Ain't That a Bitch

Garrett Morris is a TV legend to generations of loyal viewers. Plucked out of writers room obscurity by Lorne Michaels himself, Morris was the first Black cast member on Saturday Night Live and one of Saturday Night Live’s original “Not Ready for Prime Time Players.” Along with Chevy Chase, John Belushi, Dan Ackroyd and Gilda Radner, he was present at the creation of television’s longest running, most famous live sketch comedy program and is remembered to this day iconic characters and his outrageous and dead on impersonations of Idi Amin, James Brown, Sammy Davis, Jr., Bob Marley and Muhammad Ali. However, most people don’t realize that when Morris first appeared on Saturday Night Live, he had already had a 17-year career in the entertainment industry. Ain’t That a B*tch is Morris’s debut memoir, the definitive story of his life. Born to a teen mom, Morris had to forge his own path as a writer and blues singer, first living in the YMCA in Harlem. As he gained his footing, he became a blues a singer and arranger with Harry Belafonte, an actor in Off-Broadway plays and musicals, and a playwright with two successful productions. It was only afterwards that he went on to write for TV and comedians, land a spot on the original cast of SNL, and land subsequent roles on shows like Martin, The Jamie Foxx Show, and, most recently, CBS’s 2 Broke Girls. In the book, Morris charts each of these roles and their importance to the rise, fall, and rise again of Black entertainment. But it wasn’t all glits and glam. Morris reveals his decades long cocaine addiction, the mistakes he made because of it, the time he got shot in 1994, the personal and professional relationships he tried and failed at (his favorite word to use was once “motherf***er”), and how he pulled it all together to become one of the most beloved actor comedians across generations. He rounds out with his thoughts on the future of comedy and the role of artists in our increasingly politicized entertainment landscape. Funny, and ultimately rewarding, Ain’t That a B*tch captures the spirit of a scrappy, hardworking, and dedicated man and his rise to comedic greatness.