Matt McAvoy Book Review

Nobody Gets Out of Catering Alive really is a funny memoir.  My congratulations to the author.

Set in the 1990s and related in a rolling comedian chant – ‘I wish I could stop this compulsive entertaining’ – Joe Montaperto is a comedian down on his luck.  His hair is falling out, he’s only earning enough to pay for the bus to work and he’s living with his parents, creating his own maudlin entertainment by watching 1960s reruns.

As he lurches through his thirties with chronic insomnia, he investigates various possibilities for his future, desperate for a new beginning and to escape a New York that is changing before his eyes and rapidly filling with ‘millionaires and yuppies’.  Revolving door relationships, nine months of Buddhism, a job as a park ranger, and various courses not geared toward employment fail to improve his prospects - though he now has a fairly solid grasp on the history of economics!  In between, he works in catering to make ends meet.  Finally, between bouts of meditation to drag him back on course - ‘I probably should’ve stayed in comedy, man’ - he has a vision of a one-man show.

This book is refreshing.  It’s not angry, it’s not judgemental, it doesn’t lay blame, and it was so nice to have a good laugh at someone else’s expense – normally I try not to.  Montaperto’s throwaway observations of life hit a chord with me more than once.  I’ve been there; I understand.

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