Uncovering the Roots of American Comedy: A Look at the Drunks, Thieves, and Scoundrels Who Helped Shape the Genre

Hawkeyes: Great gift

United States on Sep 05, 2023

Kyle BurlesKyle Burles: Nesteroff is a brilliant and informative historian. This is THE book you want if you are looking at the history of comedy and comedians.

Canada on Apr 02, 2023

Garden Bum: It covers the history of comedy in America. However, it's a bit of long read. An abridged version would be swell.

United States on Jan 22, 2023

Robert B.: A very comprehensive and highly readable history of American comedy.

Canada on Jun 15, 2022

Amazon Customer: This book was so interesting. It showed the similar traits that most comedian' share and it was very interesting to see how comedy was through over a hundred years. Recommend this book.

Canada on Jun 13, 2019

Mark In Calgary: Surprisingly thorough, at times too much so, but filled with fascinating personal stories that span every major comedian’s career over the past century. Interesting insights into how our sense of humour has evolved across generations.

Canada on Oct 27, 2018

Amazon Customer: This book was not what had hoped it would be. I was hoping to learn about humor and its role and impact over the years. This book is a somewhat dry historical account of the careers of American comedians. There wasn't much actual humor and I got quite bored early on. I confess that I lost interest after a few chapters. To be honest, I admit that the book does deliver the message implied by the title. The material just was not very interesting for me.

Canada on Jun 29, 2018

M Tucker: Comedian and historian of comedy Kliph Nesteroff has written an informative, entertaining, fantastic, outstanding, surprising and sometimes shocking history of American comedy. I am very excited about this book, I could not put it down, I tell everyone I know about it, it was thrilling from the opening pages. Kliph is a walking encyclopedia of comedy history knowledge, he did a mass of research and conducted hundreds of interviews to put this book together.

This is an excellent and engaging book but it is not a complete history of American comedy. The actual history is too big to be covered in 400 pages, some will be overlooked. Starting with vaudeville the author immediately misses Mark Twain, the most iconic figure of American comedy. I think the author is trying to identify important groundbreaking performers and acts, who they influenced and how that style or genre is appreciated today. So, of course some performers will be overlooked or hardly mentioned. I think the biggest miss is the author’s treatment of Bob Hope.

He is mentioned but his early enormous successes are minimized while his later failures and difficulties were accentuated. Hope gets a minor...

United States on Mar 05, 2018

Scott M: *Please Read*: An Amazing book - and not exactly what I expected. I'd actually like to Rate this at 4.2 Stars. I'd give 5-Stars - but Being a Huge fan of Steven Wright, Emo Philips & Henny Youngman - there's barely a mention of them - yet time to write about Dane Cook (Yuck!) and 'Andrew Dice' (Yuck! Yuck!!). I expected this book to cover like the 1960's & 1970's - but it goes all the way back to the Vaudeville days!! I'd was 80% more detailed and interesting than I would have guessed. I took 47 pages of notes (for my own reference)!! Too much for me to even summarize here. I can't even begin to imagine all the research and information Kliph did and covered to make this book. I would put this - for a Comedian and/or Fan of Comedy - as a 'Must Read'!!
(Today is 8-7-2017) and a month ago I was blessed to open for Gilbert Gottfried and I bought him a copy of this book as a gift to him, and an ice breaker for meeting him. Before I could hand it to him - I was hinting around about it - and He named the book title & author. And said he already devoted one of his podcasts to this book!
*(Note) I know comedy is an art form and subjective - but - I'm so Sick & Tired...

United States on Aug 07, 2017

Drstatz: This is a marvelous work written in a highly-engaging manner. Considering it as a well-written reference book would be close to the mark. In many ways it could be viewed as a textbook on the topic of comedians and comedy and many reviewers have already pointed this out. It brought back memories and filled in some gaps in my recollections being I was extremely young when my path crossed some individuals named here.

My mother moved to Los Angeles about 1926 and my father about 1931. She worked at Paramount studios for a number of years and, given the dynamics of the African American community of Los Angeles at the time, was well acquainted with many of the individuals discussed and profiled. The mention of Jester Hairston was especially fond to my mind as I remembered Uncle Jester would give me a dollar when he would see me in my parents' company. I mentioned Uncle Jester because this book provided a bit of information of which I was unaware. Although the original Amos and Andy players were white, their supporting staff was entirely black. This book provides the best overview of black comedy I've seen or heard of. As my parents were well acquainted with the cast members of...

United States on May 05, 2016