Not Taco Bell Material by Adam Carolla

Adam Carolla, Not Taco Bell Material, (New York: Crown Publishing; 2012), 330 pages.

This autobiography tells the story of Carolla's rise from neglected child of welfare-dependant parents living in a crummy house with a dirt lawn in North Hollywood to his current status as a millionaire businessman. Carolla discusses his upbringing by framing them around the various houses and apartments he lived in, and what he got up to while living in them. He details a series of depressing residences, and the major memories of his upbringings linked to those places. With comic flare, profanity, and at times vulgarity, we see how Carolla stumbled through school ill-equipped for life. Upon graduating from high school he was barely able to read. With few options and no  guidance or  encouragement from his parents, he took up a series of menial jobs such as carpet cleaning, digging ditches, carpentry and being a boxing instructor. Always possessed with the gift of the gab, Carolla eventually worked out that he could either continue to work with his hands, or develop his ability to be funny. After much failure, persistence, and by making his own luck, Carolla broke into radio (initially for no pay) and later became a paid host of a nationally syndicated radio show. Carolla subsequently moved into developing and staring in a number of television shows, stand-up comedy, acting, movie production, as well as developing a podcasting network. From humble beginnings, Carolla has become a very successful businessman.

This book is a very funny telling of Carolla’s life. He can be crude, vulgar, funny, but most of all honest. No one in his life is spared, including his family and close friends. It is a very funny book but at the same time quite serious. He is critical of a school system that could let him graduate fro high school barely able to read. He is critical of television, movie and radio executives that have few creative skills, but world class expertise in ruining projects. It’s also a damning indictment of his parent’s hands-off parenting. Despite this, it’s inspirational because Carolla shows that despite his lousy childhood and his absent parents, that it was possible to develop and use his talents to make a success of his life. This is the real point of this book: in spite of your background, with hard work, a lot of failure, and setback, hard work and dedication and grit can bring you success.