Two Totally Different Memoirs By Vastly Different Men

It’s been a strange week for many reasons, and I must admit to having “hit the wall”.

In an effort to take stock and dust myself off I deliberately read two memoirs by Australian comedians over the last few days. Two comedians, though vastly different. Mammoth mistake.

The Happiest Refugee by Ahn Do is a lovely read which won several awards following its release in 2011.

It tells the story of the Do family fleeing South Vietnam during the civil war in the 70’s in a rickety boat, and includes tales of pirates and other life threatening adventures until their arrival in Australia. The comedian shares his background of living the immigrants dream, commencing in migrant hostels, to sharing rental accomodation in the western suburbs of Sydney with numerous other ethnic families, and working long hours to improve their lot in life.

Ahn shares his struggles being the kid with a Vietnamese accent at the Catholic School, of making friends and finding love.

The Happiest Refugee is a book which has it all – sadness, joy, laughter and tears- and is an inspirational tale of a family’s triumph over adversity. Though I’ve never seen Ahn Do perform Iive, you can “hear” his voice ever so clearly throughout this book which takes us from his early open mic days, to regular comedy performances, to his latest interest in painting interviewees.

Ahn Do : what a nice fella! Read this is one sitting, and fully expect to reread again soon.

Followed by the recent release of Thirsty, Confessions of a Fame Whore, by Joel Creasey…….

Not sure how anyone can write anything of significance at the ripe old age of 27 years. A minor celebrity on a reality television show (apparently), cohost of the Australian team presenting the Eurovision Song Contest ( who cares?), and “Prince of Comedy” in his own lunchtime.

Creasey is openly gay and particularly brazen about it. Although that doesn’t offend me in itself, I don’t think some pretty boy sharing  with whom he bonked is exciting stuff, nor do I care that he appears to have an excessive interest in getting pissed.

Again, I’ve not seen this comedian perform live, nor do I ever intend too. His greatest claim to fame appears to be that his Dad was once the Solo Man in the television ads in the 80’s.

Pretty Boy is self absorbed, self obsessed, and self indulgent. It will be interesting to see if his demeanour changes when he is 47, losing his hair, gaining a paunch, and basically, not so pretty.

A total waste of trees. This book made me cranky and I just wanted to slap the narcissistic little prig in the chops.

I guess that my moral outrage did improve my mood however.