David Letterman, Jay Leno, Robin Williams and Andy Kaufman and many other soon-to-be-stars were once young, broke and funny in 1970's LA. They were also friends...until one event changed everything I'm Dying Up Here chronicles the collective coming of age of the stand-up comedians who defined American humour during the past three decades. Born ...
Comedy veteran Leifer tells hilarious stories about herself, in her laugh-out-loud literary debut that looks at life, love, family, and the aging process.
The 'Harold', an innovative improvisational tool, helped many actors on the road to TV and film stardom, including George Wendt (Norm on Cheers). Now it is described fully in this new book for would-be actors and comics. The 'Harold' is a form of competitive improv involving 6 or 7 players. They take a theme suggestion from the audience and 'free ...
Against the odds Jay Leno has emerged as the undisputed king of late night television as host of the number one-rated "The Tonight Show". His 20-year stand-up career, working alongside the likes of Jerry Seinfeld, Garry Shandling, and David Letterman, was a long, hard, and laugh-filled battle to the top. In this entertaining, anecdote-filled book, ...
During the 30's and 40's, Hollywood produced a genre of madcap comedies that emphasized reuniting the central couple after divorce or separation. And the female protagonists were strong, independent, and sophisticated. Here, Stanley Cavell examines seven of those classic movies for their cinematic techniques, and for such varies themes as feminism ...
From the success and cult status brought by "Monty Python," Palin shares stories from their world tours, their stay at hotels recently trashed by Led Zeppelin, their battles over censorship, and how individually the Pythons have gone their separate ways.
Updated and revised, this new edition of the bestselling favourite enables readers to master the fundamentals of humour writing and better understand the demands of the market for comedy. Comedy Writing Secrets now includes: Examples from venerable comedy greats as well as cutting-edge contemporary comedians A complete spectrum of techniques, from ...
After leaping off the pages with her unforgettable debut in John Berendt's bestselling "Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil", the unabashed personality known as The Lady Chablis brings her trademark saucy wit and down-home wisdom to this raucous and ribald autobiography.
Written by an experienced stand-up comic, this is a practical, hands-on guide for actors and performers. With observations on what it is that makes comedy work, Jay Sankey guides the performer through the challenges of being funny in public. Covering writing, character, delivery, performance, set structure, audiences, professional work, and ...
Written by Moe Howard's daughter, this detailed biography is bursting with photographs Curly traces the life of one wacky Stooge from birth to his final status as a cult hero.
In this classic best seller, Liza Dalby, the first non-Japanese ever to have trained as a geisha, offers an insider's look at the exclusive world of female companions to the Japanese male elite. A new preface examines how geisha have been profoundly affected by the changes of the past quarter century yet - especially in Kyoto - have managed to ...
Andrew Lloyd Webber's "Phantom of the Opera" is one of the most successful musicals of all time. It is based on the classic romantic horror story set in the Paris Opera House in which a masked musician, living in the dark recesses of the vast building, commits murder in order to further the career of a young soprano with whom he is besotted. This ...
In 1934 four movies It Happened One Night, Twentieth Century, The Thin Man, and The Gay Divorcee ushered in the golden age of the Hollywood romantic ("screwball") comedy. Slangy, playful, and "powerfully, glamorously in love with love," the films that followed were unique in their combination of swank and slapstick. Here are the directorsLubitsch ...
This work includes a new preface by the author. First published in 1969, "Notes on a Cowardly Lion" has established itself as one of the best-ever show business biographies. Drawing on his father's recollections and on the memories of those who worked with him, John Lahr brilliantly examines the history of modern American show business through the ...
Based on extensive interviews with club owners, agents, producers--and with unprecedented and unlimited access to the players themselves--this work is a no-holds-barred, behind-the-scenes look at one of the most influential and tumultuous decades in American popular culture.
Greg Dean examines the fundamentals of being funny and offers advice on a range of topics, including: writing creative joke material; rehearsing and performing routines; coping with stage fright; dealing with emcees who think they're funnier than you; getting experience; and lots more. Essential for the aspiring comic or the working comedian ...
Bill Hicks, like Lenny Bruce before him, could make people laugh very hard and very uncomfortably. He drank, smoked, tripped, and debauched, and then he turned himself into the vehicle for his laughs. He envisioned a flexible morality, and hastened to inform others of the utter hypocrisy the world gladly engaged in each day. Then, at age 32, on ...
With impeccable timing, outrageous humor, irreverent wit, and a superb sense of the ridiculous, Groucho tells the saga of the Marx Brothers: the poverty of their childhood in New York's Upper East Side; the crooked world of small-time vaudeville (where they learned to carry blackjacks); how a pretzel magnate and the graceless dancer of his dreams ...
Three-time Emmy-award winner Gene Perrets Comedy Writing Step by Step has been the manual for humor writers for 24 years. With this, his first update, Perret offers readers a treasure trove of guidelines and suggestions covering a broad range of comedy writing situations, along with many all-important insights into the selling of ones work.
This captivating book presents a uniquely comprehensive cultural history of cabaret, where the most radical of artists, poets, writers, musicians, and theatre directors have gathered since 1881. Lisa Appignanesi takes us to the original cabaret - the smoke-filled rooms of the Chat Noir in Paris that served as a meeting place for the avant-garde ...
Now in paperback--the official history of the supreme physical-comedy trio. From humble vaudeville origins to movie stars to grainy black-and-white television legends, the Three Stooges are comedy icons. Featuring rare photos and documents, interviews with friends and families, and a complete filmography with every "woop woop" in Stoogedom.
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