Comic Insights: The Art of Stand-Up Comedy

According to author Franklyn Ajaye, he was partly inspired in his successful comedy, writing and producing careers by Larry Wilde's Great Comedians Talk About Comedy, a 1968 question & answer style interview book, reprinted in 2000 (available on Amazon.com). Wilde's book contains insightful interviews with late 20th century top comedians and Ajaye hoped his own Comic Insights would be along the same lines.In fact, Comic Insights, a book containing interviews with some of the early 21st century's comic geniuses, is as good as or even better than Wilde's wonderful and still timely book.The reason: Comic Insights contains not only great interviews but also specific and concise advice on standup comedy performance technique -- complete with easy-to-review notes at the end of key chapters. It's one of the best books ever published on the subject.Comic Insights is required reading for ANYONE remotely or seriously interested in performing comedy, key comedy techniques, the comedian's mind-set, goal-setting,perseverance, the need to be YOU onstage and -- a crucial subject incredibly ignored in most comedy books ...TIMING. Hopefully it'll be reprinted periodically, like Wilde'sbook. If it isn't and you don't have a copy then you'll be out of luck because you'll be missing a vital potential comedy tool.This book was so fascinating, easy to read, and had so much good information, facts, performing tips and inspiration that I virtually defaced it with my colored-marker underlinings and little notes written in ink. Any second the Book Police will (rightfully) arrest me .....The first section is one of the most readable explanations of key standup tricks of the trade ever written. If an aspiring comedian uses some of these principles it could save him years of bombing. Ajaye also includes helpful review notes at the end of each of these sections.There are far too many superb tips to list here, but a few include studying WHY top comedians are funny; studying the use of timing, body language and visual effects. The importance of recording and analyzing your act. And, critically, the importance of being yourself in performance and act content: "The hacks can steal your joke but they can't steal the way you look at life," he writes.Peppered throughout are the BEST written explanations (from him and other comedians) on timing EVER published. He points to the famous (and sadly not re-run) eternal master of timing Jack Benny and notes that timing is a way to "light the fuse" on ajoke, by taking a pause to deliver a punchline. Don't "be afraid of silent moments," he advises, and wait until a laugh naturally subsides before moving to another joke.The second section includes a wide range of the 21st century's top laugh-makers (again too many to cite here). Some key highlights include:---LOUIE ANDERSON, a master of setting up routines, using his eyes, space and silence, inspired by Jack Benny. Anderson says: "The secret behind timing is to hold whatever you're going to say until you absolutely have to say it."--ELAYNE BOOSLER on the importance of taping an act, listening to it, analyzing it and enhancing it..--GEORGE CARLIN'S great explanation of how evolved from a jacket-and-tie comediandoing stock, standard jokes in front of people who he realized where his parents' friends into a comedy icon for his own and younger generations by changing his jokes, dress(getting fired for it) his attitude -- and the way many comedians forever would do comedy.--ELLEN DEGENERES & PAUL REISNER: The slowing down joke delivery.--JAY LENO: The importance of learning jokes (he has no joke file) and goal setting (you should be able to make standup within 7 years work).--CHRIS ROCK: On the importance of writing NEW jokes to take any comedy career to the next level.--ROSEANNE & JERRY SEINFELD: The importance being disciplined to constantly write down ideas (on anything even napkins), jokes, concepts and then sit down and translate those ideas into actual performable material.--GARY SHANDLING: Persistance. He bombed for 5 years but never gave up.The third section is especially useful since managers, club owners and agents tell what they seek in a comedian. Talent Agent Irv Arthur, among other things, notes the importance of total preparation to be ready for the big break when it comes.This superb book, especially if read together with Greg Dean's wonderful Step By Stepto Standup Comedy (also available on Amazon), could save aspiring comedians years of frustration and tears....and it tips off civilians to what's really lurking behind the curtain of that comedy wizard of the Oz called "the comedy club."

The lone negative review is so off it's beyond belief. This is, in part, my defending a book which I found to be the most helpful of the 3 I own (the other two being Judy Carter's) and challenges the negative points in the bad review.The author's introduction includes the information that he found law school disinteresting, which is a fact that cohesively brings him to his self-admitted bumpy first night at stand-up comedy. His analysis of comics was fresh information to me. I am relatively new to stand-up (one year) and never thought to specify what makes my comedic heros funny. This advice is tailored to the individual as a road to slowly find one's footing in this world of comedy, a full introduction.The author does not simply state "tap into your own life experiences". What he does suggest is for the beginning comic to try and find their own voice, whatever that may be, i.e. what we are truly passionate about, as opposed to what we think we should write about. And he writes about this in great detail.The "third eye" is explained in great detail. I was stumped when sitting down to my notebook to write jokes. I thought to myself "if only I could get to that 'zone' in which I'm on a roll with my friends, making them laugh". The author is urging the reader to expand on his/her own self-awareness as to when and why people respond to him with laughter, as well as asking them to stay aware to one's surroundings and environment. If you're funny or geared towards comedy, your original take on life will guide you, over time, to better writing. That's "third eye" in a nutshell. I'm not an author, nor an expert, but I feel compelled to offer just a tiny explanation of the in-depth book discussion so dismissed above on "third eye".Lastly, I was at first concerned with the seemingly small portion of the book before the interviews. First of all, those pages offer so much more than previous, now dated books (i.e. Judy Carter) in less space; Secondly, the interviews are truly the most informative part of the book. Trust me. Most of the subjects are so humble and truthful about their beginnings. (I write most as there was one comic who I found egomaniacal, and that in its own way was informative about that world). Hearing their stories and different methods is priceless.This book rocks.