James Lipton's Inside Inside

Months after I've started, I've finally finished reading James Lipton's Inside Inside.

As one of many people who only know him from the show Inside the Actor's Studio, I thought the first half was a little draggy, as he was talking about his life before the  show, including some about the craft of acting, which might not interest some people. Even the first chapter was pretty hard to get through, and some people might've given up right there and then. But I kept on, mostly skimming through the first half hoping to hit the motherload that is when he starts talking about the show.

That was the main reason why it took me so long to finish. And, it was over 400 pages.

The second half I breezed through quickly and that was when I learnt that there was more than what you watch on TV - they just cobbled together a 45-minute broadcast version of an hours long talk. Who knew? Also included are some answer highlights from the stars on his adaptation of the Bernard Pivot questionnaire (taken from the Proust Questionnaire), which is about as famous as the show itself.

I can also say this - if you ever wanted to know the basics of a particular actor, watch their appearance on Inside - you'll know everything you need to know about them at the end of the hour. That was MY impression of the show when I first saw it in America. If you want to know who's gonna win an Oscar, see who they have on Inside during the Oscar voting period.

As many countries as they claimed it's shown in, Malaysia is obviously not one of them. So one has to rely on other sources.

Anyway, if you're a fan of the show and are reading this for the show material, just read the second half. Other people on Amazon have complained about how he mentions his wife Kedakai a lot, which I have no problems with - I mean, you can't blame the guy...