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On Being Funny: Woody Allen and Comedy
On Being Woody Allen and Eric On Being Woody Allen and FIRST First Edition, Second Printing. Not price-clipped. Published by Charterhouse, 1975. Octavo. Hardcover. Book is like new. Dust jacket is like new. 100% positive feedback. 30 day money back guarantee. NEXT DAY SHIPPING! Excellent customer service. Please email with any questions. All books packed carefully and ship with free delivery confirmation/tracking. All books come with free bookmarks. Ships from Sag Harbor, New York. Seller 305838 Biography & Letters We Buy Books! Collections - Libraries - Estates - Individual Titles. Message us if you have books to sell!
256 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1975
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
August 9, 2025
Good, candid overview of Woody’s views on comedy and filmmaking, and his process at age 40, with insights into the filming of "Sleeper", specifically. After several years as a hotly in-demand comedian and writer for other comedians, Allen had entered his 30s as a beloved cult figure, writing comic pieces for the New Yorker, appearing as a second-stringer in Hollywood films, and then embarking on his own "early funny films" of which the fourth was in post-production when this came out. Eric Lax - who knew Allen – had taken on the role of ‘official biographer’ by this point. He was given great access to the man, and indeed this would be the first of five books that would come to pass. While the second, which follows quickly, is a sort of proto-biography, and third is an actual biography, the content here is not so revealing. It's a fairly short introduction on Allen's theories on comedy and filmmaking.
What makes this book worthwhile is two things: 1) long before Allen had any need to 'protect' his public legacy, there are no reasons for him to present a particular bias or case, making this book one of the more transparent of his many authorised and semi-authorised volumes. 2) So many of his lifetime filmmaking habits, views, and ideology are already on display here, only three films into his fifty-film career. This is a report rather than analysis, but as the first key text on Allen, it has a place.
What makes this book worthwhile is two things: 1) long before Allen had any need to 'protect' his public legacy, there are no reasons for him to present a particular bias or case, making this book one of the more transparent of his many authorised and semi-authorised volumes. 2) So many of his lifetime filmmaking habits, views, and ideology are already on display here, only three films into his fifty-film career. This is a report rather than analysis, but as the first key text on Allen, it has a place.
April 21, 2014
Not that funny.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews