# Not Woody Actually #04: A Travesty of a Mockery of a Sham *Book Discussion*

Page: https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-woody-allen-retrospective-podcast-427294/not-woody-actually-04-a-travesty-of-a-mockery-of-a-sham-book-discussion
Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-woody-allen-retrospective-podcast-427294/not-woody-actually-04-a-travesty-of-a-mockery-of-a-sham-book-discussion.md
Podcast: [The Woody Allen Retrospective Podcast](https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-woody-allen-retrospective-podcast-427294)
Published: 2025-07-30T11:36:02+00:00
Episode link: https://woodyallenretro.podbean.com/e/not-woody-actually-04-a-travesty-of-a-mockery-of-a-sham-book-discussion/
Audio file: https://mcdn.podbean.com/mf/web/t56smjdqs2rpvtfp/NWA04.mp3
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Duration seconds: 2360

## Resource

Welcome back to another episode of Not Woody Actually — where we go somewhat off the rails and discuss things even more loosely related to Woody Allen than our Adjacent series. In this episode, Don takes a solo deep-dive into a long-overdue topic: Patrick McGilligan’s 2025 biography of Woody Allen, A Travesty of a Mockery of a Sham. This is no light read — we’re talking 848 pages or 34 hours on Audible of dense, detailed Woody Allen history. But it might just be the most comprehensive biography of Allen ever written not by the man himself. Don lightly unpacks the book’s tone, structure, strengths, and shortcomings — and shares a few surprising insights along the way. With help from our trusty AI Assistant, we introduce the author, explore the book’s critical reception, and — as a bonus — Don reveals how reading Sham led him to a rare, long-forgotten Woody Allen biography… which in turn became a side project that true fans will definitely appreciate. We also want to apologize to those of you who’ve been waiting a while for this discussion. As mentioned in the intro, James and Don have been deep in conversation about the podcast’s future — and that made this the perfect moment to release this solo recording instead of another Adjacent episode. We hope you enjoy this shorter-than-usual but long-awaited episode — and if you’ve read Sham or have thoughts of your own, we’d love to hear from you. Drop your comments in our special tracked comment section linked below. Thanks, as always, for your continued support and patience. 😊 🔗 Links Mentioned In this Episode: Full Interview with Patrick McGilligan on the Kingdom of Dreams Podcast https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AnwW6GhLy9g _______________________________________________ For full cast details, user reviews, and more backgro…

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