You Can’t Be Serious by Kal Penn
(Format used for this read: Audiobook)
When I told my husband I was reading Kal Penn’s autobiography he was like “Uhhh….Why?”
I have not been known to be a huge Kal Penn superfan.
In fact, I have not been known to be a fan at all 😬
To be honest, I didn’t *really* know much about him before reading this book– his acting career or his real life.
I did know that he was in “Harold and Kumar Go To White Castle” and some other similar comedic movies of that time period (which TOTALLY are NOT my kind of thing) and was on the TV show “House” for a little bit (which actually WAS my kind of thing a few years ago…I was a big fan of the show way back in the day).
I get why my hubby was surprised I was reading his memoir.
I surprised myself actually LOL
But when I was looking for my next audiobook listen on my Scribd app, this one popped up as a recommendation.
So I read the summary:
“You Can’t Be Serious is a series of funny, consequential, awkward, and ridiculous stories from Kal Penn’s idiosyncratic life. It’s about being the grandson of Gandhian freedom fighters, and the son of immigrant parents: people who came to this country with very little and went very far – and whose vision of the American dream probably never included their son sliding off an oiled-up naked woman in the raunchy Ryan Reynolds movie Van Wilder…or getting a phone call from Air Force One as Kal flew with the country’s first Black president.
With intelligence, humor, and charm in every minute, Kal reflects on the most exasperating and rewarding moments from his journey so far. He pulls back the curtain on the nuances of opportunity and racism in the entertainment industry and recounts how he built allies, found encouragement, and dealt with early reminders that he might never fit in. He describes his initially unpromising first date with his now-fiancé Josh, involving an 18-pack of Coors Light and an afternoon of watching NASCAR. And of course, he reveals how, after a decade and a half of fighting for and enjoying successes in Hollywood, he made the terrifying but rewarding decision to take a sabbatical from a fulfilling acting career for an opportunity to serve his country as an Obama White House aide.
Above all, You Can’t Be Serious shows that everyone can have more than one life story. Kal demonstrates by example that no matter who you are and where you come from, you have many more choices than those presented to you. It’s a story about struggle, triumph, and learning how to keep your head up. And okay, yes, it’s also about how he accidentally (and very stupidly) accepted an invitation to take the entire White House Office of Public Engagement to a strip club – because, let’s be honest, that’s the kind of stuff you really want to hear about.”
I thought to myself “Okkkaaayyy…this DOES sound very interesting!”
Plus, listening to and learning from people of different life experiences than mine is of the utmost importance to me.
So, I decided to press play.
And WOW.
Was I surprised!
Yes, this book has plenty of funny moments and humor filled memories…but it also is filled with emotional , honest stories of his family, his career struggles, and his culture.
He begins the book by speaking candidly about his experience with racism and bullying at a young age and how performing helped him cope.
He shares about his cultural experience growing up as a child in a family of immigrants and also how his passion for performing created a divide at times in his Indian community.
He shares his complicated journey into his career path and how racial stereotypes and prejudices affected the roles he was cast in and the oppurtunities he was given.
Kal Penn is his stage name, created as a play on his Indian birth name Kalpen. He created his stage name due to an agent telling him that he would never represent him because there aren’t many roles for Indian Americans in Hollywood…except for a “cab driver here and there.” 🤬
(This small fact alone should completely piss you off and shine a bright light on how heavily the American entertainment industry is infiltrated with racism…just like EVERY OTHER freaking aspect of our country. It should also have you examine your own forms of entertainment and analyzing if all the artists/creators are the same racially or culturally. If so, make it a point to DIVERSIFY.)
I thought this book would be more funny—and don’t get me wrong, it absolutely DOES have PLENTY of laughable moments—but I thought it would be MOSTLY funny.
Much of the book was a serious look at his career journey and how heavily racial barriers and stereotypes influenced his roles, and also just about his life in general—romantic relationships (I had no clue he was gay), friendships, and just coming of age.
Another surprise for me was learning that he worked for President Obama’s first presidential campaign.
This book also gives quite the education on how the Iowa Caucus works, the depths of voter suppression and the inner workings of the Obama presidency ….because Kal Penn ALSO took two years off of acting to work as a White House staff member when Obama was elected! 😱
I legit had no idea of this.
Reading about the work he did (and continues to do) I realized that Kal Penn is one of the very few celebrities out there who uses his platform for the greater good as much as he can.
While he was campaigning for Obama’s first run, the motto that served as the motivation for all the staff member’s actions was this:
Respect. Empower. Include.
Can we all just pause for a minute and appreciate this?
Can we all just imagine how DIFFERENT our country would be if we ALL lived by these 3 words?????
Man.
Kal Penn absolutely stayed cognizant of that motto and strived in all he did to uphold those things while working for the White House….and really continues to do so in his “regular” life years later.
He’s a pretty amazing human.
And way more deep than I thought he was….
Shame on me for typecasting him in my mind.
Actors play CHARACTERS…and just because a person is good at playing an obnoxious humor type of role doesn’t mean that is how they are IN REAL DANG LIFE.
Duh. Common sense.
But we ALL are guilty of this.
So shame on us ALL.
Anyway, I really enjoyed this book and I gotta say I have newfound respect and admiration for this man.
Yall should check it out….whether or not you think you know him….or even like him.
He is pretty awesome, and so is his book.
(And you know what?
After hearing about all the damn BS he went thru to get cast in those movies I said I’m not into, I feel like I should go watch them now just to support his work.)