The Sound of Laughter - Peter Kay

...up routines are some of the funniest I've seen by a contemporary comedian. His observational and relatively clean humour is refreshing change from the crowd of funny men who can't seem to tell a gag unless it includes at least three F words and a reference to human genitalia (Peter prefers to talk about his dog's lipstick). So the last thing I wanted to do was slag off his autobiography. Unfortunately there sure is a lot of tumbleweed blowing through ...
...yawn inducing paragraphs that take the shine off what could have been a classic comedy autobiography. You can't help but feel the PK has been let down by his publishers and editors. A lot of the writing, especially in the early chapters is poor and disorganised. There are a lot of spelling mistakes and bad grammar, ideas and themes unexpectedly go off in different directions and there are a lot of dull sections. It's clear that many early chapters ...

Zmugzy 13.02.2009 · Read full review
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Review of The Sound of Laughter - Peter Kay

...new anecdotes to reveal to the reader, one after another, over the course of a light but entertaining book. At the same time, he never gives us any glimpse of the man behind the jokes, and is careful not to say anything which will lose any members of his passionate fanbase. If someone is a fan of Peter Kay and they pick up this book, they will be happy with it. If you are not a particularly big fan of the Bolton lad already, then you're going to ...
...wants to let on. In the book, he pulls this trick all the time. Whenever he gets the chance to drop in a reference to an old TV show or comedian, he does it, and at the same time almost completely avoids making any reference to his personal life. We get instead a series of anecdotes which follow one another in roughly chronological fashion, fitted inside a framing sequence where he attempts to pass his driving test. These sections, which bookend ...

Seresecros 20.02.2009 · Read full review
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Review of The Sound of Laughter - Peter Kay

...up Peter Kay DVDs over the last few years, and being stuck for an idea what my sister could have got me for my Christmas present, I went on to Amazon to see what was recommended and Peter Kay's autobiography "The Sound of Laughter" popped up. Given its "Sound of Music" styled cover, I was drawn to it, even though I am usually not a fan of autobiographies when they are written when the subject is someone who has had a relatively short period of time ...
...- there is none of the "50 years in show business" style of autobiographies - look at Messrs. Cole, Beckham and Rooney as examples - possibly that is why Perry Groves' autobiography sold better than theirs... Peter Kay has jumped on this bandwagon, just prior to Christmas 2006, and given his stage performances, I thought I would have a good enjoyable read. I don't wish to sound condescending but a lot of the life he talks about is deadly dull and ...

Morgenhund 02.03.2007 · Read full review
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Review of The Sound of Laughter - Peter Kay

...since first watching ‘live at the top of the tower’ I could never get enough of his stand up. Being a fan of autobiographies in general I was interested when I heard Peter Kay was writing one and after a few subtle hints was able to open this book on Christmas day. --Peter’s Life-- If you were to say Peter Kay has had a few part time jobs in his time you would definitely be an understatement. The jobs he describes include but aren’t limited to ...
...caller and cinema usher. The book focuses a lot on his times working at these places. This is because these are what have made Peter Kay the person he is, any fan of his know they have certainly affected both his stand up material and TV characters he has written. Other areas of the book focus on Peter’s school days. Peter went to a catholic school where he was taught by nuns; this was a fairly different experience than an average school and has ...

leighton_87 03.08.2007 (02.08.2007) · Read full review
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Review of The Sound of Laughter - Peter Kay

At the end of last year, whilst looking for Christmas presents for my horde of family, I kept noticing the Peter Kay autobiography. It was a massive £18.99, so I put it on my own Christmas List, but to honest, didn’t expect to get it in my stocking. On Christmas Day, I wasn’t disappointed, as I didn’t get it. I bought mine in a supermarket at half price in March, and I felt it was a real bargain for a hard back book with such good quality pages. ...
...or loathe. I am the former, and watching his live shows, has me crying with laughter, even when I have seen it before, and know what is coming. I also like Max and Paddy’s Road to Nowhere, although I really can’t get into Phoenix Nights. I have a fairly female family, and most are obsessed with The Sound of Music, so the cover of the book made me smile with a picture taken from the scene The Hills Are Alive, but with Peter’s head stuck on in the ...

orlando 23.06.2007 · Read full review
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Review of The Sound of Laughter - Peter Kay

I can’t profess to be the biggest Peter Kay fan. In fact, I’m not even close: I don’t own any of his DVDs, I didn’t enjoy Phoenix Nights at all and when I heard he was bringing out an authobiography I didn’t once consider buying it. However, I have laughed myself silly whilst watching friends’ DVDs of his stand ups, so when my boyfriend borrowed his friend’s copy of the book and had it lying around the house for a month having not got round to reading ...
...it first (can you sense the enthusiasm?) I can honestly say that I didn’t actually think much about what I was expecting from the book, so maybe that is partly why I was surprised by the outcome. For those of you who don’t know him (where have you been?!) Peter Kay is a famous comedian who is best known for his observational humour about everyday life, but more specifically to being just your average lad from a bog standard close knit working class ...

carly_pussycat 16.07.2007 · Read full review
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Review of The Sound of Laughter - Peter Kay

Peter Kay - The Sound Of Laughter I'll start by saying what a huge disappointment. I expected so much more from a comedian like this, He's so funny and cracked jokes that have me in hysterics 9 times out of 10. The book is Peter Kay's autobiography called "the sound of laughter". The cover shows right blue and yellow proving it to be very eye-catching. I purchased this book from WHSmiths a few weeks ago and got really excited thinking how much I ...
...to be good value. The book is split into 16 chapters which are: 1. Oscars Lipstick 2. Trevor McDonalds Nose 3. The Moon Landings of '84 4. A Highland Toffee and a Packet of Three 5. Catholic Intercourse 6. The Holy White Triangle 7. Music Was My First Love . . 8. The Vinyl Countdown 9. We Be Jammin' 10. 4pm till Raid 11. Dettol and Marijuana 12. Let's Tickle Those Balls 13. With Bert By Torchlight 14. The Magic Thumb Trick 15. Nobody ...

wowowow1 05.03.2007 · Read full review
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Review of The Sound of Laughter - Peter Kay

...hold of a copy. The book, 'The Sound of Laughter - the Autobiography of Peter Kay' was released just before Christmas 2006 so I put it on my Christmas wish list, at £18.99 it was quite a big wish but my wife kindly bought it for me. I have to say that I would not normally buy a book which claims to be an autobiography of someone who is only just into their thirties - in my view by the time you reach thirty you are just starting out on your adult ...
...life, and ready to start the adult phase of life. I do not believe that a thirty-something has done enough in life to write about it, but I thought I would give Peter Kay a chance. Peter Kay was born in Bolton, Lancashire in 1973. In 1997 he won Channel 4's 'So you think you're funny'', and later that same year he was voted 'North West Comedian of the Year. He has had many successes since then including 'The peter Kay Thing' (2000), 'Phoenix Nights' ...

pmdunn 21.02.2007 · Read full review
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Review of The Sound of Laughter - Peter Kay

...all of his TV shows, the famous ones such as Phoenix nights and possibly the best spin off show ever, Max and Paddy's Road to Nowhere. I even liked 'That Peter Kay Thing'which many people just didn't get. His stand-up was a personal favourite of mine, so much so that if I saw somebody in the street with one of his notorious slogan t-shirts on, I would think they were the sort of person I would like to have a drink with. However, with all the hype ...
...'new' stand-up DVD live at the Manchester arena. The difference between this and the Bolton Albert Hall show that I had previously bought was that it was forty minutes shorter and a lengthy mildly amusing documentary about the 180 show tour was added on the DVD's extras. I felt betrayed. The amount of merchandise that Peter Kay was producing was increasing and I had had enough when he released Stand up U-Kay. The best bits of all his old material ...

JakeLedge 29.01.2009 · Read full review
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Review of The Sound of Laughter - Peter Kay

...copy I have been reading the other. No doubt he will be flogging one copy eventually. If anyone hasn't heard of Peter Kay I will elaborate slightly. ============== Peter Kay ========= Peter Kay is a thirty something, chubby comedian from Bolton, Lancashire. He was born and brought up in Bolton , where he still lives today. As with a lot of comedians he went through his young years trying to be the school funny man, entertainer and general class ...
...jobs, such as working for the supermarket Netto and in a Bingo Hall, plus the characters that he met along the way, provided much of the backbone for his comedy. He won the North-West comedian of the year in 1996 and launched himself on the comedy circuit. By 1997 he had won Channel 4's "So you think you're funny" competition and later was nominated for the Perrier Award. Since this time he has won plenty of other awards and has gradually become ...

grafter123 05.06.2008 (06.06.2008) · Read full review
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Review of The Sound of Laughter - Peter Kay

The book, like the retro comic in question, is a simple and honest read. No long words or pretentious reasoning, just one man telling his story. They say you should only write what you know, and that is exactly what Peter has done here, quite literally! Everything he ever did, however mundane, seems to have ended up in this book, and for that reason alone I don’t think this will appeal to all, especially as he doesn’t include his rise to fame and ...
...£18.95 on it, the autobiography abruptly coming to halt just as we get going. Maybe its part one of his autobiography. Who knows? Maybe he feels guilty about his fame and fortune and by telling more funny stories on his homely normal life is enough for the Jolly Bolton boy for now, working class guilt getting the better of him. He certainly hints that way at the start of this limited but friendly tome, quipping that ‘he feels someday soon someone ...

thedevilinme 26.11.2009 · Read full review
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Review of The Sound of Laughter - Peter Kay

...provided me with many firsts; the first autobiography I managed to finish, the first time I was able to read for two hours straight without being distracted and the first book I found myself laughing out loud, literally. I guess it is quite shocking that by the age of 19 I still hadn’t read an autobiography from cover to cover but I usually lose interest and pick up another. So kudos to Mr. Kay if he ever comes across this review, you achieved the ...
...‘The North West Comedian of the Year’ award in 1996. It’s not surprising then, that this autobiography is an utterly hilarious read. First off, I feel the need to comment on the front cover. I know you’re not supposed to judge a book by its cover, but this cover is funny! It shows a scene from what looks like ‘The Sound of Music’ with a cut-out of Peter Kay’s head placed on top of Julie Andrews’ body, obviously in keeping with the title ‘The Sound ...

incubiscuit 12.05.2007 · Read full review
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Review of The Sound of Laughter - Peter Kay

...up routines are some of the funniest I've seen by a contemporary comedian. His observational and relatively clean humour is refreshing change from the crowd of funny men who can't seem to tell a gag unless it includes at least three F words and a reference to human genitalia (Peter prefers to talk about his dog's lipstick). So the last thing I wanted to do was slag off his autobiography. Unfortunately there sure is a lot of tumbleweed blowing through ...
...yawn inducing paragraphs that take the shine off what could have been a classic comedy autobiography. You can't help but feel the PK has been let down by his publishers and editors. A lot of the writing, especially in the early chapters is poor and disorganised. There are a lot of spelling mistakes and bad grammar, ideas and themes unexpectedly go off in different directions and there are a lot of dull sections. It's clear that many early chapters ...

tb454 11.02.2009 · Read full review
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Review of The Sound of Laughter - Peter Kay

...I decided that based on the rather severe titters that his stand ups had provoked, it would be worth a gander. I was however, unpleasantly surprised. I have always had a great interest in the world of stand up comedy, and like many, I was sure that Kay's biography would be an amusing and interesting way to get some insight into that world. Instead, the book concentrates on his experiences in life before his fame, interesting on some level certainly, ...
...book that the pages are getting thinner and the subject no more interesting. Kay focuses primarily on the jobs he experienced before his explosion in to comedy. Many of these have a number of amusing incidents and vaguely hold the interest of the reader, but that interest is often stretch very thin. The book never really grips, in fact, I found myself as uninterested with it at the 80th page as I was as the first, which for me seems to be the mark ...

bluezest 05.01.2008 · Read full review
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Review of The Sound of Laughter - Peter Kay

...all his jokes are about the normal day to day things in life that we can all relate to. I first read this book last year, whilst on holiday in Tenerife. It was the last day of the holiday and I had to wait eight hours for my plane. Obviously I was not impressed when I found out how long a wait I would have to endure, but I don’t think I could have found a better way to pass the time. For the first time in my life I sat and read a book from start ...
...read it. I’ve recently finished the book for the third time and so have decided to try and explain why I love it so much! The autobiography mainly talks about Peter Kay’s childhood and teenage years. This includes his time at school, tales of the many various part time jobs he’s had, his struggle with learning to drive and many anecdotes about his family. The book doesn’t really talk about his life now he’s famous, only briefly touching on it from ...

ljackson24 22.07.2007 · Read full review
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Review of The Sound of Laughter - Peter Kay