{"id":19150,"date":"2026-04-23T23:18:11","date_gmt":"2026-04-23T23:18:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/?p=19150"},"modified":"2026-04-23T23:18:11","modified_gmt":"2026-04-23T23:18:11","slug":"arsenio-by-arsenio-hall-with-alan-eisenstock","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/2026\/04\/23\/arsenio-by-arsenio-hall-with-alan-eisenstock\/","title":{"rendered":"Arsenio by Arsenio Hall with Alan Eisenstock"},"content":{"rendered":"

c.2026, Black Privilege Publishing \/ Atria\u00a0 <\/em><\/strong>
\n$30.00\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/em><\/strong>
\n324 pages<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

By Terri Schlichenmeyer<\/em>
\nThe Truth Contributor<\/em><\/p>\n

So what do you think?<\/p>\n

No doubt, you have an opinion on the subject at hand. You have something to say, a POV, a side you\u2019ll take or a stand to make. You have thoughts, info to gather, intel to share. Talk-talk-talk, maybe it\u2019s a calling. Maybe, as in the new memoir, Arsenio<\/em> by Arsenio Hall with Alan Eisenstock, <\/strong>it\u2019s livin\u2019 the dream.<\/p>\n

Back when he was small, everyone assumed that little Arsenio Hall would grow up to be a preacher like his Daddy. Sunday mornings, Hall says, were spent listening to his father, learning the power of words spoken properly. Being a preacher seemed like a good calling, until Hall\u2019s parents split and his world changed.<\/p>\n

While he was temporarily living with his grandmother, a cousin brought home a book on magic and Hall was hooked. He became obsessed, practicing easy sleight-of-hand tricks until they were second-nature and sneaking out of the house to spend after-school afternoons in a magic shop. By the time he was a teenager, he was performing for spending money and had appeared on local Cleveland television.<\/p>\n

But magic wasn\u2019t everything.<\/p>\n

The feeling that he got when he made people laugh \u2013 the idea that he could get paid for being funny \u2013 Hall needed more of that.\u00a0 He started adding humor to his magic shows until he realized that being a comedian was an actual job, and magic faded into his background.<\/p>\n

Back when he was in grade school, Hall used to sneak out of his bedroom at night to watch The Tonight Show <\/em>with Johnny Carson. In his basement, he practiced doing interviews just like Carson. He didn\u2019t want to be like<\/em> Carson, he wanted to be <\/em>Carson.<\/p>\n

And so Hall moved to Chicago and started snagging gigs at comedy shows. He met up-and-coming comics and established funnymen who gave him advice, sympathy and contacts, which helped him move up in the system, make money and land movie roles.<\/p>\n

Then Paramount came calling but Hall didn\u2019t get another movie offer.<\/p>\n

He got his own talk show\u2026<\/p>\n

Like so many Hollywood biographies, Arsenio<\/em> is loaded \u2013 positively loaded <\/em>\u2013 with name-dropping. Normally: ugh. But the thing here is, you won\u2019t mind. Author Arsenio Hall (with Alan Eisenstock) tells this story in such an appealing, wide-eyed way that you\u2019ll be too busy enjoying to care about dropped names.<\/p>\n

Another thing: what you saw on TV and what you see in movies are pretty much what you can expect in Hall\u2019s book. It\u2019s authentic; readers will find stories that are thorny and squirmy, but also a bit star-struck. He\u2019s not afraid to tell readers about being someone\u2019s fan. He\u2019s also willing to tell the truth about his career, his personal life, and the end of his talk show, and he plain-talks about the increasingly bad sides of the entertainment industry, so buckle up.<\/p>\n

This is a book for Hollywood-watchers, fans of Arsenio Hall, of course, but also for anyone who loves comedy, hip-hop, or entertainment in general. Read Arsenio<\/em>. It\u2019s a book you\u2019ll tell everyone about.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

c.2026, Black Privilege Publishing \/ Atria\u00a0 $30.00\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 324 pages By Terri Schlichenmeyer The Truth Contributor So what do you think? No doubt, you have an opinion on the subject at hand. You have something to say, a POV, a side you\u2019ll take or a stand to make. You have thoughts, info to gather, intel to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":19151,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[],"wf_post_folders":[344,20],"class_list":["post-19150","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-book_review"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19150","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19150"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19150\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19152,"href":"http:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19150\/revisions\/19152"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19151"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19150"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19150"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19150"},{"taxonomy":"wf_post_folders","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/wf_post_folders?post=19150"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}