Step by Step to Stand-up Comedy [Paperback]
Steve Allen (Foreword), Greg Dean (Author)
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
A Giant Step For Comic Mankind! 4 Jan 2003
By A Customer
I have been doing stand-up for a few months now and wish I'd read this before I started. Lots of very essential advice. A must-read for any new comic. Some of the stuff on joke structures was a bit complicated, but maybe I'm just stupid! Otherwise very readable and totally invaluable.
Outstanding guide for stand-up performers 21 Jun 2005
By A Customer
An outstanding book for anyone interested in transferring their comedy ideas into a practical stand-up routine:
- The book covers the following topics:
- The Secrets of Joke Structure
- Joke Writing
- What to write jokes about
- Improving your jokes
- Assembling a routine
- POV and narrative
- Rehearsing
- Mic technique
- Performance technique
- Developing experience
Through practical advice and a series of useful excersises Greg isolates the elements of comedy on an almost scientific linguistic level. Thereby allowing the writer/performer to explore, create and fine tune their original ideas without relying on cheap gimicks or plaguerising other performers. It has more in common with a NLP text or strategic business manual than some of the more anecdote based books available, although the book does contain several anecdotes when elaborating examples.
I purchased this book initially just to help with gag writing for screenplays but have become so confident through the process that I am now putting together actual routines for public performance. Well worth it.
Write a one-liner today! 2 Dec 2010
By Sally Holloway, Author: Joke Writing (Serious Guide to)
Some have said this book is boring but that's because it overcomplicates a basically good joke writing method but if you can plough through it, the author has found a great way to write one-liners. Again other reviewers have said the jokes are old fashioned, but one-liners never really go out of fashion. If you're doing surreal stuff try throwing a one-liner in now and then, see how your audience react! The rest of the book is general advice about becoming a stand-up. My favourite of which is `If you want to perform out loud, rehearse out loud' (I've been telling my students this for years). I would have liked a few more personal stories as the advice is a bit `third person' but still very worth reading.
STEP BY STEP TO STAND-UP COMEDY
If you think you’re funny, and you want others to think so too, this is the book for you! Greg Dean examines the fundamentals of being funny. Paperback, eBook, and Audio Book. Available from Amazon.com.
Step By Step to Stand-Up Comedy – Workbook Series
For the past three decades Dean has made it his life’s mission to identify, name, and teach the basic techniques used by all great joke writers and comedians. These fundamentals were first published in his paperback, ebook, and audio book Step By Step to Stand-Up Comedy. Now, these same joke writing and performing techniques are available as a series of exercises in his Step By Step to Stand-Up Comedy – Workbook Series.
Product details
Paperback: 191 pages
Publisher: Heinemann Educational Books,U.S. (13 July 2000)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0325001790
ISBN-13: 978-0325001791
Product Dimensions: 22.9 x 15.4 x 1.2 cm
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