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And Here's The Kicker: Conversations With 21 Top Humor Writers On Their Craft And The Industry (2009)

by Mike Sacks(Favorite Author)

4.05 of 5 Votes: 2

ISBN

1582975051 (ISBN13: 9781582975054)

languge

English

genre

Memoir & Autobiography

publisher

Writer's Digest Books

review 1: What a terrific book! If you deal with comedy in any form.... in print, cartoons, on television,on film, in a sketch troupe, an improv troupe, stand-up.... any of these, there is so much to learn here! Some of the best comedy writers around tell you about how they do what they do. Some deep, dark secrets of the craft are revealed here. I'm not kidding... it's like sitting in on 21 amazing Master classes. My favorite interviews were: Bob Odenkirk, Merrill Marko, Al Jaffee(of MAD magazine "fold-in cover" fame), Larry Gelbart, Stephen Merchant... but, truly, there wasn't one that I didn't enjoy. So, if you're already doin' funny as your vocation, this will help you be better at your job. Seriously. It will.
review 2: Sacks, the author, suggests this book will pro... morebably be read only by a) comedy nerds, and b) aspiring comedy writers. In my time I've been a bit of both. It's great to identify the source of certain comedy bits and great writing from the authors who rarely get their due -- who wrote the best or the ruminatively incisive bits on SNL over the years, what it's like to be a young man writing a sitcom about senior-aged Golden Girls. What it's like to be a woman in comedy -- those stories are few and far-between, unfortunately, as are the ones about being a person of color in the business. A comedy nerd would really appreciate some breadth of inspiration and perspective, and some cool new kinds of heroes. Off the top of my head, I can appreciate the interviews with Merrill Markoe, who wrote for David Letterman for a time, and Larry Wilmore, who wrote for The Daily Show and The Bernie Mac show, among others. In gracious snippets you get an understanding of the universality of comedy, how its spark and inspiration doesn't discriminate between race or gender, but then again, how the business side of it has and does, quietly and mercilessly. And half of that is just reading between the lines of this book.But there's good stuff to be had in here. Some good stories and anecdotes, a peek into the process and the business of comedy, the kooky ways writers got discovered in the old days that you seemingly never could now, its drudgeries and routines, the brilliant creations that keep the writers going, and tantalizing bits (but not enough) of the intriguing personal histories that gave birth to that need to make 'em laugh. less

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