Overview

You know him from his breakout role as Hank Kingsley on The Larry Sanders Show, his outrageous turn as George and Oscar Bluth on Arrested Development, and his Emmy Award-winning performance as Maura Pfefferman on Transparent. A Broadway star, a television legend, an accomplished screen actor whose singular wit and heartrending performances have been entertaining audiences for more than four decades, but the question remains: Who the hell is Jeffrey Tambor? In his illuminating, often hilarious, and always honest memoir, Tambor looks back at the key moments in his life that taught him about creativity and play and pain and fear. The son of what you might call eccentric Russian and Hungarian Jewish parents, Tambor grew up in San Francisco a husy kid with a lisp, who suffered in his otherness and found salvation in the theater. While he learned his art from the best of the best--Al Pacino, George C. Scott, Garry Shandling, Mitch Hurwitz, Jill Soloway--he also introduces his many unexpected teachers, from the nameless man in a Detroit bookstore who gave him the love of reading, to his young children who (at this ridiculously late stage in his life) have reintroduced him to play, bravery, and the simple joy of not giving a shit. Tambor shares the triumph of landing his first Broadway role, but not before experiencing the humbling that is commercial work (and how even saying my socks don't cling can prove a challenge). He invites you behind the scenes of his wildly successful television shows, but he doesn't leave out the pit stops he made at addiction, Scientology, and what it feels like to get fourth billing after Sylvia the Seal on The Love Boat. At last, Tambor answers the question Are you anybody? with a promise that success doesn't mean perfection and failure most definitely is an option.

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9781524723941

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Reviews

What a great book and fun read! Jeffrey Tambor is able to distill every character and nuance of his journey right down to the telling detail of truth. His never-ending fight to kill expectancy in life and work is downright inspiring. --Michael Connelly, author of The Wrong Side of Goodbye This is unlike any other memoir you will ever read. It's a story filled with life and life lessons, acting and show business drama, anecdotes of parents and children, friends and teachers. By use of narrative the master teacher comes searing out in words that are heartbreakingly poignant one moment and hysterically funny the next. He maintains an unrelenting honesty while revealing his infinite humanity. Working with Jeffrey Tambor over so many years, I know well his one-of-a-kind brilliance as actor and teacher--now I know this same intelligence translates flawlessly into his writing. Why am I not surprised. --Judith Light In life, on screen, and now in this illuminating memoir, Jeffrey Tambor has a stubborn incapacity for bullshit. I personally smell better and shine brighter as a result of his friendship and brave storytelling. Attaboy, Jeffrey! --Jay Duplass

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