so overtly self-conscious and jealous of other people's talent, and at times this made me uncomfortable. Like get it together. You are doing just fine.

I especially liked Jerry Seinfeld's interview. I was surprised by his views about about Transcendental Meditation and how he finds comfort knowing that nothing that we do today really matters, and that gives him the freedom to create.

[J.T. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Much like the best interviews on Marc Maron's WTF podcast, these interviews with (mostly) comedians don't focus so much on the craft of stand-up (or writing, directing, etc.) as on the psychology behind why each person became a comedian and what it means to be a comedian. I found something insightful and even profound in every single interview. I honestly enjoyed reading every interview, even if I was unfamiliar with their work. The author has hinted at conducting & compiling more interviews for a future volume, and I hope he delivers!