Standing Up: A Memoir of a Funny (Not Always) Life

by Marion Grodin

Overview

Marion Grodin, daughter of funnyman Charles Grodin, knows firsthand that laughter is truly the best medicine, having not only survived breast cancer and divorce, but also, various addictions-including an inappropriate relationship with Haagen Dazs.

Her hilarious riffs include; the story of growing large breasts that appeared seemingly overnight (Unfortunately this happened during the summer that she spent on the set of King Kong with her father and Jeff Bridges on whom she developed a huge crush); Her post divorce life, its slight weight gain and how she relied on her wise support group, her cats "BabyFighter" Edmond and "fashionably sporty, forensic expert" Snuggles.

In this cleverly written memoir Marion integrates her diverse and challenging life experiences and unstoppable ability to make everything funny in a way that is both entertaining and helpful. She hopes that her book will send a message to those who feel they are misfits and to those locked in addiction: there is a way out - and life can be very good when you kick the habit.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781455510139
Publisher:	Center Street
Publication date:	11/05/2013
Pages:	320
Product dimensions:	5.80(w) x 8.30(h) x 1.20(d)

About the Author

Marion Grodin started her career as a staff writer for two network sitcoms and was later hired by 20th Century, to whom she sold six screen plays. Just as she was about to embark on her seventh, she decided it was time to start saying all these funny things she was trying to write. So she took the plunge into stand-up and has been working as a comedian for the past fifteen years.

Editorial Reviews

09/23/2013
Grodin, the daughter of actor Charles Grodin, describes her life as a comedian and screenwriter in this giddy, raunchy memoir. Raised mostly by her eccentrically unstable mother in New York City on the Upper West Side, she often visited her father in L.A. when he was shooting pictures with fabulous co-stars such as Jeff Bridges and Jessica Lange; while in high school, the author gravitated toward the pot-smoking crowd, and describes in various chapters the requisite cringing adolescent miseries regarding crushing friendships and the loss of her virginity. At Wesleyan she dug into drinking ("my new best friend—alcohol"), to the detriment of her health and career objectives, essentially needing her father to help her with housing and employment ("my dad, the SWAT team")—a pad in L.A. and a writing gig on It's a Living. The death of her mother from a brain tumor plunged Grodin back into substance-abuse, but eventually she resolved to strike out on her own as a stand-up comic, something, she writes, that she had dreamed of since first hearing Richard Pryor. Quirky, self-excoriating, tremendously human, Grodin is unafraid to tackle funny, sad, deeply painful issues of self-image and dependence. (Nov.)

Publishers Weekly

Marion Grodin is that rare combination of really smart and really down to earth. Her comedy is painfully and wonderfully honest. She doesn't know how to phony. She is one of the greats.—Colin Quinn

"Marion's a pro. Excellent. Big laughs. Somebody, anybody, take her and...throw a show around her."—Cindy Adams, columnist, NY Post

"When life is getting us down and we need to laugh until tears are rolling down our cheeks, we go to a Marion Grodin show. Marion doesn't let us forget that life is mundane and hard but somehow helps us to laugh at our ridiculous behavior and still love ourselves for it."—Kyra Sedgwick and Kevin Bacon

"In the world of comedy Marion Gordin has been a hidden treasure for far too long. All you have to do is open this book and that treasure of funny is yours. Enjoy."—Lewis Black, New York Times bestselling author

"Marion Grodin writes as she speaks, with a sharply funny honesty we cherish in our friends and fear in our enemies."—Jim Gaffigan, New Times bestselling author of Dad is Fat

"I have not read this book, nor do I intend to read it, certainly not without some therapy or possibly medication. While I have happily received more public recognition than Marion, I cannot stand that she gets more laughs than I do, when we are around others. As a result I have chosen not to be in her presence for the last decade. Enough is enough!"—Charles Grodin

"Sharp, witty, occasional black humor from a woman who has gone through hell and back and lived to tell the tale."—Kirkus

"Quirky, self-excoriating, tremendously human, Grodin is unafraid to tackle funny, sad, deeply painful issues of self-image and dependence."—Publishers Weekly

From the Publisher

"I have not read this book, nor do I intend to read it, certainly not without some therapy or possibly medication. While I have happily received more public recognition than Marion, I cannot stand that she gets more laughs than I do, when we are around others. As a result I have chosen not to be in her presence for the last decade. Enough is enough!"

Charles Grodin

"Marion Grodin writes as she speaks, with a sharply funny honesty we cherish in our friends and fear in our enemies."

Jim Gaffigan

"In the world of comedy Marion Gordin has been a hidden treasure for far too long. All you have to do is open this book and that treasure of funny is yours. Enjoy."

Lewis Black

"When life is getting us down and we need to laugh until tears are rolling down our cheeks, we go to a Marion Grodin show. Marion doesn't let us forget that life is mundane and hard but somehow helps us to laugh at our ridiculous behavior and still love ourselves for it."

Kyra Sedgwick and Kevin Bacon

Marion Grodin is that rare combination of really smart and really down to earth. Her comedy is painfully and wonderfully honest. She doesn't know how to phony. She is one of the greats.

Colin Quinn

"Marion's a pro. Excellent. Big laughs. Somebody, anybody, take her and...throw a show around her."

Cindy Adams

2013-10-06
The chronicles of a comedian's life. Stand-up comedian Grodin delves deeply into the fabric of her life to bring readers an honest examination of her roller-coaster existence. Experimenting with sex and drugs in high school turned into years of casual relationships and life lived for the high from alcohol, marijuana, cocaine and heroin ("Alcohol and other drugs had helped me feel like I didn't have any worries in the world. But heroin made me feel like I didn't have any world"). Grodin scrutinizes her codependent relationship with her mother and how she longed to be away from her. However, in times of great stress, the author wanted nothing more than to be wrapped in her mother's arms. When her mother was diagnosed with brain cancer, she writes, "I had always been like my mother's little husband, and now I moved into this role completely--the role I felt I'd been in training for my whole life--I became her caretaker….Though the circumstances were as dire as it gets, she was thrilled that we were together." Throughout all her ups and downs, the author's father, actor and talk show host Charles Grodin, was always there, with encouraging words, money, love and support, no questions asked. Multiple times, Grodin bottomed out, only to scrape herself together, facing her addictions, her weight issues and her fears. Eventually, Grodin entered a stable relationship, finally said yes to a second marriage proposal and began trying for a child, with heartbreaking results. Further insult was added when Grodin was diagnosed with cancer in the very thing she had always wished as a teen to rid herself of: her breast. Despite the harshness of her oftentimes self-induced problems, the author interjects her offbeat humor throughout the text, providing much-needed relief from the recitation of her pendulum of emotions. Sharp, witty, occasional black humor from a woman who has gone through hell and back and lived to tell the tale.

Kirkus Reviews