Charles Grodin: I Like It Better When You're Funny: Working In Television And Other Precarious Adventures

Back in his talk-show days, actor, writer, director, and commentator Charles Grodin specialized in confrontations of an almost Andy Kaufman-esque variety. As the host of his own show, or as a guest of the likes of Johnny Carson, David Letterman, and even John McLaughlin, he took odd, aggressive tacks on conversations, sometimes engaging in staged "snits" and at other times calmly taking other hosts to task for using cue cards, or not being sincere about the question "How are you?" In autobiographical books like We're Ready For You Mr. Grodin and It Would Be So Nice If You Weren't Here, Grodin has claimed that such facedowns were all jokes, and that he knew his "opponents" got the jokes and were enjoying them, even if he hadn't warned them beforehand and didn't feel comfortable discussing the situation afterward. But at times, it was as though he was playing a consistent character, a dispassionate judge who regarded everything from a slightly disgusted distance, then dropped his verdict on his subjects' heads from above. Some of that detached tone pervades his previous books, and it appears prominently throughout I Like It Better When You're Funny, Grodin's latest chunk of autobiography. The book takes up his life story circa the early '90s, when he first started trying to become a talk-show host. Like It Would Be So Nice, the new book charts the minutiae of Grodin's career, frequently pausing for show-biz anecdotes that sometimes lead into prim mini-lectures on topics like rudeness, or Bill Clinton's "private life," or the O.J. Simpson trial. At times, the lectures stretch into polemics, as Grodin holds forth at length on his distaste for the likes of Don Imus and Fox Television's Bill O'Reilly. But at least when he complains about O'Reilly's contemptuous showboating or Imus' racist epithets, Grodin seems to show real emotion. Much of When You're Funny, by comparison, comes across as bloodless and removed. Unlike If You Weren't Here (which addresses the constant rejection that comes with a show-business career) and We're Ready (an all-gravy collection of amusing tales), When You're Funny seems to lack a cohesive theme, apart from "serious stuff that's happened to Charles Grodin." It mostly plods dutifully along from point A to point B, avoiding strong feelings and below-surface-level revelations. As always, Grodin's stories are entertaining. But it's easy to feel that he's hiding his personality behind his anecdotes, just as he hides behind an antagonistic, straight-faced "joke" persona on talk shows. As a result, When You're Funny is fine for those who want to know about Charles Grodin, but it doesn't say much to those who want to know the man himself.