The account of the Frenchman is telling: Rich is as funny and honest about country music as about anything else, but the message is the same- ‘A valuable culture and tradition has been sold out by others.’ This isn't really a traditional memoir, it's more a collection of anecdotal essays ostensibly concerning the hit-and-miss nature of life lessons. Because Mr. Hall is a long established comedian, who apparently has developed a large following in the UK, there is more substance (not to mention cultural variety) to the stories shared here than your average celebrity of the moment tell-all. It's basically the tale of someone who found what he loves to do and somehow stumbled into a career doing it. Publisher Katy Follain said: ‘I am so excited for people to read Rich Hall’s book. It’s sharp, it’s witty and it’s extremely funny. Nailing It is a book of many ideas. It is not a straightforward autobiography of the acclaimed comedian Rich Hall. It is not a guide to comedy, or even to life as a comedian. It is not a tome of name-dropping grand-standing. It is not a travelogue, but it talks of travel. It is not a rags-to-riches story, although there are rags and a few riches along the way.

Rich the mouthy cowboy and Rich the erudite writer might be notions you find hard to reconcile at times, but I get it, it keeps you paying attention and for a comic that’s pretty much nirvana. It wasn’t exactly a triumph, and he didn’t get the girl, but he had found his true calling. Nailing It is a collection of true stories from both Hall’s professional and personal life where he really had to nail it. They’re not about glitz, or fame, or how he met his seventh wife at the rehab clinic and found spiritual direction.

Summary

BLURB: "A collection of hilarious and often absurd epiphanies in the legendary comedian's life that defined him - more in a for worse than for better kind of way - and all delivered in his unique deadpan style." It's rare for comedians to be as funny on paper as they are on stage, but Rich Hall nails it' - CARL HIAASEN A collection of hilarious and often absurd epiphanies in the legendary comedian's life that defined him—more in a for worse than for better kind of way—and all delivered in his unique deadpan style.

A collection of hilarious and often absurd epiphanies in the legendary comedian’s life that defined him – more in a for worse than for better kind of way – and all delivered in his unique deadpan style. Why do so many comedians want to be honoured as musicians? There is only a handful of entertainers who have ever been seen to combine and deploy both talents successfully: Les Dennis, victor Borge, Tom Lehrer … I loved this book. Absolutely adored it. I devoured it and savoured every word. A wild and wonderful love letter to comedy * Adam Hills * These are stories about the crux of the comedy moment - in both my professional and personal life - where I had to nail it. Screwball turn-of-events, wayward characters, unplanned disasters, and something-wonderful-right-away moments that made my life funny by happenstance. They're not all triumphs, but if someone propped me up at the end of the comedy bar and put a quarter in me, these are the tunes I would spin. I was performing in Las Vegas and haphazardly walked up on stage and said: “What’s with all the recreational vehicles in the parking lot? What’s with all these Winnebagos? Who would pay hundreds of thousands of dollars to live like the homeless?” People got up and walked out. I just kept making fun of these RVs, and then I realised it was an RV owners’ convention. I reached the point some comedians experience where you just get this feeling of vindication by seeing how many people you can lose during a show. I cleared out about two-thirds of the room by the end.

My thanks to both NetGalley and the publisher Hachette Book Group for an advanced copy of this memoir and recollections of a life spent being funny. I was doing this long before I met you’ may have been one of his best lines: I think of Joseph Hayden’s wife using the composer’s manuscripts for wrapping vegetables: ‘Behind every great man…’. Through a series of anecdotes and episodes from his life, Rich Hall builds a vivid picture of his life and career. We find out how he met his wife, Karen, how he first got into comedy, the girl who got away, and meeting the man who replaced him. Nailing It is described ‘a collection of funny and often absurd epiphanies... hilariously self-deprecating, deliciously acerbic and often utterly surreal’. Nailing It is a collection of true stories from both Hall's professional and personal life where he really had to nail it. They're not about glitz, or fame, or how he met his seventh wife at the rehab clinic and found spiritual direction. None of that happened to him.