Amy Schumer is known for her raunchy stand-up comedy, and her new book, “The Girl With the Lower Back Tattoo” is no exception — but there are extremely dark moments, too.
The book, which was released on Tuesday, is a collection of essays on topics ranging from hilarious one-night stands and her perspective on being a woman in Hollywood, to stories in which she was threatened with a knife by an ex-boyfriend.
“I’m so sorry to disappoint anyone who thinks I walk around at all times with a margarita in one hand and a dildo in the other,” Schumer wrote in the book. “Even I sometimes confuse my onstage sexual persona with my reasonable, sensible, real-life self.”
But she does joke about her biggest pet peeve: “People who bring a book to a bar deserve to be stoned. Don’t try to look mysterious and interesting. You are reading in a bar.”
The 35-year-old comedian’s recent projects include the 2015 movie “Trainwreck,” which she co-produced and wrote, and her Comedy Central show, “Inside Amy Schumer.” She is currently working on a still-untitled film with friend Jennifer Lawrence.
See five takeaways from her book below.
1. She got arrested for shoplifting
Schumer and her sister Kim were arrested for shoplifting from Bloomingdales when they were in their teens, stealing items such as a leather fedora, Seven jeans, and a leopard-print onesie.
“Now that I’m all grown up and no longer driving up the price of bad tchotchkes in Old Sacramento, I’ve graduated on to the next-level hustle — making people laugh,” she wrote in the book.
2. She met her boyfriend on a dating app
While Schumer doesn’t talk about her boyfriend Ben Hanisch in the book much, she does mention that her friend Vanessa Bayer recommended “a dating app for your phone specifically aimed at creative people.” Although Schumer “took [her] profile down in under forty-eight hours,” she and Hanisch had enough time to appreciate each other’s profile songs and start dating.
3. Her mom fell in love with Schumer’s best friend’s dad
When Schumer was 13, her mother Sandra admitted she was having an affair with the father of Schumer’s best friend.
“One day after school I came home and saw my mother slumped on the couch. She’d clearly been crying hard,” Schumer wrote. According to the actress, her mother was a teacher for the deaf and signed, “I am leaving your father. Lou and I have fallen in love with each other.”
4. She lost her virginity to a boy who took advantage of her
In the book, Schumer talks about how she lost her virginity to a boyfriend who took advantage of her “without asking first, without kissing me, without so much as looking me in the eyes — or even confirming if I was awake.”
However, he apologized the next day and Schumer said it was OK: “I was seventeen years old and wanted my boyfriend to like me.”
5. One of her boyfriends threatened her with a knife
Another revelation from the book is that Schumer was in an abusive relationship in her early 20s. She doesn’t mention any names, but recalls that the abuse began with shoving and criticizing her looks.
One night, the boyfriend shoved her onto the hood of the car, where she banged her head and elbow. He broke a mug over his head in rage, then “he grabbed a huge butcher knife from a drawer. And that’s when I was sure he was going to kill me.”