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.

The New Comedy Bible is a step-by-step, no excuses manual for writing, performing, and launching your career as a stand-up comic. Written by Judy Carter, the author of The Comedy Bible (2001), which was called by The Washington Post and Forbes as a “Comedy Essential”. This new book, penned in classic Carter’s style - part career coach and part comedy dominatrix - has 100 percent new content.

“Don’t Wear Shorts on Stage…” is not only a complete guide to the previously unwritten rules of stand-up, but also a quick reference for the hundreds of questions that most comics don’t even think to ask. Durham points out mistakes most comics make before they even take the stage and continues his advice throughout the different levels of a comic’s career. His knowledge stems from over a decade of performing along with three years behind the scenes at one of America’s top clubs where he soaked up tips and anecdotes from some of the business’s biggest names like Dave Attell, ...

PICK UP THIS BOOK BEFORE YOU PICK UP THE MICROPHONE Part instruction manual, part memoir and part cautionary tale, “How to FAIL at Stand-Up Comedy” is a hilarious and sometimes heartbreaking exploration of a 30 year career in stand-up. Sabo pulls no punches while revealing what it’s really like to live the life of a traveling comedian, warts and all. Sabo points out everything you can do wrong in this business with glaring detail and without judgment. Chock full of advice from industry insiders and experts in the field, “FAIL” takes you on the journey from open-miker to seasoned ...

Author Scott Dikkers will tell you how to write jokes. He’s a master joke writer, founder of the world’s most popular humor site TheOnion.com, number one New York Times best-selling humor author, professional public speaker, and successful cartoonist. In this definitive joke-writing handbook, he'll teach you comedy writing and how to write a joke with a simple comedy-writing and joke-writing formula you can use right now to write your own jokes.

While other books give you tips on how to “write funny,” this book offers a paradigm shift in understanding the mechanics and art of comedy and the proven, practical tools that help writers translate that understanding into successful commercial scripts. The Hidden Tools of Comedy unlocks the unique secrets and techniques of writing comedy. Kaplan deconstructs sequences in popular films and TV that work and don’t work and explains what tools were used (or should have been used).

In Finding Your Funny Muscle, Mike shows you how to “flex” your ideas into funny, original, and relatable humor that gets big laughs—and makes you memorable for the right reasons.

Step-by-Step to Stand-Up Comedy, written and narrated by Greg Dean, is a comprehensive guide for people who are funny, want to be funnier, or have dreams of being a stand-up comedian. This first-of-its-kind audiobook demystifies the craft of comedy by breaking it down to the fundamental skills used by professional funny people. Dean lays out these skills in simple-to-understand lessons that are easy to practice and master.

The Upright Citizens Brigade knows comedy, but more than that, they know how to coach aspiring comics and average joes alike on the ins and outs of how to create your own stand-out, unique voice. Led by UCB founders Matt Besser, Ian Roberts, and Matt Walsh, this series features conversations with experts in the field including Amy Poehler, Adam McKay, Ben Schwartz, Lennon Parham, Jessica St. Clair, Andy Daly, Bobby Moynihan, and Nick Kroll, among others.

The Art of Witty Banter examines the art, nuance, and mechanics of banter and charm to make you a witty comeback machine, the likes of which your friends have never seen. You’ll be able to handle, defend, disarm, and engage others in a way that makes you comfortable and confident with each growing day.