Successful Stand-Up Comedy: Advice from a Comedy Writer

by Gene Perret

Book by Perret, Gene

Genres: Comedy

222 pages, Paperback

First published August 1, 1994

Reviews

[Becca Potters]

rented out from the cinematic arts library at usc! since it was written in 1993, there were quite a few chapters and bits of advice that are outdated thanks to how social media platforms, youtube, and streamers have influenced comedy culture in the past ten years, but the stuff that isn’t outdated felt timeless to me. i can already feel the way i write changing. particularly liked the chapters “if you’re gonna do it, do it”, “be somebody”, “how are you?”, and “have a conversation with your audience”

[Roger Woods]

Interesting book by an experienced comedy writer. Many of the ideas set out can be applied to magic as well.

[James Van Voorst]

Very outdated, but has some very solid and sound advice.

[Red]

I bought this book hoping for practical tips and writing exercises as I believed that would be a subset of "Successful Stand-Up Comedy", but that turns out not to be the case.

To quote p. 58 of this book:
"The techniques and skills of creating comedy are beyond the scope of this book. However, for those who are interested in writing their own routines, I'll unashamedly recommend two other books that I've written."

The book is advice about being a stand-up comic in the most abstract sense, interesting, but nothing you can immediately apply to your material or performance.

3 stars because Gene Perret has been there and hearing his war stories are interesting.

[Mel]

I read this when I was doing stand up comedy in 99- it was very helpful, great read.