Fred Stoller’s primary passion in life seems to be self pity. Entire chapters of Maybe We’ll Have You Back are dedicated to the minor disappointments of:
1. Meeting a famous director at a mall, setting up that he would send her a demo reel of himself, sending it and nothing coming of it.
2. Eating breakfast with Quentin Tarantino among a big group and having to deal with Tarantino not recognizing him or saying he wanted to work with him some day.
These kinds of details litter many of the chapters. Almost every single chapter involves him wishing that the most famous of the people he encounters as a regular sit-com guest star would fawn over him and reassure him constantly. He simultaneously expresses much jealousy over the money they make.
For a former comedian, he’s not that funny, though there are many amusing parts. In fairness, though he rose to fame as a standup comic, he doesn’t identify much with that role and considers himself an actor first and foremost.
Looking past the tediousness of his negative outlook, there are interesting anecdotes mixed in. He was a staff writer for 1 year on Seinfeld, which might be the most entertaining chapter. He gives an inside look at the creative process of that and many other TV shows along the way. His life has been an interesting one to read about it, even if he tries to turn it into a pity party more often than not.