The Comedy Bible: From Stand-up to Sitcom--The Comedy Writer's Ultimate "How To" Guide

Good book

I feel like I could read this book every day for the rest of my life. It was referred to me by another actor that noticed that I was funny and drawing and holding a crowd but thought that I could use some focus. Good stuff. Miss Olivia Rosalind Dodson, BS, MA VA Independent Film Festival Winner, actress, director, writer Real Estate school 2017 2017 Sheetz Ferrari commercial 2017 LIDL German Grocer commercial 2017 Copycat Killers, principal 2017 Lumber Liquidators catalog, principal 2017 Appomattox Tourism commercial, featured 2017 Colonial Williamsburg commercial, principal 2016 Toyota Commercial, Eastern US, featured Avett Brothers music video 2016, featured The Sinner w Jessica Biel, featured murder witness, 2017 Diary of a Wimpy Kid w Alicia Silverstone 2017, background HBO, VEEP, Season 4 (my name on the Emmy list) PBS's Mercy Street, 2016 Commercial and print Mid-Michigan Health, principal Novant/UVA superbowl commercial Good Behavior TNT, Ep 2&4, background Shots Fired FOX, Ep 1&7 Outcast, Season 2, beacon 2017 Jeep commercial 2017 GMC commercial Naked w Marlon Wayans 2017, featured wedding officiant imdb. me/oliviadodson

I purchased and read this book in early 2016. Although it was copyrighted in 2001, the content is just as relative today as when it was first published. The Comedy Bible will teach you how to construct a joke, how to get laughs, how to trim excess verbiage, and string jokes together into a set. She will steer you away from hack premises and in the direction of "runners" and "act outs". The section on developing a one-person show is humbling because it exposes the amount of effort and skill required to create such a production. Did I mention it will teach you how to construct a joke and get laughs? Many comedy guides available are more akin to memoirs of comedy experiences, which are useful in their own right. However, Judy Carter's The Comedy Bible will help you generate and perform material.

It seems a nice book although this is the opinion of a novice that has never practiced or read other books on the topic. It gives a general view on the job. The issue is that it does not go deep on the joke construction techniques

I don't believe that anyone can teach a person how to be funny. I believe funny is a combination of natural talent and experience. However, I do believe that people who have studied an art form and people who have lived that art form can teach those new to the craft some important lessons. I've found the lessons in this book to be worth the investment. I'll grant I'm not a huge fan of the format (workbook) - and being a little skeptical of the exercises - I initially ignored them. That changed upon reading a scathing review of a comic's show at a unrelated website. The review covered some of the comic's fundamental mistakes and these happened to be the very mistakes Judy's lessons were trying to teach me how to avoid. I went back and started doing some of the exercises (premise writing) that I was initially convinced were a waste of time and I began to see why they were valuable. Now I find myself re-reading portions of the premise writing lessons. Very nice introductory text.

If you have a tendency to make people laugh, occasionally on purpose, you NEED this book. After years of "Hey, you're kinda funny!" and "Why don't you do an open mic or something?" I decided to 'research' my options. Judy Carter's book is a one-stop source for just such a task. Combining excellent advice from her experience as a comedy coach and peppered liberally with examples, quips, and ruminitions (I'm a big-word fan) from a veritable (see?) who's who in the comedy world, this book is informative from front to back. Her structured, schedule-based approach keeps the neophyte comic on track, whether the desired end goal is actually doing a stand-up routine, writing a spec. sitcom script, or writing more 'literary' humor pieces. The last section - covering the business aspects of comedy - also contains indispensible advice for the comic ready to chuck it all, quit his or her day job, and take to the open road. Buy it, read it, and live it.

I find the advice in this book not only practical but sage-like. Anything you want to know about how to do stand-up comedy for a living is in here. Of course, some would argue that you can't learn how to do stand-up comedy from a book, and they are right. But you can learn how to learn to do stand-up from a book and this is that book. She also gives guidelines about what not to do, you can ignore them, try them out and find out she was right, that is also part of the learning experience taught by this book. It is going to take me years to fully comprehend how accurate and useful this book is and I'm happy she wrote it.

I bought this as my first book to help me in my pursue of a career in comedy (stand up comedy to be specific). I'm not so happy with it. This book seems like it's based on her experience with students in her workshop and if you can not create the same atmosphere she manages to have in her workshops, then you will not get what she intends to give. For example, you have to make sure you have (what she calls) a comedy buddy, someone who she assumes is sitting on the next chair all the time to help you complete the tasks in each section. So if you can't manage to find a comedy buddy, I hope you have a split personality problem. She tends to frame the reader into subjects of her choice and tasks one must do with or without the comedy buddy to continue reading to the next section. That's not so helpful when you're reading all alone in your room or at a coffee shop. She does provide good advice about the do's and dont's of stand up comedy along with some real good tips. However, she tends to contradict herself at times and sometimes seem irrational and bossy (she thinks it's funnier this way). This is not a book to read, it's more of a textbook she could use during her workshops. If you want to benefit from Judy Carter, if she's as good as she's known to be, then attend her workshop instead of buying this book.

Ultimate must-have for comedy aficionados of any level.

だいいち、この著者、もともと学校の先生の出身だ。そこから深みにはまって、自分自身でお笑いをやるようになり、後進たちを指導するようになった。写真のキャプションからして、この写真はレタッチしていません、これを撮ったころにはそんな技術はなかったんです、などと、いらぬことを書いてある。 とにかくよく整理されているワークブックだ。お笑いの構造を、セットアップと、オチに分け、セットアップを態度・話題・前置から組み立て、オチをアクトアウト＋ミックス＋アクトアウトで盛り上げる。実際、米国のお笑いは、日本のようなギャグでバカ騒ぎするのではなく、シリアスなセットアップと、底抜けのオチと、波状攻撃をかけるのが一般的で、セットアップでの引き込みがあってこそ機能するのだが、日本のような内輪受けとはいかず、なにしろ老若男女、白黒黄色に都会人から田舎者まで、多様な客が同時にいることを意識しないといけない。ここでは差別的な笑いなど、論外だ。それゆえ、この本では、オチ以上に、セットアップに力点が置かれている。 米国の近年の著名なお笑いタレントたちの紹介もあり、彼らのお笑いに対するヒントも興味深い。また、第三章では、プロのお笑い家としてやっていくための生き方まで書かれている。最初から最後まで、ふざけた文章だらけながら、本気で人を笑わすことを理論的に考え抜き、お笑いの基本的訓練を、この本だけで通信教育のようにやろうという熱意と愛情が溢れている。こんな調子だから、読むだけでも充分におもしろい。

One book filled with useful advices and guidlines. Written with easy English, which makes it understandable also for those who do not speak very good english.

From the first who wrote a book about standup comedy, about 33 years ago, an even better one. Judy Carter gives us this time a whole workshop, of 'modern standup' comedy, inspired by a big number of workshops she has given. So much to absorbe and learn, slowly, one workshop at a time if one wants to learn it all. Or, rush to read it first, then come back and do the exercises one by one. On her website, she even has a DVD / CD combination accompaniment.

Good book