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Authors:
Cooper, Pat; as told to Rich Herschlag and Steve Garrin
Publisher: Square One Publishers
ISBN:
978-0-7570-0363-9
Click Here To Purchase Pat Cooper How Dare You Say How Dare Me!
Pat Cooper’s sensitivity and
insightfulness shine out from behind his ostensibly brash and
offensive style in this memoir of six decades and more in show
business. As he says, “When I’m standing in front of a
microphone, I may seem angry, but I’m not in a hate mode. I’m
angry because of the sadness. There’s so much of it, and most of it
is what we do to each other. When I’m ranting and raving up there,
I’m releasing sadness. I’m saying that if we talk about it—or
yell about it—maybe we can turn that sadness into laughter.”
Just
as with the great Lenny Bruce, Pat Cooper’s presentation may
initially strike one as acerbic and overly in your face, but Cooper
has strength and vision that go far beyond his rapid-fire answers and
his smart aleck “Don’t try to put me down, ’cos I’ll put you
down first.” His snappy rejoinders are legendary, and, yes, he
doesn’t hide the uglier side of either family life or show
business. That he has deep feelings, and that he has often been hurt,
most notably by the ingratitude of those who should have known
better, including members of his own family, is clear. But he’s no
whiner, and fights back to his last monosyllable. Guts? Cooper has
plenty of them, and they sometimes do spill. But he’s also a
survivor, and I admire him greatly.
In How Dare You Say
How Dare Me!, Cooper shares both the ups and downs of being an
Italian comedian in a profession in which he was often thought to be
Jewish. Having to mask his identity with a name change from Pasquale
Caputo was one of the least of his problems. Surviving life
surrounded by the Mafiosi seems sometimes to have been a greater
challenge, not that many such were not close to him—the family
connections come with the territory! His memoir reads a bit like a
Who’s Who of Show Business since the mid-20th century: Tony Martin,
George Burns, Bobby Darin, Tony Bennett, Anthony Quinn and Robert De
Niro being but some of those with whom he worked.
The
great Jerry Lewis, in his brief foreword to this raconteur’s dream
of an autobiography, sums up Cooper’s talent in the following
words: “he has this fantastic capacity to challenge the art form
[of comedy], and has done so with an exquisite approach to the human
condition.” What makes this memoir stand out, though, is its raw
honesty. Cooper never minces his words and sure ain’t no patsy,
although, on occasion, his kindness and generosity have been taken
advantage of. For those who aren’t shy of reading a gut-wrenching
biography that pulls none of its punches, try How Dare You Say How
Dare Me! Believe me, you won’t be sorry.
Click Here To Purchase Pat Cooper How Dare You Say How Dare Me!