What do you think?
Rate this book
The A to Z of Skateboarding
In which Tony Hawks (who is definitely NOT Tony Hawk) swaps his fridge for a skateboard
For more than twenty years I have been mistaken for Tony Hawk, the American skateboarder. Unfortunately for me, Tony Hawk chose to name all his skateboarding computer games after him, so they were called things like Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater. The reason why this is unfortunate is because it seems that young American skateboarders have failed to grasp the concept of an apostrophe* and even though it is abundantly clear on my web-site that I am an English comedian and author, they still write to me asking me questions like ‘How do you do a 900’ or ‘an Ollie’? A while back I grew tired of this, and one mischievous day I decided to starting writing back to these skateboarding enthusiasts. And I began to enjoy it. I began to publish the best of these replies on my web-site and I soon had people writing to me tell me how these mails had them crying with laughter. I now have hundreds of e mails to which I have replied, employing a pompous, serious tone, goading my correspondents for their spelling mistakes and poor grammar, whilst offering bogus or downright silly advice on how to improve their skateboarding. These ‘skatemails’ would appear alongside an equally silly and disrespectful A-Z guide to the world of skateboarding, as seen through the eyes of someone who knows absolutely nothing about it.
I see this as being a great gift book – or one that can sit on the shelf in the loo and provide the kind of unbridled laughter that could greatly assist the constipated. There – that’s my gift to society. It would also make a wonderful Christmas present to any parent who has a child who is a mad keen skateboarder…
I should also add that all my profits for this new book will be donated to my charity - The Tony Hawks Centre - which offers free health care to chronically ill children in Moldova.
For more than twenty years I have been mistaken for Tony Hawk, the American skateboarder. Unfortunately for me, Tony Hawk chose to name all his skateboarding computer games after him, so they were called things like Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater. The reason why this is unfortunate is because it seems that young American skateboarders have failed to grasp the concept of an apostrophe* and even though it is abundantly clear on my web-site that I am an English comedian and author, they still write to me asking me questions like ‘How do you do a 900’ or ‘an Ollie’? A while back I grew tired of this, and one mischievous day I decided to starting writing back to these skateboarding enthusiasts. And I began to enjoy it. I began to publish the best of these replies on my web-site and I soon had people writing to me tell me how these mails had them crying with laughter. I now have hundreds of e mails to which I have replied, employing a pompous, serious tone, goading my correspondents for their spelling mistakes and poor grammar, whilst offering bogus or downright silly advice on how to improve their skateboarding. These ‘skatemails’ would appear alongside an equally silly and disrespectful A-Z guide to the world of skateboarding, as seen through the eyes of someone who knows absolutely nothing about it.
I see this as being a great gift book – or one that can sit on the shelf in the loo and provide the kind of unbridled laughter that could greatly assist the constipated. There – that’s my gift to society. It would also make a wonderful Christmas present to any parent who has a child who is a mad keen skateboarder…
I should also add that all my profits for this new book will be donated to my charity - The Tony Hawks Centre - which offers free health care to chronically ill children in Moldova.
- GenresNonfictionComedy
115 pages, Hardcover
First published July 13, 2019
8 people are currently reading
44 people want to read
About the author
Tony Hawks
31 books230 followersTony Hawks, is a British comedian and author, famous for his Quizotic travel accounts undertaking bizarre wagers with friends. Hawks performs stand-up comedy, and is a regular on TV and radio panel games in the UK, including I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue, Just a Minute, The Unbelievable Truth and Have I Got News for You, although he first came to prominence as one of two resident performers — the other was Jo Brand — on semi-successful BBC monologue show The Brain Drain.
He first attempted to break into show business as a serious singer-songwriter, but it was with a novelty record that he had his first brush with fame. As leader of the trio Morris Minor and the Majors, he reached number 4 in the UK charts with the Beastie Boys parody, Stutter Rap (No Sleep Til Bedtime) in 1988. It went on to sell 220,000 copies, and was number one in Australia. The follow-up, a pastiche of Stock Aitken Waterman called This Is the Chorus, fared less well.
The full-length feature film version of his book Round Ireland with a Fridge, starring Tony, Josie Lawrence, Ed Byrne and Sean Hughes, was released in Autumn 2010. Filming on the follow-up, Playing the Moldovans at Tennis, with Steven Frost, Angus Deayton, Morwenna Banks and Laura Solon, has just been completed. In March 2011 Tony travelled to Japan to appear at the Okinawa International Film Festival where Round Ireland with a Fridge was nominated for Best Comedy.
Tony Hawks donated half of the royalties from his book Playing the Moldovans at Tennis to a trust fund for Moldova, which was used to open the Hippocrates Centre, a medical centre that provides rehabilitative therapy for disabled children from socially vulnerable families. Hawks continues to support Hippocrates through fundraising and personal involvement. Hawks is the co-founder and public face of the "Tennis for Free" campaign which aims to make Britain's existing municipal tennis facilities available to all.
He is frequently confused with Tony Hawk, largely because the latter's video game franchise uses the possessive apostrophe ("Tony Hawk's"). Hawks maintains a list of emails intended for the skateboarder and his mischievous responses to them on his website. On 2 January 2008 he appeared on an edition of Celebrity Mastermind, with Tony Hawk as his chosen specialised subject. Hawks noted that his correspondents "might be able to do backside varials but they can't spell to save their lives."
In September he will begin his first National Theatre tour since 2003 with a new one man show called Random Fun.
He first attempted to break into show business as a serious singer-songwriter, but it was with a novelty record that he had his first brush with fame. As leader of the trio Morris Minor and the Majors, he reached number 4 in the UK charts with the Beastie Boys parody, Stutter Rap (No Sleep Til Bedtime) in 1988. It went on to sell 220,000 copies, and was number one in Australia. The follow-up, a pastiche of Stock Aitken Waterman called This Is the Chorus, fared less well.
The full-length feature film version of his book Round Ireland with a Fridge, starring Tony, Josie Lawrence, Ed Byrne and Sean Hughes, was released in Autumn 2010. Filming on the follow-up, Playing the Moldovans at Tennis, with Steven Frost, Angus Deayton, Morwenna Banks and Laura Solon, has just been completed. In March 2011 Tony travelled to Japan to appear at the Okinawa International Film Festival where Round Ireland with a Fridge was nominated for Best Comedy.
Tony Hawks donated half of the royalties from his book Playing the Moldovans at Tennis to a trust fund for Moldova, which was used to open the Hippocrates Centre, a medical centre that provides rehabilitative therapy for disabled children from socially vulnerable families. Hawks continues to support Hippocrates through fundraising and personal involvement. Hawks is the co-founder and public face of the "Tennis for Free" campaign which aims to make Britain's existing municipal tennis facilities available to all.
He is frequently confused with Tony Hawk, largely because the latter's video game franchise uses the possessive apostrophe ("Tony Hawk's"). Hawks maintains a list of emails intended for the skateboarder and his mischievous responses to them on his website. On 2 January 2008 he appeared on an edition of Celebrity Mastermind, with Tony Hawk as his chosen specialised subject. Hawks noted that his correspondents "might be able to do backside varials but they can't spell to save their lives."
In September he will begin his first National Theatre tour since 2003 with a new one man show called Random Fun.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews
June 13, 2019
https://donnasbookblog.wordpress.com/...
This was a really easy book to read and I did find myself laughing more than once, I liked the punchy chapters and the length of them was perfect.
The author's writing style was great and I do get where the author was coming from and I can only imagine what it would be like to receive the fan mail of someone else over and over again, I imagine after a while it must really start to get on your nerves (being nice and polite there!)!
Four stars from me for this one, an easy read to book that gave me more than a few giggles and the money from the book sales being donated to charity is a brilliant touch - a highly recommended bit of good fun!
This was a really easy book to read and I did find myself laughing more than once, I liked the punchy chapters and the length of them was perfect.
The author's writing style was great and I do get where the author was coming from and I can only imagine what it would be like to receive the fan mail of someone else over and over again, I imagine after a while it must really start to get on your nerves (being nice and polite there!)!
Four stars from me for this one, an easy read to book that gave me more than a few giggles and the money from the book sales being donated to charity is a brilliant touch - a highly recommended bit of good fun!
June 17, 2019
The only time I have ever tried to ride a skateboard I ended up on my ass, with owner of said skateboard pointing and laughing. Prick.
While I still harbour some notion (and obviously some resentment) that one day I might learn to ride a skateboard, I am now 34, so that notion probably deserves to go on the shelf with my goals of winning the world cup (despite rarely playing football) and recording a smash hit single that sells so much that I get to live a life akin to Will in About A Boy (Played by Hugh Grant in the film), despite having the musical talent of a constipated otter.
Anyway...moving swiftly along to the book
This book essentially does exactly what it says on the tin. People who were silly enough to confuse Tony Hawks with legendary skateboarder Tony Hawk have been sending him emails for years asking for tips on skateboarding. It only took a matter of time before the comedian started replying.
While I wouldn't normally be in favour of this approach, after reading a couple of the questions that the book contained, it was hard to say that at least some of the people who sent questions did not deserve the response they received.
I especially liked the factoids scattered throughout the book - and the authors tongue in cheek response to them.
Overall, while I didn't find every section of this book to be perfect, there were many sections that made me belly laugh.A great pick me up, especially after being harassed by some "punk kids" in the car park.
The length of this one, coupled with the writing style make this a perfect book for dipping in and out of. Deserves to take a place on your coffee table or, dare I say it, your bathroom book shelf ;-). Recommended.
For more of my reviews visit Don Jimmy Reviews
While I still harbour some notion (and obviously some resentment) that one day I might learn to ride a skateboard, I am now 34, so that notion probably deserves to go on the shelf with my goals of winning the world cup (despite rarely playing football) and recording a smash hit single that sells so much that I get to live a life akin to Will in About A Boy (Played by Hugh Grant in the film), despite having the musical talent of a constipated otter.
Anyway...moving swiftly along to the book
This book essentially does exactly what it says on the tin. People who were silly enough to confuse Tony Hawks with legendary skateboarder Tony Hawk have been sending him emails for years asking for tips on skateboarding. It only took a matter of time before the comedian started replying.
While I wouldn't normally be in favour of this approach, after reading a couple of the questions that the book contained, it was hard to say that at least some of the people who sent questions did not deserve the response they received.
I especially liked the factoids scattered throughout the book - and the authors tongue in cheek response to them.
Overall, while I didn't find every section of this book to be perfect, there were many sections that made me belly laugh.A great pick me up, especially after being harassed by some "punk kids" in the car park.
The length of this one, coupled with the writing style make this a perfect book for dipping in and out of. Deserves to take a place on your coffee table or, dare I say it, your bathroom book shelf ;-). Recommended.
For more of my reviews visit Don Jimmy Reviews
June 21, 2019
For two decades of his life, Tony Hawkes has been mistaken for the pro skateboarder Tony Hawk. It wasn't helped when the American released his first video game, Tony Hawk's Pro Skater and that tiny punctuation mark suddenly meant that the visitors to Tony Hawks' website increased dramatically. Even though he has tried to make it abundantly clear that he is not a skateboarder, rather an author, a BBC Radio 4 star and comedian, he has received countless messages from excited fans.
To begin with, the deleted button was used a lot, but after a while, his twisted sense of humour gave him the idea to actually answer these messages from the fans of the other Tony. So began a series of cheeky, or in reality, fairly thinly veiled sarcasm, he replies back to these messages. And they are hilarious .
As he knows almost nothing about skateboarding, he thought he would share his extensive knowledge in this A to Z of the sport. So if you had no idea what a kickflip was, or always wondered about why anyone would want to count to 900 then this is the book for you. If you had come across his other books, then you'll probably guess, this is full of very much tongue in cheek humour. Completely daft and thoroughly enjoyable. Possibly not one for the skateboarder in your life… I should also add that all the profits for this book will be donated to his charity - The Tony Hawks Centre - which offers free health care to chronically ill children in Moldova.
To begin with, the deleted button was used a lot, but after a while, his twisted sense of humour gave him the idea to actually answer these messages from the fans of the other Tony. So began a series of cheeky, or in reality, fairly thinly veiled sarcasm, he replies back to these messages. And they are hilarious .
As he knows almost nothing about skateboarding, he thought he would share his extensive knowledge in this A to Z of the sport. So if you had no idea what a kickflip was, or always wondered about why anyone would want to count to 900 then this is the book for you. If you had come across his other books, then you'll probably guess, this is full of very much tongue in cheek humour. Completely daft and thoroughly enjoyable. Possibly not one for the skateboarder in your life… I should also add that all the profits for this book will be donated to his charity - The Tony Hawks Centre - which offers free health care to chronically ill children in Moldova.
June 23, 2019
This is different to Round Ireland With A Fridge, which was written in a narrative style. This book is a fun compendium of facts about skateboarding, wholly inaccurate musings about skateboarding and completely random and acerbic advice for the misguided skateboarding unfortunates that decided to email him. It’s a perfect loo-shelf gift for someone with a very dry sense of humour and as much knowledge of skateboarding as Tony, who’d like a book they can flip through. If you like Joe Lycett’s style of email response, this could well be up your street.
I received a review copy of this in return for an honest review.
I received a review copy of this in return for an honest review.
June 24, 2019
This was not the book I backed to begin with. That was another travel/mid-life adventure involving Ireland and a fridge. But that never got made. Instead the project switched to this smaller, novelty book. I continued my backing because I own and enjoy all his previous books. This one did indeed raise several laughs but I didn’t feel it was something he was committed to, rather something that had to be done having agreed to produce something for Unbound. But as ever my usual caveat, it’s better than anything I’ve ever written & gotten published!
July 7, 2019
I was a fan of Tony Hawks before I read this book, but this has made me appreciate his humour even more.
As a result of being mistaken for Tony Hawk, Tony Hawks now has a strong dislike for anything skateboarding related. This book contains his thoughts on the past time in alphabetical order, along with skateboarding facts. It also contains some of the letters he has received from skateboarding fans and his hilarious replies to them.
If you are a fan like me or just want a good laugh, then you’ll enjoy this book.
As a result of being mistaken for Tony Hawk, Tony Hawks now has a strong dislike for anything skateboarding related. This book contains his thoughts on the past time in alphabetical order, along with skateboarding facts. It also contains some of the letters he has received from skateboarding fans and his hilarious replies to them.
If you are a fan like me or just want a good laugh, then you’ll enjoy this book.
August 20, 2020
Reflections and lessons learned:
I’m hoping that the reply received was real, as it’s the perfect summary - mischievous! I’m also hoping that 20% of the correspondents went on to study the back catalogue of Hawks and are now familiar with stammering issues in the eighties, and the public transport/good will of Ireland in the nineties.
Worried follow on thought - If Chris de Burgh did split up, wouldn’t we then have two possible people touring and performing Lady in Red on the One Show though...?
I’m hoping that the reply received was real, as it’s the perfect summary - mischievous! I’m also hoping that 20% of the correspondents went on to study the back catalogue of Hawks and are now familiar with stammering issues in the eighties, and the public transport/good will of Ireland in the nineties.
Worried follow on thought - If Chris de Burgh did split up, wouldn’t we then have two possible people touring and performing Lady in Red on the One Show though...?
May 26, 2019
I can relate, to a small degree, to the author's problem. There is another Amy Smith in the town where I live and directory assistance used to route the collect calls she was getting from jail to me. Although they made for interesting stories, the messages on my voicemail were somewhat disturbing and often annoying. Thankfully, even though my name is common, I don't share it with a celebrity.
June 2, 2019
This was good fun. The Tony Hawk (boarder)/Tony Hawks (comedian) thing seems to have been going on for a while now and now comedian Tony has moved it up a gear. This is a rather silly book but it made me chuckle a lot. Great fun
March 2, 2020
Read this on a slow Sunday. I have read all of Tony Hawks books and, although different, this one is just as funny. I would have loved to have been a fly on the wall when some of these people got their email replies.
April 28, 2024
I laughed out loud so much through this that the dogs got concerned and tried to help me become calmer!!
If you need a laugh out loud book that is super light hearted...this is it!
Yet again, another great read by Tony!
If you need a laugh out loud book that is super light hearted...this is it!
Yet again, another great read by Tony!
May 19, 2019
A lot of fun for a little book, in many ways pointless, but for a good cause!
April 26, 2020
This book will take pride of place in my downstairs loo.
September 18, 2020
A breezy, awkward but hilarious short book about skateboards from the internet's premier skateboardsman.
Read
November 29, 2021I didn't realize it wasn't the skater until after I finished it
September 9, 2024
OMG. Tony Hawks is liek the gr8test comedian evar an I can’t belive how fnny he is I red this book in like 2 hour a laid the whole tim oly thing I diddnt liek was he diddnt answer how to sk8
November 13, 2019
Oh dear Tony
I love reading the Tony Hawks books as they have always made me laugh a lot, but this one I'm afraid is not anywhere near as good as previous ones. Such a shame as he is such a funny person.
I love reading the Tony Hawks books as they have always made me laugh a lot, but this one I'm afraid is not anywhere near as good as previous ones. Such a shame as he is such a funny person.
Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews