Thank you, Rachel Dratch, for being so funny and for including photos in your new book

I don't get why Rachel Dratch isn't more famous. I mean, I think Tina Fey and Amy Poehler are wildly talented, super funny and likable ladies, but SO IS RACHEL DRATCH. How is it that seemingly exactly equal people starting out in comedy together can have careers that take off in completely different directions? I'm not sure all the answers are in this book but the most obvious one is totally disgusting. It's that Rachel Dratch isn't as cute as Hollywood would like.

Rachel openly discusses her mid-career slump in this book. And by mid-career slump, she means she's literally getting no work while Tina Fey and Amy Poehler are starring in movies and getting their own television series. The book starts out with an explanation of what happened immediately following the departure of Dratch and Fey from Saturday Night Live. Tina created 30 Rock and Rachel was cast in a starring role as Jenna. Fans of 30 Rock know that Jane Krakowski plays the role of Jenna, so what happened? The powers that be saw Rachel in the pilot and decided that they needed a bombshell in the role and that was the end of the story. Rachel was told the show was going in a different direction and got dropped. She's had a hard time finding decent roles ever since. Man. Life is not fair.

There are a lot more details about the road to comedy success, etc. but those really only account for about half of the book. The other half is about Rachel as a person, her struggles to find love, and how WEIRD things often happen to her. I loved this. We all know someone like this that stuff just happens to. It's how you roll with it that makes or breaks you and I gotta say, Rachel can roll with it.

This is a brutally honest look at what it's like when you're a normal person from Massachusetts establishing a career in comedy and making your way in the big city. It's not whiny or all "woe is me" but it's certainly not a light, fluffy, collection of humorous essays. I like Rachel Dratch even more after reading it. I wish her every success. She deserves it.