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 and offers advice on a range of topics, including: writing creative joke material rehearsing and performing routines coping with stage fright dealing with emcees who think they're funnier than you are getting experience and lots more. Essential for the aspiring comic or the working comedian interested in updating his or her comedy routine, Step by Step to Stand-Up Comedy is the most comprehensive and useful book ever written on the art of the stand-up comedian.
A compelling saga of an unlikely friendship threaded together by redemption and grace. Dean of the cathedral in an 1870s English town, Adam Ayscough is respected and misunderstood. A dogged crusader against corruption, he’s also acutely shy. When his watch breaks, he forms an unlikely friendship with watchmaker Isaac Peabody, who doesn’t think he has anything in common with God. Will their relationship open the door to grace?
"Following the adventures of two brothers who investigate deeply strange and paranormal mysteries in their never-ending road trip, the TV show Supernatural has many fans eager to better understand the psychology behind the series' themes and characters. Featuring cast & crew interviews, this collection examines issues at the heart and soul of Supernatural's heroes and foes (fans, too)"--Amazon.com.
Don’t miss a page of the thrilling Naturals series by New York Times bestselling author Jennifer Lynn Barnes—this collection of four books includes a bonus e-novella! In The Naturals, seventeen-year-old Cassie is a natural at reading people. Piecing together the tiniest details, she can tell you who you are and what you want. But, it's not a skill that she's ever taken seriously. That is, until the FBI come knocking: they've begun a classified program that uses exceptional teenagers to crack infamous cold cases, and they need Cassie. But what Cassie doesn't realize is that there's more at risk than a few unsolved homicides--especially when she's sent to live with a group of teens whose gifts are as unusual as her own. Soon, it becomes clear that no one in the Naturals program is what they seem. And when a new killer strikes, danger looms close. Caught in a lethal game of cat and mouse with a killer, the Naturals are going to have to use all of their gifts just to survive. In Killer Instinct, Cassie hopes she and the rest of her team can stick to solving cold cases from a distance after barely escaping a confrontation with an unbalanced killer obsessed with her mother's murder. But when victims of a brutal new serial killer start turning up, the Naturals are pulled into an active case that strikes too close to home: the killer is a perfect copycat of Dean's incarcerated father--a man he'd do anything to forget. Forced deeper into a murderer's psyche than ever before, will the Naturals be able to outsmart the enigmatic killer's brutal mind games before this copycat twists them into his web for good? In All In, Cassie and the Naturals are called in to investigate a string of brutal murders in Las Vegas. But even with the team's unique profiling talents, these murders seem baffling: unlike many serial killers, this one uses different methods every time. All of the victims were killed in public, yet the killer does not show up on any security feed. And each victim has a string of numbers tattooed on their wrist. Hidden in the numbers is a code-and the closer the Naturals come to unraveling the mystery, the more perilous the case becomes. In Bad Blood, Cassie is reeling with the truth about her mother’s murder. Everything Cassie thought she knew about what happened that night her mother was killed been called into question. Her mother is alive, and the people holding her captive are more powerful--and dangerous--than anything the Naturals have faced so far. As Cassie and the team work to uncover the secrets of a group that has been killing in secret for generations, they find themselves racing a ticking clock. And when the bodies begin piling up, it soon becomes apparent that this time, the Naturals aren't just hunting serial killers. They're being hunted. In the novella Twelve, Cassie is now twenty-three years old, and she and her fellow Naturals have taken over running the program that taught them everything they know. As a unit, they're responsible for identifying new Naturals--and solving particularly impossible cases. When their latest case brings back a ghost from their past, Cassie and the other Naturals find themselves racing against the clock--and reliving their own childhood traumas. In a small, coastal town in Maine, there has been a rash of teen suicides--or at least, that's what the police believe. Enter the Naturals.
This is an irreverent survival guide for new teachers. The focus is on retelling mythic stories that display our humanity and enhance our empathic nature by giving free reign to the comedic side of our personality. In other words humor has a place in our lives and can be harnessed to help us survive the challenges of the secondary classroom. Humor can be the lever by which we find not only introspection, but also a philosophical approach to life as a teacher. This is not a “here’s what to do” manual. Rather, it is more like a compass helping us to navigate our way through the school day. It is not a “Pollyanna” approach to education. It is an immensely serious effort to assist teachers in winning the “hearts and minds” of their students.
In 1961 a thirty-year-old, soft-spoken coach took over a basketball program that had been rocked by accusations and internal concerns regarding recruiting violations and the image of the team. Today that coach has won nearly 80 percent of his games, finished first in the Atlantic Coast Conference 17 times, won 12 ACC Tournament titles, one Olympic gold medal, an NIT trophy, and two NCAA championships. Among the athletes he has put on the court are players named Jordan, Stackhouse, Worthy, Perkins, and Wallace - no fewer than 24 NBA first-round draft choices. And the Dean Smith story - a story of competition, compassion, and basketball genius - is a saga unfolding today: a legend of American sports. This beautiful volume, illustrated with full-color photographs, is a basketball odyssey of three decades, from Dean Edwards Smith's first coaching job at the Air Force Academy (with the golf team) to his most recent and 22nd consecutive appearance in the NCAA Tournament. In between are lean years and great years, bitter defeats, stunning victories, and vintage Carolina comebacks as Smith took over the badly shaken Tar Heel program from the legendary Frank McGuire. The Dean's List will conjure up vivid memories for college hoop fans - such moments as the Tar Heels' injury-riddled run to the 1977 national title game and heartbreaking loss to Marquette, the fervent battles with archrival Duke, and the incredible NCAA championship victories over Georgetown in 1982 and Michigan in 1993. And here too are the contests waged outside the public eye - recruiting struggles for such players as Tom McMillen, David Thompson, and Phil Ford, as well as the racially charged controversy that surrounded North Carolina's first black scholarship athlete, Charlie Scott. Away from the court, we see the tough and tender personal qualities that have allowed Dean Smith to run a program beyond reproach and graduate 97 percent of his players.
