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Joe Montaperto, a native of Brooklyn and Roselle, NJ, studied acting and improv in New York, graduating to stage and screen work before embarking on the comedy circuit in the edgy, crack-riddled New York City of the 1980’s, with the likes of Jon Stewart, John Leguizamo, and Dave Attell. He later took his training to his one-man show, Four Degrees of Disconnection, performing in and around theaters in the city between 1999 – 200. Finally flaming out, he headed to the Ecuadorian Amazon jungle for some serious soul searching. An avid traveler and spiritual seeker, Joe also prides himself on having lived in some of the worst places in the world, and still thoroughly enjoys making prank phone calls. Nobody Gets Out Of Catering Alive - is the last book in the trilogy, followed by - Lovely Chaos – the sequel to his first memoir - The Edge of Whiteness.
Reviewed by Jack Magnus for Readers' Favorite
Nobody Gets Out of Catering Alive is a humorous memoir written by Joe Montaperto. Joe always knew he had the gift to be a top comic but what happened? The other comics he had started out with were now-famous names -- and him? He was thirty years old, living in his parents’ house in Roselle, New Jersey, and ruefully watching as each pass through his once glorious curls left him more convinced than ever that he was indeed losing his hair. The highlights of his life now consisted of watching old movies and reruns of Lost in Space. What indeed had happened? His parents weren’t taking his decision to return to the nest lying down. They demanded that he get a job. It didn’t really matter that the cost of commuting and hours spent getting to his catering jobs barely made those jobs worthwhile. But as his thirties rushed along together, and he found himself facing the dreaded fortieth decade, his dreams were still unachieved. No college, no training, what could he do? He knew that he had the stuff to be just as big a comedic success as those others he had started out with. He just needed to get writing and develop his routines.
Joe Montaperto’s memoir, Nobody Gets Out of Catering Alive, is a well-written and entertaining look at the trials and tribulations of those stand-up hopefuls, the ones who were warned not to give up their day jobs. I especially enjoyed those looks at his early thirties. The catering scenes are packed with humor and ample loads of self-deprecation. The only issue I had with this book was that the author’s comedic material frequently appears without warning, leaving me a bit confused as to how we went from Joe’s memoirs to something completely different. They are all marvelous creations, but a more rigorous tie-in to the memoir would have made me feel less at a loss sometimes. Nobody Gets Out of Catering Alive is recommended.
