The Funniest People in Books and Music

The Funniest People in Books and Music

Author: David Bruce

Publisher: iUniverse

Published: 2005-11-01

Total Pages: 135

ISBN-13: 0595378986

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

"The Funniest People Who Write Books and Make Music" contains such anecdotes as these: When Peg Bracken started writing, she would often type the first page of a famous short story for inspiration. Often, she discovered that the page did not look as impressive typed on a sheet of paper as it did printed on a page in a book, so sometimes she would imitate her English professor and write on the sheet of paper: 'You can do better than this, Mr. Faulkner." Andri Previn played jazz with a couple of American-African musicians. Afterwards, he went into a diner, where two white men asked him, 'Why the hell don't you play with your own kind?" Mr. Previn replied, 'To tell you the truth, I wanted to, but I couldn't find two other Jews who swing." Soccer and Cup Final day are important in England. Once, the noted conductor Sir Thomas Beecham held a rehearsal on Cup Final day. The rehearsal had been going on for only a short time when a giant television was delivered to the rehearsal area. Sir Thomas then said, 'Now, gentlemen, let's get down to the most important business of the day-watching the match."


How Not to Read

How Not to Read

Author: Dan Wilbur

Publisher: Penguin

Published: 2012-09-04

Total Pages: 196

ISBN-13: 1101611413

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

The Last Stupid Book You’ll Ever Need to Read Don’t want to slog through lengthy old books like A Tale of Two Cities or The Giving Tree? Sick of being judged by your avid-reader “friends” who talk about books you’ve never heard of? Want to sound smarter without the strain of actually bettering yourself? Never fear. In How Not to Read, you’ll find techniques to fake your way through literature so you never have to read another book—ever! Inside, you’ll find: •Tips for getting through anything you have to read by reading faster: Just read every third word. (One Hundred Years of Solitude becomes “Many as the Colonel was, that when him ice.” Wow! It’s like a Gertrude Stein poem only more comprehensible!) •Entire genres summed up in a single page: Historical fiction becomes “Guess who else had sex: Hitler!” •Literary insults to make yourself seem smarter: “The only thing sadder than you is a Joycean epiphany!” “You’re as weak as a passive sentence written in negative form. And probably not considered by anyone to be worth more than an adverb.” It’s time to stop fearing those people who keep bringing up Ayn Rand. How Not to Read is here to liberate the world from ever needing to read a book again.


Funny: The Book

Funny: The Book

Author: David Misch

Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield

Published: 2012-04-01

Total Pages: 229

ISBN-13: 1557839662

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Funny: The Book is an entertaining look at the art of comedy, from its historical roots to the latest scientific findings, with diversions into the worlds of movies (Buster Keaton and the Marx Brothers), television (The Office), prose (Woody Allen, Robert Benchley), theater (The Front Page), jokes and stand-up comedy (Richard Pryor, Steve Martin), as well as personal reminiscences from the author's experiences on such TV programs as Mork and Mindy. With allusions to the not-always-funny Carl Jung, George Orwell, and Arthur Koestler, Funny: The Book explores the evolution, theories, principles, and practice of comedy, as well as the psychological, philosophical, and even theological underpinnings of humor, coming to the conclusion that (Spoiler Alert!) Comedy is God.


A Confederacy of Dunces

A Confederacy of Dunces

Author: John Kennedy Toole

Publisher: Grove/Atlantic, Inc.

Published: 2007-12-01

Total Pages: 414

ISBN-13: 0802197620

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Winner of the Pulitzer Prize “A masterwork . . . the novel astonishes with its inventiveness . . . it is nothing less than a grand comic fugue.”—The New York Times Book Review A Confederacy of Dunces is an American comic masterpiece. John Kennedy Toole's hero, one Ignatius J. Reilly, is "huge, obese, fractious, fastidious, a latter-day Gargantua, a Don Quixote of the French Quarter. His story bursts with wholly original characters, denizens of New Orleans' lower depths, incredibly true-to-life dialogue, and the zaniest series of high and low comic adventures" (Henry Kisor, Chicago Sun-Times).


Comic Genius

Comic Genius

Author:

Publisher: Chronicle Books

Published: 2013-10-15

Total Pages: 214

ISBN-13: 1452131953

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

This star-studded tribute to the kings and queens of comedy draws together such legendary names as Steve Martin, Tina Fey, Steve Carell, Eddie Murphy, Robin Williams, Ricky Gervais, and many more. Granted extraordinary access, photographer Matt Hoyle has captured his subjects in portraits that are works of art in themselves—by turns zany and deadpan, laugh-out-loud and contemplative. Accompanying them are first-person reflections from each of the comedians on life and laughter that always cut straight to the heart of comedy: it's funny because it's true. Page after sidesplitting page in Comic Genius offers prose as engaging as each portrait is memorable. Here, in one handsome package, is the gift of laughter itself. Comic Genius is proud to support Save The Children.


Afternoon Men

Afternoon Men

Author: Anthony Powell

Publisher: University of Chicago Press

Published: 2014-11-06

Total Pages: 236

ISBN-13: 022618689X

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

A social comedy about "a company of giddyheads" and their wanderings in London's Bohemia.


Funny Thing about Minnesota...

Funny Thing about Minnesota...

Author: Patrick Strait

Publisher:

Published: 2021-02-02

Total Pages:

ISBN-13: 9781681341866

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

An insiders' look at the land of 10,000 laughs--how Minneapolis became a hotspot for comedy. It is a lively look back at the wild '80s scene and the creative legacy it wrought.


The Funniest People in Music, Volume 2: 250 Anecdotes

The Funniest People in Music, Volume 2: 250 Anecdotes

Author: David Bruce

Publisher: Lulu.com

Published: 2016-07-23

Total Pages: 110

ISBN-13: 9780557050529

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Print edition. This book contains 250 anecdotes about music, including this one: Woody Guthrie taught fellow folksinger Pete Seeger the art of busking-getting money for playing music in a bar. Here is what you do: Go into a bar with your guitar strapped ostentatiously on your back. Buy a beer for a nickel and sip it slowly. Soon, someone will ask about the guitar, "Can you play that thing?" Say, not too eagerly, "Maybe, a little." A little later, someone will say, "Kid, I've got a quarter for you if you pick us a tune." "Then," Mr. Guthrie would conclude, "you play your best song." Mr. Seeger did a lot of busking during his traveling days.


Poking a Dead Frog

Poking a Dead Frog

Author: Mike Sacks

Publisher: Penguin

Published: 2014-06-24

Total Pages: 475

ISBN-13: 0143123785

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER NAMED A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR BY NPR Amy Poehler, Mel Brooks, Adam McKay, George Saunders, Bill Hader, Patton Oswalt, and many more take us deep inside the mysterious world of comedy in this fascinating, laugh-out-loud-funny book. Packed with behind-the-scenes stories—from a day in the writers’ room at The Onion to why a sketch does or doesn’t make it onto Saturday Night Live to how the BBC nearly erased the entire first season of Monty Python’s Flying Circus—Poking a Dead Frog is a must-read for comedy buffs, writers and pop culture junkies alike.