Fierce, Funny, and Female: A Journey Through Middle America, the Texas Oil Field, and Standup Comedy
A Nationally Award-winning Memoir:
WINNER, 2017 Foreword INDIES Book of the Year Awards in Humor
WINNER, 2017 Foreword INDIES Book of the Year Awards in Women's Studies
WINNER, 2017 National Indie Excellence Awards in Women's Health
WINNER, 2017 Beverly Hills Book Awards in Women's Issues
WINNER, 2018 Independent Press Award in Humor
WINNER, 2018 Independent Press Award in Women's Studies
FINALIST, 2018 Next Generation Indie Book Awards, Memoir (Overcoming Adversity)
FINALIST, 2017 National Indie Excellence Awards in Humor
This book is the celebrated prequel to the critically acclaimed, nationally award-winning and bestselling memoir, Never Give in to Fear. In her raw, vivid, and unabashed style, author Marti MacGibbon delivers a sometimes heartbreaking, often hilarious, always engaging account of her passage through trauma, betrayal, and loss in adolescence and young adulthood to discover her inner badass self. As one of the first women to work as a laborer in the Texas oil field, she set off explosives and staked oil wells before realizing her childhood dream of becoming a successful standup comic. Marti introduces readers to a wide range of characters in her life: from sleazy authority figures, wannabe Sixties musicians and crazed Corn Belt cult leaders, to Texas oil billionaires and wildcatters, to wild-eyed redneck coworkers who robbed banks on their lunch hour--in the company truck. The book includes scenes with iconic comedians, Hollywood entertainment industry moguls, and a legendary bluesman, and offers insights into resiliency, courage, and self-empowerment.
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Marti MacGibbon, CADC-II, ACRPS, CAPMS, is a humorous inspirational speaker, a nationally award-winning author, certified addiction specialist, standup comic, and award-winning recovery advocate. Few speakers have a personal comeback story as powerful and inspirational as Marti's. A popular keynote speaker who inspires, entertains, and empowers listeners, she's been interviewed in Glamour, Investor's Business Daily and Entrepreneur, on ABC-TV, CBS-TV, FOX-TV and numerous radio stations.
As a national advocate for human trafficking victims and survivors, Ms. MacGibbon has shared her expertise at the White House and the State Department. She is recipient of the IAIC Lifetime Recovery Advocate Award, for outstanding accomplishments in support of recovery and reducing the stigma surrounding addiction, mental illness, homelessness and human trafficking.
She has performed at the world-famous Comedy Store and Improv in Hollywood, and has traveled the U.S. as a professional standup comic. Marti is founder, producer, and emcee of Laff-Aholics Standup Comedy Benefit for Recovery, an annual charity fundraiser in Indianapolis that features nationally headlining comedians. One hundred percent of the profits from the show go to transitional housing facilities that provide access to addiction treatment and mental health services for the recovery community's most vulnerable.
Marti married her true love, Chris Fitzhugh, and lives with him in California.
"Author, comedian, and advocate Marti MacGibbon knows a little something about standing up to adversity...it takes a deft touch to be funny about the dark moments in one's life. She never makes light of those horrible moments, somehow managing to thread the needle and deliver all of the intensity of the bad while still undercutting it with funny asides and observations. It's a balancing act that many other authors would struggle with, but MacGibbon makes it look effortless...What might've seemed hokey in another author's hands becomes hilarious and distinctive with Marti's careful ministrations...Fierce, Funny, and Female, much like its author, is a triple threat, representing the hope and resurrection of which we are all capable."
--Manhattan Book Review Star Rating: 4.5-5"Fierce, Funny, and Female is a thoroughly engaging memoir packed with witty observations, high adventure, and a glimpse of behind-the-scenes Hollywood. Author and standup comic Marti MacGibbon shares her life experience with wit, wisdom, grace, and laugh-out-loud humor. Highly recommended!"--Midwest Book Review
"Fierce, Funny, and Female is the prequel to Marti MacGibbon's first installment, her autobiographical memoir, Never Give in to Fear, and unlike most prequels, it neither stalls nor disappoints. Simply stated, the author has had fascinating adventures, including a highly instructive interim with members of a Christian cult, and a run up and down the scale of the entire range of the social and economic ladder... Working a series of low paying and humbling waitressing jobs and enduring the virtually universal male condescension of her employers, she sets her course towards a high-paying, traditionally male job in the Texas oil field...She wins over even the crustiest of the cusses who ride with her, and remains cool when she is unexpectedly surrounded by emus. Emus? Yes, you have to read the book. MacGibbon has written a hilarious testament to the power of endurance and hope that gives no quarter to self-pity. She is magnificent."--Dr. James Vinson Carmichael Jr., Professor of Library and Information Studies, Univ. of North Carolina
"An effervescently witty...chronicle of perseverance and the power to overcome the darkest of days...noted humorist and inspirational speaker MacGibbon now shares the story of her childhood and adolescence...through a sweeping series of anecdotal, coming-of-age sequences...Perhaps the most rewarding chapter in this chatty, affecting book is the concluding one, where MacGibbon lists the tried-and-true pearls of wisdom that continue to sustain her..."--Kirkus Reviews
"Being a huge fan of Marti MacGibbon's first memoir, Never Give in to Fear, I am happy to say that the prequel, Fierce, Funny and Female, does not disappoint! It hits the ground running and never stops. Understanding where Marti came from is intense but her journey is so inspiring, with humor in exactly the right places so that you can't put the book down. The spirit of this book offers hope and encouragement to anyone who feels lost in the system...a story for anyone who wants equality for themselves, their daughters, wives or mothers."--Karen Rontowski, standup comic, Comedy Central and Late Night with David Letterman
"Being funny is a survival skill. Marti MacGibbon's incredible memoir Fierce, Funny, and Female is not only a survivor's tale but an inspirational story of overcoming the unthinkable, again and again...Her courage and comedy make Fierce, Funny, and Female a winner...Above all, MacGibbon celebrates her resilience and her willingness to keep laughing. She goes in swinging, and from the first vivid scene, it's clear that she is a natural comedian and a wonderful storyteller. As she tackles her difficult adolescence and young adulthood, she seems to ask, 'What else ya got?'"
--Foreword Clarion Reviews (Five Stars out of five)
