The Big Show: High Times and Dirty Dealings Backstage at the Academy Awards [Hardcover]

Steve Pond's "The Big Show" belongs on the bookshelf of everyone with any interest in the Academy Awards.

I've read pretty much all the books on the Oscars, and this is one that really doesn't compare to any other. Most of what I was reading here I was hearing for the first time. This books complements every other account of the show, because this is the first book to actually tell the story about the show itself, not the movies or stars.

Trust me when I say you have no idea how incredibly difficult it is to put this television show together. Unless, of course, you've been there.

It's surprisingly well written; it's a easy fast read.

It's gossipy, but pleasantly so, and often funnier than all get out.

My favorite Oscar book is still "Inside Oscar" (the first one...as the second is a bit more vitriolic and less, oh, affectionate...) but THAT book and THIS book are the only ones I will read more than once. "Inside Oscar" gives us an account of the year in film, and then goes through the telecast, followed by events that happened in the weeks to months after the show. Here, you get that crucial few days right before the show, and then all the fascinating details surrounding what you actually saw on TV. They're a perfect fit.

Each chapter is a year, covering the process of putting on the Oscar telecast: how are the seat-fillers handled; who makes those decisions for those horrible dance pieces; how much thought is put into set design (a lot, but not all the time...)...the stories behind the rehearsals I found to be the most interesting of all.

This period covers the switch from the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion shows/Shrine shows to the Kodak Theater. Having a permanent "home" now seems like such an obvious idea, but it clearly wasn't.

I discovered things about certain stars that surprised me. I will leave you to discover them, but suffice to say, there's a story involving Celine Dion which made me respect her in ways I would have never imagined (although her music still makes me itch).

I loved the insight into each host...so many things are known about them, yet this book assumes that. It assumes that the reader already has a healthy knowledge about Hollywood and film, and gives you the stuff you probably don't know.

THAT'S why I love this book!

Show biz buffs will enjoy the tidbits and quotes here from Oscar show vets like Marc Shaiman, who provided musical accompaniment for Billy Crystal's medleys before becoming a nominee himself.

But this book is probably best enjoyed as a companion to the two Inside Oscar books (consulted, we learn here, by at least one Academy Awards producer in the last decade). Niether makes the others obsolete, but you get something from each that you don't get from the other.

The experience of reading the Inside Oscar books is like getting good dish from one or two well-informed but bitchy friends as you sit and watch the televised Oscar ceremonies together. Something of an outsiders view, in other words, however compelling (and broader in scope). Because Steve Pond was granted "behind the curtain" access, The Big Show is more like a report from a relative insider, with a notebook open wide and ears open wider.

Being relative, that insider's perspective only goes as far as it goes, however, and one suspects Pond was kept away from, or perhaps sworn to secrecy about, anything really juicy. But there's enough here for Academy Awards viewers to chew on during that boring musical number or endless commercial break.

Okay, are you interested at all in the Academy Awards? If you are, even a glimmer of interest, then this is absolutely the book for you. Steve Pond has a true gift; the ability to witness the inner workings of a fabulous show, and the ability to write about it in an entertaining, fast-paced way.

Steve Pond was granted unprecedented access to the most recent Oscar shows, and reports many findings in The Big Show. He doesn't shy away from sharing his opinions about certain celebrities, and will name names when warranted. Nothing in his book is outright slanderous, most of it is fair reporting of the things that he observed. One thing that surprised me were the amount of Hollywood stars that were smokers.

Pond also painstakingly reports about all of the behind the scene work that goes into the sometimes four-plus hour long production. From the producers endless job of overseeing the masses of people and masses of egos, to the director, who somehow needs to make this marathon visually entertaining, the people behind the scenes get their deserved credit. I shall never watch this show without a now deeper understanding of all of the hours, days, weeks, and months of work it takes to put those hours on my television screen.

I highly recommend this book as an engaging, entertaining read. Here's hoping that Steve Pond finds himself at this year's Oscars, and we get another behind the scenes look at this amazing process.