Little Me – My life from A-Z
by Matt Lucas
Allen & Unwin
Matt Lucas’s unique face immediately brings to mind his comic masterpiece with David Walliams – Little Britain. However his autobiography is not in chronological order but in alphabetical order, so it is not until half way through the book that the smutty comedy gets a mention. There are black and white photographs dotted throughout his writing as he tells of the highs and lows of his life. A small section of colour photographs celebrate the man he loved and lost – the “kind, warm, beautiful human being who didn’t have the armour for this world”.
So, to select a few, B is for baldy as he remembers being the first 6 year-old in his class to learn the meaning of the word ‘alopecia’. It was to define his childhood. As did E for eating. Food was and is his comfort, his pleasure and his pain. After flirting with healthy eating as a teenager, he now shamelessly indulges with the food tastes of a 9 year-old. G is for gay as he did think he was the only gay in the village that was his high school.
I is for continually being an idiot, J is for being Jewish and K is for Kevin, his civil partner and the cause of his very private pain. L is for lessons learned on the standup comedy circuit, P is for pitfalls of being famous and S is for Sydney where his Little Britain character Dafydd launched Mardi Gras. T is for Tardis as he is a companion in the current Dr Who, and V is for various other things like Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland, Bridesmaids and Pompidou.
Lucas’s self-effacing humour is often directed towards himself. Even though he can’t help name-dropping, he is quite humble. He points out that he had experienced a kind of fame since the age of six when he was the boy with no hair. He has achieved so many of his dreams and decided it is time to tell his story. This fat, bald guy has had a jam-packed life so far and it was a pleasure being a fly on the wall as he generously shares his story.
Lezly Herbert
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