Nailing It: Tales from the Comedy Frontier

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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.

A particularly odd open spot – and a surreal turn of events – gave him an unlikely inspiration for a TV audition, and he got on to the writing team for David Letterman, who embraced the weird and disruptive when TV was barely ready for it. There was a one-season stint on Saturday Night Live (alongside Martin Short, Christopher Guest, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Jim Belushi and Pamela Stephenson) and Hall became known on the talk-show circuit for creating ‘Sniglets’–‘any word that doesn't appear in the dictionary but should’, akin to the Meaning Of Liff books in the UK. His honesty makes me think Diogenes the original Cynic must have been like this, or an Old Testament prophet: they were probably performers too.Hall doesn't always come out of them all covered in glory - far from it - but if someone propped him up at the end of the comedy bar and put a 50p coin in him, these are the tunes he would spin. And you'd be laughing all night. 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." 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.’ Hall doesn’t always come out of them all covered in glory – far from it – but if someone propped him up at the end of the comedy bar and put a 50p coin in him, these are the tunes he would spin. And you’d be laughing all night.

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. It’s rare for comedians to be as funny on paper as they are on stage, but Rich Hall nails it ‘– CARL HIAASENIt 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. I loved this book. Absolutely adored it. I devoured it and savoured every word. A wild and wonderful love letter to comedy' - ADAM HILLS

In addition, he has appeared on BBC One’s QI, Live at the Apollo and Have I Got News for You, he wrote and starred in his own reoccurring BBC Radio 4 show Rich Hall’s (US Election) Breakdown and has penned articles for The Guardian and The Sunday Times. 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.

From 1st July 2021, VAT will be applicable to those EU countries where VAT is applied to books - this additional charge will be collected by Fed Ex (or the Royal Mail) at the time of delivery. Shipments to the USA & Canada: 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 … So much for the career rundown, but it’s the strange-but-true incidents along the way which shine in this book. Such as the time Hall got carried away with Crenshaw’s white trash artifice, attending –in character – the funeral of a bogan Australian fan he never knew. The format works if the people in the show are willing to put in the work. I’m not sure they understand how long the work week is for SNL, and how much money is involved. I can’t see anyone forking out the kind of budget that they have in America. If you’re not willing to go in there 12 hours a day, six days a week – that includes the writing crew, the cast, everyone – then no it’s not going to work. Because even after all that, most of the stuff on SNL doesn’t work anyway. People remember all the great sketches, and those get tons of re-exposure on YouTube, but there is a lot of forgettable stuff, and it took a week to do that. I don’t think it’s the British television mindset to produce something like that. I don’t think they’re willing to put that much manpower, studio space, production value and effort into it.

Hall might not share the excesses of the forebears he mentions, but he still embraces the easily romanticised idea of the the grizzled road comedian, the travelling troubadour with every line on that notoriously craggy Moe Szyslak face telling a story. 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. Last year there were rumours of a UK version of Saturday Night Live in the works. You were an SNL cast member for the 1984-85 season. Do you think the format would work with a British audience? Meryl bookclub 2024 maybe ✅ …. American comedian Rich Hall recalls moments in his comedy career when he nailed it, gleefully hamming up his moments of triumph, hilariously accompanied by humiliation, unexpected failure and many, many teachable moments.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. Nailing It is described ‘a collection of funny and often absurd epiphanies... hilariously self-deprecating, deliciously acerbic and often utterly surreal’. 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. Hall’s origin story is suitably quixotic, starting life as a comic street performer, going from campus to campus in the guise of an evangelical preacher spreading the word of dog, proselytising all the canines in his ad-hoc crowd. It sounds like a great act. 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.