Get Started in Stand-Up Comedy (Teach Yourself) by Logan Murray (26-Mar-2015) Paperback

by Logan Murray

Excellent Book

Genres: Comedy

Unknown Binding

First published March 26, 2015

Reviews

[John Dolan · Rating 4 out of 5]

A practical guide (happily without too much philosophy or Freud) which newbies to the comedic art should find very helpful. Does exactly what it says on the tin.

[Frederic · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the best book I have read on the craft of standup comedy. The author is British, so the book reflects that culture and is better written than most American books on the subject. Author Logan Murray teaches standup and is an experienced comedian.

He covers stagecraft, psychology, sources of humour and the business of comedy, but I most appreciated his many suggested exercises for generating material.

Some of these are group, improvisation games, which don't interest me, but he also offers writing exercises that are better and more extensive than I have seen elsewhere. I can't wait to get started.

The book is so useful that even his strident socialism failed to put me off. Highly recommended.

[César Vásquez · Rating 5 out of 5]

Creo que es un excelente libro que se puede leer como complemento del libro "The New comedy bible" de Judy Carter, ya que se enfoca un poco más en escribir y juegos para quitar los nervios y empezar a saber ser más gracioso. Un gran libro, sin duda volveré a él de vez en cuando a repasar aspectos interesantes, al igual que el de Judy Carter.

[sophie ann · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this book not because I want to become a comedian, but because I'm a huge stand-up comedy fan and wanted to see if there was any theory I could read on the subject.

I found this book so interesting! It definitely gave me more of an insight as to what comedians think about and I feel more knowledgable about comedy than I did before started in a lot of ways - how jokes are formed, crowd control and modern comedy to name a few.

I've given 4 stars as I can't rate the (many!) writing exercises that are in this book, but I was inspired to become a comedian while reading this. The seed has been planted so who knows :)

I would definitely recommend this to anyone who wants to read up on comedy but not in overwhelming detail.

[Craig · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great exercises, but slightly hamstrung by the listicle, bulletpoint-y format of this type of book.