Your Time is Now: The Sammy Petrillo Story - Dave Ambramson;Scott Alexander;Drew Friedman

"I think Sammy Petrillo is fucking Amazing! If he was starring in The Jerry Lewis Story, he would deserve an Academy Award. This is not hyperbole!" — Quentin Tarantino

"This book will save America." —Patton Oswalt

Your Time Is Now: The Sammy Petrillo Story is the first full-scale biography of the legendary Jerry Lewis look-alike whose strange, funny, and often heartbreaking life unfolded in the long shadow of one of America’s most famous comedians. With a foreword by award-winning screenwriter Scott Alexander, this deeply researched work of comedy history delivers a rare dual portrait: a parallel biography of Sammy Petrillo and Jerry Lewis, two performers bound together by imitation, rivalry, resentment, and an uneasy mutual awareness that lasted decades. Drawing on original interviews with Petrillo, Lewis, family members, show-business insiders, and surviving mid-century comedy figures, the book reconstructs the improbable life of a journeyman comic who both benefited from and was trapped by his uncanny resemblance to a superstar.

Blending biography, film history, and cultural criticism, Your Time Is Now explores the strange ecosystem of postwar show business—from live television and burlesque stages to poverty-row film studios and cult movie houses. Readers discover the bizarre making and afterlife of Bela Lugosi Meets a Brooklyn Gorilla, Petrillo’s complicated relationship with Jerry Lewis, and previously untold connections to figures such as Barbara Loden and the early development of television comedy culture. The result is a richly detailed, often darkly comic examination of identity, fame, imitation, and failure in American entertainment.

For readers of classic Hollywood biography, stand-up and comedy history, cult film culture, and mid-century pop culture, this book is a major addition to the field—a rare, meticulously sourced account that finally gives Sammy Petrillo his due while reframing the legacy of Jerry Lewis through a revealing and unexpected lens. Both a cautionary show-business tale and a trove of entertainment lore, Your Time Is Now is an essential volume for anyone interested in comedy history, Hollywood outsiders, and the strange afterlives of celebrity.

The cover features an original illustration by Drew Friedman and filled with dozens of archival images.