You and we both/all know Judd Apatow for his box office busting King Kong kahuna burgers of comedy with the likes of Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues, Step Brothers, SuperbadĀ and Knocked Up, but where did that bright eyed and bushy-faced daydreamer come from originally? In his new book, Sick in the Head: Conversations About Life and Comedy, he’s going to tell you at least a bit about his introduction to the world of laughter, nĆ©e humour, which will save you from travelling to his home town of New York City, New York, USA and asking around about what he was like before he was famous.
Some pithy comments aside, we’re big fans of a lot of Apatow’s work, which sounds like a veiled insult, but it’s really not meant as one. He’s either written, directed or produced some of the funniest films in the last fifteen years and with such a solid back catalogue you’ve got to expect a fair few more gut bouncing comedies from him in the years to come.
However, his comic might comes from years of absorption through osmosis from some of the great American stand-ups, but for Judd it came right out of their eyes and seeping through their sweaty pores rather than just arriving courtesy of the telly box. Essentially, he became a comedy junky at a very early age, getting his first job at just 15-years-old washing pots at a local circuit venue to be able to watch the acts for free.
Just a year later he had his first regular gig himself, but instead of it being up on stage he was behind the microphone at his Long Island high school radio station. However, where Apatow was concerned it was just another opportunity to continue his early learning love affair with comedy and somehow he managed to wangle a number of his comedy heroes, including Jerry Seinfeld and Garry Shandling, to be interviewed on his show.
Sick in the Head: Conversations About Life and Comedy is partially his look back on that period in his life and the influence of so many comedy greats on his own career. It contains a selection of his favourite interviews, whether memorable for who he managed to talk to or containing a conversation that stuck with him over the years. He continues to interview great comics to the day, so some of his more recent Q&As will make it into the book too.
It should make for an interesting read as all of his obsession with the world of stand-up resulted in the apatowasaurus of slacker comedy that we know and love today. With so many big names on his hit list – ranging from Mel Brooks and Steve Martin to Chris Rock and Seth Rogan – along with the importance of it all to his own development as a significant presence in modern day comedy, it should be on the read list for anyone with a similar fascination with the gag game.
