Totally Biased Review of Maria Bamford's New Memoir

I first learned about Maria Bamford in the 2005 documentary, The Comedians of Comedy. I had fallen in love with the comedy of Patton Oswalt after listening to his 2004 album Feelin’ Kinda Patton. It was one I quoted frequently to my comedian friends. So when I found out that he had a movie that centered around him and three other comics on tour, I snatched it up and watched it immediately.

In the film, Patton refers to Maria’s stand-up as “an alien doing a racist impression of a human.” Though that description is a tad extreme, she does present a unique perspective.

When it came to contemporary famous female comedians I could look up to, the list was rather small. I had Margaret Cho, who I adored for her gritty content and hilarious impression of her mother, but there was not much else out there for me to relate to.

Enter Maria Bamford, with her unabashed personal revelations regarding her mental health and hilarious impression of her mother which was completely different, but oddly endearing. I didn’t know it at the time, but I was sitting on a minor mental health issue of my own (generalized anxiety disorder).

I’d catch Maria on Comedy Central from time to time and downloaded her 2007 album How to Win on my iPod. I once had the good fortune to meet her at the Arlington Drafthouse when my husband was her opening act. She was humble and very kind. They say, never meet your heroes, but in this case, she lived up to our expectations.

I quit comedy about ten years ago and at first I had to slow my consumption of the stuff as an audience member, so it didn’t reel me back in. I had to curb my obsession, so I could move on to other things. As a consequence, I fell behind on what my favorite comics were up to. Slowly, I learned to enjoy comedy without yearning to do it myself. Been there. Done that. Learned some valuable life lessons, but ultimately decided that stand-up was not for me.

I recently saw an ad for Maria’s memoir on Instagram. I thought I could wait until it came out in paperback, but I splurged on my ‘Baby’s Night Out.’ The book’s structure parodies the ‘for dummies’ series. It’s a fun gimmick, but I don’t think it was necessary. Her storytelling is compelling enough to go without it.

Maria’s career has spanned more than two decades. During that time, she has dealt with obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD), bulimia, and bipolar disorder. She is a naturally funny and kind person with a very unfortunate mix of brain chemicals influenced by heredity and some familial pressure to stay thin.

A self described over-sharer, she is brutally honest. She even points out where her publishers forbade her to give certain financial details and admits she is breaking the rules of several support groups that she belongs to by revealing her membership.

She owns her poor decisions, but many of them can be traced back to an episode of mania or depression. A native of Duluth Minnesota, Maria comes from an upper middle class family, one that decided not to bail her out when things got tough after moving to LA. There was no fateful night when she was “discovered,” but she eventually found that stand-up suited her better than acting.

Her two most notable on camera performances, a series of commercials for Target, and her Netflix sitcom, Lady Dynamite were like dreams come true, but also fraught with exploitative issues that would sour the experience.

Through her grim description of her own hospitalization in a variety of mental facilities, you see the many ways in which the US healthcare system fails people with mental illnesses even in spite of their ability to pay. But, as Maria repeats throughout the book, if you find yourself in crisis, getting that shitty help that's available is better than no help at all.

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Thank you for reading. If you like memoirs, here’s a list of other titles you might enjoy…