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Stand-Up Comedy: The Book

judy carter

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All the world loves a clown and whether you want to clown around at parties or make a living as a standup comic, comedian Judy Carter can show you how to "do" comedy.

240 pages, Paperback

First published August 5,1989

This edition

Format
240 pages, Paperback
Published
August 5, 1989 by Dell
ISBN
9780440502432
ASIN
0440502438
Language
English

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About the author

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judy carter

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Rating(4.1 / 5.0, 19 votes)
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19 reviews All reviews
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Nxbeel_ud
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 17,2025
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Great book, practical application exercises, excellent lessons and discussions on comedy, and the book itself is pretty hilarious in its own right. If you want a good beginner's guide to comedy this is it.
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Epsilume
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 17,2025
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While it is a staple of its time (published in 1989 & has not been updated since) and Judy Carter definitely has a traditionalist attitude about stand up that I do not fully agree with, the principles & craft of putting an act together are fully intact, incredibly informative and the advice given from pros in this book are ones I will be holding on to.

It’s not a quick, easy read, despite what the page count will make you think, it has dozens of time consuming exercises to help you develop material & find what makes you funny. Get out the pens & highlighters for sure.

Any comedian will come out of this feeling more confident & assured in their pursuit. As Carter assures, just keep going. There’s a place for everyone.
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Zeenogre
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 17,2025
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This book helped me to do one of the greatest and creaziest things I've done: doing stand up.

I'm shy and don't speak much. I signed up for a local 2-months stand up workshop to improve my public speaking skills. Only for that, I wasn't interested in doing stand up. So, based on the advice on this book, I wrote some honest jokes about my lack of talent and skills with women, and it worked like magic.

I've never tought possible that I could make people laugh the way I did . One of the persons in the public of the theater where I said my 5-min routine, cried of joy and laugh. I could not belive it.

I highly recommend this book.
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Jutchan
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 17,2025
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This practical book offers tons of helpful advice for aspiring standup comics on how to develop material and hone their craft. However, this book is 33 years old now and pre-dates all forms of social media. So the advice near the back of the book on how to break into the comedy biz (e.g., perform at comedy clubs for X number of years til you develop enough solid material to audition for a sweet TV gig) is outdated and of limited use. Today's comics have a ton of options for building an audience via social media platforms, podcasts, and the like. Regardless, this is one of the better advice books I've read for newie standups and I strongly recommend it for anyone thinking about trying an Open Mic Night. I've tried an Open Mic Night a handful of times in recent years and I truly wish I had read this book first.
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jrry_kn
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 17,2025
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Very practical how- to guide with lots and lots of exercises
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daphredux
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 17,2025
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A well-written and concise introduction to making your way as a stand-up. Although it was written in 1989 (when I was merely a foetus) it still holds up now. It teaches how to find your own style as well as how to design your own material from real life scenarios that are probably happening around you right now!

There are lots of nods to comedians who are still active today so in reality this book is nowhere near as dated as you might think. I've just seen that Judy Carter has another book 'The Comedy Bible' so I'll be looking into ordering that soon too.
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WeebFan
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 17,2025
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This book covers some aspects of comedy and writing that others don't, it's worth adding on to your collection of "how-to" books on writing and performing stand-up comedy. This book, Greg Dean's "Step By Step To Stand-Up Comedy", and Dave Schwensen's "Comedy FAQ's" are the best books out there for learning the nuts and bolts of doing comedy. Again, noticing a theme that the best teachers of comedy have the heart of a teacher/mentor guide and all have conducted comedy workshops.
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haruna_ackerman
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 17,2025
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Really good explanations on creating different types of humour. Lots of examples, too. It's a fun book to read and work with!
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