Unsuccessful Thug

Unsuccessful Thug PDF Author: Mike Epps
Publisher: HarperCollins
ISBN: 0062684914
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 220

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Book Description
From Naptown to Tinseltown—legendary stand-up comedian and actor Mike Epps finally tells all in this outrageous, hilarious, no-holds-barred memoir. Before starring in Def Comedy Jam and Showtime at the Apollo—before the sold-out comedy shows, Uncle Buck, and becoming his hero Richard Pryor in a biopic—there was Indianapolis. And not the good part. Mike Epps is one of America’s favorite and funniest people, but the path to fame was paved with opportunities to mess it up. And mess it up he did. Growing up in “Naptown”—what people who live there really call rough-around-the-edges Indianapolis—Epps found himself forced to hustle from an early age. Despite his mother’s best efforts, and the love of his well-behaved brother, “Chaney,” and his beloved sister, Julie, Epps was drawn to a life of crime, but as he quickly discovered, stealing and dealing didn’t really fit his sweet sensibilities. Not to mention he wasn’t very good at it—take, for example, the day he had to call the cops on himself when a dog wouldn’t let him leave a house he was burgling. After several arrests and more than a few months in jail, Epps finally realized that he was an unsuccessful thug, and instead turned to the next most obvious career path: stand-up comedy. Heading first to New York, then all over the country, and finally to Hollywood, Mike Epps carved out a unique place in American comedy, combining hysterical tales of his family and friends with a mordant take on life in the Naptowns of America. Comedy saved Mike Epps, and here he reveals exactly how he finally grew up and got out, barely. And when describing how he survived when so many of his friends didn’t, Epps makes clear what he’s thankful for and sorry about. Unsuccessful Thug is about growing up black in America, facing down racism in Hollywood, and ultimately how it feels to fail at thugdom, pull yourself up by the bootstraps, and end up selling out arenas and starring in movies across the country.

Confessions of a Thug

Confessions of a Thug PDF Author: Meadows Taylor
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : India
Languages : en
Pages : 590

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Book Description


From Fatherless to Fatherhood

From Fatherless to Fatherhood PDF Author: Omar Epps
Publisher: Lulu.com
ISBN: 148348503X
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 130

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Book Description
Having grown up without his biological father, then becoming a father himself, Epps shares an intimate, unapologetic, and emotional conversation about childhood, manhood, and parenting. Chronicling his journey from humble beginnings in Brooklyn, New York, to the bright lights of Hollywood, Epps touches on many themes surrounding the importance of family and community. He shows how men can break the cycle of fatherlessness within their families, and come to terms with their own issues surrounding their fathers. -- adapted from back cover

The Book of Leon

The Book of Leon PDF Author: Leon Black
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 150118072X
Category : Humor
Languages : en
Pages : 272

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Book Description
Everyone’s favorite houseguest who never left, Leon Black (played by award-winning comedian JB Smoove on HBO’s Curb Your Enthusiasm) drops his wisdom and good-bad advice for the masses. Learn the secrets Larry David has gleaned from the Falstaff of television. Live your best Leon. Bring the Ruckus. Aristotle. Gandhi. Lao Tzu. Dr. Ruth. Amateurs. For centuries bespeckled dorks have pored over the scrolls of the ancients, read tea leaves, and looked to the stars for philosophy, wisdom, and advice. While some people have probably offered good advice, and others offer bad advice, Leon is here to offer his brand of good-bad advice. These are the musings of a master genius spitting out the secrets of the universe—to help you become just like him. Be forewarned: in opening this tome and Leon’s mind, you need to be prepared for straight talk. The kind of unfiltered blunt straight talk that pounds on your door, invites itself in, makes itself at home, helps itself to your food, security pass code, your expensive organic beet juice, and finally makes itself comfortable on that twin bed in your guest room. All the while you think you’re helping it—but really it’s helping you help yourself! Because that’s how this book doozit. Leon Black, he ain’t wrong...he just ain’t right.

Unsuccessful Thug

Unsuccessful Thug PDF Author: Mike Epps
Publisher: HarperCollins
ISBN: 0062684914
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 220

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Book Description
From Naptown to Tinseltown—legendary stand-up comedian and actor Mike Epps finally tells all in this outrageous, hilarious, no-holds-barred memoir. Before starring in Def Comedy Jam and Showtime at the Apollo—before the sold-out comedy shows, Uncle Buck, and becoming his hero Richard Pryor in a biopic—there was Indianapolis. And not the good part. Mike Epps is one of America’s favorite and funniest people, but the path to fame was paved with opportunities to mess it up. And mess it up he did. Growing up in “Naptown”—what people who live there really call rough-around-the-edges Indianapolis—Epps found himself forced to hustle from an early age. Despite his mother’s best efforts, and the love of his well-behaved brother, “Chaney,” and his beloved sister, Julie, Epps was drawn to a life of crime, but as he quickly discovered, stealing and dealing didn’t really fit his sweet sensibilities. Not to mention he wasn’t very good at it—take, for example, the day he had to call the cops on himself when a dog wouldn’t let him leave a house he was burgling. After several arrests and more than a few months in jail, Epps finally realized that he was an unsuccessful thug, and instead turned to the next most obvious career path: stand-up comedy. Heading first to New York, then all over the country, and finally to Hollywood, Mike Epps carved out a unique place in American comedy, combining hysterical tales of his family and friends with a mordant take on life in the Naptowns of America. Comedy saved Mike Epps, and here he reveals exactly how he finally grew up and got out, barely. And when describing how he survived when so many of his friends didn’t, Epps makes clear what he’s thankful for and sorry about. Unsuccessful Thug is about growing up black in America, facing down racism in Hollywood, and ultimately how it feels to fail at thugdom, pull yourself up by the bootstraps, and end up selling out arenas and starring in movies across the country.

Living in Color: What's Funny About Me

Living in Color: What's Funny About Me PDF Author: Tommy Davidson
Publisher: Kensington
ISBN: 1496712943
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 274

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Book Description
In 1990, Tommy Davidson burst onto the scene in the Emmy Award-winning show In Living Color, a pioneering sketch comedy show, featuring a multi-racial cast of actors and dancers who spoke to an underrepresented new generation created by Hip Hop Nation. A story of black excellence, in this revealing memoir, Tommy shares his unique perspective on making it in Hollywood, being an integral part of television history, on fame and family, and on living a life that has never been black and white—just funny and true . . . Abandoned as an infant on the streets of Greenville, Mississippi, and rescued by a loving white family, Tommy Davidson spent most of his childhood unaware that he was different from his brother and sister. All that changed as he came of age in a society of racial barriers—ones that he was soon to help break. On a fledgling network, Tommy joined the cast of In Living Color, alongside other relative newcomers including Jim Carrey, Rosie Perez, Jamie Foxx and Jennifer Lopez—all united by an ingenious throng of Wayans siblings (Keenen, Damon, Kim, Shawn, and Marlon), poised to break new ground. Now Tommy gives readers the never-before-told behind-the-scenes story of the first show born of the Hip Hop Nation: from its incredible rise, to his own creation of such unforgettable characters as Sweet Tooth Jones and dead-on impressions of Sammy Davis, Jr., Michael Jackson, M.C. Hammer and Sugar Ray Leonard, and appearing in such classic sketches as “Homie The Clown,” the “Hey Mon, family,” and the unforgettable “Ugly Woman,” through guest-star skirmishes (and black eyes) to backstage tensions and the eventual fall of this pop-culture touchstone. He reveals his own nascent career on the stand-up circuit with Adam Sandler, Jerry Seinfeld, Louie Anderson and performing with Eddie Murphy and Richard Pryor, as well as reflections on working with Spike Lee, Halle Berry, Sam Jackson, Chris Rock and Jada Pinkett Smith. And he also shares his very personal story of living with—and being inspired and empowered by—two distinct family histories. Told with humor and hard-won honesty by a singular voice whose family and friendships help him navigate a life of personal and professional highs and lows, Living in Color is a bracing, illuminating, and remarkable success story. An homage to the groundbreaking series In Living Color was featured in Bruno Mars’s music video for his hit song Finesse, a remixed collaboration with Cardi B. It was a loving tribute that exemplified the sustained cultural impact of the show, and now 90s kids can dig into their nostalgia through this humorous memoir of one of its stars!

Suspicion Nation

Suspicion Nation PDF Author: Lisa Bloom
Publisher: Catapult
ISBN: 1619024683
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 329

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Book Description
Many thought the election of our first African American president put an end to the conversation about race in this country, and that America had moved into a post–racial era of equality and opportunity. Then, on the night of February 26, 2012, a black seventeen–year–old boy walking to a friend's home carrying only his cell phone, candy, and a fruit drink, was shot and killed by a neighborhood watch coordinator. And in July 2013, the trial of Zimmerman for murder captivated the public, as did his eventual acquittal. In her provocative and landmark book, Suspicion Nation, Lisa Bloom, who covered the trial from gavel to gavel, posits that none of this was a surprise: Our laws, culture, and blind spots created the conditions that led to Trayvon Martin's death, and made George Zimmerman's acquittal by far the most likely outcome. America today holds an unhealthy preoccupation with firearms that has led to the expansion of gun rights to surreal extremes. America now has not only the highest per capita gun ownership rate in the world (almost one gun per American), but the highest rate of gun deaths. Despite the strides America has made, fighting a bloody Civil War to end slavery, eradicating Jim Crow laws, teaching tolerance, and electing an African American president, racial inequality persists throughout our country, in employment, housing, education, the media, and most institutions. And perhaps most destructively of all, racial biases run deep in every level of our criminal justice system. Suspicion Nation captures a court system and a country conflicted and divided over issues of race, violence, and gun legislation.

I Don't Care if You Like Me, I Like Me

I Don't Care if You Like Me, I Like Me PDF Author: Bernie Mac
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1637584059
Category : Self-Help
Languages : en
Pages : 384

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Book Description
Listen up y’all. Bernie Mac is back, and this here is his page-a-day prescription for a better life and career. You wanna be successful, don’t ya? All you gotta do is read one page a day. So come on, let’s start your edumacation right now. Are y’all ready to get yourself together? It’s time for you to start livin’ your best life, and all you gotta do is read one got-d*mn page a day. You think you can handle that? Sure you can. You can do anything you wanna do, but you never gonna hit a home run if you ain’t steppin’ up to the plate. You got yourself a dream? You got a vision? There ain’t no sugarcoatin’ it. The only one who’s gonna make it happen is you, but this book is gonna help. It’s alright—we all need a little help once in a while. I Don’t Care if You Like Me, I Like Me is 365 days of Bernie Mac tellin’ it like it T-I-Iz. You gonna be gettin’ some of his best advice, his personal stories showin’ y’all that what he’s tellin’ you works, and some commentary from Rhonda ’cuz that woman knows what's up. We’re talkin’ about bein’ your best self, gettin’ better in your relationships, findin’ your place in the world, and openin’ up that door to plentitude. So, the choice is yours. Are you ready to be the best sumb*tch you can be? You wanna be happy and successful? You got somethin’ more important goings on right now? Quit procrasternatin’ and do it. “Bernie Mac had a way of telling it straight that made you listen and made you think. He was genuine, always positive, and truly cared if you were okay. I Don’t Care if You Like Me, I Like Me is an undeniably funny and poignant strategy for reaching your fullest potential one day at a time.” —Courtney B. Vance, Multi-Award-Winning Actor of Stage and Screen “I’ve never seen anything like I Don’t Care if You Like Me, I Like Me. This book is self-help, Chicago-style. It’s the perfect combination of comedy and truth, just like you’d expect from Bernie Mac.” —Sherri Shepherd, Award-Winning Actress, Comedian, and Talk Show Host “I Don’t Care if You Like Me, I Like Me is some straight-talking truth from the no-holds-barred Bernie Mac. His self-help approach makes you want to do exactly that—help yourself! His raw honesty will make you laugh, cry and possibly rethink your entire life.” —Kym Whitley, American comedian and actress

The Assistant

The Assistant PDF Author: Bernard Malamud
Publisher: Macmillan
ISBN: 9780374504847
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 268

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Book Description
Frank, a troubled, somewhat desperate, Italian American, works long hours in the grocery store of a struggling Jewish family in a Brooklyn neighborhood where he develops a secret passion for his employer's attractive daughter.

Hubris

Hubris PDF Author: Michael Isikoff
Publisher: Crown
ISBN: 030734682X
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 498

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Book Description
The real story behind the investigation of Iraq, and the basis for the MSNBC documentary of the same name hosted by Rachel Maddow Filled with news-making revelations that made it a New York Times bestseller, Hubris takes us behind the scenes at the White House, CIA, Pentagon, State Department, and Congress to show how George W. Bush came to invade Iraq--and how his administration struggled with the devastating fallout. Hubris connects the dots between Bush's expletive-laden outbursts at Saddam Hussein, the bitter battles between the CIA and the White House, the fights within the intelligence community over Saddam's supposed weapons of mass destruction, the outing of an undercover CIA officer, and the Bush administration's misleading sales campaign for war. Written by veteran reporters Michael Isikoff and David Corn, this is an inside look at how a president took the nation to war using faulty and fraudulent intelligence. It's a dramatic page-turner and an intriguing account of conspiracy, backstabbing, bureaucratic ineptitude, journalistic malfeasance, and arrogance.

Act Like You Got Some Sense

Act Like You Got Some Sense PDF Author: Jamie Foxx
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
ISBN: 1538703297
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 229

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Book Description
From Academy Award-winning multi-talent Jamie Foxx, a hilariously candid look at the joys and pitfalls of being the father of two daughters. Jamie Foxx has won an Academy Award and a Grammy Award, laughed with sitting presidents, and partied with the biggest names in hip-hop. But he is most proud of his role as father to two very independent young women, Corinne and Anelise. Jamie might not always know what he’s doing when it comes to raising girls—especially when they talk to him about TikTok (PlikPlok?) and don’t share his enthusiasm for flashy Rolls Royces—but he does his best to show up for them every single day. Luckily, he has a strong example to follow: his beloved late grandmother, Estelle Marie Talley. Jamie learned everything he knows about parenting from the fierce woman who raised him: As he puts it, she’s “Madea before Tyler Perry put on the pumps and the gray wig.” In Act Like You Got Some Sense—a title inspired by Estelle—Jamie shares up close and personal stories about the tough love and old-school values he learned growing up in the small town of Terrell, Texas; his early days trying to make it in Hollywood; the joys and challenges of achieving stardom; and how each phase of his life shaped his parenting journey. Hilarious, poignant, and always brutally honest, this is Jamie Foxx like we’ve never seen him before.