Take Your Shirt Off and Cry: A Memoir of Near-Fame Experiences
Starred Review. This funny, bravura memoir describes life as a young actress, and all the "head-banging frustration, demoralizing options, and bewildering compromises" that come with it. Balbirer begins with her time as an undergrad at New York University, using just the right combination of humor, embarrassment and righteous indignation, with just a touch of name dropping: in David Mamet's course, for instance, the playwright's first lecture posited that "Bill Cosby was a whore." A star student, Balbirer was unprepared for the real world, where work is scarce even for the very talented; working the avant-garde circuit led her to become known in "certain fringe theater circles" as "the Chick Who's Willing to Show Her Tits in the Show If Need Be." Her adventures in television include a humiliating stint on MTV's first original program, traveling cross-country for a meeting with Lorne Michaels that never materializes, and a part on Seinfeld that gets whittled down to a one-liner. Other misadventures include demoralizing casting calls, conniving friends and a string of callous boyfriends. Turning her poor-little-L.A. girl material into a read this witty, reflective and charming takes real talent; if there's any justice, that talent will find the fame it deserves among the book buying public.