Tickling the English - Dara O. Briain
As funny as I find Dara's stand-up shows, his hosting of Mock the Week and appearances on Three Men and ... "boats", I found this book less than amusing. It was sold to me as a humourous book on the English persona (not unlike Bill Bryson's "Notes from a Small Island"), but actually it's a diary of the comic's interactions with, and observations of punters attending his shows as he tours England with the occasional jump to Dublin for a boost.This tour diary gives a run-down of the audience members he spoke to, a description of the theatre, some snippets from the show, few of which were amusing, and then a generalisation about the English which Dara then proceeds to attempt to prove false. That's pretty much it. It was dry reading that felt like it dragged: I genuinely laughed about four times in the book. I will say that I have watched several of Dara's performances and appearances and much of the material in "[b:Tickling the English|6789453|Tickling the English|Dara O'Briain|http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51JC1Jw3kJL._SL75_.jpg|6993066]" I had already encountered. Still, I really pushed myself to finish in case it got better and reflected the reviews it's received. It didn't.I'm afraid I just can't recommend "[b:Tickling the English|6789453|Tickling the English|Dara O'Briain|http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51JC1Jw3kJL._SL75_.jpg|6993066]".