Performing Arts

The exercises in this book will get you off the couch and onto the stage, helping you develop the skills necessary to envision, and achieve, a successful career in comedy....

The key principles of stand-up comedy can be applied to your speaking engagements and presentations to make you funnier, more interesting, and better looking (or at least two of the three)....

En esta galardonada producción de Audible Studios, Trevor Noah cuenta su salvaje historia sobre la mayoría de edad durante el ocaso del apartheid en Sudáfrica....

While other books give you tips on how to “write funny,” this book offers a paradigm shift in understanding the mechanics and art of comedy and the proven, practical tools that help writers translate that understanding into successful commercial scripts....

Scottie Price just started a new job and it's a real sausage fest. She's the only woman on a team filled with Brads and Chads. Expecting a bachelor pad atmosphere, she is quickly corrected when she finds out everyone is happily married.

Outsider. Misfit. Criminal. Convict. . . . Movie star. Family man. Comedy legend. Joey Diaz has been called every name in the book (and then some). Now, for the first time, he shares the story of his unlikely rise to fame in his own words—with no punches pulled....

In this definitive joke-writing handbook, learn comedy writing and how to write a joke with a simple comedy-writing and joke-writing formula you can use right now to write your own jokes....

At last, the definitive audiobook about perhaps the best cabin crew dramedy ever filmed: View from the Top starring Gwyneth Paltrow.....

In these fresh and hilarious personal essays, Mindy Kaling gives the inside scoop on her new role as single mom, the perks of being her own husband, and how she deals with social anxiety even at the most glamorous A-list parties....

Responding to a question about why there are not many women comediennes or jokes which do not have a male chauvinistic ring to them, Osho dives into the context and history of women in societies and the sense of humor coming into existence at a late stage of evolution....

Why is every film or tv programme a sequel or a remake? Why are people so f***ing hung up about swearing? Why do the asterisks in that sentence make it okay? These and many other questions trouble David Mitchell. Join him on a tour of the absurdities of modern life....

During the course of a career that began in the late 1940s, Lenny Bruce challenged the sanctity of organized religion and other societal and political conventions; he widened the boundaries of free speech. Critic Ralph Gleason said, "So many taboos have been lifted and so many comics have rushed...

Brought to you by Penguin. The #1 bestseller Packed with hard-won wisdoms and gentle revelations, this is Miranda's honest exploration of the lessons that have helped her. Hello to you, I am with news. I have a new book: I Haven’t Been Entirely Honest With You. I know – what an intriguing...

Berlin, Summer 2011. Adolf Hitler wakes up on a patch of open ground, alive and well. Things have changed – no Eva Braun, no Nazi party, no war....

Join professional comedy writer Joel Morris on a hilarious journey into the hidden world of shared laughter, where he reveals the mechanisms that make jokes work and what comedy can teach us about ourselves....

David Mitchell’s 2014 best seller Thinking About It Only Makes It Worse must really have made people think - because everything’s got worse....

The McGees make the mistake of trying to go to sleep early....

If it can happen in show business, it’s happened to Jon Cryer. Now he’s opening up for the first time and sharing his behind-the-scenes stories in a warmly endearing, sharply observed, and frankly funny look at life in Hollywood. In 1986, Jon Cryer won over America as Molly Ringwald’s...

Brought to you by Penguin.

Where do comedians come from?

Why is it that one person is a funny bloke down the pub while another actually makes a living by standing up in front of an audience telling jokes?

And where does all that material come from?

Well...

All five series of the award-winning sketch show—plus standalone comedy Daydream Believer....

At the age of 9, Romesh Ranganathan delivered his first ever stand-up set at a Pontin's Holiday Camp talent competition, smashing the only other competitor, a young girl playing the kazoo....

History that doesn't suck: Smart, crude, and hilariously relevant to modern life. Those who don't know history are doomed to repeat it. Too bad it's usually boring as sh*t. Enter The Captain, the ultimate storyteller who brings history to life (and to your life) in this hilarious, intelligent...

James Acaster has been nominated for the Edinburgh Comedy Award five times and has appeared on prime-time TV shows....

Authors Keegan-Michael Key and Elle Key build on the popularity of their 2022 Webby Award-winning podcast and delve deeper into the world of sketch, helped along with new essays created expressly for the book by comedy greats.

It's the complete second season of The Ricky Gervais Show - six episodes in one tidy package. It's packed full of all-new drivel, as Ricky and Steve Merchant forage through the long grass....

Want to learn the improv techniques that helped Mike Myers, Chris Farley, John Belushi, and many others along the road to TV and film stardom? Then let two esteemed founders of long-form improvisational theatre, Del Close and Charna Halpern, teach you the "Harold." This groundbreaking acting exercise emphasizes pattern recognition and subversion of the audience's expectations, which are important factors for making people laugh without ever telling a joke.

The gift pressure, the food squabbles, the travel nightmares… Christmas is a lot. Time to join award-winning comedian Katherine Ryan for her Christmas Intervention. Part seasonal survival guide, part family therapy session – you’re invited to a very Katherine Ryan Christmas. Sure, Katherine loves the holiday, but she needs it to change. It's chaotic, overwhelming, and no one can agree on how to do it right.

From longtime New York Times and Vanity Fair writer David Margolick comes the first definitive biography of Sid Caesar: founding father of television comedy and icon to generations of Americans. By the spring of 1954, Sid Caesar was the most influential, highly paid, and enigmatic comedian in...

La señora más vale madres y viral de internet comparte contigo las enseñanzas que le han ayudado a sobrevivir a la adolescencia de sus crías, a los cambios tecnológicos y hasta al pelón de su exmarido. Carito Acampa plasmó toda su sabiduría e ideas a la antigüita en este libro, y lo hizo tan bien¡que creerás que espía a tu mamá! ¡Momentito ahí, canij@! ¿Pensabas que su honestidad brutal no te iba a alcanzar? Carito Acampa te soltará una verdad dolorosa: para ser «señora», no hay edad.

Carolin Kebekus nimmt sich selbst, die Gesellschaft und alle Mütter und Väter aufs Korn, denn beim Kinderkriegen und Kinderhaben haben offenbar alle ungefragt ein Wörtchen mitzureden. Warum Schwangerschaft und Geburt immer noch mit vielen Tabus und falschen Annahmen behaftet sind, was einem als Schwangere und Mutter so alles passieren und entgegengeschleudert werden kann, was man so hört und liest und ungefragt gesagt bekommt, weil es tatsächlich alle besser wissen – das beschreibt dieses Hörbuch mit einer gehörigen Portion Selbstironie und dennoch unbeirrbarem Blick.

A feel-good fable and an enduring critique of conformity told with true John Waters flair. Listen as Waters himself acts out each role! Tracy Turnblad, a spunky, full-figured Baltimore teen, wants nothing more than to be a featured dancer on The Corny Collins Show. So when she gets chosen to be...

“Burroughs famously dubbed Waters the Pope of Trash. Female Trouble, we might say, is his Summa Trashologica.” —Ed Halter, The Criterion Collection Listen as Waters himself acts out each role! It all goes to hell when Baltimore bad girl Dawn Davenport doesn’t get the cha-cha heels...

A very John Waters traveling show, replete with freaks, robbery, murder, sex, blasphemy, and savage shellfish—a lurid, surreal celebration of filth and trash. Listen as Waters himself acts out each role! The Cavalcade of Perversion is a traveling show run by Lady Divine and a crew of her...

Brought to you by Penguin. From a life in comedy to the Glitterball Trophy – Chris McCausland Tells All. The perfect feel-good gift for fans of comedy and Strictly alike. Already one of the country's best loved comedians, Chris McCausland's participation on Strictly was a phenomenon. But how...

Read brilliantly by the author, Ben Elton. From The Young Ones and Blackadder theme music to snippets of his stand-up comedy shows, this audiobook includes bonus audio recordings showcasing special moments throughout Ben's incredible career. ‘What Have I Done? snaps, crackles and pops with wit...