Celebrity Autobiography: In Their Own Words is an entertainment created by Eugene Pack

Eugene Pack

Eugene Pack is a writer, producer, actor, and playwright. He created the long-running Off-Broadway comedy show "Celebrity Autobiography", in which he also performs. For producing "Celebrity Autobiography," Pack won the 2009 Drama Desk Award and the Bistro Award for Comedy...

, consisting of comically ironic verbatim readings of memoir

Memoir

A memoir , is a literary genre, forming a subclass of autobiography – although the terms 'memoir' and 'autobiography' are almost interchangeable. Memoir is autobiographical writing, but not all autobiographical writing follows the criteria for memoir set out below...

s of, and a few poems by, celebrities. Critic Charles Isherwood

Charles Isherwood

-External Links:* at The New York Times* at Variety...

 called it "a merry compendium of the witlessness and wisdom of the rich and famous".

Production history

The show was created in 1998 in Los Angeles and became prominent as a 2005 Bravo Network one-hour television special

Television special

A television special is a television program which interrupts or temporarily replaces programming normally scheduled for a given time slot. Sometimes, however, the term is given to a telecast of a theatrical film, such as The Wizard of Oz or The Ten Commandments, which is not part of a regular...

 of the same name

Celebrity Autobiography: In Their Own Words

Celebrity Autobiography: In Their Own Words was a one-hour comedy television special which premiered on December 5, 2005 on Bravo. The show featured comedians reading actual excerpts from celebrity autobiographies...

. It was mounted off-Broadway

Off-Broadway

Off-Broadway theater is a term for a professional venue in New York City with a seating capacity between 100 and 499, and for a specific production of a play, musical or revue that appears in such a venue, and which adheres to related trade union and other contracts...

 at the Triad Theater

Triad Theater

The Triad Theatre, formerly known as Palsson's Supper Club and Steve McGraw's, is located on West 72nd Street on New York's Upper West Side...

 beginning in 2008 and has run weekly or monthly since then. At the Triad, Pack has served as the host, and the show has featured Will Forte

Will Forte

Orville Willis Forte IV, better known as Will Forte , is an American actor, voice actor, comedian and writer best known as a cast member on Saturday Night Live from 2002–2010 and for starring in the SNL spin-off film MacGruber.-Early life:Forte was born in Alameda County, California, the son of...

, Kristen Johnston

Kristen Johnston

Kristen Johnston is an American stage, film, and television actress. She may be most famous for her role as Sally Solomon in the television series 3rd Rock from the Sun...

, Tony Roberts

Tony Roberts

Tony Roberts may refer to:*Tony Roberts , American actor*Tony Roberts , British author of the Casca series *Tony Roberts , Welsh football player...

 and Rachel Dratch

Rachel Dratch

Rachel Susan Dratch is an American comic actress best known for her roles as a cast member of Saturday Night Live from 1999 to 2006.-Early life:...

, among others. The show won the 2009 Drama Desk Award for Unique Theatrical Experience

Drama Desk Award for Unique Theatrical Experience

The Drama Desk Award for Unique Theatrical Experience was created to honor those Broadway, off-Broadway, off-off-Broadway, and legitimate not-for-profit theater productions which, due to their unusual nature, cannot be categorized in the regular musical and play categories...

. According to the production's official website, it had run in New York for three sold-out years.

The entertainment has been staged in over a dozen cities. It is currently running in New York City, Los Angeles, London and Minneapolis, and a national tour has been announced. London and Los Angeles runs were sold out.

Description

The show features solo and ensemble memoirs, poetry and other writings by authors such as Ivana Trump

Ivana Trump

Ivana Trump is a former Olympic athlete, socialite, and fashion model noted for her marriage to mogul Donald Trump.-Early years:...

, Vanna White

Vanna White

Vanna White is an American television personality and film actress best known as the hostess of Wheel of Fortune since 1982.-Early life:...

, Mr. T

Mr. T

Mr. T is an American actor known for his roles as B. A. Baracus in the 1980s television series The A-Team, as boxer Clubber Lang in the 1982 film Rocky III, and for his appearances as a professional wrestler. Mr. T is known for his trademark African Mandinka warrior hairstyle, his gold jewelry,...

, Tommy Lee

Tommy Lee

Thomas Lee Bass , best known as Tommy Lee, is an American musician and founding member of glam metal band Mötley Crüe. As well as being the band's long-term drummer, Lee founded rap-metal band Methods of Mayhem, and has pursued solo musical projects...

, Sylvester Stallone

Sylvester Stallone

Michael Sylvester Gardenzio Stallone , commonly known as Sylvester Stallone, and nicknamed Sly Stallone, is an American actor, filmmaker, screenwriter, film director and occasional painter. Stallone is known for his machismo and Hollywood action roles. Two of the notable characters he has portrayed...

, 'N Sync

'N Sync

N Sync was an American boy band formed in Orlando, Florida, in 1995 and launched in Germany by BMG Ariola Munich, *NSYNC consisted of JC Chasez, Justin Timberlake, Lance Bass, Joey Fatone and Chris Kirkpatrick...

, Madonna

Madonna (entertainer)

Madonna is an American singer-songwriter, actress and entrepreneur. Born in Bay City, Michigan, she moved to New York City in 1977 to pursue a career in modern dance. After performing in the music groups Breakfast Club and Emmy, she released her debut album in 1983...

, Burt Reynolds

Burt Reynolds

Burton Leon "Burt" Reynolds, Jr. is an American actor. Some of his memorable roles include Bo 'Bandit' Darville in Smokey and the Bandit, Lewis Medlock in Deliverance, Bobby "Gator" McCluskey in White Lightning and sequel Gator, Paul Crewe and Coach Nate Scarborough in The Longest Yard and its...

 and Loni Anderson

Loni Anderson

Loni Kaye Anderson is an American actress who played the role of Jennifer Marlowe on the television sitcom WKRP in Cincinnati.- Early life :...

, as well as the lesser-known works of Elizabeth Taylor

Elizabeth Taylor

Dame Elizabeth Rosemond "Liz" Taylor, DBE was a British-American actress. From her early years as a child star with MGM, she became one of the great screen actresses of Hollywood's Golden Age...

, Eddie Fisher

Eddie Fisher (singer)

Edwin Jack "Eddie" Fisher , was an American entertainer. He was one of the world's most famous and successful singers in the 1950s, selling millions of records and hosting his own TV show. His divorce from his first wife, Debbie Reynolds, to marry his best friend's widow, Elizabeth Taylor, garnered...

 and Debbie Reynolds

Debbie Reynolds

Debbie Reynolds is an American actress, singer, and dancer.She was initially signed at age 16 by Warner Bros., but her career got off to a slow start. When her contract was not renewed, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer gave her a small, but significant part in the film Three Little Words , then signed her to...

. KPBS told its readers to imagine Marion Ross

Marion Ross

Marion Ross is an American actress best known for her role as Marion Cunningham on the television series Happy Days from 1974 to 1984.-Early life:...

 and Paul Michael

Paul Michael

Paul Michael was an American actor best known for his role as TJ, the hapless boss of a burger bar in children's television show 'Spatz'. He was a regular guest star on American television appearing in Kojak, Hill Street Blues, Alias, Gilmore Girls and Frasier among others. He played a cop in...

 as Pamela Anderson

Pamela Anderson

Pamela Denise Anderson is a Canadian-American actress, model, producer, author, activist, and former showgirl, known for her roles on the television series Home Improvement, Baywatch, and V.I.P. She was chosen as a Playmate of the Month for Playboy magazine in February 1990...

 and Tommy Lee, to get a feel for what the show is all about. At times, related biographies are interwoven, such as passages from Burt Reynolds' and his lover Loni Anderson's memoirs, spiced up with one of Reynolds' assistant's memoirs as well as that of another of Anderson's lovers. The show uses a rotating cast of readers, and it uses material from an ever-growing list of books. The New York Times

The New York Times

The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...

describes the show as a Rashomon

Rashomon effect

The Rashomon effect is the effect of the subjectivity of perception on recollection, by which observers of an event are able to produce substantially different but equally plausible accounts of it. A useful demonstration of this principle in scientific understanding can be found in an article by...

-esque playlet.

Awards and nominations

Award	Outcome
2009 Drama Desk Awards
Unique Theatrical Experience
2010 Bistro Awards
Comedy Series