# Before and Laughter *Jimmy Carr. Quercus, 2021 (hardback 30 September 2021; paperback reissued later).* > This note was assembled from the publisher's pages, Google Books, two newspaper interviews and a BBC feature, a fan blog's contents listing and the host video note. I did not read the book's text, so the chapter outline rests on the fan blog's listing and the descriptions below come from the publisher and reviewers. The author's later book with Amanda Baker and Abi Grant is covered in [[Book Summaries/On Jokes - Jimmy Carr|On Jokes]]. ## 1. Book facts | | | |---|---| | Title | *Before & Laughter: A Life-Changing Book* (hardback and Goodreads work title). The paperback is titled *Before & Laughter: The Hilarious Guide to Changing Your Life* per the fan blog, and an Amazon UK listing shows a third subtitle ("The funniest man in the UK's genuinely useful guide to life") | | Author | Jimmy Carr | | Publisher and date | Quercus. The Quercus [e-book page](https://www.quercusbooks.co.uk/titles/jimmy-carr/before-laughter/9781529413106/) gives 30 September 2021 as on-sale date; the fan blog gives the same date for the hardback. See the fact-check table for conflicting dates | | ISBN | 978-1-5294-1311-3 (paperback), confirmed on the [Quercus paperback page](https://www.quercusbooks.co.uk/titles/jimmy-carr/before-and-laughter/9781529413113/) (£12.99). Other ISBNs from secondary sources: hardback 978-1-5294-1307-6 (an Amazon UK listing and retailer pages in search results, not opened in full) and e-book 978-1-5294-1310-6 (Quercus) | | Pages | 358 per [Google Books](https://books.google.com/books/about/Before_and_Laughter.html?id=VpB8zgEACAAJ). A search summary of retailer pages says 368 for the hardback and paperback; I could not confirm either. The BBC says the book is about 90,000 words | | Formats | Hardback, paperback, e-book, audiobook (Quercus lists an "Audiobook Downloadable" format) | | Cover | [Open Library cover by ISBN](https://covers.openlibrary.org/b/isbn/9781529413113-L.jpg) (the paperback ISBN; the lookup returned 200) | **Where it came up.** - Video: [Jimmy Carr: Stop Overthinking Your Life & Fix Your Anxious Mind](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CotzNJNLEkE), *High Performance*. - Mention: [71:31](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CotzNJNLEkE&t=4291s). Per the vault note, he says he wrote it in lockdown and pitched it to publishers as a celebrity biography, with "Eckhart Tolle for dummies" as a joke; at 72:16 he says it feels like revealing himself a bit. - Vault note: [[Video Summaries/High Performance/Jimmy Carr - Stop Overthinking Your Life & Fix Your Anxious Mind]]. ## 2. Book resources **Reference pages** - Publisher: [Quercus paperback page](https://www.quercusbooks.co.uk/titles/jimmy-carr/before-and-laughter/9781529413113/) (blurb, press quotes) and [e-book page](https://www.quercusbooks.co.uk/titles/jimmy-carr/before-laughter/9781529413106/). - Google Books: [listing](https://books.google.com/books/about/Before_and_Laughter.html?id=VpB8zgEACAAJ) (358 pages, no preview or e-book). - Fan blog with contents and tour dates: [The Carr-Tell](https://thecarrtell.blog/2025/06/04/before-laughter-2021/) (unofficial). - Goodreads: [editions](https://www.goodreads.com/work/editions/91080939-before-laughter-a-life-changing-book) (link responds; not read). - Open Library: the site was unreachable when I checked, so there is no work-page link here. The cover lookup by ISBN worked. - WorldCat: not checked (it blocks automated requests). **Where to get it** - **Print and Kindle:** [Amazon UK, hardback listing](https://www.amazon.co.uk/Before-Laughter-funniest-genuinely-useful/dp/1529413079) (the page would not load readable text for my script; price unchecked). The paperback is also linked from the Quercus page's retailer buttons (Blackwell's, Bookshop.org, Foyles, Hive, Waterstones, TGJones, Wordery). - **Audiobook / Audible:** yes. The fan blog says Carr narrates it himself and that it runs 6 hours 45 minutes. I did not open an Audible page, so length and narrator are unverified. - **Libraries (free to members):** [Libby/OverDrive](https://libbyapp.com/search/query-before%20and%20laughter%20jimmy%20carr) and [Hoopla](https://www.hoopladigital.com/search?q=before%20and%20laughter%20jimmy%20carr). These are search links; availability was not confirmed. - **Internet Archive lending:** not checked (Open Library was unreachable). - **Free full text:** none. The book is in copyright and I found no legal free copy. ## 3. Author biography **Jimmy Carr** ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jimmy_Carr)): - British and Irish comedian, presenter and writer, born 15 September 1972 in Isleworth. Dyslexic as a child. Studied social and political science at Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge (first, 1994), worked in marketing at Shell, took redundancy in January 2000 and performed his first paid gig that month. - Television: *The Big Fat Quiz of the Year*, *8 Out of 10 Cats*, *8 Out of 10 Cats Does Countdown* and *LOL: Last One Laughing UK*. Earlier book: *The Naked Jape* (2006, with Lucy Greeves). Later book: *On Jokes* (2026). - Wikipedia records that in June 2012 his involvement in an alleged K2 tax-avoidance scheme came to light after a *Times* investigation; prime minister David Cameron criticised it, and Carr apologised. He has also drawn criticism for jokes over the years (see the article's Controversy section). The Guardian interview and the BBC feature both note the tax episode in connection with this book. - The Guardian describes him as a fan of self-help books since his early twenties. ## 4. Author interviews and talks - [The Guardian, 29 September 2021: "Jimmy Carr on booze, taxes and being a virgin at 26"](https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2021/sep/29/jimmy-carr-on-booze-taxes-and-being-a-virgin-at-26-do-i-sound-like-an-incel-elder) (also printed as [The Irish Times, 1 October 2021](https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/books/jimmy-carr-stephen-hawking-and-me-would-do-shots-together-he-d-be-on-the-cointreau-1.4686507)). Read in full. - [BBC News, 6 October 2021: "Jimmy Carr: Comedy made my whole life better"](https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-58683108). Read in full. - [The Diary of a CEO with Steven Bartlett: "Jimmy Carr: The Easiest Way To Live A Happier Life"](https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/jimmy-carr-the-easiest-way-to-live-a-happier-life/id1291423644?i=1000541916331), released 15 November 2021 per Apple Podcasts; the episode links the book. I did not listen. [BBC programme page](https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p0fjnmbd). - The fan blog lists a "Terribly Funny Book Tour" in October 2021 with comedian Stuart Goldsmith interviewing Carr at the end of five shows; it is not a recording. - The High Performance episode (source video above) also mentions the book at 71:31. ## 5. Summary **Thesis.** The publisher calls it "a memoir and self-help manual" for people stuck in a rut: Carr tells the story of how he turned his life round "through the redemptive power of dick jokes", then explains how readers can do the same. Carr says he split the book "half about me, and half about you" ([BBC](https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-58683108)). The Guardian calls it "an utterly sincere guide for people to achieve bigger things in life", not a spoof of the genre. **Structure** (fan blog's contents listing; I could not check it against the printed book): 1. *A Carr is born*; *Superpowers of the average comic*. 2. Part 1: What do you want? Part 2: Feel the fear and shit your pants. Part 3: Happy disposition. Part 4: The best medicine. Part 5: Sad clown. Part 6: So, I got publicly shamed. 3. Part 7: Living on the edge. Part 8: Creativity / hack. Part 9: Talking points. Part 10: Work is more fun than fun. Part 11: Don't leave luck to chance. Part 12: Love is revolution for two. **What reviewers and interviews report about its content.** - Memoir material: his time in the marketing department at Shell, his mother's death in 2001 and the strain with his father, anxiety and occasional depression, a period of problem drinking, his friendship with Stephen Hawking, and becoming a father (Guardian; BBC). - Self-help material: advice on healthy eating, travel and managing finances (Guardian), and the argument that comedy skills carry over to everyday life (BBC). Questions the fan blog quotes from the book include what people find hard that you find easy, and what you would do even if no one paid you. - A stated message that he had no special talent: "I'd never written a joke before I was 25… It's a learnable skill" (Irish Times). **Key ideas.** - Rules that limit what people think they can do "aren't written" (Carr in the Guardian). - Skills, including joke-writing, are learnable. - Feelings of inferiority can push you to improve (a point the BBC says he spins from the line "If you have imposter syndrome, chances are you're an imposter"). - He credits self-help literature, including NLP and CBT, for helping him (BBC). ## 6. Fact-check Overall verdict: **mixed**. The publication and content descriptions are well sourced, but the bibliographic data conflict across sources and some claims in the book's marketing and Carr's interviews are untestable or disputed. | Claim | Verdict | Evidence | |---|---|---| | Quercus published it in 2021 | Supported | [Quercus e-book page](https://www.quercusbooks.co.uk/titles/jimmy-carr/before-laughter/9781529413106/) (30 September 2021); [Google Books](https://books.google.com/books/about/Before_and_Laughter.html?id=VpB8zgEACAAJ) (2021); the Guardian interview is dated 29 September 2021 | | Published in December 2021 (Wikipedia's text) | Disputed | Contradicted by the Quercus on-sale date, the fan blog and the 29 September–6 October 2021 press coverage | | The paperback date | Unverified | The Quercus paperback page says on sale 11 September 2025; the fan blog and a search summary say 12 May 2022. The 2025 date may be a reissue; I could not resolve it | | Page count | Unverified | 358 (Google Books) versus 368 (search summary of retailers) | | Audiobook: narrated by Carr, 6 h 45 min | Unverified | One fan-blog source; Audible not opened | | Sunday Times bestseller and Sunday Times Book of the Year | Unverified | Printed in the Google Books blurb; I did not check the Sunday Times lists | | "Recently scientifically proved to be the funniest comedian in the UK" | Unverified | Publisher blurb; no study cited | | Carr left Shell aged 25 | Disputed | The Guardian and the BBC say he was 25. Wikipedia says he took redundancy in January 2000, when he was 27. The sources do not reconcile | | His mother died in 2001 | Supported | The Guardian says 2001; Wikipedia gives 7 September 2001 and says she was 57. In the High Performance video he says she died when he was 26 (53:15 per the vault note), which does not match a 2001 date (he was 28 or 29), so his spoken figure looks inconsistent | | NLP helped him | His own account; the method is unsupported | The BBC quotes him on NLP and CBT. NLP is described as a pseudoscience with no scientific support in a [Wikipedia summary of reviews](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neuro-linguistic_programming). I did not assess the evidence for CBT or whether the book recommends NLP techniques | | Comedy and other skills are learnable by anyone | Unverified | Carr's claim in the Irish Times and Guardian; no study cited | ## 7. Citations and references - Quercus Books, [paperback page](https://www.quercusbooks.co.uk/titles/jimmy-carr/before-and-laughter/9781529413113/) and [e-book page](https://www.quercusbooks.co.uk/titles/jimmy-carr/before-laughter/9781529413106/). - Google Books, [Before and Laughter](https://books.google.com/books/about/Before_and_Laughter.html?id=VpB8zgEACAAJ). - The Guardian, [29 September 2021 interview](https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2021/sep/29/jimmy-carr-on-booze-taxes-and-being-a-virgin-at-26-do-i-sound-like-an-incel-elder); The Irish Times, [1 October 2021](https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/books/jimmy-carr-stephen-hawking-and-me-would-do-shots-together-he-d-be-on-the-cointreau-1.4686507). - BBC News, [Jimmy Carr: Comedy made my whole life better](https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-58683108), 6 October 2021. - The Diary of a CEO, [episode on Apple Podcasts](https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/jimmy-carr-the-easiest-way-to-live-a-happier-life/id1291423644?i=1000541916331). - The Carr-Tell (fan blog), [Before & Laughter (2021)](https://thecarrtell.blog/2025/06/04/before-laughter-2021/). - Wikipedia, [Jimmy Carr](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jimmy_Carr); [Neuro-linguistic programming](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neuro-linguistic_programming). - Video: [Jimmy Carr: Stop Overthinking Your Life & Fix Your Anxious Mind](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CotzNJNLEkE), *High Performance*.