{ "item_title" : "Showbiz!", "item_author" : [" Murray Hill "], "item_description" : "In his powerful debut memoir, beloved comedian Murray Hill (Somebody, Somewhere) opens up for the first time about how a painful past led to an unwavering commitment to spread joy—one rimshot at a time.For more than three decades, Murray Hill has been a staple of New York City’s downtown comedy scene. A trailblazing comic in a borrowed tux, the self-proclaimed “hardest working middle-aged man in show business” has turned feminist performance art into a way of life, delighting audiences around the world with his signature blend of campy humor and subversive showmanship. Much like Fred Rococo, his breakout role on HBO’s award-winning Somebody, Somewhere, Murray radiates relentless positivity and an indomitable spirit as entertaining as it is inspiring. But behind the one-liners lies a deeper truth. Growing up in a conservative, New England household where abuse ran rampant, and silence reigned, Murray took refuge in showbiz memoirs and watching old-school comedians on Johnny Carson’s The Tonight Show. These tales of survival, in the face of abuse and discrimination, offered him hope and the possibility of reinvention through the world of entertainment. After leaving home for college in Boston and attending graduate school in New York, Murray began the slow process of finding and defining his identity as a newly emancipated adult, a queer artist testing the boundaries of visual and performance art, and a nightlife king living by the mantra: “If you don’t see yourself represented, go out and represent yourself.” His evolution, however, came at a cost. He drank to escape his past, and the depression he masked with alcohol spiraled into a mental health crisis that nearly cost him his life. Lovingly supported in his recovery by his chosen family and community, Murray not only found his people but also found himself. Warm, fearless, and laugh-out-loud funny, Showbiz! is Murray Hill’s story of survival, reinvention, and finding joy against the odds. Because when life hands you trauma, you turn it into a tight five. That’s Showbiz! Also inside Showbiz!: • A 16-page full-color photo insert from Murray’s personal archives• Never-before-seen photographs from Murray’s career• Rare behind-the-scenes nightlife photos taken by Murray himself• Original illustrations by award-winning artist Julia Rothman", "item_img_path" : "https://covers3.booksamillion.com/covers/bam/1/66/805/370/1668053705_b.jpg", "price_data" : { "retail_price" : "30.00", "online_price" : "30.00", "our_price" : "30.00", "club_price" : "30.00", "savings_pct" : "0", "savings_amt" : "0.00", "club_savings_pct" : "0", "club_savings_amt" : "0.00", "discount_pct" : "10", "store_price" : "30.00" } }

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Comedian, actor and drag king Murray Hill tells his own story in Showbiz!: My Life as a Middle-Aged Man. The memoir’s title refers to one of Hill’s themes, as he uses the term “showbiz” throughout the book, sometimes for comic effect (as in, “That’s showbiz, folks!”) to wrap up an anecdote. It also refers to his quest for a life in entertainment and the many serendipitous moments that led to his role as fan-favorite Fred Rococo in Bridget Everett’s excellent HBO series, Somebody Somewhere.  Growing up in 1970s Massachusetts in a conservative Italian Irish family, Hill never felt comfortable as a child. His mother and other family members physically abused Hill, and his congenial but withdrawn father offered no protection. There was no room in this world for gay or trans people who, according to Hill’s family and the parish priest, were going to hell. “I never felt like a boy, but I never felt like a girl, either,” he writes. “Even as a very young person, I thought of myself as just a person, an in-between person. It was everyone else who needed me to be one or the other.” Hill began to find a measure of comfort after leaving home for Boston University, eventually cutting contact with his parents, and then moving to New York City for grad school in photography. It was there that Hill created an early version of the Murray Hill persona, taking the character name from the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood where he lived in the ’90s. Soon Hill was appearing in cabaret and drag shows, mixing stand-up, drag and sketch comedy. The character Murray Hill is something of an aging Borscht Belt comic, prone to Dad jokes and throwaway lines. He even dipped into politics, running a quixotic mayoral campaign against Rudy Giuliani and garnering 341 votes. But a drinking habit turned into intractable addiction, and Hill often got in his own way. The persona of Murray Hill also brought the author a way to play with gender. He states early in the book, “I identify as a trans man in solidarity with my community and base for support. But I would rather not constantly be asked how I identify and what my pronouns are.” By creating the Murray Hill persona, he “became part of a great nightlife tradition of reinventing yourself. Here, I could be whoever and whatever I wanted to be. So, whenever people ask me how I identify, the answer is simple: I’m just me. Murray.” Hill’s chronicle of his ups and downs—a checkered love life, celebrity run-ins, a bumpy path to recovery from alcohol dependency—makes his showbiz successes all the more satisfying to follow. For readers of Jeff Hiller’s Actress of a Certain Age, Showbiz! is a funny, candid coming-of-middle-age tale that will delight Hill’s many fans.