Joy Behar, one of five outspoken female hosts on ABC's The View, is the token funny lady. She has certain themes that she likes to stick to (aging, death, menopause, her family, and fame), and some of them become a bit tiresome when crammed into a relatively short book covering everything and anything random from Joy's life (she discusses her life-changing decision to let her hair go curly as well as her Marxist friends). Joy's humor is very "New York": brash, opinionated, and with lots of Italian and Yiddish thrown in for good measure. If you like Joy's View comic relief persona (I watch The View at 3 a.m. when I can't sleep, okay?!?), I suggest picking up this book for an amusing short read. I also suggest brushing up on feminist icons before delving into Joy's mock interview with alleged rivals Gloria Steinem and Camille Paglia--otherwise, it's not at all funny (it's not all that funny even with knowledge of the two).
I expected this book to be more of an autobiographical look at Joy and her daily life on the show (why an autobiography would have been more appealing to me, I don't know. Behar is simply a comedian, not a controversial world leader or an elusive author. What do I care about every aspect of her life?), but in actuality Joy Shtick is just what the title suggests: Joy delivering stand-up tidbits ("random thoughts" such as "The Promise Keepers: Only by proclaiming that they are against homosexuality can a group of men openly hug and kiss and cry over one another."), vignetted yet really weird tales from her childhood and her comedic career focusing on her early marriage and later decision to break into show business, and other miscellany. Joy, the consummate baby boomer, loves to intimate details about the onset of menopause, her love for all things material, and her ongoing long term relationship where she grudgingly sacrificed her shoulder pad drawer (!) so her lover wouldn't have to "schlep a bag" with him every weekend.
The family and childhood portions of the book are worthwhile. Behar tells of the quirks of her Italian family, and she even includes disturbing pictures of her "vacations" and "trips to the country" where little Joy is posing in her Sunday best, beaming at the camera while atop grave markers or where, in lieu of taking a trip to the beach, Joy sunbathes on a tenement rooftop in Brooklyn.
The book has a few big negatives. Joy Shtick does not give much insight into Joy's current life, and some of the material is stale. Joy takes plenty of opportunities to bash men for silly things like popping Viagra (the grating "Diary of a Mad Housewife"). She also presents some of her bits in a formulaic manner (interview formats like the Gloria/Camille meeting are used a few times) and turns to topics that have been done to death (cracks about the already mentioned Viagra, Lorena and John Bobbitt, Mary Jo and Joey Buttafuoco).
Don't read Joy Shtick if you want to know what Barbara Walters and View-mates are really like because Joy oddly doesn't discuss anything about them. The book contains photos of Joy with celebrity guests from the show, but she never goes into detail about how she landed the job or what it's like behind the scenes. She does, however, discuss her time at Good Morning America while trying to get into the business; Joy even makes a brief transition from receptionist to assistant to a producer ("It took me one year to get promoted to . . . a job which was easier and less stressful.") before losing her job after an absurd and hilarious mistake.
While Joy Shtick is amusing enough, I think checking it out of the library for a day or two would suffice (unless you really want to read about Joy's hot flashes more than once). I am not really sure what the purpose of this book is besides possibly giving fans a look at why Behar is so wacky. As a fan of comedy and not so much of Behar or her writing style, this book is solidly average and could have packed much more punch with some stronger bits and more details.
Recommended:
