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"This entertaining and sharply written guide--for both beginners breaking into comedy and professionals seeking to improve their sets and advance their careers--examines the work of great comedians such as Louis C.K., Jerry Seinfeld, Eddie Izzard, Moms Mabley, Hannibal Buress, Sarah Silverman, Richard Pryor, and more as a means of illustrating the most important techniques of performing and writing stand-up. Here, Stephen Rosenfield lays out a clear...
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English
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Mel Brooks' own words telling all about the players, the filming, and studio antics during the production of this great comedy classic. The book is alive and teeming with hundreds of photos, original interviews, and hilarious commentary.
Young Frankenstein was made with deep respect for the craft and history of cinema-and for the power of a good schwanzstucker joke. This picture-driven book, written by one of the greatest comedy geniuses of all time,...
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English
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"From the best-selling author of Fosse, a sweeping yet intimate -- and often hilarious-- history of a uniquely American art form that has never been more popular. At the height of the McCarthy era, an experimental theater troupe set up shop in a bar near the University of Chicago. Via word of mouth, astonished crowds packed the ad hoc venue to see its unscripted, interactive, consciousness-raising style. From this unlikely seed grew the Second City,...
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"The first major biography of an American icon, comedian Bill Cosby. Based on extensive research and in-depth interviews with Cosby and more than sixty of his closest friends and associates, it is a frank, fun and fascinating account of his life and historic legacy. Far from the gentle worlds of his routines or TV shows, Cosby grew up in a Philadelphia housing project, the son of an alcoholic, largely absent father and a loving but overworked mother....
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English
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From 1962 until 1992, Johnny Carson hosted The Tonight Show and permeated the American consciousness. The country's highest-paid entertainer and its most enigmatic, he was as mercurial off-camera as he was charming and hilarious onstage. Now Carson's longtime lawyer and best friend, Henry Bushkin, shows us Johnny with a breathtaking clarity and depth that nobody else could, revealing not only how Johnny Carson truly was, but why.
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"For millennia of human history, the future belonged to the strong. To the parent who could kill the most animals with sticks and to the child who could survive the winter or the epidemic. When the Industrial Revolution came, masters of business efficiency prospered instead, and after that we placed our hope in scientific visionaries. Today, in a clear sign of evolution totally sliding off the rails, our most coveted trait is not strength or productivity...
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The loving yet brutally honest memoir of the daughter of comedy legend Richard Pryor
Rain Pryor was born in the idealistic, free-love 1960s. Her mother was a Jewish go-go dancer who wanted a tribe of rainbow children, and her father was Richard Pryor, perhaps the most compelling and brilliant comedian of his era.
In this intimate, harrowing, and often hilarious memoir, Rain talks about her divided heritage, and about the forces that shaped her wildly...
9) Ghosts
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English
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The innovative dramas of Henrik Ibsen created a sensation among 19th-century audiences with their mordant attacks on social conventions. Among the finest of these ground-breaking works was Ghosts, first performed in 1881. In it, the playwright assailed the hypocrisy of moral codes, offering a daring treatment of such then-taboo issues as infidelity, venereal disease, and illegitimacy. Ibsen substituted the modern scientific idea of heredity
...10) Comedy sex god
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English
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Part autobiography, part philosophical inquiry, and part spiritual quest, Comedy Sex God is a hilarious, profound, and enlightening romp around the fertile mind of stand-up stand-out, podcast king, and HBO superstar Pete Holmes.
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In his bold and wildly entertaining publishing debut, he continues to embrace his dark side and gives readers the book they have long been waiting for-hilarious and often dirty. Bob believes there's a time and a place for filth. From his never-before-heard stories of what really went on behind the scenes of two of the most successful family shows of all times, with co-stars like John Stamos and Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen, to his tales of legendary...
12) Unscripted
Author
Pub. Date
2020.
Language
English
Description
When seventeen-year-old Zelda is chosen for an elite team at a prestigious improvisation camp, it is a big step toward achieving her dreams, but first she must survive her teammates' sexism and coach's cruelty.
13) An Ideal Husband
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First performed in 1895, "An Ideal Husband" is Oscar Wilde's classic and much-loved comedic drama. The play tells the story of an up-and-coming politician, Sir Robert Chiltern, who tries to hide his secret past from his judgmental wife and the blackmail scheme he is forced to participate in to keep that secret quiet. Lady Chiltern has a very particular idea of what makes the "ideal husband" which leaves her with little tolerance for Sir Robert's all...
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Here's how it all began-the classic episodes that started America's long-running love affair with everyone's favorite madcap redhead, Lucille Ball. Plus the rarely seen pilot episode that sold the I Love Lucy series. By the end of its initial season, I Love Lucy was TV's first bona fide smash-hit-the very first program seen in more than 10 million homes.
Author
Pub. Date
2022.
Language
English
Description
From the razor-sharp mind of comedian Iliza Shlesinger comes a collection of hilarious and insightful essays about the exasperating issues of everyday life. All Things Aside is a punchy, honest, incisive book that shares a view of the world through the eyes of the inimitable Iliza Shlesinger. From the macro to micro, Shlesinger tackles it all with her no-bullshit comedic style. Throughout the book, Shlesinger dives from one subject into the next,...
Author
Pub. Date
2018.
Language
English
Description
In her hilarious book of essays, Parks and Recreation star Retta shares the stories that led to her success in Hollywood. Her eponymous sitcom might not have happened yet, but by the end of So Close to Being the Sh*t, you'll be rooting for Retta to be the next one-named wonder to take over your television. And she just might inspire you to reach for the stars, too.
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"Jokes change from generation to generation, but the experience of the stand-up comedian transcends the ages: the striving and struggles, the tragedy and triumph. From the Marx Brothers to Milton Berle, George Carlin to Eddie Murphy, Conan O'Brien to Louis C. K.--comedy historian Kliph Nesteroff presents a century of fascinating rebels, forgotten stars, and characters on the precipice of fame in this essential history of American comedy."--Dust jacket....
19) The Frogs
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English
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Aristophanes, the greatest of comic writers in Greek and in the opinion of many, in any language, is the only one of the Attic comedians any of whose works has survived in complete form He was born in Athens about the middle of the fifth century B C, and had his first comedy produced when he was so young that his name was withheld on account of his youth. He is credited with over forty plays, eleven of which survive, along with the names and fragments...
Author
Pub. Date
2022
Language
English
Formats
Description
The first comprehensive, full-length biography of Don Rickles, the legendary comedian whose career spanned six decades and influenced generations of comedians, written by celebrity biographer Michael Starr, who has covered television at The New York Post as a reporter, columnist, and critic since 1995.
Riding a wave of success that lasted more than sixty years, Don Rickles is best known as the "insult" comic who skewered presidents, royalty, celebrities,...
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