Nerd Do Well

March 28, 2011
In this memoir, Pegg, the British comedian-writer-director of the zombie film spoof Shaun of the Dead, admits that he is offering an account of his "journey from ordinary nerd to nerd participating in the world that made him nerdy in the first place," with an emphasis on the irony of how his childhood passions (Star Trek) have reappeared in his adult career (a role in the most recent Star Trek movie). But Pegg doesnât even discuss Shaunâthe film that brought him to the attention of U.S. audiences, and which most readers would want to know more aboutâuntil more than three-quarters of the way through his book. Up to then, his book is, unfortunately, a standard-issue celebrity bio: early childhood experiences (kissing), discovering a love for comedy and film, his college-era comedic efforts, etc. Between chapters, Pegg offers a fake autobiographyâthe one he says he really wanted writeâabout his life as a superhero with a robotic butler. But the fake story isnât really that funny, and the real anecdotes arenât really that interesting.

March 15, 2011

The book debut by the comedian and actor responsible for Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz is likely to please the author's following but not necessarily expand it.

Too many books from those known for their comedy seem to recycle standup routines and collect miscellany. By comparison, this reads like an actual memoir by an actual writer—albeit one who intersperses more conventional memoir with chapters in which he recasts himself as a futuristic superhero with a mandate to save the world.  While the chronological hopscotch through Pegg's memory provides plenty of insight into and evidence of his comedic sensibility, his focus on his childhood, and the rites of passage that most experience, makes the results somewhat less compelling than a memoir with more of his professional experiences might have been. "I'm just not that interested in dishing the dirt, and besides, I don't really have that much dirt to dish," he writes, before concluding that "the truth is, the most interesting stuff to write about, and hopefully to read, took place as a prelude to the whole showbiz malarkey." Readers needn't be obsessed with "dirt" to suspect that "the whole showbiz malarkey" might have involved experiences more revelatory than the typical accounts of prepubescent romance and adolescent sexuality, and quite a bit about swimming pools and life guarding. Beyond the chronicling of his decades as a "zombie virgin," there is plenty of evidence that the filmmaker is also a film geek, from his boyhood crush on Carrie Fisher through his acknowledgment of not only George Romero but Mel Brooks, the Coen brothers and Woody Allen as seminal influences.

Pegg acknowledges his editors for "helping shape my somewhat shapeless train of thought into, of all things, an actual book," and this proves to be an actual book with a voice that sounds authentically like its author's.

(COPYRIGHT (2011) KIRKUS REVIEWS/NIELSEN BUSINESS MEDIA, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.)

April 15, 2011

This is the latest contribution to a proliferating and increasingly annoying genre that this reviewer likes to call (g)eek lit, in which famous nerds like Kevin Smith, Olivia Munn, and now Pegg write memoirs for their San Diego Comic Con entourage because, well, because they can. English comedian, actor, writer, director, and producer Pegg may be the most talented of the lot. Best known in this country for starring in the cult favorite Shaun of the Dead and in Hot Fuzz and for playing Scotty in the 2009 Star Trek, Pegg here indulges fans with his preoccupation with zombies, Star Wars, and comedy and stories of working with Nick Frost, Jessica Hynes, and Edgar Wright. Interlaced throughout Pegg's text is an incredibly lame sf story featuring Pegg's superhero alter ego and his robotic butler. Interestingly, this is probably the only (g)eek lit with footnotes. VERDICT Sure to be popular with the phalanx of fanboys who will don full Shaun and Scotty regalia in Pegg's honor at this year's Comic Con; still, "Scotty, we need more power!"--Barry X. Miller, Austin P.L., TX

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