Like a Lampshade in a Whorehouse

Like a Lampshade in a Whorehouse recounts how, against all odds, Phyllis Diller became America's first successful and best-loved female stand-up comic. She began her professional career at age thirty-seven, in spite of the fact that she was a housewife and mother of five, and was working at a radio station because of her husband's chronic unemployment. Now, fifty years later, after two traumatic marriages, extensive cosmetic surgery, numerous film, television, and stage appearances, and separate careers as an artist and piano soloist with symphony orchestras, Phyllis Diller finally tells her story.

With her trademark laugh, self-deprecating humor, and incredible wit, Phyllis Diller has etched her way into comedic history. And while her wild hair and outrageous clothes may make her look like a lampshade in a whorehouse, her strength, self-belief, perseverance, and raucous sense of humor make her truly unforgettable.

From housewife to humorist, Phyllis Diller has been making millions laugh for five decades with her groundbreaking comedy. Now the laughter continues with her uproarious autobiography.

Like a Lampshade in a Whorehouse recounts how, against all odds, Phyllis Diller became America's first successful and best-loved female stand-up comic. She began her professional career at age thirty-seven, in spite of the fact that she was a housewife and mother of five, and was working at a radio station because of her husband's chronic unemployment. Now, fifty years later, after two traumatic marriages, extensive cosmetic surgery, numerous film, television, and stage appearances, and separate careers as an artist and piano soloist with symphony orchestras, Phyllis Diller finally tells her story.

With her trademark laugh, self-deprecating humor, and incredible wit, Phyllis Diller has etched her way into comedic history. And while her wild hair and outrageous clothes may make her look like a lampshade in a whorehouse, her strength, self-belief, perseverance, and raucous sense of humor make her truly unforgettable.

The New York Times - Jane and Michael Stern

Like so many comedians, Phyllis Diller found a way to turn anguish into jokes, and her autobiography, Like a Lampshade in a Whorehouse, written with Richard Buskin, contains plenty of both. She married a ne'er-do-well from a family of losers, and although her husband was ''lousy at sex, the world's worst,'' they had six children (''I felt like a trampoline''). She does credit him with pushing her toward a career in show business, but only because he wanted her to be his cash cow. His meanness and stupidity were wellsprings of her humor when she started writing in the early 1950's; and while she denies he was ''Fang,'' the recurring rotten husband in her stand-up routine, it's impossible not to hear echoes of the marriage in such lines as, ''He once tried to run out on me, but the police arrested him for leaving the scene of an accident.''

Phyllis Diller, the world's first and foremost successful female stand-up comic, has been at the top of her game for five decades. She lives in Brentwood, California.

Richard Buskin has written more than a dozen books, including biographies of Princess Diana, Marilyn Monroe, and Sheryl Crow.