The Daily ShowHost Michael Kosta to Publish Memoir in 2025: ‘It's a Funny and Human Story’ (Exclusive)

Mar. 15, 2025

Michael Kosta and the cover of ‘Lucky Loser: Adventures in Tennis and Comedy’.Photo:Harper Influence; Leslie Hassler

Harper Influence; Leslie Hassler

Michael Kosta is getting real about the ups and downs of tennis and comedy in a new book.PEOPLE can reveal the cover of the comedian’s forthcoming memoir,Lucky Loser: Adventures in Tennis and Comedy, to be published in 2025 through Harper Influence.Kosta, a stand-up comic and host onThe Daily Show, had a different career path before entering the entertainment industry. He was a professional tennis player and the book’s synopsis jokingly notes that he was ranked No. 864 in the world, prior to joining the Comedy Central show as a correspondent in 2017.Kosta tells PEOPLE that this professional shift inspired him to writeLucky Loser.

Harper Influence

“I wrote this book because the most common question I get is ‘How did you go from pro tennis to comedy?’ And I realized that it’s a funny and human story that I think people will connect with,” Kosta says. “Also I had to remind myself how it happened because it is a strange path.”

The PEOPLE Puzzler crossword is here! How quickly can you solve it? Play now!Lucky Loserwill detail the similarities Kosta has found between tennis and comedy, like its high levels of competitiveness, and how being a tennis player helped to prepare him for his second act. Per the book’s synopsis, the memoir also emphasizes “the many ways in which we all inevitably lose on the way to success.”

Kosta, who will be hostingThe Daily Showthe week of Oct. 21, still stays connected with his tennis roots, as the host of podcastTennis Anyone with Michael Kosta. But, as the memoir explores, he says that delving into the unexpected is just as interesting to him.

Michael Kosta.Leslie Hassler

Leslie Hassler

“Pro tennis to pro comedy seems insane now that I think about it — but what’s so fascinating about life, to me, is that when you chase down a goal you might get there. You might achieve it,” Kosta explains. “Or, and this is often more interesting, you might end up some place totally unexpected — which will be more fun and more rewarding because ultimately where you landed was a total surprise.”

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Lucky Loser: Adventures in Tennis and Comedywill hit shelves on March 11, 2025 and is now available for preorder, wherever books are sold.

source: people.com