I was completely fooled by this book, in the best way possible. I was expecting a heavier book. That was my mistake.

This one is light, real, and hysterically funny. He doesn’t drag the book down with long, boring histories of himself. You get stories that are exactly what the title promises. Funny stories of his jobs.

Great book! Will definitely be recommending it.

Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC, All opinions are my own.

This writer has done something rather impressive, here, that I wish many autobiographers would emulate. He has told us a great deal about what kind of person he is without talking about himself. He promised us a book about the jobs he has failed at, and that is exactly what he produced. There is no whining, no blaming, no focus on himself.
When I read a book of this sort, I never read the introduction. In my opinion, if the stories are good enough, they should need no explanation. In this case, the introduction was rather long, and I happily skipped it and dove straight into the stories.
And I soon found I was enjoying them. Partly because the guy has led a really interesting and varied work life. But also because, slid in mostly through what he did and what he reveals to us about what he was thinking at the time, I began to like him.
I finished the book in one day. And then I read the Afterword, and then I went back and read the Introduction. And I enjoyed both of them. They are good stories, well told, with a sympathetic and believable main character.
The Rudy Ridolfo we meet in these stories had his problems, which he doesn’t harp on. We piece together the fact that he had an abusive father and a divorce, but he barely mentions either, because that’s not what he promised. But it helps us understand a lot of the things he has done and the jobs he has taken. And why he left so many of them, often rather quickly.
It also mitigates our disapproval of the licentious life he lived. He’s not exactly an anti-hero, but he’s no angel, either. Thematically speaking, he holds fast to a pretty reasonable set of ethics in an environment where ethics rarely matter.
And if you find a lot of the events outrageous and unbelievable, take it from someone who has spent his share of time on set; there isn’t one story in the whole book that isn’t completely possible. I’ve spent a lot of time around people like that, and, allowing for a bit of poetic license, they ring true.
These stories are mostly in chronological order, and if I had my druthers, the author would have made more effort to keep them organized. When we’re trying hard to follow a helter-skelter life like this one, every jolt of, “Where are we now?” pulls us out of our contact with the character and reminds us that he’s also an author.
A warning: don’t expect a whole lot of stories about the movies. Most of these are the jobs Indy workers take to keep the rent paid while they set up the next production. The jobs in his true calling didn’t make it in here with the failures.
An entertaining look into an interesting life, spiced with peeks at the Indy film industry.

This is a short book, especially considering how many jobs it covers. I admit I took a long time reading this because I rewarded myself with a new chapter every day for a while. Because it's HILARIOUS.
Ridolfo has done a ton of different jobs, some of which were entertainment related, some of which he did just to pay the bills. There were some regular jobs, some under the table, and some very, very short lasting jobs. I've worked a lot of crappy jobs but this guy really knows how to make them entertaining!
This is funny and would make a great gift book

Who is Rudy Ridolfo, hmmm ... your guess is probably better than mine. But he has an interesting and fun resume.

With a title like Job Junky, you should assume that excess consumption and illegal drugs are involved.

Job Junky is approx 131 pages, publication date is May 2, 2025

Approx 45 job titles, approx 117 pages ... each job title approx 2.6 pages
Preface & Afterward 5 pages each

With each job title the position is described, usually a story to go along with it ... which is also often why the author moved on to another endeavor. A very quick and entertaining read.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Rudy Ridolfo for approving my request to read the advance read copy of Job Junky in exchange for an honest review.