Not Just Sunglasses and Autographs: 30 Years of Film & Television Production with Life (& Near Death) Lessons

Not Just Sunglasses and Autographs: 30 Years of Film & Television Production with Life (& Near Death) Lessons by Burke, Tommy. paperback edition. ISBN: 9781667823133.

My day was far from over. Every other Thursday that summer of 2004, I would finish shooting Jerry Bruckheimers acclaimed TV series Skin and then tack on a four-hour nightcap at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center. As tough as my days were, I knew theyd get a lot worse if I skipped my date with four bags of poison at the all-night chemo ward. I would pass the hours of those late-night infusions watching classic 50s reruns, thinking about work, and thinking about life. Where I had been, where I was going, what Id leave behind. Thats where the seeds of this book were planted: in the 24 hour chemo room of Cedar-Sinai, while I waited for my fortnightly poison cocktail to empty into my arm and get to work. Not Just Sunglasses and Autographs follows me from bar bouncing in Boston to working on award winning television and movies as I made my way up the entertainment industry ladder. It is an endearing story of overcoming the odds through dark humor, tenacity, authenticity, and a smile. I had originally envisioned this as the memoir of a man whod beaten Hodgkins Lymphoma and lived to tell the tale, but that was before I was pitched a curveball called Parkinsons Disease. Equal parts pep-talk and gut-punch, this unvarnished and vulnerable memoir-meets-handbook shares lessons Ive learned in life and work and encourages readers to keep moving forward, embrace resilience, step out of their comfort zones, and take life head on. Not Just Sunglasses and Autographs is 73,000 words and stands alone, but I also have stories in mind for a follow-up book. I look forward to hitting the road and supporting this book as I have brought hope and inspiration speaking about the film industry for the last thirty years. Ive been in the industry for nearly forty years. Nicknamed "the Irish Bull" by my west coast colleagues, I earned my reputation and secured Assistant Director credits on productions including the film Close to Home, Skin, CSI Miami, the pilot for Desperate Housewives, and many others. I spent the last five years of my film career on location in Chicago, working as First Assistant Director on Chicago PD from 2014-2019. After my Parkinsons diagnosis in 2019, I hung up my AD walkie and returned to the west coast to enlist all of my drive, determination, spirit,