Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)First of all, what this book is not: It is not about how to be funny, nor is it an analysis of what humour is. The title is blatantly misleading. The book itself is not funny, because these are comedians describing things that happened to them, not attempting to get the reader to laugh.
This is a collection of first-person narratives in which comedians reminisce about performing in comedy clubs, especially at the beginning of their careers when they were unknowns. Their stories are surprisingly similar - struggling for stage time, desperate for money, honing their craft, and so on. The stories are repetitive and, after awhile, seem interchangeable. At times the narrators engage in a bit of introspection about why some things are funny and some are not, but one has to search for those analytical moments. To a large extent, these comedians just kind of "wing it" and have trouble articulating why one joke is hilarious while another leads to dead silence.
Of the 30-plus comedians interviewed for the book, I've heard of about one third of them. The most famous participants are Richard Belzer, Phyllis Diller, and Lily Tomlin.
Click Here to see more reviews about: How to Do It Standing Up: The Friars' Club Guide to Being a Comic, a Cut-Up, a Card, a Character or a Clown
No one knows more about being funny than The Friars Club, and now they reveal their personal tricks of the trade-and give away their favorite material--in this easy-to-use manual for aspiring comics, comedy writers or just plain show-offs.The funniest men and women in showbiz discuss the art of being funny, and author Barry Dougherty puts it all together in the first and last Friars Club manual for anyone who wants to be a comedian--or just act like one. The book covers such important matters as What's funny--and what's not; the many forms of comedy: jokes, one-liners, anecdotes, stories, impressions, puns, ad-libs, wisecracks and more; choosing material and putting together a routine; developing a personal style; writing your own material--and much more.In-depth, personal interviews with a host of well-known comedians punctuate the text, along with lots of examples of their funniest material.
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