It Would Be So Nice If You Weren't Here
My Journey Through Show Business
by Charles Grodin
Recommended by Jon Favreau and David Copperfield
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Reading Profile
Should I read this?
Charles Grodin serves dry, self-mocking tales of career highs and public setbacks, delivered with a conversational, sometimes cantankerous tone. The book is strongest as a string of sharp backstage vignettes and one-liners that reveal how an actor navigated humiliation and comeback. It’s less useful for readers who want clear, repeatable career steps or contemporary industry context, since themes are revisited through anecdote rather than reorganized into advice. Expect humor mixed with nostalgia; the tone can tip into bitterness for some readers.
Read this if...
- •an early-career actor auditioning weekly and facing frequent rejection who needs candid, funny backstage stories right now to normalize setbacks and see one performer's blunt survival instincts in practice
- •a mid-career comedy writer or stage performer deciding whether to pivot into TV or a steadier job who wants anecdotal testimony now about handling public flops, preserving a comic outlook, and how reputation shifts over a long career
- •a commuter or busy parent with 20–45 minute reading windows who prefers short, episodic memoir chapters now because they can't tackle dense nonfiction and appreciate laugh-out-loud vignettes that can be finished between stops
Skip this if...
- •you'll likely put it down when the same setback anecdotes and curmudgeonly riffs repeat — the mid-section feels episodic and circular
- •annoying if you prefer systematic, step-by-step guidance or contemporary industry analysis rather than personal reminiscence
- •not for readers who dislike era-specific showbiz detail or a voice that moves between self-mockery and sharp grievance
Although Charles Grodin has enjoyed stardom, his career has had its share of catastrophic setbacks, and Grodin writes about them with candor and liberating humor, dispensing invaluable advice about the art of surviving in the celluloid jungle....
Before You Buy
Reading Specifications
Difficulty:medium
Audience Fit
- an early-career actor auditioning weekly and facing frequent rejection who needs candid, funny backstage stories right now to normalize setbacks and see one performer's blunt survival instincts in practice
- a mid-career comedy writer or stage performer deciding whether to pivot into TV or a steadier job who wants anecdotal testimony now about handling public flops, preserving a comic outlook, and how reputation shifts over a long career
- a commuter or busy parent with 20–45 minute reading windows who prefers short, episodic memoir chapters now because they can't tackle dense nonfiction and appreciate laugh-out-loud vignettes that can be finished between stops
- you'll likely put it down when the same setback anecdotes and curmudgeonly riffs repeat — the mid-section feels episodic and circular
- annoying if you prefer systematic, step-by-step guidance or contemporary industry analysis rather than personal reminiscence
- not for readers who dislike era-specific showbiz detail or a voice that moves between self-mockery and sharp grievance
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View available editions on AmazonKey themes
Why recommended
Recommended by 4 sources and appears in Most Recommended Books and Nonfiction.
Recommended by notable people
People and public figures who have recommended this book.
Recommendation Signals
Recommendation proof is sourced from public posts, interviews, reading lists, and cited references.
David Copperfield
“@andynyman @dbamber_actor Love this book especially one part guess which one | It really told the story about how difficult it is when you’re first starting off trying to be an actor.”
View sources (2) ▾80%
Appears In
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How recommendation signals are reviewed
Each recommendation is collected from a public source — interviews, articles, or curated lists — and linked to its original URL. Books with many verifiable recommendations from respected people rank higher.