Stand-Up Comedy

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Author :
Publisher : Dell
ISBN 13 : 0307575209
Total Pages : 240 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (75 download)

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Book Synopsis Stand-Up Comedy by : Judy Carter

Download or read book Stand-Up Comedy written by Judy Carter and published by Dell. This book was released on 2010-03-03 with total page 240 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: If you think you’re funny, buy this book! Whether you dream of becoming a star . . . A better public speaker . . . A more effective communicator . . . A funnier, happier human being . . . You can learn to leave ‘em laughing! David Letterman learned to do it. Jay Leno learned to do it. Roseanne Barr learned to do it. So can you! Now successful stand-up comic Judy Carter—who went from teaching high school to performing in Las Vegas, Atlantic City, Lake Tahoe, and on over 45 major TV shows—gives you the same hands-on, step-by-step instruction she’s taught to students in her comedy workshops. She shows you how to do it: create an act, perform it, make money with it, or apply it to everyday life. Discover: • The formulas for creating comedy material • How to find your own style • The three steps to putting your act together • Rehearsal do’s and don’ts • What to do if you bomb • Ways to punch up your everyday life with humor

Comedy by the Numbers

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Author :
Publisher : McSweeney's
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 220 pages
Book Rating : 4.F/5 ( download)

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Book Synopsis Comedy by the Numbers by : Eric Hoffman

Download or read book Comedy by the Numbers written by Eric Hoffman and published by McSweeney's. This book was released on 2007 with total page 220 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "A comprehensive list of all comedy characters, bits, scenarios, sketches, skits, shtick, and much more - and includes special hints, tips and unboring comedy history."--Publisher's description

Bay Area Stand-Up Comedy

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Author :
Publisher : Arcadia Publishing
ISBN 13 : 1439674469
Total Pages : 176 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (396 download)

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Book Synopsis Bay Area Stand-Up Comedy by : Nina G

Download or read book Bay Area Stand-Up Comedy written by Nina G and published by Arcadia Publishing. This book was released on 2022-02-14 with total page 176 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Comedians of the San Francisco Bay Area changed comedy forever. From visiting acts like Richard Pryor, Steve Martin and Whoopi Goldberg to local favorites who still maintain their following and legacy, the Bay Area has long been a place for comedians to develop their voice and hone their stand-up skills. Popular spots included Cobb's, the Purple Onion, Brainwash, and the holy grail of San Francisco comedy during the 1980s boom, the Holy City Zoo. For over seventy years, these iconic venues and others fostered talent like Ali Wong, Moshe Kasher and the Smothers Brothers, introducing them to local crowds and the world beyond. Join comedians Nina G and OJ Patterson on a hilarious and thoughtful tour through the history of Bay Area comedy.

The Joke Is on Us

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Author :
Publisher : Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN 13 : 1498569854
Total Pages : 345 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (985 download)

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Book Synopsis The Joke Is on Us by : Julie A. Webber

Download or read book The Joke Is on Us written by Julie A. Webber and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2018-12-11 with total page 345 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This edited volume brings together scholars of comedy to assess how political comedy encounters neoliberal themes in contemporary media. Central to this task is the notion of genre; under neoliberal conditions (where market logics motivate most actions) genre becomes “mixed.” Once stable, discreet categories such as comedy, horror, drama and news and entertainment have become blurred so as to be indistinguishable. The classic modern paradigm of comedy/tragedy no longer holds, if it ever did. Moreover, as politics becomes more economic and less moral or normative under neoliberalism, we are able to see new resistance to comedic genres that support neoliberal strategies to hide racial and gender injustice such as unlaughter, ambiguity, and anti-comedy. There is also an increasing interest with comedy as a form of entertainment on the political right following both Brexit in the UK and the election of Trump in the U.S. Several essays confront this conservative comedy and place it in context of the larger humor history of these debates over free speech and political correctness. For comedians too, entry into popular media now follows the familiar neoliberal script of the celebration of self-help with the increasing admonishment of those who fail to win in market terms. Laughter plays an important role in shaming and valorizing (often at the same time!) the precarious subject in the aftermath of global recession. Doubling down on austerity, self-help policies and equivocation in the face of extremist challenges (right and left), politics foils the critical comedian’s attempt to satirize and parody its object. Characterized by ambiguity, mixed genre and the increasing use of anti-humor, political comedy mirrors the social and political world it mocks, parodies and celebrates often with lackluster results suggesting that the joke might be on us, as audiences.

This Day In Comedy

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Author :
Publisher : TrineDay
ISBN 13 : 1634242637
Total Pages : 766 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (342 download)

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Book Synopsis This Day In Comedy by : Frank Holder

Download or read book This Day In Comedy written by Frank Holder and published by TrineDay. This book was released on 2019-11-04 with total page 766 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: On This Day in Comedy is not just an encyclopedia, but a celebration of comedy. In humorous prose the book takes readers through the often-neglected subcultures of comedy in America, acknowledging the inclusiveness of the performers as well as shows and films that made this art form so vital to comics of all backgrounds. It's artistically criminal that a search for Native American or Asian comedy information yields a virtually blank slate. Look for Middle Eastern comics and you'll be provided information on the region's comic book revolution, and search results for Latin comedy are confined to a series of outdated articles. This encyclopedia will offer rare and in some cases never-before-seen photos and obscure facts, making it an indispensable comedy essential.

Inside Comedy

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Publisher : University Press of Kentucky
ISBN 13 : 0813197570
Total Pages : 380 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (131 download)

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Book Synopsis Inside Comedy by : David Steinberg

Download or read book Inside Comedy written by David Steinberg and published by University Press of Kentucky. This book was released on 2023-06-06 with total page 380 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: David Steinberg's name has been synonymous with comedy for decades. The Canadian-born comedian, producer, writer, director, and author has been called "a comic institution himself" by the New York Times. He appeared on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson 140 times (second only to Bob Hope), and directed episodes of popular television sitcoms, including Curb Your Enthusiasm, Seinfeld, Friends, Mad About You, The Golden Girls, and Designing Women. From 2012–2015, Steinberg hosted the comedy documentary series Inside Comedy, which featured such comedy greats as Billy Crystal, Chris Rock, and Gary Shandling. In this entertaining history of comedy, Steinberg shares insightful memories of his journey through his career and takes the reader behind the curtain of the comedy scene of the last half-century. Steinberg shares amusing and often hilarious stories and anecdotes from some of the most legendary comedians in the industry—from Groucho Marx, Carol Burnett, Mel Brooks, and Richard Pryor to Lily Tomlin, Robin Williams, Jerry Seinfeld, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, and Tina Fey. Inside Comedy presents in-depth portraits of some of the most talented and revered comedians in the world of comedy today.

The Comedians

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Author :
Publisher : Open Road + Grove/Atlantic
ISBN 13 : 0802190863
Total Pages : 460 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (21 download)

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Book Synopsis The Comedians by : Kliph Nesteroff

Download or read book The Comedians written by Kliph Nesteroff and published by Open Road + Grove/Atlantic. This book was released on 2015-11-03 with total page 460 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “Funny [and] fascinating . . . If you’re a comedy nerd you’ll love this book.” —Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Named a Best Book of the Year by Kirkus Reviews, National Post, and Splitsider Based on over two hundred original interviews and extensive archival research, this groundbreaking work is a narrative exploration of the way comedians have reflected, shaped, and changed American culture over the past one hundred years. Starting with the vaudeville circuit at the turn of the last century, the book introduces the first stand-up comedian—an emcee who abandoned physical shtick for straight jokes. After the repeal of Prohibition, Mafia-run supper clubs replaced speakeasies, and mobsters replaced vaudeville impresarios as the comedian’s primary employer. In the 1950s, the late-night talk show brought stand-up to a wide public, while Lenny Bruce, Mort Sahl, and Jonathan Winters attacked conformity and staged a comedy rebellion in coffeehouses. From comedy’s part in the civil rights movement and the social upheaval of the late 1960s, to the first comedy clubs of the 1970s and the cocaine-fueled comedy boom of the 1980s, The Comedians culminates with a new era of media-driven celebrity in the twenty-first century. “Entertaining and carefully documented . . . jaw-dropping anecdotes . . . This book is a real treat.” —Merrill Markoe, TheWall Street Journal

Planet Funny

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Author :
Publisher : Scribner
ISBN 13 : 1501100602
Total Pages : 336 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (11 download)

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Book Synopsis Planet Funny by : Ken Jennings

Download or read book Planet Funny written by Ken Jennings and published by Scribner. This book was released on 2019-07-09 with total page 336 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A Kirkus Reviews Best Book of the Year The witty and exuberant New York Times bestselling author and record-setting Jeopardy! champion Ken Jennings relays the history of humor in “lively, insightful, and crawling with goofy factlings,” (Maria Semple, author of Where’d You Go Bernadette)—from fart jokes on clay Sumerian tablets to the latest Twitter gags and Facebook memes. Where once society’s most coveted trait might have been strength or intelligence or honor, today, in a clear sign of evolution sliding off the trails, it is being funny. Yes, funniness. Consider: Super Bowl commercials don’t try to sell you anymore; they try to make you laugh. Airline safety tutorials—those terrifying laminated cards about the possibilities of fire, explosion, depressurization, and drowning—have been replaced by joke-filled videos with multimillion-dollar budgets and dance routines. Thanks to social media, we now have a whole Twitterverse of amateur comedians riffing around the world at all hours of the day—and many of them even get popular enough online to go pro and take over TV. In his “smartly structured, soundly argued, and yes—pretty darn funny” (Booklist, starred review) Planet Funny, Ken Jennings explores this brave new comedic world and what it means—or doesn’t—to be funny in it now. Tracing the evolution of humor from the caveman days to the bawdy middle-class antics of Chaucer to Monty Python’s game-changing silliness to the fast-paced meta-humor of The Simpsons, Jennings explains how we built our humor-saturated modern age, where lots of us get our news from comedy shows and a comic figure can even be elected President of the United States purely on showmanship. “Fascinating, entertaining and—I’m being dead serious here—important” (A.J. Jacobs, author of The Year of Living Biblically), Planet Funny is a full taxonomy of what spawned and defines the modern sense of humor.

Is This Anything?

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Author :
Publisher : Simon and Schuster
ISBN 13 : 1982112743
Total Pages : 480 pages
Book Rating : 4.9/5 (821 download)

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Book Synopsis Is This Anything? by : Jerry Seinfeld

Download or read book Is This Anything? written by Jerry Seinfeld and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2020-10-06 with total page 480 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The first book in twenty-five years from “one of our great comic minds” (The Washington Post) features Seinfeld’s best work across five decades in comedy. Since his first performance at the legendary New York nightclub “Catch a Rising Star” as a twenty-one-year-old college student in fall of 1975, Jerry Seinfeld has written his own material and saved everything. “Whenever I came up with a funny bit, whether it happened on a stage, in a conversation, or working it out on my preferred canvas, the big yellow legal pad, I kept it in one of those old school accordion folders,” Seinfeld writes. “So I have everything I thought was worth saving from forty-five years of hacking away at this for all I was worth.” For this book, Jerry Seinfeld has selected his favorite material, organized decade by decade. In this “trove of laugh-out-loud one-liners” (Associated Press), you will witness the evolution of one of the great comedians of our time and gain new insights into the thrilling but unforgiving art of writing stand-up comedy.

The Funny Parts

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Author :
Publisher : McFarland
ISBN 13 : 078648893X
Total Pages : 317 pages
Book Rating : 4.7/5 (864 download)

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Book Synopsis The Funny Parts by : Anthony Balducci

Download or read book The Funny Parts written by Anthony Balducci and published by McFarland. This book was released on 2014-01-10 with total page 317 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Classic comedy routines and individual gags have been around for many hundreds of years, probably thousands; the best of these ribticklers make their merry way through theater, circus, film and television. The challenge to comedians has always been to adapt familiar material in a way that emphasizes their personal style and outlook. The many routines and gags cited in this illustrated history are lovingly deconstructed to show how they have been shaped to suit different eras and performers. These tried and true laugh-provokers are indestructible. Through all the remakes, revivals, recycles and revamps, they have survived robustly to the present day. As these timeless comedy gems are traced to their beginnings and followed through the years, readers are taken on a mirthful journey from Keystone to Zombieland.

Comedy Comedy Comedy Drama

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Author :
Publisher : Random House
ISBN 13 : 0399180524
Total Pages : 305 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (991 download)

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Book Synopsis Comedy Comedy Comedy Drama by : Bob Odenkirk

Download or read book Comedy Comedy Comedy Drama written by Bob Odenkirk and published by Random House. This book was released on 2022-03-01 with total page 305 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • In this “essential” (Entertainment Weekly), “hilarious” (AV Club) memoir, the star of Mr. Show, Breaking Bad, and Better Call Saul opens up about the highs and lows of showbiz, his cult status as a comedy writer, and what it’s like to reinvent himself as an action film ass-kicker at fifty. “I can’t think of another entertainer who has improbably morphed so many times, and all through real genius and determination.”—Conan O’Brien ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: The New Yorker, Vulture, Newsweek Bob Odenkirk’s career is inexplicable. And yet he will try like hell to explicate it for you. Charting a “Homeric” decades-long “odyssey” from his origins in the seedy comedy clubs of Chicago to a dramatic career full of award nominations—with a side-trip into the action-man world that is baffling to all who know him—it’s almost like there are many Bob Odenkirks! But there is just one and one is plenty. Bob embraced a life in comedy after a chance meeting with Second City’s legendary Del Close. He somehow made his way to a job as a writer at Saturday Night Live. While surviving that legendary gauntlet by the skin of his gnashing teeth, he stashed away the secrets of comedy writing—eventually employing them in the immortal “Motivational Speaker” sketch for Chris Farley, honing them on The Ben Stiller Show, and perfecting them on Mr. Show with Bob and David. In Hollywood, Bob demonstrated a bullheadedness that would shame Sisyphus himself, and when all hope was lost for the umpteenth time, the phone rang with an offer to appear on Breaking Bad—a show about how boring it is to be a high school chemistry teacher. His embrace of this strange new world of dramatic acting led him to working with Steven Spielberg, Alexander Payne, and Greta Gerwig, and then, in a twist that will confound you, he re-re-invented himself as a bona fide action star. Why? Read this and do your own psychoanalysis—it’s fun! Featuring humorous tangents, never-before-seen photos, wild characters, and Bob’s trademark unflinching drive, Comedy Comedy Comedy Drama is a classic showbiz tale told by a determined idiot.

Comedy and Error

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Author :
Publisher : Simon and Schuster
ISBN 13 : 1847378501
Total Pages : 405 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (473 download)

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Book Synopsis Comedy and Error by : Simon Day

Download or read book Comedy and Error written by Simon Day and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2011-06-23 with total page 405 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Best known as one of the stars of the Fast Show(where he played characters such as Dave Angel -- Eco-Warrior, Tommy Cockles and Competitive Dad) and Bellamy's Peopleco-starring Paul Whitehouse, Simon Day tells the shocking, sometimes sad and hilariously funny story of his life so far. Simon Day's memoir is a story of unlikely successes and secret lives. In the early 1980s he was a petty thief living rough in South East London and stealing whatever he could to fund an addiction to fruit machines. He was arrested and sentenced to borstal. Simon's memoir tells the story of how this nice, middle-class boy from the suburbs -- a self-confessed 'crap criminal' -- served time with the professionals and hard-cases in a jail fiercely divided along racial lines during the height of the 1981 riots. It moves on to the lucky breaks, the talent getting recognised, the 'redemption' of his years as a celebrity . . . with the parallel story of his addiction which -- with money and success -- became fuelled by drugs. Dark and dramatic, Simon Day's memoir is a laugh-out-loud-funny story of drugs, crime and comedy.

A Comedian and an Activist Walk into a Bar

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Author :
Publisher : University of California Press
ISBN 13 : 0520299760
Total Pages : 295 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (22 download)

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Book Synopsis A Comedian and an Activist Walk into a Bar by : Caty Borum Chattoo

Download or read book A Comedian and an Activist Walk into a Bar written by Caty Borum Chattoo and published by University of California Press. This book was released on 2020-03-24 with total page 295 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Comedy is a powerful contemporary source of influence and information. In the still-evolving digital era, the opportunity to consume and share comedy has never been as available. And yet, despite its vast cultural imprint, comedy is a little-understood vehicle for serious public engagement in urgent social justice issues – even though humor offers frames of hope and optimism that can encourage participation in social problems. Moreover, in the midst of a merger of entertainment and news in the contemporary information ecology, and a decline in perceptions of trust in government and traditional media institutions, comedy may be a unique force for change in pressing social justice challenges. Comedians who say something serious about the world while they make us laugh are capable of mobilizing the masses, focusing a critical lens on injustices, and injecting hope and optimism into seemingly hopeless problems. By combining communication and social justice frameworks with contemporary comedy examples, authors Caty Borum Chattoo and Lauren Feldman show us how comedy can help to serve as a vehicle of change. Through rich case studies, audience research, and interviews with comedians and social justice leaders and strategists, A Comedian and an Activist Walk Into a Bar: The Serious Role of Comedy in Social Justice explains how comedy – both in the entertainment marketplace and as cultural strategy – can engage audiences with issues such as global poverty, climate change, immigration, and sexual assault, and how activists work with comedy to reach and empower publics in the networked, participatory digital media age.

The Comedy Bible

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Author :
Publisher : Simon and Schuster
ISBN 13 : 0743219023
Total Pages : 336 pages
Book Rating : 4.7/5 (432 download)

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Book Synopsis The Comedy Bible by : Judy Carter

Download or read book The Comedy Bible written by Judy Carter and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2010-05-04 with total page 336 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Judy Carter, guru to aspiring comedy writers and stand-up comics, tells all about the biz of being funny and writing funny in this bright, entertaining, and totally practical guide on how to draw humor from your life and turn it into a career. Do you think you’re funny? Do you want to turn your sense of humor into a career? If the answer is yes, then Judy Carter’s The Comedy Bible is for you. The guru to aspiring stand-up comics provides the complete scoop on being—and writing—funny for money. If you’ve got a sense of humor, you can learn to make a career out of comedy, says Judy Carter. Whether it’s creating a killer stand-up act, writing a spec sitcom, or providing jokes for radio or one-liners for greeting cards, Carter provides step-by-step instructions in The Comedy Bible. She helps readers first determine which genre of comedy writing or performing suits them best and then directs them in developing, refining, and selling their work. Using the hands-on workbook format that was so effective in her bestselling first book, Stand-Up Comedy: The Book, Carter offers a series of day-by-day exercises that draw on her many years as a successful stand-up comic and the head of a nationally known comedy school. Also included are practical tips and advice from today’s top comedy professionals—from Bernie Brillstein to Christopher Titus to Richard Lewis. She presents the pros and cons of the various comedy fields—stand-up, script, speech and joke writing, one-person shows, humor essays—and shows how to tailor your material for each. She teaches how to find your “authentic” voice—the true source of comedy. And, perhaps most important, Carter explains how to take a finished product to the next level—making money—by pitching it to a buyer and negotiating a contract. Written in Carter’s unique, take-no-prisoners voice, The Comedy Bible is practical, inspirational, and funny.

The History of Stand-Up

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Author :
Publisher : Independently Published
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 180 pages
Book Rating : 4.7/5 (66 download)

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Book Synopsis The History of Stand-Up by : Wayne Federman

Download or read book The History of Stand-Up written by Wayne Federman and published by Independently Published. This book was released on 2021-03-11 with total page 180 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Today's top stand-up comedians sell out arenas, generate millions of dollars, tour the world, and help shape our social discourse. So, how did this all happen? The History of Stand-Up chronicles the evolution of this American art form - from its earliest pre-vaudeville practitioners like Artemus Ward and Mark Twain to present-day comedians of HBO and Netflix. Drawing on his acclaimed History of Stand-up podcast and popular university lectures, veteran comedian and adjunct USC professor Wayne Federman guides us on this fascinating journey. The story has a connective tissue - humans standing on stage, alone, trying to get laughs. That experience connects all stand-ups through time, whether it's at the Palace, the Copacabana, the Apollo, Mister Kelly's, the hungry i, Grossinger's, the Comedy Cellar, the Improv, the Comedy Store, Madison Square Garden, UCB, or at an open mic in a backyard.

Jewish Comedy: A Serious History

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Author :
Publisher : W. W. Norton & Company
ISBN 13 : 0393247880
Total Pages : 416 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (932 download)

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Book Synopsis Jewish Comedy: A Serious History by : Jeremy Dauber

Download or read book Jewish Comedy: A Serious History written by Jeremy Dauber and published by W. W. Norton & Company. This book was released on 2017-10-31 with total page 416 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Finalist for the National Jewish Book Award “Dauber deftly surveys the whole recorded history of Jewish humour.” —Economist In a major work of scholarship that explores the funny side of some very serious business (and vice versa), Jeremy Dauber examines the origins of Jewish comedy and its development from biblical times to the age of Twitter. Organizing Jewish comedy into “seven strands”—including the satirical, the witty, and the vulgar—he traces the ways Jewish comedy has mirrored, and sometimes even shaped, the course of Jewish history. Dauber also explores the classic works of such masters of Jewish comedy as Sholem Aleichem, Isaac Babel, Franz Kafka, the Marx Brothers, Woody Allen, Joan Rivers, Philip Roth, Mel Brooks, Sarah Silverman, Jon Stewart, and Larry David, among many others.

The Hidden Tools of Comedy

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Author :
Publisher :
ISBN 13 : 9781615931408
Total Pages : 0 pages
Book Rating : 4.9/5 (314 download)

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Book Synopsis The Hidden Tools of Comedy by : Steve Kaplan

Download or read book The Hidden Tools of Comedy written by Steve Kaplan and published by . This book was released on 2013 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A paradigm shift in understanding the mechanics and art of comedy, providing practical tools that help writers translate that understanding into successful, commercial scripts. Kaplan deconstructs secrets and techniques in popular films and TV that work and don't work, and explains what tools were used (or should have been used ).