Alan Cumming

I'm not familiar with Alan Cumming as an actor, I'm not sure I could pick him out in a lineup. I came to this having listened to his previous memoir "Not my Father's Son". He has a very nice reading voice. In this, he reflects on his life since leaving home, how he came to be an actor, his acting adventures and the associated life. It is rather lively, and while there are lost of tales, there is little introspection. There's a lot of telling us that he's funny, brave, outspoken, but very little evidence of it is presented here. There are any number of sexual encounters, but they seem to fall into the same repeated categories, the poor choice, the one night stand and the long term relationship. It all felt a little repetitive , not to say superficial, after a while.
Some of his thoughts on memory or response to earlier experience are valid and worthwhile, but these are scattered thinly through the book. I'm not sure that I know the person behind the book any more now than I did previously. It's all entertaining enough, but it feels that there's a flair and less substance.… (més)

Chances are, you'll recognize actor Alan Cumming from the picture on the cover of the book, even if you don't recognize his name. He's appeared in many movies (X2, Goldeneye, Emma), and has received wide recognition for his role as the Master of Ceremonies in the long-running Broadway production of Cabaret. As we come to learn, his boyish good looks, natural talent, and evident personal charm have culminated in a bustling career and an extremely lively social life, full of parties and an imposing number of sexual encounters.

This is billed as "an intimate look at the making of a man, an actor, an advocate, and a happy human being" - but feel like that's an oversell. The "making of a man" stuff mostly happens in his first memoir (Not My Father's Son), his career as an actor - as set forth here - is eventful but not particularly illuminating, and he barely mentions his advocacy work for LGBTQ+. Mostly this is a sequence of episodes depicting his experiences on various stages/movie sets and his encounters with famous people, with a bit of shallow-ish reflection thrown in.

Cumming's main purpose seems to be to convince readers that he is funny, honest, fearless, and vulnerable. And on the surface, the argument could be made that he succeeds. But critical readers may be bothered by what's not here: there's almost no discussion of how his life has been impacted by his sexuality, little detail about his life beyond sets and stages, and no meaningful consideration of implications of his hedonism or promiscuity. Not to suggest that hedonism and promiscuity are somehow inherently wicked, but the flipside or prioritizing ones own needs is a tendency to de-prioritize the needs of others, with subsequent consequences. Yet, to hear Cumming tell it, any short-term kerfuffles inevitably resolve themselves into long-term friendships. What's here may be honest, but it doesn't feel complete.

Indeed, my main takeaway from the memoir is that Cumming is a living embodiment of what one might call the "Cabaret ethos": "life is short, so get busy being happy" and "anything that makes you happy can't be bad." One wonders if this principle is why he was so convincing as the MC in Cabaret ... or if spending so many nights embodying this role ended up shaping the man that he has become? Perhaps this is the sort of deeper reflection I was hoping for here, instead of this entertaining but rather shallow serving of celebrity fluff.… (més)