One look at the bestsellers list in the past few years and it’s no secret we’re in the midst of a celebrity boom with our favorite stars spilling candid details about their life in memoirs and biographies. From the likes of former First Lady Michelle Obama to Priyanka Chopra, at best, these heartfelt diaries provide a unique way of getting to know the “real person” behind the public persona. But that’s not the case for comedian and actor Andy Richter, whose Audible Original Recording Audiobook, The Incredibly Inaccurate Biography of Andy Richter, is totally and tonally wrong.
The laugh-out-loud “lie-ography” takes out all the usual nuances jammed into a classic celebrity biography and replaces it with misinformation, outright lies and probable slander. In an exclusive with PopCulture.com about the 14-chapter audiobook exclusively available on Audible, the comedy legend and TV icon admits it’s a “different concept,” and one he never imagined doing until his friend and comedy writer, Joel H. Cohen of The Simpsons got around to it.
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“[He] came to me and said, ‘I have an idea for biographies that are written by different people, like a chapter a writer, comedy writers and it would be a biography of a willing subject who would be in the project, too. But all the stuff is BS. It’s all lies and kind of like — it’s a roast, basically. A chapter-by-chapter roast of a subject and the subject gets to interject within the story or between chapters and refute these things.”
Admitting that it was first thought about as a series they deem a “lie-ography,” Richter and Cohen put their heads together and managed to round up a bunch of “different, really funny people” to take part, including Andy Daly, Samantha Irby and Ken Jennings, just to name a few. “We sold it as an Audible original, which is the word for ‘audiobook’ that I have to use under threat of punishment,” he laughed, sharing how it’s also “crazy funny” and something he hopes readers will appreciate. “I mean, that’s really all that I want people to expect out of it is just something that’ll kill a few drives to work and make you laugh a little bit.”
Performed by Nick Offerman and disputed by Richter after every chapter (some of which chronicle his death in at least three different times though he is still very much alive), the Illinois native shares how the Parks and Recreation star was the perfect voice for his story most simply because he agreed, which was the “short answer” per the comedian. “When you have a job like this, you put it out to lots and lots of people and it’s very rare that people go to the trouble to actually read it. But I love Nick and I think he loves me,” he said. “He was kind of iffy about it, just kind of in terms of schedule, and then he read it and really liked it and said, ‘Yeah, I want to do it.’ So that’s really special. I mean, we would have been lucky to have him anyway, but the fact that he was drawn to it out of choice, rather than just, ‘All right, I’ll do it.’”
With The Incredibly Inaccurate Biography of Andy Richter being Richter’s first foray into the biography and memoir genre, he jokes if he had to make a real, truthful account ever happen, he’d “have to wait for a lot of people to die” first. “Because I feel like why bother until you can really let loose. That’s going to take some people, unfortunately, or fortunately.”
The Incredibly Inaccurate Biography of Andy Richter is now available on Audible. Stream or download thousands of included audiobooks, podcasts, and Audible Originals in the Plus Catalog today. For more on Richter and all your favorite stars, keep it locked to PopCulture.com for the latest!
