In the late 1970s, the alternative comedy scene exploded into life in Britain and completely changed the style, subject matter and politics of British stand-up.
This book explores the comedy and legacy of women working as performers on the music-hall stage from 1880-1920, and examines the significance of their previously overlooked contributions to British comic traditions.
Susan Fleming appeared in three Broadway shows and twenty-eight films before she turned her back on a show business career she never really enjoyed or wanted.
Women and Comedy: History, Theory, Practice presents the most current international scholarship on the complexity and subversive potential of women's comedic speech, literature, and performance.
Aristophanes is the only surviving representative of Greek Old Comedy, an exuberant form of festival drama which flourished in Athens during the fifth century BC.
The most up-to-date study of the Hollywood romantic comedy film, from the development of sound to the twenty-first century, this book examines the history and conventions of the genre and surveys the controversies arising from the critical responses to these films.
Drawing together scholars with a wide range of expertise across the early modern period, this volume explores the rich field of early modern comedy in all its variety.
Drawing together contributions from scholars in a range of fields within 19th- and 20th-century cultural, literary, and theater studies, this volume provides a thorough and varied overview of the many forms comedy took in the 19th century.
'A hilarious and original voice' Josh Widdicombe'Delightfully smart and impossibly charming' Dolly Alderton'His writing is as unpredictable and brilliant as he is' Sophie Duker'I've got nothing but love for Mr Ivo Graham' Frankie BoyleYardsticks For Failure is the story of the most frantic two years of Ivo Graham's already quite frantic life, 2022-2024, two years of tasks and tears and everything in between.
A selection of the world's most incredible things according to award-winning writer, comedian, artist and podcaster Rob AutonI Strongly Believe In Incredible Things is a book of poetic prose, musings, short stories and biro drawings detailing a selection of the Earth's incredible things by award-winning writer, comedian, artist and podcaster Rob Auton.
'The inimitable Quentin Letts dares to say in a new book what we've all been secretly thinking' Mail on Sunday'Fuming and chuckling by turns' Daily Telegraph'Underneath the jocularity of Letts's style is a lot of real anger' Roger Lewis, The TimesHands, face, space.
Situation Comedy, Character, and Psychoanalysis puts the sitcom character on the analyst's couch and closely examines the characters of Basil Fawlty, Lucy Ricardo and Kim from Australia's Kath & Kim, in order to reveal the essential elements that must exist in a sitcom before even the first joke is written.
A fun and fascinating deep dive for "e;devoted and loyal MST3K fans"e; (Library Journal) that reveals the impact and creation of the cult-hit television series Mystery Science Theater 3000.
The king of radio comedy from the Great Depression through the early 1950s, Jack Benny was one of the most influential entertainers in twentieth-century America.
Clown: The Physical Comedian is a detailed and comprehensive workbook for those interested in the art of clowning and physical theatre, including actors, directors, improvisers, stand-up comedians, circus artists, mask performers and devisers of new work.
The Comic Offense from Vaudeville to Contemporary Comedy examines how contemporary writer/performers are influenced by the comedic vaudevillians of the early 20th century.
This book explores comic performance in Pakistan through the vibrant Indo-Muslim tradition of the Punjabi bhand which now holds a marginal space in contemporary weddings.
***WALL STREET JOURNAL BESTSELLER***'A smart, funny, brilliant book on how to be smart about being funny, brilliantly' Sarah Cooper'This book has finally convinced me that joking around can actually be important and powerful' Ed Gamble'Eye-opening, important and utterly enjoyable.
Among silent film comedians, three names stand out-Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton, and Harold Lloyd-but Harry Langdon indisputably deserves to sit among them as the fourth "e;king.
Entropic comedy is the phrase coined by Patrick O'Neill in this study to identify a particular mode of twentieth-century narrative that is not generally recognized.
In this engagingly witty, wise, and heartfelt memoir, Martin Short tells the tale of how a showbiz-obsessed kid from Canada transformed himself into one of Hollywood's favorite funnymen, known to his famous peers as the "e;comedian's comedian.
This book explores how women scientists are portrayed in hit American TV comedies The Big Bang Theory, Never Have I Ever, and Zoey's Extraordinary Playlist using a science communication lens.
