What do you think?
Rate this book
Comedy Samurai: Forty Years of Blood, Guts, and Laughter
From Peabody, Golden Globe, and Emmy Award-winning writer and director Larry Charles, a rollicking journey through modern American comedy, as he shares behind-the-scenes stories from his life's work.
To tell Larry Charles's life story is to tell the story of modern American comedy. Over the last 40 years, few comedians have been a part of so many iconic, beloved projects. Larry was one of the original writers and producers on the first five seasons of Seinfeld, directed over 20 episodes each of Curb Your Enthusiasm and Entourage, and served as the showrunner for Mad About You. His film directing credits include Borat, Bruno, and The Dictator, Bill Maher’s Religulous, and Bob Dylan’s Masked andAnonymous.
In Comedy Samurai, Charles pulls back the curtain on the making of his successful projects, offering sharp, never-before-told anecdotes about Jerry Seinfeld, Sacha Baron Cohen, Bill Maher, Nic Cage, Mel Brooks, Julia Louis-Dreyfuss, and Larry David, among many others.
Perfect for fans of Seinfeldia and lovers of comedy in general, Larry promises to offer new insights about many of the most beloved shows, films, and actors of all time.
To tell Larry Charles's life story is to tell the story of modern American comedy. Over the last 40 years, few comedians have been a part of so many iconic, beloved projects. Larry was one of the original writers and producers on the first five seasons of Seinfeld, directed over 20 episodes each of Curb Your Enthusiasm and Entourage, and served as the showrunner for Mad About You. His film directing credits include Borat, Bruno, and The Dictator, Bill Maher’s Religulous, and Bob Dylan’s Masked andAnonymous.
In Comedy Samurai, Charles pulls back the curtain on the making of his successful projects, offering sharp, never-before-told anecdotes about Jerry Seinfeld, Sacha Baron Cohen, Bill Maher, Nic Cage, Mel Brooks, Julia Louis-Dreyfuss, and Larry David, among many others.
Perfect for fans of Seinfeldia and lovers of comedy in general, Larry promises to offer new insights about many of the most beloved shows, films, and actors of all time.
400 pages, Hardcover
Published June 17, 2025
127 people are currently reading
3894 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 85 reviews
June 18, 2025
I was desperately looking forward to this book, and I couldn’t have been more disappointed.
This book never clicked for me, and it became a tedious and laborious reading experience. I understand his style of humor might not be for everyone, but my problem is more with the overall tone of the book. Larry Charles comes across as aloof, indifferent, and unwilling to go too deep on much of anything. The book is a series of events that have happened in his life, and it’s hard to tell how he felt about much of anything. Everything just seems like a job to him, where he moves on from one to the next without a whole lot of self-reflection or insight into his psyche.
Maybe that’s part of the whole Seinfeld/Curb mindset: “No hugging and no life lessons,” and I get that. However, it worked on those shows because they were funny. This book is not funny or insightful.
I became annoyed and very disinterested in this book. I respect Larry Charles, the TV writer. Larry Charles, the author, is all over the place.
This book never clicked for me, and it became a tedious and laborious reading experience. I understand his style of humor might not be for everyone, but my problem is more with the overall tone of the book. Larry Charles comes across as aloof, indifferent, and unwilling to go too deep on much of anything. The book is a series of events that have happened in his life, and it’s hard to tell how he felt about much of anything. Everything just seems like a job to him, where he moves on from one to the next without a whole lot of self-reflection or insight into his psyche.
Maybe that’s part of the whole Seinfeld/Curb mindset: “No hugging and no life lessons,” and I get that. However, it worked on those shows because they were funny. This book is not funny or insightful.
I became annoyed and very disinterested in this book. I respect Larry Charles, the TV writer. Larry Charles, the author, is all over the place.
June 26, 2025
Great book
My experiences with Larry Charles are exactly as depicted in this book. That has never happened to me. I loved all of it. Stories that I knew were filled with things I never knew. It’s a honest journey and excellently written.
My experiences with Larry Charles are exactly as depicted in this book. That has never happened to me. I loved all of it. Stories that I knew were filled with things I never knew. It’s a honest journey and excellently written.
July 13, 2025
"Comedy Samurai" by Larry Charles is a master class in narcissism and self-pity.
Charles, an incredibly gifted writer ("Seinfled") and film ("Borat") and TV ("Mad About You") director, has written a memoir about his childhood and his career in comedy. His stories about making "Borat," "Bruno," and guerilla film-making are fascinating and he brings their narrow escapes into light.
However, the overarching theme of the book is "I was right and everyone else was wrong." At no point do you get the sense that he accepts any responsibility for his actions, other than in a "yes, but" manner. That's obviously an authorial prerogative, and may very well be this view, but it makes the story repetitive. He glancingly mentions Larry David's love of "The Fountainhead," but it's evident that Charles fancies himself a Howard Roark, a pure and unbending artist in a crass commercial world. I give him credit for not compromising his vision but, like Ayn Rand and her hero, sanctimony and self-destructiveness aren't that interesting.
This honest review was given in exchange for an advance reader copy from NetGalley and Grand Central Publishing.
Charles, an incredibly gifted writer ("Seinfled") and film ("Borat") and TV ("Mad About You") director, has written a memoir about his childhood and his career in comedy. His stories about making "Borat," "Bruno," and guerilla film-making are fascinating and he brings their narrow escapes into light.
However, the overarching theme of the book is "I was right and everyone else was wrong." At no point do you get the sense that he accepts any responsibility for his actions, other than in a "yes, but" manner. That's obviously an authorial prerogative, and may very well be this view, but it makes the story repetitive. He glancingly mentions Larry David's love of "The Fountainhead," but it's evident that Charles fancies himself a Howard Roark, a pure and unbending artist in a crass commercial world. I give him credit for not compromising his vision but, like Ayn Rand and her hero, sanctimony and self-destructiveness aren't that interesting.
This honest review was given in exchange for an advance reader copy from NetGalley and Grand Central Publishing.
July 8, 2025
I feel like I know Larry Charles. Grateful he is on the planet. He could have used a more rigorous editor.
September 7, 2025
Jews are usually funny, but this memoir is pretty dry. You can tell he dislikes Christians.
July 3, 2025
Loser
Loser, huge ego, read something else. I enjoy reading about the process but I was surprised he didn’t hurt his shoulder patting himself on the back.
Loser, huge ego, read something else. I enjoy reading about the process but I was surprised he didn’t hurt his shoulder patting himself on the back.
Read
June 29, 2025Hoovered this one up. Very interesting, pretty dark. Makes you wonder how the famous characters on the other side of these stories would tell it. Success is clearly no path to happiness. Definitely recommend if you’re a fan of his work.
June 19, 2025
Charles’s memoir is a wild, behind-the-scenes tour of four decades in comedy, from the mean streets of Brooklyn to the even meaner writers’ rooms of Hollywood. He’s not a polished narrator, but he’s a natural-born storyteller, and frankly, no one else could do justice to his own tale.
Charles was the George Harrison to Jerry and Larry’s Lennon and McCartney. If you want to write your own classics, you eventually have to branch out. He pushed for Wayne Knight as Newman, helped shape the evolution of Elaine, and eventually left Seinfeld to run Mad About You. His first directing gig? Curb Your Enthusiasm, of course.
Charles’s adventures extend beyond sitcoms. His work with Bob Dylan on Masked and Anonymous was a highlight for me. I loved the fact that he seemed to worry more about the wellness of Dylan’s one-of-a-kind, custom jacket than the star himself. The film premiered at Cannes, where Dylan refused to pose with Roger Ebert (who promptly panned the movie).
Charles details how Hollywood manipulators dangled directing gigs over his head to get what they wanted, and how Ari Emanuel (the real-life Ari Gold) made Entourage a meta experience for industry insiders and survivors. Curb Your Enthusiasm took frequent hiatuses, and Larry David was supportive when Charles stepped away to direct Borat. This move would cement Charles's reputation for boundary-pushing comedy.
Borat was a career high; Bruno and The Dictator, less so. Charles doesn’t shy away from discussing how his relationship with Sacha Baron Cohen soured over time. Clearly, comedy is a blood sport, and not everyone leaves the ring without their collection of assorted scars.
Charles’s Hollywood odyssey also includes a brief, ill-fated stint directing A Walk in the Woods with Robert Redford and Nick Nolte. After working closely with Redford to rework the script, Charles was blindsided by Redford’s sudden disapproval and was subsequently fired. Even in Hollywood, sometimes the real drama happens off-camera.
The most raw section of Comedy Samurai covers Charles’s attempt to tell Larry David’s story for HBO. Charles was fired from Curb (allegedly in the name of diversity), only to discover that other “old white guys” remained. When the two Larrys reunited for an intimate, hours-long conversation, the footage was unusable, leading to a series of errors involving agents, screaming matches, and endless notes from HBO.
The final product was heavily edited to make Larry David seem more “relaxed” (good luck with that), and the two haven’t spoken since 2022. Charles insists he’s not mad, just disappointed at how poorly they communicated. He claims his intent wasn’t to create a hatchet job or a puff piece with the film, but to offer a genuine conversation with a cultural icon.
Comedy Samurai is Larry Charles’s attempt to control the narrative. As much as he protests that he’s protecting Larry David, it’s clear he’s also staking his claim to one of comedy’s great creative partnerships. The memoir is messy, honest, and full of behind-the-scenes dirt, sometimes too much, sometimes not enough. If you’re looking for a polished, sanitized Hollywood memoir, look elsewhere. If you want the unvarnished truth (with plenty of blood, guts, and laughter), you’re in the right place.
If Larry Charles was the “Comedy Samurai,” then Larry David was his Comedy Daimyo. However, after their creative breakup, Charles would have to be the Comedy Ronin (“Comedy Ronin” is still a wickedly cool nickname, even if it's not the one he chose for himself).
Text: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Narration: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Overall Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Disclaimer: I received a free advanced reader copy (ARC) from NetGalley and the publisher in exchange for an honest, unbiased review. These opinions are my own.
Charles was the George Harrison to Jerry and Larry’s Lennon and McCartney. If you want to write your own classics, you eventually have to branch out. He pushed for Wayne Knight as Newman, helped shape the evolution of Elaine, and eventually left Seinfeld to run Mad About You. His first directing gig? Curb Your Enthusiasm, of course.
Charles’s adventures extend beyond sitcoms. His work with Bob Dylan on Masked and Anonymous was a highlight for me. I loved the fact that he seemed to worry more about the wellness of Dylan’s one-of-a-kind, custom jacket than the star himself. The film premiered at Cannes, where Dylan refused to pose with Roger Ebert (who promptly panned the movie).
Charles details how Hollywood manipulators dangled directing gigs over his head to get what they wanted, and how Ari Emanuel (the real-life Ari Gold) made Entourage a meta experience for industry insiders and survivors. Curb Your Enthusiasm took frequent hiatuses, and Larry David was supportive when Charles stepped away to direct Borat. This move would cement Charles's reputation for boundary-pushing comedy.
Borat was a career high; Bruno and The Dictator, less so. Charles doesn’t shy away from discussing how his relationship with Sacha Baron Cohen soured over time. Clearly, comedy is a blood sport, and not everyone leaves the ring without their collection of assorted scars.
Charles’s Hollywood odyssey also includes a brief, ill-fated stint directing A Walk in the Woods with Robert Redford and Nick Nolte. After working closely with Redford to rework the script, Charles was blindsided by Redford’s sudden disapproval and was subsequently fired. Even in Hollywood, sometimes the real drama happens off-camera.
The most raw section of Comedy Samurai covers Charles’s attempt to tell Larry David’s story for HBO. Charles was fired from Curb (allegedly in the name of diversity), only to discover that other “old white guys” remained. When the two Larrys reunited for an intimate, hours-long conversation, the footage was unusable, leading to a series of errors involving agents, screaming matches, and endless notes from HBO.
The final product was heavily edited to make Larry David seem more “relaxed” (good luck with that), and the two haven’t spoken since 2022. Charles insists he’s not mad, just disappointed at how poorly they communicated. He claims his intent wasn’t to create a hatchet job or a puff piece with the film, but to offer a genuine conversation with a cultural icon.
Comedy Samurai is Larry Charles’s attempt to control the narrative. As much as he protests that he’s protecting Larry David, it’s clear he’s also staking his claim to one of comedy’s great creative partnerships. The memoir is messy, honest, and full of behind-the-scenes dirt, sometimes too much, sometimes not enough. If you’re looking for a polished, sanitized Hollywood memoir, look elsewhere. If you want the unvarnished truth (with plenty of blood, guts, and laughter), you’re in the right place.
If Larry Charles was the “Comedy Samurai,” then Larry David was his Comedy Daimyo. However, after their creative breakup, Charles would have to be the Comedy Ronin (“Comedy Ronin” is still a wickedly cool nickname, even if it's not the one he chose for himself).
Text: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Narration: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Overall Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Disclaimer: I received a free advanced reader copy (ARC) from NetGalley and the publisher in exchange for an honest, unbiased review. These opinions are my own.
July 6, 2025
My low rating of Comedy Samurai is perhaps a bit unfair. It reflects my (high) expectations more than the author's intentions in writing it.
I expected more details on episodes of the author's brilliant Seinfeld scripts. A Larry Charles episode was always a highlight of its season, and among the most enjoyed over and over in reruns. "The Library", "The Subway", "The Airport", "The Outing", "The Old Man", "The Bris." Exactly what was the story, the inspiration, the breakthroughs on each of these timeless scripts? There was some of this in that one fascinating chapter of Comedy Samurai, but not nearly enough for me.
I'd not list this book for students of creative writing for TV (try Garry Marshall's instead), except in some respects as a cautionary tale about the business. It's not really about the art/craft of writing at all: the author seems more excited about his career as a film director rather than his best work for TV. The book's tone -- and the author's voice in the audiobook -- reflects both the arrogance of a successful yet aggrieved Hollywood guy, and the kind of guilty reveries and self-condemnation which might work in one of those old newsstand confessional magazines. Alright already, you treated your loved ones shamefully because you prioritized your career, but wouldn't we all rather hear about the way you made people laugh with your wonderfully askew view of human flaws?
Fans of Larry's collaboration with Sacha Baron Cohen ("Borat" etc.) might be interested in those chapters; I wasn't. His work with Larry David on Curb and an unreleased bio doc is of more interest, but again there's not enough on the classic laughs and an overabundance on the accompanying strife. I don't know if it's Larry Charles himself or his book editors who pushed him into the book's choices: many personal errors included, many creative breakthroughs omitted.
Larry Charles started off selling jokes at a deep discount to standup comedians. For many years he presented himself as a very longhaired heavily bearded freak, an unreconstructed survivor of the late 1960's/early 70's. He wore pajamas to work. He was mistaken for a homeless Venice (Los Angeles) resident by a security guard while directing a film there. How much of the bohemian ex-hippie inside made it possible for him and only him to write such outside the box scripts? Despite the book's overdose of introspection, we can't make the connection because there's not enough detail on the Seinfeld years. Those long walks with Larry David up into the hills over the Laurel Canyon News stand must have been about something more interesting than the sports gambling we hear about in the book.
In some ways Comedy Samurai makes Larry Charles seem a lot less interesting than the bohemian mystique surrounding him. He treats Bob Dylan like one of the great sages of human history, and brag/fawns throughout a chapter on their (critically panned) collaboration. And of course, apropos of nothing, he makes sure we know that he hates Donald Trump. I guess he'd like to continue working in Hollywood. Or maybe Larry Charles is less the outsider and one-of-a-kind thinker than he was thirty years ago.
I expected more details on episodes of the author's brilliant Seinfeld scripts. A Larry Charles episode was always a highlight of its season, and among the most enjoyed over and over in reruns. "The Library", "The Subway", "The Airport", "The Outing", "The Old Man", "The Bris." Exactly what was the story, the inspiration, the breakthroughs on each of these timeless scripts? There was some of this in that one fascinating chapter of Comedy Samurai, but not nearly enough for me.
I'd not list this book for students of creative writing for TV (try Garry Marshall's instead), except in some respects as a cautionary tale about the business. It's not really about the art/craft of writing at all: the author seems more excited about his career as a film director rather than his best work for TV. The book's tone -- and the author's voice in the audiobook -- reflects both the arrogance of a successful yet aggrieved Hollywood guy, and the kind of guilty reveries and self-condemnation which might work in one of those old newsstand confessional magazines. Alright already, you treated your loved ones shamefully because you prioritized your career, but wouldn't we all rather hear about the way you made people laugh with your wonderfully askew view of human flaws?
Fans of Larry's collaboration with Sacha Baron Cohen ("Borat" etc.) might be interested in those chapters; I wasn't. His work with Larry David on Curb and an unreleased bio doc is of more interest, but again there's not enough on the classic laughs and an overabundance on the accompanying strife. I don't know if it's Larry Charles himself or his book editors who pushed him into the book's choices: many personal errors included, many creative breakthroughs omitted.
Larry Charles started off selling jokes at a deep discount to standup comedians. For many years he presented himself as a very longhaired heavily bearded freak, an unreconstructed survivor of the late 1960's/early 70's. He wore pajamas to work. He was mistaken for a homeless Venice (Los Angeles) resident by a security guard while directing a film there. How much of the bohemian ex-hippie inside made it possible for him and only him to write such outside the box scripts? Despite the book's overdose of introspection, we can't make the connection because there's not enough detail on the Seinfeld years. Those long walks with Larry David up into the hills over the Laurel Canyon News stand must have been about something more interesting than the sports gambling we hear about in the book.
In some ways Comedy Samurai makes Larry Charles seem a lot less interesting than the bohemian mystique surrounding him. He treats Bob Dylan like one of the great sages of human history, and brag/fawns throughout a chapter on their (critically panned) collaboration. And of course, apropos of nothing, he makes sure we know that he hates Donald Trump. I guess he'd like to continue working in Hollywood. Or maybe Larry Charles is less the outsider and one-of-a-kind thinker than he was thirty years ago.
August 20, 2025
Warped book from a comedy "writer" with no training in how to actually write, this memoir of Larry Charles' time in television and movies is deeply marred by his failure to do basic research about media history, making hyperbolic statements of self-praise while infusing everything with a tone of darkness and death. Just look at the title--he considers himself a killer who loves wallowing in the blood and guts.
Charles probably dictated this into a recording device because it often jumps timelines and goes off on tangents. He starts with his first job (on the late-night show Fridays, which he fell into without any qualifications), then tries to stick to a basic outline of his career. But sticking to anything is difficult for this guy.
There are so many mistakes and unsupported statements that after the first hundred pages of this grossly overlong book (386 in total?) I honestly didn't believe a thing he said. That's either because he admittedly doesn't remember details of almost anything (blame it on the drugs, drinking, smoking and gambling?) or he just likes to tell stories and doesn't care whether they're true.
The Seinfeld section is probably of greatest interest, and he does add a few insights since he was in the room next to Jerry and Larry when writing, starting with episode six. However, Charles insists on overstating the Seinfeld impact. It certain was not "the greatest TV comedy of all time" (just check out the lame first few seasons), nor was it the anti-sitcom that Charles makes it out to be. He says that they were so set on blowing up the standard format that "soon the word sitcom, like variety show, will be a relic of a bygone era." He can't be serious.
Charles also writes that "the premiere of Seinfeld, January 16, 1991...", which of course is wrong. Seinfeld had five episodes that aired in 1989 and 1990--he just didn't work on them!
He also claims that they were so naive in producing Seinfeld that doing the show "required a certain innocence, a lack of cynicism about the possibilities of the medium." HUH? This guy is a non-stop cynic, about virtually everything, and that came across clearly in the scripts he worked so hard to influence negatively. Just look at how they cynically represented NBC in the fictionalized versions of how the show got on the air. Talk about delusional or lack of self-awareness!
When people talk about Seinfeld being "the greatest" I often wonder if they've seen truly fantastic television comedies like The Mary Tyler Moore Show. Charles admits he (and Jerry and Larry) hadn't watched sitcoms, so how can he claim theirs was the best--especially when it lacked cohesiveness or endings to many episodes. I'm not saying there weren't great ones (there were) but as an overall series (I sat and binged all of them in a row) it really wasn't that great, especially the universally-hailed disaster of a final episode.
As he tosses in his opinions he fails to base them on objective research. He says that the Seinfeld episode where Kramer appears on Murphy Brown "was the first time that I know of where a character from one show appeared on another show on an entirely different network." Um, Larry, it happened a number of times in the four decades before Seinfeld. For example, I Love Lucy on CBS had the appearance George Reeves as Superman, despite the superhero show not on being on CBS at the time. And Danny Thomas's Make Room for Daddy character from CBS appeared on the NBC sitcom The Joey Bishop Show.
He also says that Seinfeld was one of the first sitcoms to deal with comedic death (after Mary Tyler Moore), but had he not heard of The Munsters, Addams Family, Bewitched or other comedies with dark humor that included dead as cast characters?!
Charles claims that when he took over Mad About You that the ratings went up and "I had led the show back to number one." It was never number one in the season averages. The year he took over the series the season ratings dropped the show from #11 in the Nielsens to #37, and ended up the next year at #24.
Once he begins working on Curb Your Enthusiasm he states that "the combination of fiction and nonfiction elements in a television comedy seemed, in my memory, unprecedented." Well he has a bad memory then--Jack Benny, Burns and Allen, Ozzie and Harriet and other classic sitcoms were fictionalized stories of real people. And in those cases they didn't always use fake actors as relatives the way Curb did.
For some reason Charles seems enamored of naming names--hundreds of them, if not thousands. He gets excited listing all sorts of people he worked with, met, talked to, etc. though few add to any depth of actual stories. He provides his version of "facts" but doesn't get enough interesting anecdotes to make the book successful.
Then there are the boring long chapters about a movie you’ve never heard of that he made with Bob Dylan and almost 100 pages devoted to his films with the minimally talented Sacha Baron Cohen. The three Cohen movies are filled with lies, deception, bait & switch harassment, some illegal filming and of course plenty of anti-conservative mockery. While his admissions here may be intriguing, it’s hard to endorse a book where the author led filmmaking that “ensnared (real) people in the bear trap” set by an improv actor and made millions off of what should have jailed those involved.
These ramblers took the book from two stars to one star, with Charles having no sense of proportion to his view of his career and defending his improv crap that highlights a lack of education and experience. I honestly found less than half of the book worth reading.
Along the way he throws many people under the bus, including those he supposedly admires! Robert Redford looks really bad, Jerry Seinfeld isn’t portrayed as very involved, and Cohen is shown to have the biggest unjustified ego ever. Jack Burns (of the great comedy duo) was the first man to employ and mentor Charles, yet the author goes out of his way to tell us about his boss's cocaine addiction (which Charles also shared!). Then during that time period he reveals that he had to deliver the same illegal drugs to newly born-again pornographer Larry Flynt and President Jimmy Carter's preacher sister Ruth!
Charles also brags about cheating on his wife numerous times, ignoring his kids, rewarding people with illegal drugs, and dressing like a homeless bum. He’s horrible, but just another example of how Hollywood doesn’t reward talent or honesty but people that are willing to kowtow to the rich and famous.
I will say I admire Charles for one thing in this book--he refuses to capitalize the word black when referring to African-Americans. It's grammatically correct but anti-woke. Always the rebel, Charles doesn't fear stirring up controversy going against the 2025 racist misuse of language (as he tried to do a Seinfeld episode in the 1990s where Elaine was stuck on the Subway with all blacks, though it was forced to be rewritten).
In this manner, it's unintentionally hilarious when he works for The Arsenio Hall Show and says, "Show business is really no different or better than any other American subculture. We are still naturally segregated." Um, Larry, speak for yourself! I know a whole lot of 2025 television that not only is fully integrated with different cultural backgrounds but filled with anti-white male racists and sexists!
But then he also needs to push his leftist agenda by distorting history, making conservatives and Republicans the bad guys while failing to do anything but excuse away his elitist capitalism. He originally had a house in Hollywood for his family, but that wasn't good enough because of how dangerous it was becoming. The reason? Not the criminals and druggies, but "Reagan had released needy patients onto the streets everywhere, including Hollywood, with no adequate infrastructure." Ha! So he uses that as an excuse to move to rich Bel Air! At one point they had 25 dogs, which for some reason disturbed the tony neighbors! So he cared more about spending money on pets than helping the needy in his old neighborhood? Another liberal showing his true colors, expecting government to use taxpayer money to support people's bad habits and criminal behavior while using his own funds to buy an acre of land in one of the most elite suburbs in America!
This writer comes across as scattered as Kramer and as bloated as Newman. He may think of himself as a Samurai, but while he doesn't die in battle or commit suicide the way those warriors did he certainly garbs himself in defensive armor and a love of death. And that doesn't make for good comedy nor memoir.
Charles probably dictated this into a recording device because it often jumps timelines and goes off on tangents. He starts with his first job (on the late-night show Fridays, which he fell into without any qualifications), then tries to stick to a basic outline of his career. But sticking to anything is difficult for this guy.
There are so many mistakes and unsupported statements that after the first hundred pages of this grossly overlong book (386 in total?) I honestly didn't believe a thing he said. That's either because he admittedly doesn't remember details of almost anything (blame it on the drugs, drinking, smoking and gambling?) or he just likes to tell stories and doesn't care whether they're true.
The Seinfeld section is probably of greatest interest, and he does add a few insights since he was in the room next to Jerry and Larry when writing, starting with episode six. However, Charles insists on overstating the Seinfeld impact. It certain was not "the greatest TV comedy of all time" (just check out the lame first few seasons), nor was it the anti-sitcom that Charles makes it out to be. He says that they were so set on blowing up the standard format that "soon the word sitcom, like variety show, will be a relic of a bygone era." He can't be serious.
Charles also writes that "the premiere of Seinfeld, January 16, 1991...", which of course is wrong. Seinfeld had five episodes that aired in 1989 and 1990--he just didn't work on them!
He also claims that they were so naive in producing Seinfeld that doing the show "required a certain innocence, a lack of cynicism about the possibilities of the medium." HUH? This guy is a non-stop cynic, about virtually everything, and that came across clearly in the scripts he worked so hard to influence negatively. Just look at how they cynically represented NBC in the fictionalized versions of how the show got on the air. Talk about delusional or lack of self-awareness!
When people talk about Seinfeld being "the greatest" I often wonder if they've seen truly fantastic television comedies like The Mary Tyler Moore Show. Charles admits he (and Jerry and Larry) hadn't watched sitcoms, so how can he claim theirs was the best--especially when it lacked cohesiveness or endings to many episodes. I'm not saying there weren't great ones (there were) but as an overall series (I sat and binged all of them in a row) it really wasn't that great, especially the universally-hailed disaster of a final episode.
As he tosses in his opinions he fails to base them on objective research. He says that the Seinfeld episode where Kramer appears on Murphy Brown "was the first time that I know of where a character from one show appeared on another show on an entirely different network." Um, Larry, it happened a number of times in the four decades before Seinfeld. For example, I Love Lucy on CBS had the appearance George Reeves as Superman, despite the superhero show not on being on CBS at the time. And Danny Thomas's Make Room for Daddy character from CBS appeared on the NBC sitcom The Joey Bishop Show.
He also says that Seinfeld was one of the first sitcoms to deal with comedic death (after Mary Tyler Moore), but had he not heard of The Munsters, Addams Family, Bewitched or other comedies with dark humor that included dead as cast characters?!
Charles claims that when he took over Mad About You that the ratings went up and "I had led the show back to number one." It was never number one in the season averages. The year he took over the series the season ratings dropped the show from #11 in the Nielsens to #37, and ended up the next year at #24.
Once he begins working on Curb Your Enthusiasm he states that "the combination of fiction and nonfiction elements in a television comedy seemed, in my memory, unprecedented." Well he has a bad memory then--Jack Benny, Burns and Allen, Ozzie and Harriet and other classic sitcoms were fictionalized stories of real people. And in those cases they didn't always use fake actors as relatives the way Curb did.
For some reason Charles seems enamored of naming names--hundreds of them, if not thousands. He gets excited listing all sorts of people he worked with, met, talked to, etc. though few add to any depth of actual stories. He provides his version of "facts" but doesn't get enough interesting anecdotes to make the book successful.
Then there are the boring long chapters about a movie you’ve never heard of that he made with Bob Dylan and almost 100 pages devoted to his films with the minimally talented Sacha Baron Cohen. The three Cohen movies are filled with lies, deception, bait & switch harassment, some illegal filming and of course plenty of anti-conservative mockery. While his admissions here may be intriguing, it’s hard to endorse a book where the author led filmmaking that “ensnared (real) people in the bear trap” set by an improv actor and made millions off of what should have jailed those involved.
These ramblers took the book from two stars to one star, with Charles having no sense of proportion to his view of his career and defending his improv crap that highlights a lack of education and experience. I honestly found less than half of the book worth reading.
Along the way he throws many people under the bus, including those he supposedly admires! Robert Redford looks really bad, Jerry Seinfeld isn’t portrayed as very involved, and Cohen is shown to have the biggest unjustified ego ever. Jack Burns (of the great comedy duo) was the first man to employ and mentor Charles, yet the author goes out of his way to tell us about his boss's cocaine addiction (which Charles also shared!). Then during that time period he reveals that he had to deliver the same illegal drugs to newly born-again pornographer Larry Flynt and President Jimmy Carter's preacher sister Ruth!
Charles also brags about cheating on his wife numerous times, ignoring his kids, rewarding people with illegal drugs, and dressing like a homeless bum. He’s horrible, but just another example of how Hollywood doesn’t reward talent or honesty but people that are willing to kowtow to the rich and famous.
I will say I admire Charles for one thing in this book--he refuses to capitalize the word black when referring to African-Americans. It's grammatically correct but anti-woke. Always the rebel, Charles doesn't fear stirring up controversy going against the 2025 racist misuse of language (as he tried to do a Seinfeld episode in the 1990s where Elaine was stuck on the Subway with all blacks, though it was forced to be rewritten).
In this manner, it's unintentionally hilarious when he works for The Arsenio Hall Show and says, "Show business is really no different or better than any other American subculture. We are still naturally segregated." Um, Larry, speak for yourself! I know a whole lot of 2025 television that not only is fully integrated with different cultural backgrounds but filled with anti-white male racists and sexists!
But then he also needs to push his leftist agenda by distorting history, making conservatives and Republicans the bad guys while failing to do anything but excuse away his elitist capitalism. He originally had a house in Hollywood for his family, but that wasn't good enough because of how dangerous it was becoming. The reason? Not the criminals and druggies, but "Reagan had released needy patients onto the streets everywhere, including Hollywood, with no adequate infrastructure." Ha! So he uses that as an excuse to move to rich Bel Air! At one point they had 25 dogs, which for some reason disturbed the tony neighbors! So he cared more about spending money on pets than helping the needy in his old neighborhood? Another liberal showing his true colors, expecting government to use taxpayer money to support people's bad habits and criminal behavior while using his own funds to buy an acre of land in one of the most elite suburbs in America!
This writer comes across as scattered as Kramer and as bloated as Newman. He may think of himself as a Samurai, but while he doesn't die in battle or commit suicide the way those warriors did he certainly garbs himself in defensive armor and a love of death. And that doesn't make for good comedy nor memoir.
October 16, 2025
Interesting story all relateable to me as a GenXer; however, I found the interjection of politics annoying. But found the generalization of "white Americans" ignorant and dated. Yes racism is an issue; however, I like to think most white America has become smarter and better today.
November 15, 2025
Devoured this book. Great read (or in my case great listen). Seinfeld, Curb, Borat, Ari Emmanuel, geo-politics, Dylan, divorce, Nic Cage, integrity - it’s a big swing. Recommend to anyone who loves comedy. This really nailed the crazy way that even the greatest successes beget heartbreak and failure in the upside down world of Hollywood.
April 23, 2025
My thanks to NetGalley and Grand Central Publishing for an advance copy of this new memoir about a man who had to fail in a lot of different ways to find the humor that is all around us, and present it to the world.
Hollywood is not a fun place. Especially for a comedy writer. One can get the job of one's dreams, and spend the next ten years trying to pretend it never happened. All while trying to find any job at all. Friends will steal jokes, steal ideas, steal drugs and girls. Studios will promise they want to be in the you business, and never answer the phone. Agents can give up on clients, or forget they even have one as a client. A producer can share a great idea, an idea that turns out to be someone else's. One can be the next big thing, than the next to nothing. Larry Charles has seen all this and more. Charles started selling jokes, to working on comedy specials, crafting insults for roasts, working on talk shows and more. However it was a little show about nothing that brought him fame, fortune, and a whole new set of problems. Comedy Samurai: Forty Years of Blood, Guts, and Laughter by Larry Charles is a rags to riches, warts and all, A star is born story of comedy, television, movies, ill health, big hits, and a life making others laugh.
The book begins with a health crisis, and an encounter with an EMT who was also a fan of the French New Wave Director Jean-Luc Godard. From there we return to the past, the late 70s and a show that was going to change television, until it was given a title that reminded the world that is was just an imitation. The show was Fridays, and Larry Charles had been chosen to be one of the writers on this sketch comedy show that ABC had a lot of hope for. Here Charles met people who would become famous tater in his life, Michael Richards, a young Jerry Seinfeld, and Larry David, a fellow writer with a bitter streak that Charles enjoyed. The show was canceled, and Charles found himself scrambling for work. Writing jokes for the amazing Richard Belzer, writing insults for comedy roasts on cable channels. A big break was writing for Arsenio Hall, but his material was too edgy for a host who had too many problems being the first African-American talk show host. Just when things were looking dark, Charles was approached with a job that wouldn't last long he was told, but would keep him in Hollywood. A show called Seinfeld.
Larry Charles was born in Brooklyn, but grew up in Trump Village near Coney Island, so one can understand where his topical and bitter humor came from. Charles is also a pretty sociable guy, a minor Zelig who seemed to cross paths with many famous people in the comedy game. The book is full of lots of stories, and profiles, from Johnny Carson, Richard Belzer, Aresenio Hall, Larry David, and much more. The book mixes tales of writing for television, and writing and directing feature films, and the differences between the two. Amidst the humor are a lot of stories about the dark side of Hollywood and or the world of comedy and writing. The drugs of course, the pressure to writer and produce needing a little or a lot of chemical stimulants. Also the vitriolic attacks on Arsenio Hall, for being black on television, holding hands with white actresses or making political jokes. Charles chapter on working on Hall's show is revealing, and shows that people really haven't changed in almost 75 years of television.
The book is very funny, with lots of asides, and stories about a diverse group of people. Charles does not spare himself either. For fans of comedy, television, Seinfled, Borat and much
Hollywood is not a fun place. Especially for a comedy writer. One can get the job of one's dreams, and spend the next ten years trying to pretend it never happened. All while trying to find any job at all. Friends will steal jokes, steal ideas, steal drugs and girls. Studios will promise they want to be in the you business, and never answer the phone. Agents can give up on clients, or forget they even have one as a client. A producer can share a great idea, an idea that turns out to be someone else's. One can be the next big thing, than the next to nothing. Larry Charles has seen all this and more. Charles started selling jokes, to working on comedy specials, crafting insults for roasts, working on talk shows and more. However it was a little show about nothing that brought him fame, fortune, and a whole new set of problems. Comedy Samurai: Forty Years of Blood, Guts, and Laughter by Larry Charles is a rags to riches, warts and all, A star is born story of comedy, television, movies, ill health, big hits, and a life making others laugh.
The book begins with a health crisis, and an encounter with an EMT who was also a fan of the French New Wave Director Jean-Luc Godard. From there we return to the past, the late 70s and a show that was going to change television, until it was given a title that reminded the world that is was just an imitation. The show was Fridays, and Larry Charles had been chosen to be one of the writers on this sketch comedy show that ABC had a lot of hope for. Here Charles met people who would become famous tater in his life, Michael Richards, a young Jerry Seinfeld, and Larry David, a fellow writer with a bitter streak that Charles enjoyed. The show was canceled, and Charles found himself scrambling for work. Writing jokes for the amazing Richard Belzer, writing insults for comedy roasts on cable channels. A big break was writing for Arsenio Hall, but his material was too edgy for a host who had too many problems being the first African-American talk show host. Just when things were looking dark, Charles was approached with a job that wouldn't last long he was told, but would keep him in Hollywood. A show called Seinfeld.
Larry Charles was born in Brooklyn, but grew up in Trump Village near Coney Island, so one can understand where his topical and bitter humor came from. Charles is also a pretty sociable guy, a minor Zelig who seemed to cross paths with many famous people in the comedy game. The book is full of lots of stories, and profiles, from Johnny Carson, Richard Belzer, Aresenio Hall, Larry David, and much more. The book mixes tales of writing for television, and writing and directing feature films, and the differences between the two. Amidst the humor are a lot of stories about the dark side of Hollywood and or the world of comedy and writing. The drugs of course, the pressure to writer and produce needing a little or a lot of chemical stimulants. Also the vitriolic attacks on Arsenio Hall, for being black on television, holding hands with white actresses or making political jokes. Charles chapter on working on Hall's show is revealing, and shows that people really haven't changed in almost 75 years of television.
The book is very funny, with lots of asides, and stories about a diverse group of people. Charles does not spare himself either. For fans of comedy, television, Seinfled, Borat and much
July 9, 2025
The book picks up considerably when he reaches the Seinfeld years, although that could just be a function of me actually being familiar with the work he's talking about starting there. Very honest, very self-aware (not totally, but who is?) and very entertaining look at some great movies and tv shows. It's a pretty conventional memoir in terms of content and structure, which is a bit surprising, given how purposefully iconoclastic Larry Charles is, but it made for a good read.
Also, probably me somewhat inflating the relevance of stuff I care about, but Larry Charles writes about being struck by the evil of the Israeli occupation of Palestine and the hardships he witnessed by travelling there for Dangerous World of Comedy, yet three of his main professional collaborators, Jerry Seinfeld, Bill Maher, and Sacha Baron Cohen, are some of the most odious Zionists in Hollywood. He doesn't shy away from criticizing them for other reasons, but I felt there was a gaping hole in the memoir when it comes to that issue. It's not like there weren't opportunities to have a discussion about it; he writes about travelling to Jerusalem with Bill Maher and SBC for Religulous and Bruno, respectively. In Bill Maher's case, he mentions, offhandedly, in a totally different chapter, that Maher outright refused to visit the West Bank but never interrogates the reasons for that refusal. The "terrorist" they interviewed for Bruno was almost certainly not a member of Al-Aqsa Martyr's Brigade, as presented in the film, but that discrepancy is not even directly addressed in the memoir. In general, the Islamophonia and anti-Arab racism of his collaborations with Sacha Baren Cohen, from present but easy to ignore in Borat to overt and disgusting in The Dictator, go virtually unmentioned. Anyway, that's my time on the soapbox.
Give this one a read if you're interested in any of Larry Charles' work. And if you're not familiar with his work, you should be!
Also, probably me somewhat inflating the relevance of stuff I care about, but Larry Charles writes about being struck by the evil of the Israeli occupation of Palestine and the hardships he witnessed by travelling there for Dangerous World of Comedy, yet three of his main professional collaborators, Jerry Seinfeld, Bill Maher, and Sacha Baron Cohen, are some of the most odious Zionists in Hollywood. He doesn't shy away from criticizing them for other reasons, but I felt there was a gaping hole in the memoir when it comes to that issue. It's not like there weren't opportunities to have a discussion about it; he writes about travelling to Jerusalem with Bill Maher and SBC for Religulous and Bruno, respectively. In Bill Maher's case, he mentions, offhandedly, in a totally different chapter, that Maher outright refused to visit the West Bank but never interrogates the reasons for that refusal. The "terrorist" they interviewed for Bruno was almost certainly not a member of Al-Aqsa Martyr's Brigade, as presented in the film, but that discrepancy is not even directly addressed in the memoir. In general, the Islamophonia and anti-Arab racism of his collaborations with Sacha Baren Cohen, from present but easy to ignore in Borat to overt and disgusting in The Dictator, go virtually unmentioned. Anyway, that's my time on the soapbox.
Give this one a read if you're interested in any of Larry Charles' work. And if you're not familiar with his work, you should be!
October 16, 2025
In his memoir, Charles shares four decades worth of wit and wisdom as one of the most innovative comedic talents behind the camera, sharing the highs and lows of a career that has redefined the genre several times over. From his beginnings on the SNL alternative “Fridays,” where his blossoming friendship with Larry David would bring him to help build the foundation for “Seinfeld” and later subvert the format for “Curb Your Enthusiasm,” to show running popular series like “Mad About You” and “Entourage,” to his directing debut for Bob Dylan’s “Masked and Anonymous,” to dismantling the conventions of documentary with Bill Maher’s “Religulous” and back-to-back films with Sacha Baron Cohen for “Borat” and “Bruno,” to expanding comedic horizons profiling performers throughout Africa and the Middle East for “Larry Charles’ Dangerous World of Comedy,” needless to say Charles has cemented his legacy. While Charles shares insights and anecdotes from these projects and more, he also muses about his own place in the comedy hierarchy, establishing himself as a lone wanderer who chose to be a pioneering figure instead of chasing easy fame and money, leading to decisions like leaving “Seinfeld” after the first few seasons, taking contracts that left him with all the respect but none of the reward, and pursuing passion projects to distribute at his own expense. He’s a man who has lived a rich life, though not without regrets, but who has also finally come to peace with his flaws and mistakes. While many of the shows and movies he has been involved with have been commercial and critical successes, Charles seemingly has finally settled into the role he acknowledges he designed for himself, consciously or not, one as a lone wanderer in the public consciousness who never fell for the same trappings as his comedy contemporaries.
September 25, 2025
Wish there was more of the early days stuff when everyone was a nobody working on the SNL-clone and of the Seinfeld days.
All the Larry David stuff is fascinating and gives you a sense of what a carefully-crafted-character he has presented to the world, which takes real talent. Borat stuff was great too.
He really does make you forget that he’s a billionaire and you can tell Larry Charles (LC) still really cares for LD, as we all do.
Overall, the book gets quite repetitive in detailing all the ways he was wronged on each project and can be a bit navel-gazey in general.
I appreciate most of the ownership of his own mistakes that he makes, especially the sins towards his family. The crew sins admissions still feel like a lowkey humble brag. “And the absolute worst worst thing I did was… and you won’t believe this horror… I yelled once when everything was getting fucked up on the 10s of millions of dollars budgeted movie I had to manage and answer for”. It’s like ya, we know directors yell. You’re good.
The honesty on Palestine was especially appreciated as well as the insight on America’s extra-level of hate for gays from directing Bruno.
The epilogue was great on the “it’s all one big joke” vibes. Always love that and he threaded it real well. Almost got me to 4 stars. All in all, hope LC lives a good while longer and maybe gets to make some more projects once Hollywood’s gatekeeping stranglehold is loosened.
HBO/LD, release The Larry David Story por favor!!! Preferably before the ol baldy’s head stops shining.
All the Larry David stuff is fascinating and gives you a sense of what a carefully-crafted-character he has presented to the world, which takes real talent. Borat stuff was great too.
He really does make you forget that he’s a billionaire and you can tell Larry Charles (LC) still really cares for LD, as we all do.
Overall, the book gets quite repetitive in detailing all the ways he was wronged on each project and can be a bit navel-gazey in general.
I appreciate most of the ownership of his own mistakes that he makes, especially the sins towards his family. The crew sins admissions still feel like a lowkey humble brag. “And the absolute worst worst thing I did was… and you won’t believe this horror… I yelled once when everything was getting fucked up on the 10s of millions of dollars budgeted movie I had to manage and answer for”. It’s like ya, we know directors yell. You’re good.
The honesty on Palestine was especially appreciated as well as the insight on America’s extra-level of hate for gays from directing Bruno.
The epilogue was great on the “it’s all one big joke” vibes. Always love that and he threaded it real well. Almost got me to 4 stars. All in all, hope LC lives a good while longer and maybe gets to make some more projects once Hollywood’s gatekeeping stranglehold is loosened.
HBO/LD, release The Larry David Story por favor!!! Preferably before the ol baldy’s head stops shining.
July 22, 2025
Virtually every bio or memoire I've read always has the back cover devoted to "advance praise for" blurbs about the book, or how wonderful the writer is. Comedy Samurai has none of that. After reading it, I know why.
Charles -- a writer on Seinfeld and director on Curb Your Enthusiasm -- devotes most of his book on his film directing career, and it's fascinating stuff. Charles directed Sasha Baron Cohen's groundbreaking Borat film, Cohen's second (less successful) film Bruno, and his unsuccessful third film The Dictator. The Borat and Bruno stories of how the gonzo movies were made are hugely entertaining. But by the time of The Dictator, Cohen's ego was running amok. Charles describes Cohen as a "dictator-like control freak who was blind to the destruction he would be causing himself". Hmm, maybe that's why he didn't ask Borat for a blurb.
Overall, Comedy Samurai is entertaining, with long dreary passages about Charles' self-doubt (or is it arrogant opinion about his own greatness, it's hard to tell). "I tried to be loyal to my masters," he writes at the end. I tried to do my job and move on. With honor. With grace (sometimes). With respect. I think about death and impermanence every day..." etc. etc. If you skim the dreary self-reflection, Comedy Samudrai has lots of good stuff in it. But man, it needed an edit.
Charles -- a writer on Seinfeld and director on Curb Your Enthusiasm -- devotes most of his book on his film directing career, and it's fascinating stuff. Charles directed Sasha Baron Cohen's groundbreaking Borat film, Cohen's second (less successful) film Bruno, and his unsuccessful third film The Dictator. The Borat and Bruno stories of how the gonzo movies were made are hugely entertaining. But by the time of The Dictator, Cohen's ego was running amok. Charles describes Cohen as a "dictator-like control freak who was blind to the destruction he would be causing himself". Hmm, maybe that's why he didn't ask Borat for a blurb.
Overall, Comedy Samurai is entertaining, with long dreary passages about Charles' self-doubt (or is it arrogant opinion about his own greatness, it's hard to tell). "I tried to be loyal to my masters," he writes at the end. I tried to do my job and move on. With honor. With grace (sometimes). With respect. I think about death and impermanence every day..." etc. etc. If you skim the dreary self-reflection, Comedy Samudrai has lots of good stuff in it. But man, it needed an edit.
September 2, 2025
Entertaining and what a wild ride he has had! Made a lot of mistakes, most of which he owns (and some he doesnt, like how he manages to fall out with almost every producer or director he worked with from Larry to Sasha). I expect there are huge egoes at play so maybe its inevitable, but he also seems utterly inflexible, just a little too maniacly committed to the "purity of his art " to learn how to work sustainably with other perople. Instead he is dying mostly alone and penniless. But it is brutally honest and generous, even about people he fell out with (like advocating Sasha B-C should have won the Oscar), or his ex-wife who sounds like a saint.
His political naivete is astonishing -going to Syria and Palestine and marvelling how everyone just wants to live in peace, believing the façade and lies and entirely ignoring the Islamist death cults supported by the majority of the populations there (Ahmed-Al-Sharaa in Syria, Hamas and Palestine Jihad in Palestine) etc etc. It is classic, high-school level socialism - America is the evil satan, otherwise everyone would just be playing nicely. That last project didn't really deserve to succeed with that much anti-US animus.
But that aside he is an enormous unique talent, with a great eye for human observation and thus situational comedy.
His political naivete is astonishing -going to Syria and Palestine and marvelling how everyone just wants to live in peace, believing the façade and lies and entirely ignoring the Islamist death cults supported by the majority of the populations there (Ahmed-Al-Sharaa in Syria, Hamas and Palestine Jihad in Palestine) etc etc. It is classic, high-school level socialism - America is the evil satan, otherwise everyone would just be playing nicely. That last project didn't really deserve to succeed with that much anti-US animus.
But that aside he is an enormous unique talent, with a great eye for human observation and thus situational comedy.
September 8, 2025
Oof. After listening to Larry Charles on Fresh Air, I was very very excited to read this book, which took all summer to complete. While I enjoyed Larry's treatises on the nature of comedy---he is a gifted comedy writer---appreciated his candor, the overall experience is one of wincing and exhaustion, sometimes on his behalf. The constant self-induced boom and bust immolation cycles is certainly a cautionary tale for anyone interesting in a career writing or directing for Hollywood. You will understand the importance of owning your IP after witnessing literally millions of dollars slip through his fingers. He really is Aesop's grasshopper. My mentor from film school used to say that despite all the glitz and glamour, Hollywood is a thoroughly middle class endeavor. He would take a $300,000 contract and proceed to turn it into a $75,000 net (agents, managers, lawyers, accountants, taxes, etc). Larry should have taken that class.
September 24, 2025
An extraordinary read from the great Larry Charles. Goes deep on the incredible run of films and TV shows he’s made and/or been involved with as a writer/director—SEINFELD, CURB YOUR ENTHUSIASM, MASKED AND ANONYMOUS, BORAT, BRÜNO, ARMY OF ONE, LARRY CHARLES’ DANGEROUS WORLD OF COMEDY, and more—and is a deeply personal book about growing and learning as a human being and as an artist. Profoundly insightful on Charles’s philosophy of comedy and on process. In many ways, it’s a memoir about work—the hard work of living, of failing, of fighting through doubts and staying the course when people want you to sell out or do what’s easiest. Charles was never one to play it safe, and this is an essential book to read if you’re interested in making art that takes risks. The Bob Dylan chapter is worth the price of admission alone, but there’s so much stuff here—other tales of key collaborations, failed projects, observations on literature and film and life—that I can’t stop thinking about.
November 10, 2025
One of those books I greatly looked forward to opening every day. A lot of funny, surreal, and sometimes horrifying stories about Larry Charles's experiences in comedy and even in his personal life. After reading a chapter I would often recount what I just read to my wife.
My only small criticism is considering how important Seinfeld was for his career, I could have used an even bigger chapter about that. Not that the chapter isn't substantial, but I was left truly wanting more. Same with Curb. What's it like to direct an episode of Curb? Any funny stories about working with those personalities, or guest stars, especially as they tried to improvise? I feel I only got a vague idea.
But even the chapters about projects I knew nothing about were compelling, funny and full of showbiz gossip that I could just eat up. I immediately followed his social media after reading the book but was disappointed it was nothing but politics.
My only small criticism is considering how important Seinfeld was for his career, I could have used an even bigger chapter about that. Not that the chapter isn't substantial, but I was left truly wanting more. Same with Curb. What's it like to direct an episode of Curb? Any funny stories about working with those personalities, or guest stars, especially as they tried to improvise? I feel I only got a vague idea.
But even the chapters about projects I knew nothing about were compelling, funny and full of showbiz gossip that I could just eat up. I immediately followed his social media after reading the book but was disappointed it was nothing but politics.
Read
December 21, 2025Variously, as a writer, producer, or director of some of my favorite popular shows and movies like Seinfeld, Curb Your Enthusiasm, Borat, Religilous, and Masked and Anonymous, L. Charles is filled with insight, conflict, gossip, and humblebrags galore. He's a self-styled iconoclast who believes that 30 million dollar movies that purport to critique the corruption and perversions of American life are a tad hypocritical.
He seems to put his money right there with his mouth.
The result of his work is often hysterically funny and pointed, if not always palatable to everyone, but always done with a budget as close to the bone as he can with guts and a strong sense of integrity.
He writes confessionally about his flaws and foibles like an old Jew (in the best sense). For anyone interested in a behind-the-scenes look at the 20th-century comedy zeitgeist, this will be a hard-to-put-down read.
He seems to put his money right there with his mouth.
The result of his work is often hysterically funny and pointed, if not always palatable to everyone, but always done with a budget as close to the bone as he can with guts and a strong sense of integrity.
He writes confessionally about his flaws and foibles like an old Jew (in the best sense). For anyone interested in a behind-the-scenes look at the 20th-century comedy zeitgeist, this will be a hard-to-put-down read.
April 28, 2025
First, thank you to NetGalley and the publisher Grand Central Publishing.
The highs are high and the lows are low in this memoir by the comedy mind that worked closely on Seinfeld, Curb Your Enthusiam, Borat, plus many other productions. I hope Larry (Charles) is alright. He comes across as dark and brooding. I feel like too much time is spent on less successful and unhappy projects, including venting A LOT about Sacha Baron Cohen and somewhat about Larry David.
The best parts are the good times, like the making of Borat or when Charles pulls back the curtain on his interactions with Bob Dylan during the making of Masked & Anonymous. Far less enjoyable are the lengthy discussions of Bruno and The Dictator.
I'd honestly toss a good portion of the last third of this book to make it a more pleasurable read. Peace.
The highs are high and the lows are low in this memoir by the comedy mind that worked closely on Seinfeld, Curb Your Enthusiam, Borat, plus many other productions. I hope Larry (Charles) is alright. He comes across as dark and brooding. I feel like too much time is spent on less successful and unhappy projects, including venting A LOT about Sacha Baron Cohen and somewhat about Larry David.
The best parts are the good times, like the making of Borat or when Charles pulls back the curtain on his interactions with Bob Dylan during the making of Masked & Anonymous. Far less enjoyable are the lengthy discussions of Bruno and The Dictator.
I'd honestly toss a good portion of the last third of this book to make it a more pleasurable read. Peace.
June 12, 2025
Larry Charles' memoir, Comedy Samurai: Forty Years of Blood, Guts, and Laughter, offers a candid and often irreverent look into the life of one of modern comedy's most influential figures. Known for his work on Seinfeld, Curb Your Enthusiasm, and films like Borat and Religulous, Charles chronicles his journey from Brooklyn's gritty streets to Hollywood's elite circles. The book delves into his collaborations with icons such as Larry David, Sacha Baron Cohen, and Bob Dylan, providing behind-the-scenes anecdotes that showcase his fearless approach to comedy. While the narrative is at times emotionally raw and tonally uneven, Charles' unflinching honesty and sharp wit make for a compelling read. For fans of boundary-pushing humor and those curious about the machinations of comedic genius, Comedy Samurai is both enlightening and entertaining.
June 24, 2025
Larry Charles is a long time friend of Larry David and Jerry Seinfeld. He wrote or co-wrote 14 episodes of the show including; “the Subway” and “The Opera “. He also directed Sasha Baron Cohen in “Borat” and “Bruno”.
A respected talent in television and the movies, this memoir presents a tortured soul whose only goal is to make funny stuff.
The memoir gives a taste of what it’s like to be a second or third tier talent in the entertainment industry. It reveals some unpleasant truths about people like, Larry David, Sasha Baron Cohen, Ari Emanuel, and others. It also explores why comedy is such serious business. For more of Charles ’ work check out “Larry Charles’ Dangerous Comedy “ documentary on Netflix
A respected talent in television and the movies, this memoir presents a tortured soul whose only goal is to make funny stuff.
The memoir gives a taste of what it’s like to be a second or third tier talent in the entertainment industry. It reveals some unpleasant truths about people like, Larry David, Sasha Baron Cohen, Ari Emanuel, and others. It also explores why comedy is such serious business. For more of Charles ’ work check out “Larry Charles’ Dangerous Comedy “ documentary on Netflix
July 17, 2025
Packed with entertaining insider showbiz stories, but ultimately left me feeling a little sour. LC owns up to lots of destructive and abusive behavior throughout this book. He tries to twist it all into some kind of personal redemption arc, but that ultimately doesn't work due to how often he is preemptively defensive of those misanthropic behaviors; there's a lot of, "I probably shouldn't have done that, BUT..." logic here. He frequently blames others for his own behaviors, and also for subpar work the quality of which was obviously his own responsibility even in the context of his one-sided recountings.
That said, given what I described, this book is an unintended look inside the mind of a very specific type of restless, chaotic creative narcissist.
That said, given what I described, this book is an unintended look inside the mind of a very specific type of restless, chaotic creative narcissist.
August 30, 2025
This book was too long, but otherwise it was an interesting peek into the life and mind of another individual who happened to be involved in writing and directing comedy.
Based on the reading, he didn't make himself out to be a great guy, although he did deride a few people that I had no opinion of-- like I hope I don't run into Sacha Baron Cohen because he sounds like he was a bit of an a**hole. Actually quite a few people that were written about were put down, but Larry Charles also put himself down. It is kind of Seinfeld/Curb - esque.
I give the book credit for telling me a lot more about the 'making of a movie' or TV show than I ever knew so it was definitely worth the time.
I did enjoy Religulous and "Mr. Softee" is probably my favorite Curb episode of all time, so ....
Based on the reading, he didn't make himself out to be a great guy, although he did deride a few people that I had no opinion of-- like I hope I don't run into Sacha Baron Cohen because he sounds like he was a bit of an a**hole. Actually quite a few people that were written about were put down, but Larry Charles also put himself down. It is kind of Seinfeld/Curb - esque.
I give the book credit for telling me a lot more about the 'making of a movie' or TV show than I ever knew so it was definitely worth the time.
I did enjoy Religulous and "Mr. Softee" is probably my favorite Curb episode of all time, so ....
August 11, 2025
As the director/ Co-Creator of Borat and Bruno this should get a one star for being a very bad person.
It's a very mixed book, with some genuinely unique takes, and insights into filmmaking. you do wonder how much of it is a raw unfiltered view of the world, and how much of it is self-serving narratives, especially when it comes to his personal life. It's probably something I would recommend for people who are generally interested in comedy writers biographies, but definitely not something that anyone else should bother with.
It's a very mixed book, with some genuinely unique takes, and insights into filmmaking. you do wonder how much of it is a raw unfiltered view of the world, and how much of it is self-serving narratives, especially when it comes to his personal life. It's probably something I would recommend for people who are generally interested in comedy writers biographies, but definitely not something that anyone else should bother with.
September 2, 2025
I really enjoyed this, i am a MASSIVE seinfeld nerd so it was great to get some behind the scenes story, though also surprising that this was relatively quite a small part of his life and he worked on so many other things, borat and bruno probably the most famous. I appreciated how modest and self deprecating he was, not glossing over his own failures and mistakes, and also his international outlook on trying to bring the world together. Am looking forward to catching up on some of his other work that I didnt know existed, eg the Bob Dylan film etc.
September 5, 2025
I love the TV shows, Seinfeld and Curb, and loved the Borat, Bruno, and Dictator movies (the movies and shows are some of the funniest and most unique ones out there). Overall, Larry created a cool glimpse into what happens behind the scenes (and people) of the shows and movies (from writing process, to creation, to directing, etc.). The book does kill some of the illusions that happen behind the scenes but I still loved it and Larry definitely seems like a cool dark-humored guy who you would expect to have come up with some of the wildest concepts for Seinfeld and Curb.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 85 reviews