Comedy Performance

Jo Brand tells the story of how she crawled to fame and fortune, managed to persuade someone to marry her and had some children at an age when she should have been in a bath chair on a seafront. In this second volume of her memoirs, Jo recounts wild times on the comedy circuit, the attempts to tart her up for the TV screen, running the marathon, rally driving, her numerous, occasionally extremely inebriated, Edinburgh festival appearances, her 'acting' career and much, much more.

We all know Drew Carey from his award-winning stand-up career, and his hit television show, but do we really know Drew Carey, the person? In his first book, the bawdy and irreverent Dirty Jokes and Beer, find out about all the many sides to this misunderstood Hollywood star.

We created this audiobook with the goal of providing a set of very simple and clear instructions on how to write and create standup comedy material, where to seek out performance opportunities, and how to perform your standup comedy material on stage for a live comedy audience.

Dr. Peter McGraw, founder of the Humor Research Lab at the University of Colorado Boulder, teamed up with journalist Joel Warner on a far-reaching search for the secret behind humor. Their journey spanned the globe, from New York to Japan, from Palestine to the Amazon. Meanwhile, the duo conducted their own humor experiments along the way-to wince-worthy, hilarious, and illuminating results.

Doug Stanhope is one of the most critically acclaimed and stridently unrepentant comedians of his generation. What will surprise some is that he owes so much of his dark and sometimes uncomfortably honest sense of humor to his mother, Bonnie.

If you're a man of a certain age you'll know there comes a point in life when getting a sports car and over-analysing your contribution to society sounds like a really good idea. With a good job in sales and marketing and a nice house in Manchester that he shared with his wife and kids, John Bishop was no different when he turned the dreaded 4-0. But instead of spanking a load of cash on a car that would have made him look like a senior stylist at Vidal Sassoon, he stumbled onto a pathway that ultimately lead him to become one of the nation's best loved comedians.

Few television shows revolutionized comedy as profoundly or have had such an enormous and continued impact on our culture as In Living Color. Inspired by Richard Pryor, Carol Burnett, and Eddie Murphy, Keenen Ivory Wayans created a television series unlike any that had come before it. In Living Color shaped American culture in ways both seen and unseen. Now, Homey Don't Play That! reveals the complete, captivating story of how In Living Color overcame enormous odds to become a major, zeitgeist-seizing hit.

Admit it. You want to be William Shatner. This collection of rules, illustrated with stories from Bill’s illustrious life and career, will show you how Bill became WILLIAM SHATNER, larger than life and bigger than any role he ever played. Shatner Rules is your guide to becoming William Shatner. Or, more accurately, beautifully Shatneresque.

“There are two times in a man’s life when he should not speculate,” he wrote. “When he can’t afford it and when he can.” The publishing company Twain owned was failing; his investment in a typesetting device was bleeding red ink. After losing hundreds of thousands of dollars back when a beer cost a nickel, he found himself neck-deep in debt. His heiress wife, Livy, took the setback hard. “I have a perfect horror and heart-sickness over it,” she wrote. “I cannot get away from the feeling that business failure means disgrace.”

Want to be funnier? This is the joke book for you! It is overflowing with witty wisecracks and handy hints to make you a more amusing jokester!

My Favorite Husband hit the CBS Radio airwaves in 1948, starring Lucille Ball and Richard Denningas Liz and George Cugat - who later became Liz and George Cooper when confusion with bandleader Xavier Cugat prompted a name change. Set in the fictitious town of Sheridan Falls, the show follows the happily married couple, residents of 321 Bundy Drive, through mischief and various predicaments, from faked illnesses to trouble with exes.

In this book I have attempted to solve each and every one of life's problems. And I have succeeded. Dear Listener, Using letters, emails, tweets and telegrams I will show you how the things in your life that make you sad, low or anxious can soon appear trivial, insignificant and like a fish. In short, I will butter your parsnips.

Sol Bernstein, the oldest Jewish stand-up comedian still playing the clubs today, tells his favourite Jewish jokes so that they can be handed down to another generation. Told and adapted by Jews throughout the centuries from the Eastern Europe shtetls of the 19th century to the American Borscht Belt circuit of the 1950s and '60s Sol retells jokes on religion, assimilation, marriage and sex from a people and religion that has always had its humour no matter what the world throws at them.

Some advice suits certain people more than others. Some advice is...redundant waffle. And Nat's What I Reckon refuses to let it slide! Ya see, Nat's got a loud mouth and a taste for taking the piss out of stuff—it's how he lives, laughs and loves. Now, his target's the tired old life advice he's had enough of: Man up. Good vibes only. No pain no gain. Carpe diem. What a punish! Buckle up for Nat's unrequested take on pushing back against expectations and rolling through life with some laughs and kindness like a real, righteous ratbag!

From the break-out star of BuzzFeed and the People's Choice Award-winning comedian comes a collection of hilariously anguished essays chronicling awful moments from his life so far, the humiliations of being an adult, and other little indignities. Matt Bellassai has no idea what he's doing. Well, to be fair, he did become semi-Internet famous by getting drunk at work, making him a socially-acceptable - nay - professional alcoholic. He's got some things figured out. But the rest is all just a terrible, disgusting mess.

In a year when South Korea announced that its new robotics museum will be built by robots, and French cheese terrorists put a camembert through every French MPs letterbox, The Book of the Year returns with another dose of barely believable yet bona fide facts and stories from the past 12 months. Each week for the past five years, Dan, James, Anna and Andy - the creators of the award-winning, chart-topping comedy podcast No Such Thing as a Fish - have wowed each other and millions of listeners with the most astonishing trivia they have learned over the previous seven days.

Knowledge is power! Crush the competition at trivia night or start the most interesting conversation ever with real facts that are hard to believe. This book is loaded with mind-blowing facts that are sure to keep you wondering, "How are these even true?" while equipping you to outsmart everyone in the room.

In Seven Dirty Words, journalist and cultural critic James Sullivan tells the story of Alternative America from the 1950s to the present, from the singular vantage point of George Carlin, the Catholic boy for whom nothing was sacred.

488 Rules for Life is not a self-help book, because it's not you who needs help, it's other people. Whether they're walking and texting, asphyxiating you on public transport with their noxious perfume cloud, or leaving one useless square of toilet paper on the roll, a lot of people just don't know the rules.

Whether you’re looking for tips on how to make your friends laugh or trying to become a paid comedian, How To Be Funny has something for everyone. This book is packed with funny anecdotes and expert advice to help you take your sense of humor from okay to outstanding!