Enjoy a unique glimpse into the intelligent and quirky inner workings of the comedic mind! This special e-version of Show Me the Funny! presents 28 top comedy screenwriters--including three bonus interviews not in the original print book--from the revered figures of televisions “Golden Age” to todays favorite movie jokesters. Authors Desberg and Davis put an innovative spin on the traditional interview: each writer was given the same loosely structured comedic premise and asked to develop it in any way he or she wanted-no rules, no boundaries, no limits! The result is a hilarious and illuminating look at the comic process. INCLUDES: o Leonard Stern (co-creator of Get Smart) o Sherwood Schwartz (Gilligans Island, The Brady Bunch) o Peter Casey (co-creator of The Jeffersons, Cheers, Wings, Frasier) o Phil Rosenthal (co-creator of Everybody Loves Raymond) o Ed Decter (co-writer of Theres Something About Mary) o plus three e-book only interviews: Marley Simms (Home Improvement, Sabrina the Teenage Witch) Dan O’Shannon (Modern Family, Frasier, Cheers), and Charlie Hauck (Maude, Cheers)

"Friedman's debut collection, Not Funny, takes on the third rails of modern life in Jena's bold and subversive style, with essays that explore cancel culture, sexism, work, celebrity worship, and...dead baby jokes. In a moment where women's rights are being rolled back, fascism is on the rise, and so many of us could use a breather as we struggle to get by, Jena applies her unique gifts to pull a laugh from things deemed too raw, too precious, and too scary to joke about. She shares her stories of taking on those who told her she was too brash, too edgy, and too "unlikable" to make it. She deftly dissects how we get coerced into silence on the issues that matter most, until they've gone too far afield to be turned back around again. And she shares her struggles to make it (-ish) in a world that, more often than not, would rather tune out than listen to a woman confronting the indignities we've been told to bear."--Dust jacket flap.

On This Day in Comedy is not just an encyclopedia, but a celebration of comedy. In humorous prose the book takes readers through the often-neglected subcultures of comedy in America, acknowledging the inclusiveness of the performers as well as shows and films that made this art form so vital to comics of all backgrounds. It's artistically criminal that a search for Native American or Asian comedy information yields a virtually blank slate. Look for Middle Eastern comics and you'll be provided information on the region's comic book revolution, and search results for Latin comedy are confined to a series of outdated articles. This encyclopedia will offer rare and in some cases never-before-seen photos and obscure facts, making it an indispensable comedy essential.

""Comedy Mom! My Funny Stand-up Life"" by female comedian and motivational speaker, Sally Edwards, is a very funny and inspiring book about parenting and stand-up comedy. It is both hilarious and personally uplifting. Sally Edwards is a mom, comedian and animal rescuer who overcomes paralyzing stage fright by discovering hilarity in the raising of her own children. Experiencing an unsettling childhood, Sally Edwards lives her teenage years at an all-girls' Catholic boarding school where she first discovers she has a gift for making people laugh. The birth of Sally's three children with Zanies' Comedy Club Executive Vice President, Bert Haas, inspires a wealth of funny stories and positive messages!

Focusing on crime fiction and films that artfully combine comedy and misdeed, this book explores the reasons writers and filmmakers inject humor into their work and identifies the various comic techniques they use. The author covers both American and European books from the 1930s to the present, by such authors as Rex Stout, Raymond Chandler, Robert B. Parker, Elmore Leonard, Donald E. Westlake, Sue Grafton, Carl Hiaasen and Janet Evanovich, along with films from The Thin Man to the BBC's Sherlock series.

Among the pioneers of television, Ernie Kovacs was one of the most original and imaginative comedians. His zany, irreverent, and surprising humor not only entertained audiences throughout the 1950s and early 1960s, but also inspired a host of later comedies and comedians, including Monty Python, David Letterman, much of Saturday Night Live, Rowan and Martin’s Laugh-In, Captain Kangaroo, and even Sesame Street. Kovacs created laughter through wildly creative comic jokes, playful characterizations, hilarious insights, and wacky experiments. “Nothing in moderation,” his motto and epitaph, sums up well Kovacs’s wholehearted approach to comedy and life. In this book, Andrew Horton offers the first sustained look at Ernie Kovacs’s wide-ranging and lasting contributions to the development of TV comedy. He discusses in detail Kovacs’s work in New York, which included The Ernie Kovacs Show (CBS prime time 1952–1953), The Ernie Kovacs Show (NBC daytime variety 1956–1957), Tonight (NBC late-night comedy/variety 1956-1957), and a number of quiz shows. Horton also looks at Kovacs’s work in Los Angeles and in feature film comedy. He vividly describes how Kovacs and his comic co-conspirators created offbeat characters and zany situations that subverted expectations and upended the status quo. Most of all, Horton demonstrates that Kovacs grasped the possibility for creating a fresh genre of comedy through the new medium of television and exploited it to the fullest.

Humor has always been an essential part of North American aboriginal culture. This fact remained unnoticed by most settlers, however, since non-aboriginals just didn’t get the joke. For most of written history, a stern, unyielding profile of “the Indian” dominated the popular mainstream imagination. Indians, it was believed, never laughed. But Indians themselves always knew better. As an award-winning playwright, columnist, and comedy-sketch creator, Drew Hayden Taylor has spent 15 years writing and researching aboriginal humor. For Me Funny, he asked a noted cast of writers from a variety of fields — including such celebrated wordsmiths as Thomas King, Allan J. Ryan, Mirjam Hirch, and Tomson Highway — to take a look at what makes aboriginal humor tick. Their hilarious, enlightening contributions playfully examine the use of humor in areas as diverse as stand-up comedy, fiction, visual art, drama, performance, poetry, traditional storytelling, and education.

“Tommy Davidson is a journeyman performer. He knows the how and the what and his timing is off the hook. He's one of my favorite performers. Oh and did I mention he's funny, REALLY funny.” —Whoopi Goldberg In this revealing memoir, Tommy Davidson shares his unique perspective on making it in Hollywood, being an integral part of television history, on fame and family, and on living a life that has never been black and white—just funny and true . . . Abandoned as an infant on the streets of Greenville, Mississippi, and rescued by a loving white family, Tommy Davidson spent most of his childhood unaware that he was different from his brother and sister. All that changed as he came of age in a society of racial barriers—ones that he was soon to help break. On a fledgling network, Tommy joined the cast of In Living Color, alongside other relative newcomers all united by an ingenious throng of Wayans siblings, poised to break new ground. Now Tommy gives readers the never-before-told behind-the-scenes story of the first show born of the Hip Hop Nation: from its incredible rise, to his own creation of such unforgettable characters as Sweet Tooth Jones and dead-on impressions of Sammy Davis, Jr., Michael Jackson, M.C. Hammer and Sugar Ray Leonard, and appearing in such classic sketches as “Homie The Clown,” the “Hey Mon, family,” and the “Ugly Woman,” through guest-star skirmishes (and black eyes) to backstage tensions and the eventual fall of this pop-culture touchstone. He reveals his own nascent career on the stand-up circuit, as well as reflections on working with Spike Lee, Halle Berry, Chris Rock, and Jada Pinkett Smith. He also shares his very personal story of living with—and being inspired and empowered by—two distinct family histories. Told with humor and hard-won honesty, Living in Color is a bracing, illuminating, and remarkable success story.

Hugh Bonneville is one of Britain's most accomplished actors, whose credits include Downton Abbey, W1A and the Paddington films. 'I don't remember when I last read a book that gave me so many laughs' Christina Patterson, Sunday Times 'Tremendously entertaining' Rachel Cooke, Observer 'A writer of considerable urbanity and wit' Lynn Barber, Daily Telegraph 'You'll laugh, you'll cry, you'll love Hugh even more' Woman & Home 'Deliciously witty' Celia Imrie 'Utterly charming' Jack Whitehall 'A great read' Graham Norton 'Beautiful. Touching. And funny' Gary Oldman Hugh Bonneville is one of Britain's most accomplished actors, familiar to audiences worldwide for his roles in Notting Hill, the Paddington films and Downton Abbey. From getting his big break as Third Shepherd in the school nativity play, to mistaking a Hollywood star for an estate agent, Hugh creates a brilliantly vivid picture of a career on stage and screen. What is it like working with Judi Dench and Julia Roberts, or playing Robert de Niro's right leg, or not being Gary Oldman, twice? A wickedly funny storyteller, Hugh also writes with poignancy about his father's dementia and of his mother, whose life in the secret service only emerged after her death. Whether telling stories of working with divas, Dames or a bear with a penchant for marmalade, this is a richly entertaining account of his life as an actor.