By “Nothin’ Comes Easy: The Life of Rodney Dangerfield” by Michael Seth Starr

c.2025, Citadel Press $29.00 240 pages

You will not be ignored. Whatever it takes, you’ll get seen, one way or another. Knock on doors, stand up and shout, gather with others and rally peacefully, you’ll do it until someone finally pays attention and hears what you have to say. Your actions could make a difference. They could make change. As in the new book “Nothin’ Comes Easy” by Michael Seth Starr, they could make someone laugh.

Phil Cohen and his brother, Adolf (known as “Bunk”) were vaudeville stars in the early 1900s, living a nomadic lifestyle, as was typical for such entertainers then. It meant that Phil, a married man, saw his children just a few times a year.

Phil’s wife, Dotty, it was said, was “coldhearted and selfish…” and their second child, Jacob, was often left to fend for himself.

And so the boy hustled, surviving through odd tasks and small entrepreneurial ways, snagging part-time jobs but never quite fitting in with friends or classmates. His Uncle Bunk saw this, and treated young Jacob to performances by Bunk’s old vaudeville pals.

It was there that Jacob fell in love with performing. By the time he was a young man, he’d changed his name to Jack Roy and had landed gigs in the “Borscht Belt,” north of the Big Apple, where he told jokes and did impressions for twelve bucks a week.

For Jack, it wasn’t enough; no, life was a struggle filled with rejection. He couldn’t catch a big break, which negatively affected him: he experimented with drugs and gained a reputation for being “angry.” A 1955 arrest for his involvement in a scam almost sent him to prison. Once that was resolved, he became an aluminum siding salesman. Fame was elusive.

But by late 1961, Jack was again chasing dreams of comedy. He was ready.

He’d done a few successful shows, and he had influential people backing him.

And he’d changed his name – thanks to a club owner – to Rodney Dangerfield… Sometimes, as they say, “no” is a full sentence, but – fortunately for us – some people don’t heed that word. Case in point: “Nothin’ Comes Easy” tells a story full of stickto- itiveness, stubbornness, inspiration, and total disregard for dismissal.

It’s a tale that’s detailed. Sadly, it’s sometimes too detailed.

Author Michael Seth Starr presents Dangerfield the troubled man, the funny man, and the mentor which, together, create a good balance for better understanding of the comic as an average guy, talented but also flawed. That’s nice to know, but the width of the tale is not so nice: because Dangerfield’s career spanned decades of changes in what was funny and how we got our entertainment, and because Dangerfield worked with so many people, there’s a lot to tell. It becomes overwhelming, at times; add in changes in names, talent, and venue and your head may spin.

Still, if you love to laugh and you enjoy stories of mid-to-late-twentieth- century entertainers, this book can’t be beat.

Especially if you loved Rodney Dangerfield’s humor, “Nothin’ Comes Easy is a biography you can’t ignore.

BOOKWORM SEZ

By Terri Schlichenmeyer