Mr. Mike: The Life and Work of Michael O'Donoghue

By Dennis Perrin

Book Overview

A brilliantly written, authorized but uncensored biography of Michael O'Donoghue, the comic genius of National Lampoon and Saturday Night Live, one of the most influential humorists of his generation. Photos. Media tour.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0380973308
• ISBN13: 9780380973309
• Release Date: January 1998
• Publisher: Avon Books
• Length: 429 Pages
• Weight: 1.88 lbs.
• Dimensions: 10.0" x 1.3" x 6.5"

Customer Reviews

Detailed Portrait

In my younger days, I found O'Donoghue fascinating. After reading this book, I feel that I now have a good understanding of the man and of what he was doing. Perrin covers each phase of O'Donoghue's career in depth and detail, and reveals O'Donoghue to be a performance artist working in comedy moreso than a comedian (as is, for example, Al Franken who O'Donoghue reportedly despised). This book is not a pleasant read, as O'Donoghue was devoted to offending and disturbing people. If you want to understand him, or his "art", this is the place to go.

Fireflies

Publishers take note: National Lampoon is back on the web; the Onion is a runaway hit. Terry Southern is back in vogue. Satire is hip again. This book has whetted the appetite for material that is not available. Rumor has it that Cheryl Hardwick is about to leave SNL. Now is the time for the Mr. Mike Anthology. We want the complete works. I want to read his sequel to Easy Rider--Biker Heaven! Oh and Perrin's book is absolutely first rate.

I would like to feed your fingertips to the wolverines.

Reading this book reminded me why I used to watch Saturday Night Live. It sent me to the video store to search (vainly) for Michael O'Donoghue skits among the "Best Of..." compilations. I guess there are still a lot of folks who just don't get it. But those who do, will enjoy this book. And if enough folks start looking for O'Donoghue's works, maybe someone will notice. Now I'm going to go look for Phoebe Zeit-Geist.

(Sigh)

I tend to agree with the writer from Detroit - my time would have been better spent reading the stuff this guy actually wrote. However, this is what I feel to be the next best thing. And, unlike other bios where you have to wade through seven chapters of diaper changes and drunken uncles just to reach the subject's first grade school, this fine little tome dives right into the meat surrounding the bone. My only criticism (and probably damned unfair) is the feeling I got when setting this book down - the feeling that the author felt somehow slighted in not being born O'Donoghue himself. A very good book.

If only all biographies were like Mr Mike.

Michael O'Donoghue's influence on contemporary comedy is analagous to the Velvet Underground's influence on alternative music. Only a hip minority appreciated O'Donoghue during his lifetime, but a lot of them went on to become stand-up comics, screenwriters, journalists, etc. Perrin does a marvelous job describing O'Donoghue's odyssey from obscurity in Rochester in the fifties to the undergound epicenter of The Evergreen Review and then the National Lampoon. In 1975, O'Donoghue won an Emmy as one of the founding writer/producers of Saturday Night Live. Through SNL, O'Donoghue unleashed a savage yet strangely lyric brand of satire on television audiences. Sadly O'Donoghue was never able to bring this remarkable talent into film despite penning several dark, but tantalizing screen projects that remain unproduced. Perrin's book is not only written with the same sharp wit and intelligence of its subject, but it is also rigorously researched. While Perrin makes a strong argument for O'Donoghue's achievements and brillance, he is not blind to his subject's mood swings and self-destructive career moves. Last but not least, the book is extremely well edited. For a change, photos and illustrations co-exist with the text not as a cheap five page insert of randomly selected pics. Ah, if only all bios were this user friendly, fun and illuminating. Perrin has made me love Mr. Mike all over again and reminded us that satire means never having to say "that's not funny, that's sick."