Roll the Calls

Roll the Calls is as ferociously powerful as the iconic figure at its centre, Ari Emanuel – the inspiration for Entourage’s Ari Gold, and one of the most legendary powerbrokers of all time – a man who made rage and chaos into the instruments of his success.

Expertly written with Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist and biographer J. R. Moehringer, Roll the Calls takes us on a blistering and intimate journey into every battle Ari Emanuel has fought, with raw emotion and unrelenting profanity: a tremendous reading experience and the must-read book of the year.

Ari Emanuel is one of the most influential people in the world, but he’s also something of a mystery. Part of the reason is Emanuel’s job description. As a Hollywood super-agent, he’s paid to speak for his clients, not himself.

But no more. Now, for the first time, the agent, the mogul, the iconic power broker speaks for himself, about himself, and about the game of life, often at the top of his lungs. In Roll the Calls, a fiery, furious memoir, Emanuel gives an insider’s account of every major success and setback, every triumphant merger and nasty breakup, every hard-won lesson and crushing mistake.

In excruciating, comical detail, he recounts the trajectory of his brilliant career, from clerking in the mailroom of CAA to striking out on his own, launching a new firm with three other agents and no money, eventually signing some of the most glittering names in show business, including Larry David, Mark Wahlberg, Martin Scorsese and Oprah Winfrey. Along the way, Emanuel was also raising four kids, coping with a failing marriage and fighting to find love again.

Told in taut, telegraphic prose, with uncommon humility and ribald humour, Roll the Calls shatters the mould of stodgy CEO memoirs. It’s a story about success and failure, creativity and persistence, and the priceless value of simply never giving up – a master class in blocking out the naysayers and pushing forward through every bitter defeat.