The Definitive Guide to Comedy: From Stand-up to Sitcoms

Rebecca: Helped a friend alot! Great book.

United States on May 08, 2023

Tancer: Para las personas que vamos iniciando en esto de la comedia, este libro es el pilar de cada cómico. La verdad, al inicio es un poco lento, pero poco a poco los ejercicios que da el libro te dan las herramientas necesarias para empezar a hacer tu rutina cómica. También; tiene un capítulo enfocado a los que nos dedicamos a escribir para programas de televisión e internet 👌🏻

Mexico on Feb 09, 2021

Paulo: Pra quem tem interesse em estudar estrutura de comedia e comedia stand-up vale a pena ler, se você for brasileiro como eu o vocabulário do livro é relativamente simples, com meu nível de inglês ta dando pra ler de boa e não sou super fluente nem nada do tipo domino um pouco além do básico.

Brazil on Sep 22, 2020

Book Person: I love the book. Incredible book. It arrived quickly. Thank you very much.

Canada on Feb 03, 2020

Deelip Bhadane: Good book

India on Mar 14, 2019

Molly: This is great if you're just getting into comedy performance. There's a lot of information that probably doesn't apply to you based on the age of the book and the differing makeup of the business, but there are a lot of great ideas that can help you with getting better at a very tough craft.

United States on May 07, 2018

Beatrice M.: Chiamarla addirittura "Bible" è un po' da presuntuosi, ma in tutti i modi Judy Carter ha ripreso un po' i concetti del libro precedente "Stand-up Comedy - The book". Questa, diciamo, è la versione ampliata. Ci sono numerosi riferimenti a grandi comedian.
Sono appassionata di stand-up comedy.
Libro arrivato nei tempi previsti, in condizioni perfette.

Italy on Mar 24, 2018

Olivia Dodson: 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...

United States on Jul 09, 2017

Stephen Jeffrey Watson: 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.

United States on Mar 22, 2016

J. Thelen: 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.

United States on Dec 10, 2013