Wild and Crazy Guys

Book 4 of my 2023 Reading Challenge

read from January 3 - 10

Wild and Crazy Guys

by Nick de Semlyen

Summary (via the book jacket)

Wild and Crazy Guys opens in 1978 with Chevy Chase and Bill Murray taking bad-tempered swings at each other backstage at Saturday Night Live, and closes twenty-one years later with the two doing a skit in the same venue, poking fun at each other - their illustrious careers, their triumphs, and their pratfalls. In between, Nick de Semlyen takes us on a trip through the tumultuous 1980s, going behind the scenes of Caddyshack, The Blues Brothers, Ghostbusters, Beverly Hills Cop, National Lampoon's Vacation, and dozens of other movies.

Chronicling the larger-than-life off-screen antics of Bill Murray, Eddie Murphy, Chevy Chase, Steve Martin, John Belushi, Dan Aykroyd, John Candy, and Rick Moranis, this insightful and entertaining book has drugs, sex, fistfights, webbed toes, and Murray being pushed into a swimming pool by Hunter S. Thompson while tied to a lawn chair. What's not to like?

Based on candid interviews with many of the stars themselves, as well as those in their immediate orbit, including directors John Landis, Carl Reiner, and Amy Heckerling, Wild and Crazy Guys is a fantastic insider account of the friendships, feuds, triumphs, and disasters experienced by these iconic funnymen. Hilarious and revealing, it is both a hidden history of the most fertile period ever for screen comedy and a celebration of some of the most popular films of all time.

My Opinion

4 stars

On a personal note, this book is one I absolutely would've talked about and passed on to my dad.  He's the reason I have such familiarity with these actors and movies, especially the "Vacation" movies.

If you have an interest in the material this book will not disappoint.  Looking at his 'Notes' section, the author interviewed multiple people for the purpose of this book plus quite a bit of information is pulled from earlier sources.  Interestingly, even some of the quotes from earlier sources are generated by the author from past interviews he's done with celebrities for the magazine Empire.    The author has an obvious interest in the research and material but he also isn't kissing anyone's butts about the flops.  To quote a line from the book, "Not all of their material has aged well, and some of it wasn't even funny at the time".

I can't believe Dan Aykroyd's update didn't include Tommy Boy!  Also, I've never heard of Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid but it sounds like something I'd like.