John Candy: A Life in Comedy
Who was the greatest alum of Second City, the famed improv troupe, to never perform in the cast of “Saturday Night Live”? If you made a top-10 list, it would probably include John Candy, the subject of a new biography, John Candy: A Life in Comedy. Paul Myers, the author, is the brother of Mike Myers, one of the greatest Second City alumni who did join the cast of SNL.
That pedigree both helps and hurts this bio. Myers gained access to many great artists who knew and loved Candy, including Dan Aykroyd, Chevy Chase, Tom Hanks, Ron Howard, Steve Martin, and Catherine O’Hara. That is an amazing feat: I write books, too, and I tried and failed to interview a few of those same stars for my own past projects.
I would gently chide Myers, though, for not pushing his celebrity interviewees harder. Most of what they say in John Candy is celebratory. Little is revelatory. I sense that Myers himself is too close to the industry to quote famous people saying things that might land them in trouble.
Read on:
https://www.washingtonindependentreviewofbooks.com/bookreview/john-candy-a-life-in-comedy
