Cameron Esposito

Five jokes per page probably works great on stage; on the page, it's forced and unfunny. It would probably be educational to compare this to a David Sedaris book.

Curiously, the only chapter that was almost entirely without jokes was the one about the comedy industry, toward the end. I learned a lot about comedy from that one chapter (the history of standup vs improv; some of the weird social dynamics that come from chasing fame aka trying to make a paying career out of comedy), but at the end of the day, I still don't respect standup comedy as an art form.… (meer)

most of these essays deal with her catholic upbringing, family background, coming out, and learning to love herself. all of those are good. i was less interested in the ones about stand-up (i've heard of her but don't know her work; i'm not sure, though, that i'd be more interested in those parts even if i knew her. i think they were written more for aspiring comics, although her advice could of course be extrapolated to be more generally for everyone.) but these are largely well done, relatable, often funny, and almost always engaging. this was fun and easy, with a more serious undertone that makes it worthwhile.

i don't know if this is true but: "...the Church itself is one of the world's wealthiest organizations in land and liquid wealth. ... It does a lot to protect its wealth. Like consider this: the reason priests can't get married is because back in the day if they had kids - well, if they had sons - those sons would have been able to inherit church land."… (meer)