Comedy Books Archives - Page 17 of 18 - Ben Rosenfeld

October 22, 2009January 13, 2010

Book Review: Chocolate, Please

Disclaimer: I received a complimentary review copy of this book. I’d like to think it didn’t influence my review, but who knows. (If you’d like me to review something comedy related on my site, contact me.)

“Chocolate, Please” by Lisa Lampenelli is unlike many books by comics I’ve recently read. Instead of taking her best hour of stand up, adding another two hours of second rate jokes and typing them up, Lampenelli takes the reader on a voyage of her struggles with weight, food and men, and the rehab clinics she attended because of them. This isn’t to say the book isn’t funny, it is, but this book stands on its own without you needing to be a fan of the writer or her comedy beforehand. (I was only vaguely familiar with her myself.)

Being a comedian I wanted to read more about Lampenelli’s comedy career struggles and less about her weight struggles. But then again, that seems to be her point: You can be really successful in one part of your life and a complete failure in other parts, and the success doesn’t fully matter until you’ve dealt with the failing parts. Along that train of thought, the line “As I believe is true in anything and especially comedy, all you need is one person who believes” struck me as especially poignant.

When Lisa does mention comedy, she hits the nail on the head with such observations as, “Comedy is a strange profession. People who have been onstage two times in their lives have business cards that say “Comedian.” Therefore, a comic’s entire career is focused on separating himself from the delusional wackos.” Other good observations include, “Comics who stand at the bar after their sets are either drunks or trying to get laid”, “When you’re an adult, it’s easy to ruin someone’s life. But when you can do it as a kid – that’s a gift” and “Our entire economic system is based on people succeeding just to stick it up the ass of people who were mean to them in high school.”

While I enjoyed reading the book, I would’ve liked it more without the last section, which drops her story and goes into random jokes and musings. (Although if you’re already a Lampenelli fan, you’ll probably like that section.)

Overall: This is an above average book in the comedy genre because it’s honest and follows an actual storyline. Read this book if you’re struggling with relationships and/or self image, or if you like a good “hero’s journey” type of autobiography. This also makes for a great gift if someone is just getting out of, or on their way to, rehab.

September 29, 2009January 13, 2010

Book Review: I’m Having More Fun Than You

Aaron Karo’s third book, “I’m Having More Fun Than You” spends 241 pages arguing that “being single is more fun and fulfilling than being in a relationship, and that getting married in your twenties is akin to signing fun’s death sentence.” And while I’d agree with that sentiment, if you’ve read the previous quote, you’ve practically read the book. “I’m Having More Fun Than You” felt like a standup comedy act that was written out and not fully tightened. I wanted more actual stories and less generalizing of experiences. However, if you like the Todd Barry / George Carlin type books, you’ll probably like this book too.

In fairness, I was entertained enough to finish the book and I laughed out loud at lines like “Some of us worry about dying alone. The rest of us fret about going home alone” and “A best friend is someone you’ve known for more than a decade, but if you had never met him before, and then hung out with him today for the very first time, you’d remark, “Wow. What a dick.”

I also shook my head in full agreement about Karo’s statements like “The true benefits of bachelorhood are just as much about what you don’t have as what you do have – one cannot truly live the dream without both the presence of options and the absence of annoying obligations to a significant other” and “Taking a girl to dinner is just about the most mature thing I’ve ever done. When I’m in the middle of a date I can’t help but think I’m still eighteen and soon everyone is going to expose me as a fraud.” Basically, if you can’t articulate the benefits of being a bachelor, this is the treatise for you. Then again, if you don’t yet know the benefits, you’re probably already married.

Overall: This is an average but entertaining book that makes a good souvenir if you like Karo’s standup and a better gift to give a groom at his bachelor party. If you’re not yet a fan, go see him perform instead of reading this book.

May 13, 2009June 13, 2012

“Born Standing Up” Quotes

I read Steve Martin’s auto biography of his years doing stand up comedy a little while ago and thought I’d post my favorite quotes from it.

“I did stand-up comedy for eighteen years. Ten of those years were spent learning, four years were spent refining, and four were spent in wild success.” (1)

“The comedian’s slang for a successful show is “I murdered them,” which I’m sure came about because you finally realize that the audience is capable of murdering you.” (2)

“I was seeking comic originality, and fame fell on me as a by-product. The course was more plodding than heroic: I did not strive valiantly against doubters but took incremental steps with a few intuitive leaps.” (2-3)

“Perseverance is a great substitute for talent.” (53)

“Despite a lack of natural ability, I did have the one element necessary to all early creativity: naivete, that fabulous quality that keeps you from knowing just how unsuited you are for what you are about to do.” (54)

“Teaching is a form of show business.” (86)

“I concluded that not to continue with comedy would place a question in my mind that would nag me for the rest of my life: Could I have had a career in performing? Everything was dragging me toward the arts; even the study of modern philosophy suggested philosophy was nonsense.” (87)

“Comedy is a distortion of what is happening, and there will always be something happening.” (104)

“Sign of encouragement… Bill Cosby said that early in his career, when the audience wasn’t laughing, he could hear the waitresses laughing, and they saw the show night after night.” (106)

“A laugh forms when the storyteller creates tension, then, with the punch line, releases it.” (110)

“I gave myself a rule: Never let them know I was bombing: This is funny, you just haven’t gotten it yet.” (112)

“Another rule was to make the audience believe I was fantastic, that my confidence could not be shattered. They had to believe that I didn’t care if they laughed at all, and that this act was going on with or without them.” (112)

“Every entertainer has a night when everything is clicking. These nights are accidental and statistical: Like lucky cards in poker, you can count on them occurring over time. What was hard was to be good, consistently good, night after night, no matter what the abominable circumstances.” (139)

“The more physically uncomfortable the audience, the bigger the laughs.” (165)

“It is possible to will confidence. My consistent performing schedule had kept me sharp; it would have been difficult to blow it.” (171)

May 8, 2009January 13, 2010

“Fans, Friends and Followers” Quotes Part 2/2

This is the second part of what I found to be the most important quotes from the book Fans, Friends and Followers. (Part 1 can be found here.)

“My idea of success is the ability to make your films your way, and share them with people all over the world. That’s success.” -M dot Strange (56)

“In neither case did we think, “A-ha, this will get people to buy our records.” It has always been our position that the reason you wind up in a rock band is you want to make stuff. You want do creative things for a living.” -Damian Kulash (62)

“Every show I do, people sign up for the mailing list. Bill Clinton considered his presidency a permanent campaign, and that’s the way you have to look at your career.” -DJ Spooky (65)

“I spend more time interacting with the audience than I spend recording and producing the show.” -Brian Ibbott (76)

“I figured that the way to do it is to give out your complete archives for free, which increases the viral nature of the site, and it turns casual fans into die-hard fans, and even evangelists for your art online. It can take years of relationship-building before someone considers themselves a fan, and is willing to plunk down money.” -Dave Kellett (83-84)

“I understand why people don’t want to put in the time it takes to develop an audience and a business, or who don’t think they can make it work. It’s definitely an investment of time – maybe close to a decade – but most careers take a decade or so of investment before something really happens. Think about a doctor. The careers worth having are worth working for over years and years.” -Dave Kellett (85)

“As an artist, you have to do it because you love it. If you’re doing it for that reason first, you’ll find you’re producing better work, which attracts an audience. They can tell when you’re enjoying it. That carriers you through what are going to be lean years.” -Dave Kellett (85)

“I do several different things. I write, I act, I do stand-up, and I make films. You can now do a hundred different things, and they all come together to form your career.” -Eugene Mirman (100)

“The only advice I have is, you should go do things and try things, and in ten years, you’ll most likely succeed.” -Eugene Mirman (100)

“The whole thing is, you’re freelancing. If you expect that some big company will swoop in and give you a bunch of money and make you a star – that’s a flawed business model.” -Eugene Mirman (101)

May 4, 2009January 13, 2010

“Fans, Friends and Followers” Quotes Part 1/2

I recently reviewed Fans, Friends and Followers by Scott Kirsner. I finally got around to typing up the quotes I found interesting enough to underline in the book.

“The more opportunities you create for fans to participate in your process, the more engaged and loyal you’ll find they become.” (6)

“When someone is getting their first taste of your work, you need to give them a reason – quickly – to dive in deeper. What you’re up to needs to be crystal clear, or so mysterious and bizarre that people can’t help but have their curiosity piqued.” (11)

“I’ve found that educational stuff can attract an audience. Share your techniques, and tell people about the software you’re using.” (13)

“One piece of advice for people is about consistency. A lot of people put out one thing and it’s really popular. They’re surprised, and they don’t have anything else to do. People really want consistent content. You can’t go three or four months without something new.“ -Michael Burns (40)

“The idea that we’re going to hit some sort of steady model is false hope. You’ve just got to keep moving. We’ve had forty business models in nine years. I don’t see it slowing down at all.” -Gregg and Evan Spiridellis (46)

“The Internet is a collection of communities. You need to create a community around your film. That will not happen if you keep things to yourself. You need to open yourself up, show your face, show your production, let people get inside. People do a lot of things when they get enthusiastic about something. They help the production, give money, or run into the streets and scream about your production. You need to allow people to do that. It’s an enormous viral force.” -Timo Vuorensola (47)

“You need to offer different monetization options for different customers. Some people watch it on the Web for twenty minutes and then want to buy the DVD. Some people watch the whole film on BitTorrent, but then want to support us by buying merchandise. We want to let you give us money in any way possible.” -Timo Vuorensola (48)

“The way I meet people and get most of my jobs is offering to help people.” -Steve Garfield (49)

“I email everybody back. I respond to everything. Think about regular TV shows. In that world, you’d never expect to get any sort of response.” -Steve Garfield (50)

“The audience votes with their ‘forward’ button. If they see a video that they think has something to say, they forward it. All the money in the world and all the kings horses can’t get them to do that.” -Robert Greenwald (52)

“We want to have 5,000 people who are video distributors – who understand that they are Paramount Studios, they are CBS. If they take our video and get it to 100 people, that’s hugely important.” -Robert Greenwald (53)

“As fast as someone becomes your fan, they can become someone posting everywhere and saying you suck. But if you respond to them, they become powerful. They’re like bees, spreading your message.” -M dot Strange (55)