Tracey Takes on

Tracey Ullman

ISBN 10: 0786883618 / ISBN 13: 9780786883615

Published by Hyperion, 1999

About this Item

Comic chameleon Tracey Ullman is impossible to categorise, especially since most of her performances involve her being someone other than herself. Combining fun essays, sketches, monologues and sound bites, this hilarious compilation of her work illuminates many of her favourite characters and provides bucketloads of her sharp, witty and uncanny insight into what makes us laugh. A wonderful gift for all Ullman fans. Full-colour photos throughout plus free Tracey Doll.

Seller Inventory # CIN0786883618VG

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Tracey Takes on
• Publisher: Hyperion
• Publication Date: 1999
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0786883618
• ISBN 13: 9780786883615
• Binding: Paperback
• Condition: Very Good

About this title

Synopsis

Combining fun essays and monologues with sidebars and sound bites, this hilarious book illuminates Ullman's beloved characters from her hit HBO series, "Tracey Takes On". Full-color photos throughout.

Review

From the mouths of Tracey Ullman's myriad personae comes this scrapbook of soliloquies, photographs of characters in action, and yes, paper dolls. Tracey Takes On, adapted from her HBO series of the same name, showcases the protean and prolific actress and comic chameleon. Surely 20 characters and alter egos is some kind of a record. There's Trevor Aylii, gay airline steward; Hope Finch, 19-year-old student at Sweetbriar College ("She is not currently a lesbian, but she's young and impressionable."); Fern Rosenthal, a Long Island homemaker and a member of the Royal Family known only as H.R.H. (Her Royal Highness). Sparing neither Great Britain nor its former colony, Ullman lampoons or impersonates types with aninimitable style that sometimes seems too tackily real to produce an innocent giggle--more like an "Oh, no" groan.

First come the character's biographies, followed by commentaries; each character opines on such pressing subjects as royalty, mothers, crime, family, sex, fame, movies, and politics. There's some new material, but most of the book consists of schtick from the first two seasons of the TV series; new is a patently absurd screenplay by Hope Finch and an encounter between H.R.H. and President Clinton. For those who insist on living dangerously, paper dolls of each persona may be cut out and let loose in one's home. What will Tracey Ullman take on next?