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Failure Is An Option: An Attempted Memoir
Unknown Binding
About the author
H. Jon Benjamin
7 books82 followersHarry Jon Benjamin is an American actor, voice actor and comedian best known for voicing characters, such as Sterling Archer in the animated sitcom Archer; Bob Belcher in the animated sitcom Bob's Burgers.
The Emmy-nominated voice actor describes Failure Is An Option as his “attempted” memoir. His memoir retells his life events through the lens of failure. His personal and professional setbacks eventually led to his current achievements.
The Emmy-nominated voice actor describes Failure Is An Option as his “attempted” memoir. His memoir retells his life events through the lens of failure. His personal and professional setbacks eventually led to his current achievements.
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
July 11, 2023
I love Jon Benjamin. I have been listening to his voice or seeing him on my TV since 1995 when he played Ben Katz in Dr. Katz. Ben is one of my all-time favorite characters from one of my top 5 favorite shows ever. He is listed as a writer in all of the episodes, as they would riff when in the recording booth and not necessarily follow a rock-solid script. I assumed, based on his performance on Dr. Katz, O'Grady, Lucy: Daughter of the Devil, Jon Benjamin Has a Van, Bob's Burgers, Archer, etc. that the guy was hilarious. But maybe he does good voices and the people who write for him are hilarious? That's what this audiobook made me think.
First off, there is no memoir here at all. It's one of the things that has always bothered me about Benjamin. When you listen to someone for 30 years, you feel like you know that person. He, ultimately, owes you no insight into his private life or even who he is as a person. However, you expect SOME candor from these types. Benjamin never, ever gives this. In every interview I have seen him in, he just plays a character. He never lets you into his personal circle at all, and even in interviews that exist for the sole purpose to get into the circle, he will never budge. He's rarely ever serious, and you never know if he's telling a true story or not. That is his prerogative, but it grates. You just want him to be serious, if just for ten seconds of the whole ordeal. The same thing, pretty much, happens here- it never feels like he's actually telling you about real stuff that happened in his life. I am 90% certain most of the personal stories he tells are mostly made up. Even when he's talking about being involved in a 3 some, little makes sense, and you feel as though he is not opening up at all. I get this is titled "an attempted memoir," but I expected more insight.
This would, maybe, not be such a huge issue if the stories he told were funny. Most of the chapters were so bad, so painfully unfunny, I found my mind drifting...sometimes while driving in the car or sitting on the couch at home. I was often shocked at how either completely pointless or mostly unfunny the stories were. There was a chapter where he was emailing back and forth with, what I pray was a pretend professor of antiquities, wanting the guy to help him write a chapter on historical figures who were failures. It was basically an entire chapter of his rude emails to the guy and the polite replies from the professor. Yes, I am certain this was all made up, and no such professor exists, but what is funny about pretend badgering of a professional, demanding he write a chapter for you?
There were a few times I chuckled at the stories here, but they are few and far between, and the stories, overall, are so silly or outright pointless that I can't even remember any of them, and I just finished the book yesterday. Thankfully, this is a fairly short audiobook, and listening to it makes it a tiny bit better, as I love the voices he does broadly. This was just super disappointing. Felt like a wasted effort, and I wonder why this book even exists. It felt like a quick throwaway book slapped together in a hurry. I wanted to like it, but I so did not.
First off, there is no memoir here at all. It's one of the things that has always bothered me about Benjamin. When you listen to someone for 30 years, you feel like you know that person. He, ultimately, owes you no insight into his private life or even who he is as a person. However, you expect SOME candor from these types. Benjamin never, ever gives this. In every interview I have seen him in, he just plays a character. He never lets you into his personal circle at all, and even in interviews that exist for the sole purpose to get into the circle, he will never budge. He's rarely ever serious, and you never know if he's telling a true story or not. That is his prerogative, but it grates. You just want him to be serious, if just for ten seconds of the whole ordeal. The same thing, pretty much, happens here- it never feels like he's actually telling you about real stuff that happened in his life. I am 90% certain most of the personal stories he tells are mostly made up. Even when he's talking about being involved in a 3 some, little makes sense, and you feel as though he is not opening up at all. I get this is titled "an attempted memoir," but I expected more insight.
This would, maybe, not be such a huge issue if the stories he told were funny. Most of the chapters were so bad, so painfully unfunny, I found my mind drifting...sometimes while driving in the car or sitting on the couch at home. I was often shocked at how either completely pointless or mostly unfunny the stories were. There was a chapter where he was emailing back and forth with, what I pray was a pretend professor of antiquities, wanting the guy to help him write a chapter on historical figures who were failures. It was basically an entire chapter of his rude emails to the guy and the polite replies from the professor. Yes, I am certain this was all made up, and no such professor exists, but what is funny about pretend badgering of a professional, demanding he write a chapter for you?
There were a few times I chuckled at the stories here, but they are few and far between, and the stories, overall, are so silly or outright pointless that I can't even remember any of them, and I just finished the book yesterday. Thankfully, this is a fairly short audiobook, and listening to it makes it a tiny bit better, as I love the voices he does broadly. This was just super disappointing. Felt like a wasted effort, and I wonder why this book even exists. It felt like a quick throwaway book slapped together in a hurry. I wanted to like it, but I so did not.
Displaying 1 of 1 review