Comic Insights: The Art of Stand-Up Comedy

Any comedy junkie knows that most of the books written on standup just plain stink. Whereas Judy Carter's "Standup Comedy-The Book" is a decent read, it is of course extremely dated now (screams 1980s homogeneous comedy club standup!) and is far too formulaic for most comics. Greg Dean's book is far better than Carter's; however, Dean suffers from being too quantitative in his approach to and understanding of comedy. His book can help one appreciate joke theory, but will do little--practically speaking--to help polish a mediocre comic. My favorite book on standup generally is definitely Jay Sankey's "Zen and the Art of Standup Comedy." It is an excellent read, jam packed with highly practical insights and suggestions about how to truly become a good comic. That said, what Sankey's book lacks in terms of insights from the living comedic masters themselves Ajaye's book more than makes up for. Larry Wilde did it in 1968 with the greatest comic legends of the 1950s and 1960s, and Ajaye did it again with the greatest comics of the 1980s and 1990s. In fact, Ajaye's book is superior to Wilde's in at least two respects. First, Ajaye has included his own highly refined tips and suggestions about how to become a good comic, which Wilde has no trace of. Ajaye's thoughts are so highly structured and logically organized that it is no wonder he is putting that NYU law school education to good use after all. Secondly, Ajaye's interviews are, at times, more revealing and more helpful than Wilde's because Ajaye is a serious practitioner of the art of standup himself, whereas Wilde--though he is undoubtedly America's best-selling humorist--is still just a humorist. A humorist does not a comedian make. If you want to know what makes good comedians become great, read Franklyn Ajaye's book. You won't be disappointed.

I liked this book. I bought several at the same time. All the others were comedy 'how-to' books. I found them useful to varying degrees. This kind of surprised me in that it wasn't such a 'how-to' book. If I'd spent more time reading the preview, I'd have seen that it didn't pretend to be anything other than what it is - a collection of summarised experience from an indisputedly star-studded list of comedy noteables. A staggeringly varied list of comedians etc but with common themes running through their advice. I recommend this book to comedians who are serious about sticking at this for the long-term.

This book is easy to read, but very intellectual in its approach to learning comedy. The author takes all your trivial questions seriously (asking if the comics write before they go onstage, if they DO he reveals if is in outline form or word-for-word.) It is interesting to read of the wide variety of writing styles--Jay Leno never wrote anything down, Ellen Degeneres writes down every word. Richard Lewis goes on stage with his "Torah" he calls it - his constantly-evolving sheet of material. The other inspiring thing is he finds out how comics did when they first started. Gary Shandling bombed for the first five years. Wow.

I'm an actor who's been thinking about trying to do stand up comedy. I picked up this book because all my favorite comics were interviewed in it, and I'm glad I did. It's a great book!! As good in it's own way as Michael Caine's great book on film acting which is my acting bible. In the first section of the book Mr. Ajaye talks about what makes a good comedian, and how to study comedians in order to learn from them. It's made me look at comedians much more analytically and appreciate what it takes to be a good one. His writing style is straightforward and full of practical information. The second section has full length probing interviews with today's great comedians, and they are fascinating to read. They speak about their own beginning experiences, difficulties, fears, and methods. Some of them are surprisingly philosophical and offer gems that can be applied to life in general. I found myself highlighting portions of these interviews to refer back to. The third section of the book has interviews with managers, agents, and comedy club owners, and their insights are valuable as well. If you're thinking about being a stand up comedian, you can't do better than this book.