From master comedian Mark Schiff, a long-time touring partner of Jerry Seinfeld, comes a hilarious account of decades of foolery with comedy and acting legends and how he honed his mensch skills in all of life’s arenas.
Pursuing a career in comedy has always taken a lot of chutzpah. Today Mark Schiff looks back at his fifty-year career as a stand-up comic, actor, and writer and knows he’s laughed with the best of them. His comedy and character have been widely praised by everyone from Jerry Seinfeld to Bill Maher, Paul Reiser, and Colin Quinn—as Seinfeld writes in his foreword, Mark is “the greatest comedy pal a guy could ever wish for”—but it hasn’t always been easy.
In this brilliantly honest collection of essays inducing both heart tugs and deep belly laughs, Mark recounts growing up Jewish in the outer boroughs of New York City and shares how he survived a harrowing childhood and managed health crises, aging, marriage, parenting, and career highs and lows. With wit and wisdom, Mark reminds us that no matter the troubles at-hand, the show must always go on. The result is an unforgettable and highly relatable account from one of the best humor writers of our time that will leave readers of all faiths energized and feeling like they’ve schmoozed with the best of them.
Mark Schiff is a stand-up comedian who has headlined at comedy clubs nationwide, including all the major casinos in Las Vegas and Atlantic City, and toured worldwide with Jerry Seinfeld for fifteen years. Mark has specials on HBO and Showtime, has appeared on
The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson and
Late Night with David Letterman, is featured in Seinfeld’s Netflix special
Jerry Before Seinfeld and
Live from the Laugh Factory with Dom Irrera, and has been the featured act at the Montreal Just for Laughs Comedy Festival. He coedited
I Killed: True Stories of the Road from America’s Top Comics with Ritch Shydner, is the playwright of
Married People, cowritten with Steve Shaffer, which played to sold-out audiences in Los Angeles in 2019, and
The Comic, which
ran in Los Angeles for ten months as well as at the Aspen Comedy Festival, a regular contributor to LA’s
Jewish Journal, and the host of the podcast
You Don’t Know Schiff. Mark lives in Los Angeles with his first wife, his fifth dog, and photos of his three sons who have all moved out and have good jobs, yet still manage to call and ask for money.
Jerry Seinfeld is an actor and comedian best-known as the creator of the TV show Seinfeld. He is the author of the New York Times bestsellers Is This Anything? and SeinLanguage, which reached #1 on the list. He lives in New York City and Los Angeles.
