Comedy memoirs arriving early

Greg Fitzsimmons to write memoir at 40

By Georg Szalai

July 8, 2009, 09:41 AM ET

NEW YORK — Funny people seem to write their memoirs early these days. Standup and TV writer Greg Fitzsimmons (”The Ellen DeGeneres Show” etc) is only in his early 40s, but he has just signed a deal with CBS Corp.’s Simon & Schuster book unit to write a comedic memoir entitled “Dear Mrs. Fitzsimmons,” set to come out next year.

The news comes after up-and-coming U.K. comedy star Russell Brand recently published his memoir and news that Kathy Griffin has signed a deal to pen hers.

The narrative of Fitzsimmons’ book will take an unusual approach to portray the comic and what is described as his dysfunctional Irish-American family. It will use the disciplinary letters, incident reports and the like that his parents received from teachers during his younger years plus his own collection of letters received during college and thereafter.

Simon & Schuster editor Kerri Kolen won the book at auction. Financial details aren’t known. Fitzsimmons was repped by Peter Steinberg of The Steinberg Agency and United Talent Agency.

The comedian continues writing and starring in “Dog vs. Cat” on Adult Swim. He also hosts the weekly “The Greg Fitzsimmons Show” on Sirius XM’s “Howard 101″ channel.

He is also a former writer on ‘The Ellen DeGeneres Show,” “The Man Show” and “Lucky Louie,” among others.

According to his Website, Fitzsimmons also just shot a pilot for VH1 with Andy Dick and is developing a sitcom for 20th Century Fox, while also developing his idea for a reality show called “The Dream Police.”