As the subject closest to Toby Young's heart is, and always has been, Toby Young, then it was inevitable that sooner or later he would turn his life into a play.
In the absence of anyone better qualified, it was also inevitable that Toby should play the part of himself. For those of you in the dark about Toby, here are some brief biographical facts: he has spent most of his working life as a journalist, with a particular penchant for celebrity and the popular culture in which celebrity thrives.
He reached what must have seemed the summit of his towering ambition when he was offered a job on Vanity Fair in New York, and proceeded to make the most monumental hash of it.
This hash was subsequently reheated as a book called How To Lose Friends & Alienate People, and choice morsels from the book have now been whipped up into this airy soufflé of the same name.
What Toby Young has pulled off is extraordinary: he has done nothing less than turn a golden opportunity into the base metal of rejection, then fashioned that rejection into a gleaming statuette of the human spirit.
Last night's audience bore testimony to the power of Toby's message, which attracts such disciples as Boris Johnson, Nicky Haslam and Peter Stringfellow.
Mingling with friends of Toby in the bar beforehand was to feel a sense of anticipation mixed with apprehension. He hadn't done any acting since university, apparently, and that was 21 years ago. He was known to enjoy being the centre of attention at intimate dinner parties, but would he relish performing in front of a glittering audience?
One of his chums went round advising everyone to keep their mobile phones switched on, because the chorus of ringtones would make Toby feel at home. Naturally, this proved unnecessary as Toby entered to the fanfare of his own ringtone.
Over the next hour, equipped with only a mobile, a laptop and a wig, he proceeded to turn his New York nightmare into the stuff of dreams. His boss, Graydon Carter, was presented as a demon Hollywood mogul: "This idea is a dog whistle, Toby. You can hear it, but I can't."
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When a man is big enough to give another man the best putdowns - even though he is playing the other man - then that shows dramatic maturity.
If one were to strike a critical note, it would be that Toby deployed his hands as if appearing in a revival of the Black And White Minstrel Show.
Had his suit had been a little tighter, Toby might have passed for Harry Hill doing a warm-up. But these are minor quibbles on a night when the joyless imperatives of careerism were put to the sword in a most entertaining manner.
It is officially OK to screw up, as long as you do it big-time. And talking of big time, I hear the film rights have now been sold.
How To Lose Friends & Alienate People
