
Not Just Sunglasses and Autographs
Thirty Years of Film & Television Production with Life (& Near Death) Lessons & Dark Humor
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Narrated by:
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David Kriegel
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Mark Tinker
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Tommy Burke
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By:
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Tommy Burke
About this listen
Not Just Sunglasses and Autographs is a captivating autobiography that follows the author's journey from bar bouncing in Boston to working on award-winning television shows and movies. This is an endearing story of overcoming the odds through dark humor, tenacity, authenticity, and happiness.
Initially envisioned as a memoir about a man who had beaten Hodgkin's lymphoma and lived to tell the tale, the author was then thrown a major curveball with a Parkinson's disease diagnosis. Equal parts pep-talk and gut-punch, this unvarnished and vulnerable memoir-meets-handbook shares lessons learned in life and work. These recordings encourage listeners to keep moving forward, embrace resilience, step out of their comfort zones, and take life head on.
©2021 Tommy Burke (P)2022 Tommy BurkeListeners also enjoyed...
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One of my dad’s favorite jokes about getting older was: “I went out for coffee when I was twenty-one and when I got back I was fifty-eight!” I get what he meant now. Time flies. My first book, If Chins Could Kill: Confessions of a "B" Movie Actor, was published back in 2001 and it chronicles the adventures of a “mid-grade, kind of hammy actor" (my words), cutting his teeth on exploitation movies far removed from mainstream Hollywood. This next book, an “Act II” if you will, could be considered my “maturing years” in show business, when I began to say “no” more often and gravitated toward self-generated material. Taking stock in the overall quality of my life, I fled Los Angeles and moved to a remote part of Oregon to renew, regroup and reload. If that sounds tame, the journey from Evil Dead to Spider-Man to Burn Notice was long, with plenty of adventures/mishaps along the way. I never pictured myself hovering above Baghdad in a Blackhawk helicopter, facing a pack of wild dogs in Bulgaria, or playing an aging Elvis Presley with cancer on his penis - how can you predict this stuff? The sheer lunacy of show business is part of the fun for me and I hope you'll come along for the ride.
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Hail to the Chin...Win for the Ears!
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Simultaneously hilarious and heartbreaking- it is mostly a story of mental, emotional, and physical resilience, all wrapped-up around entertainingly told stories of Tommy’s 30-year career in the crazy “carney circus” of the TV & movie business. It’s the best sort of memoir too - as you feel as though you are an eyewitness to his life’s adventures and challenges.
A great primer for anyone interested in working in Hollywood. And timely too: Absolutely essential reading for anyone involved in set safety.
I thoroughly enjoyed the Audible version in addition to the book itself! Tommy’s story is a testament to what hard work, a disarmingly positive attitude, and tenacity can archive. And overcome.
Hear Tommy Burke out…
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educational and inspirational
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