Comedy and stand-up Books

SCROOGE is a Christmas comedy play set as a rehearsal where everything goes wrong. It can be performed where the actors have memorized their lines or not. In either case the actors play their parts with open scripts.

In this comprehensive approach to Jewish humor focused on the relationship between humor and American Jewish practice, Jennifer Caplan calls us to adopt a more expansive view of what it means to "do Jewish," revealing that American Jews have, and...

Talks By George Thatcher, The Celebrated Minstrel is a book that was published in 1898 and written by George Thatcher. The book is a collection of monologues, parodies, songs, sketches, poems, jokes, and other written works by Thatcher, who was a...

Comedy / Characters: 3 male, 3 femaleScenery: Interior This boulevard comedy was a smash hit in Paris, where it played for over two years, and in London, where critical acclaim greeted the Apollo Theatre production. Bernard is planing a weekend with his...

Ian Wilkie contends that comic acting is a distinct art form, and as such demands a unique skillset. By exploring the ways in which performance choices and improvised moments can work in conjunction with texts themselves, Performing in Comedy offers an...

Soho's most celebrated drag queens Lulu L'Amore, Chastity Belt and Connie Lingus continue on their comically twisted journey in this sequel to Jeff Kristian's much loved debut novel WHERE D'YA PUT YER WILLY?Following Letitia Von...

Based On A True Story!The book that the C.I.A. don't want you to read!I would not recommend this book to anybody - Senior C.I.A. Agent (not his real name).I laughed so much I had loose stools for a week! - DIY FURNITURE ASSEMBLERI on the other hand...

This guide is for all those wishing to train in and produce Maestro Impro™. It is a fantastic format to experience Impro Keith Johnstone style and receive all of the personal and group benefits that go along with it. Maestro Impro™...

Playback theatre is an original form of interactive, improvisational theatre in which audience tell true stories from their lives and watch as their stories are enacted on the spot by a team of trained improvisers. Founded in 1975 in upstate New York,...

Highly entertaining account of a young man's first year as a rookie comedian. His comedy is focused on the world rather than the church, and he gigs regularly around the country - average three times a week. He has a considerable following through the...

This is a short, quick, and easy read.Some Sample Anecdotes:• While studying theater at UCLA, Carol Burnett took a course in acting, where she prepared to recite a speech in front of her class. Unfortunately, she didn't recite it very well. For one...

WORK IS IN FRENCHThis book is a reproduction of a work published before 1920 and is part of a collection of books reprinted and edited by Hachette Livre, in the framework of a partnership with the National Library of France, providing the opportunity to...

Discover the Easy Way to Improve Your Self-Confidence Through Humor!Do you ever find yourself wishing you had the courage to be the center of attention and make other people laugh with your jokes? Do you want to improve your humor and self-confidence at...

Worst. Eurovision. Ever.If you want a look into the kind of nonsense that goes on behind the scenes at the contest, Worst. Eurovision. Ever. will take you on a wild ride around the rehearsals, dressing rooms and showbiz parties with such an informed eye...

When he was in his mid-twenties, singer/songwriter/guitar player Dennis Blair parlayed a dreary, dead-end rut performing for inattentive bar patrons into a standup comedy career. He took his newly-developed song parodies and comic banter to a late-night...

When he was in his mid-twenties, singer/songwriter/guitar player Dennis Blair parlayed a dreary, dead-end rut performing for inattentive bar patrons into a standup comedy career. He took his newly-developed song parodies and comic banter to a late-night...

In 1939, when Throckmorton P. Gildersleeve first came to the attention of radio audiences, he was but a neighbor and one of the frequent visitors to the folks at 79 Wistful Vista on the popular Fibber McGee and Molly program.  His verbal sparring...

Bunkum Entertainments: Being A Collection Of Original Laughable Skits is a book written by Robert Ganthony and originally published in 1895. The book is a compilation of humorous skits and plays that were intended to be performed as entertainment for...

In this book you will discover the secrets of picking pockets for entertainment purposes. Written by a professional magician, the techniques are based on elementary principles of misdirection and sleight-of-hand, which can be easily learned by anyone...

Easy-to-follow directions on how to juggle, manipulate cigar boxes, do balancing tricks, and become an hilariously funny juggler. Contains 28 complete comic juggling routines. Simple enough for beginners, funny enough for pros. “People who...

Balloons, fun, games, magic, and more—they’re all here. From entertaining and food to marketing and promotion, this book features comprehensive and detailed guidance on how to succeed in the birthday party business. At the heart of the...

You've got front row seats and a backstage pass to the best new comedy show in town.When you look at the all-time great communicators, they all used comedy to some extent. With over two billion followers, it is not a stretch to imagine Jesus using...

Soon after Duffy's Tavern premiered over the radio in 1941, Hollywood celebrities flocked to the microphone for a guest appearance and accepted what was rarely heard of in network broadcasting: celebrities were roasted in the form...

Ten years after Chicago saw its first full-time comedy club open, the landscape was decidedly different. "Stand-up comedy has exploded in the last couple of years," a club owner told the Chicago Tribune in 1985, "that's the only way to describe it:...

"The Adventures of Peregrine Pickle vol. 1" is a picaresque book written via Tobias Smollett from Scotland. The book is set a young, stubborn aristocrat named Peregrine Pickle and his adventures and mishaps as he deals with the complicated and regularly...

THE COMIC ART OF MEL BROOKSBy Maurice Yacowar Mel Brooks is a mystery. On the one hand, he is notorious for his wacky public behaviour and for his zany films. On the other, some of his public pronouncements show him to be a very serious fellow. While his...

Life is Grand, Baby! (Notes on Performing) by Paul Toshner. Memoirs and insights on the intimate performance of song from a real-life Piano Man. "For the first time I'm sharing secrets I've built up over the years as a concert act, a lounge act,...

Set in a snowy New England mill town, Right Angles is a comedy that centers around the matriarch of a Polish American family, Kasia Angielski. Kasia is deeply concerned about doing the right thing for the right reason within the moral and cultural...

La Puce à l’oreille est un vaudeville de Georges Feydeau créé au Théâtre des Variétés le 2 mars 1907. C’est une comédie basée sur des quiproquos et des malentendus entre les...

Behind the Laughter, Hidden Tears is the true story of entertainer, comedian and actor Sal Richards, a behind the scenes look that reveals the many obstacles he faced while trying to make it in the business for over fifty years. From dealing with the...

The book ""Life And Memoirs Of William Warren, Boston�������s Favorite Comedian: With A Full Account Of His Golden Jubilee (1889)"" is a biographical account of the life and career of William Warren, a beloved comedian from Boston. The book is written by...

Between the years 1996-2003, Cool and Strange Music! Magazine became a beloved publication that music lovers of the unusual could count on for information about the latest "cool and strange" music releases, exclusive interviews with legendary artists,...

A dark comedy stage play by Marty MatfessChris has been madly in love with his best friend Annie for years, but she's only been interested in dating everyone else but him. After Annie's recentbreak up with her boyfriend Bobby, Chris feels this may...

In KINDA FUNNY: Stories by a Full-Time Comedian (with Four Part-Time Jobs), JJ Barrows brings her stories from the comedy stage to the comedic page-all the result of a young JJ finding her voice after stumbling into a stand-up comedy class (because it...

Everyone in the world knows DMV means poor service. Now you can get an inside look at what creates that culture of:“It’s not my money, I don’t care”.Mariam, The Mighty, immigrated to America leaving behind a culture of shortage...

David Trew is just an ordinary bloke. After leaving college in the 80s, he took up a career as a corporate salesman. He did well, but hated it.So, after moving to London to follow his sales career, and having to be medicated to get through it, he decided...

Nina G-a stand-up comedian whose comedy is funny, revealing, unapologetic, and always a window to her experience as a person who stutters-tells the story of how she became, at the time she started, America's only female stuttering stand-up comedian.

This book is essentially about me - me midst the Goons! Me! Me! Me! (How disgusting! What's this fellow going on about?)It is an unashamed celebration of MY life not in the past but TODAY and in that, it becomes a celebration of YOUR lives...

Paul Rhymer's creation of VIC AND SADE began on radio in 1932 as a two-character play featuring Art Van Harvey and Bernadine Flynn. Bill Idelson was eventually added to the cast, as nine-year-old Rush, and Idelson is the man behind this fascinating...

The Comedy Improv Handbook: A Comprehensive Guide to University Improvisational Comedy in Theatre and Performance is a one-stop resource for both improv teachers and students, covering improv history, theory, maxims, exercises, games, and structures. You...

Yabbing and Wording: The artistry of Nigerian stand-up comedy is a long-overdue academic interrogation of the novel stand-up practice in Nigeria as performance. 'Yabbing' comes from the Nigerian Pidgin English verb, 'yab', which means a satirical jibe...

Is he MAD? Mark Arnold, author of If You're Cracked, You're Happy, Volumes Won and Too, has done it again with the very first COMPLETE MAD history since the 1990s. He's UNCONDITIONALLY MAD!!! This two-volume set (Part 1 and Part B) covers the entire...

Is he MAD? Mark Arnold, author of If You're Cracked, You're Happy, Volumes Won and Too, has done it again with the very first COMPLETE MAD history since the 1990s. He's UNCONDITIONALLY MAD!!! This two-volume set (Part 1 and Part B) covers the entire...

This book explores closely related aspects of the historical study of humour. It challenges much that has been taken for granted in a field of study for which history has been marginal. It disputes the conventional genealogical view that humour theory...