What's so funny!?

Russell Brand is a UK comedian that is coming to our shores for the comedy festival. A huge hit in the UK, he is making his way into movies and has penned a memoir.

My Booky Wook was published in the UK in 2007 and is set to be on our shelves in March 2009. The publishers website gives little about the book beyond:

My life is a series of embarrassing incidents strung together by telling people about those embarrassing incidents.

However, a greater breakdown of the book can be found at wikipedia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/My_Booky_Wook

I have ordered a couple of copies for the shop. If you'd like me to put one aside for you, email me at: g@whatssofunny.com.au

Out March 2009

With the Melbourne International Comedy Festival coming, a spate of books by the comedians are hitting our shores. The first one that I’ve come across is by British comedian Chris Addison. With his charming, yet incisive persona, he explores the culture of ‘It wasn’t me’ where everything in life we can blame on someone else.

From the website:
Do you ever suffer from those prickly pangs of guilt? Remorse getting you down? Feel you're too fat, too thin, too old, too ugly? Well, you might be, but here's some comforting news: whatever you think you did, whoever you may have offended, however horrible you may look, it's not your fault. Blaming yourself isn't going to help, so here's the next best thing: blame everybody else. From politicians to The Youth of Today, from hapless junior civil servants to Russian oligarchs, from that weird guy who just moved in over the road to Baroness Thatcher, IT WASN'T ME provides comprehensive and cast-iron proof that there's someone to blame for the fact that the world is going to hell in a Happy Meal Box and - more importantly - that it absolutely, definitely isn't you. Chris Addison, award-winning writer, actor, supreme abdicator of responsibility, takes us on a hysterical journey through the many occasions modern society affords to feel better about our own faults by pointing out bigger ones in others. Righteousness has never felt better.

$35.00 at good bookshops!

Denise Scott has been a stalwart of Australian comedy, which is unusual in such a male dominated industry. She has been on great comedy tv shows such as The Big Gig and Full Frontal, as well as more serious roles in Blue Heelers and SeaChange. More recently she has been a regular on Spicks and Specks and formerly on breakfast radio on Vega.

All that happened at Number 26 is not her stand-up routine turned into a book, which is often what comedians do. Rather it is a memoir of her family life and the real difficulties that can ensue in any marriage and come out of it with love and good humour. In a recent interview, Scott said that she had to decide whether it was just going to be comedic, but decided to tell as much of the truth she could – warts and all.

[From the website]
I’ll never forget the first time John and I saw number 26. We just knew it was going to be ours. It was so awful and ugly and repulsive in every way, not to mention the fact that it was located in a suburb I had sworn I’d rather die than live in, that we knew we had a great chance of getting it.’ And so Denise Scott moved into number 26, with a husband, his circus equipment, a king-sized futon (but not a base), a Ventolin inhaler (to cope with stress-induced asthma), no savings to speak of and their newborn baby. The husband lost his eyebrows; the circus equipment multiplied, spilling over into any available space; the futon went mouldy; the Ventolin ran out; and another baby was added to the family, putting paid to any ideas of further savings. Forget about future plans, it was enough just to make it through the day. All lives have their hiccups, though, and this is no misery memoir - far from it. The life that Denise and her husband John created in their ramshackle house is one of warmth, humour and good old-fashioned ingenuity. When the roof leaked, the kids wore raincoats. When the kids developed eczema, Denise devised a menu consisting entirely of adzuki beans. And when the council dismantled play equipment at the local park, John built a cubby house with it – so what if it was sprayed with arsenic? It’s not as if the kids were going to lick the walls.

Out now!

Dawn French is one of the most prolific UK comediennes of the past few decades. In an industry which is keenly male-dominated, she has made her way with her partnership with Jennifer Saunders which has been successful for over 20 years. More recently she has appeared as Vicky Pollard’s mother, Shelly in Little Britain and been the star of the Vicar of Dibley for 13 years.

This month she releases an autobiography Dear Fatty which takes the form of a series of letters to her late father.

[From the website]
Dawn French is one of the greatest comedy actresses of our time, with a career that has spanned nearly three decades, encompassing a vast and brilliant array of characters. Loved for her irreverent humour, Dawn has achieved massive mainstream success while continuing to push boundaries and challenge stereotypes. Here she describes the journey that would eventually establish her as a perhaps unlikely, but nevertheless genuine, national treasure.

Dawn began her career as part of the groundbreaking alternative comedy group, the Comic Strip, marking a radical departure from the more traditional comedy acts of the time. Later came the all-female Girls On Top, which teamed Dawn with Jennifer Saunders, Ruby Wax and Tracy Ullman and firmly established women in British comedy.

As part of the wildly successful and much loved duo French and Saunders, Dawn helped create a repertoire of brilliantly observed characters, parodying popular culture and impersonating everything from Madonna and Harry Potter to The Exorcist. Dawn's more recent role in the Vicar of Dibley showcased not only her talent but also her ability to take a controversial and topical issue and make it mainstream - and very funny.

From her early years as an RAF child and her flat-sharing antics with Jennifer Saunders, to her outspoken views on sizism and her marriage to Lenny Henry, Dear Fatty will chronicle the extraordinary, hilarious rise of a complex, dynamic and unstoppable woman.

Out 15th October

When you are engulfed in flames is the 6th book of essays by bestselling humourist David Sedaris. Sedaris gained early success with the SantaLand Diaries, which were based on his experience of being an elf at Macey’s department store in New York City during Christmas.

His books are typically autobiographical in nature, although Sedaris is keen to stretch the truth for comic effect. Subsequent to SantaLand Diaries, he has published other collections of essays and stories – Barrel Fever; Naked; Holidays on Ice; Me Talk Pretty One Day; and Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim. Me Talk Pretty One Day was written while he lived in France and earned him the 2001 Thurber Prize for American Humour and in the same year he was named Humourist of the Year by Time Magazine.

From the book:
A new roundup of personal essays from the number 1 bestselling writer named by TIME as America's Favourite Humorist When set on fire, most of us either fumble for our wallets or waste valuable time feeling sorry for ourselves. David Sedaris has studied this phenomenon, and his resulting insights may very well save your life. WHEN YOU ARE ENGULFED IN FLAMES finds Sedaris at the top of his game. Oh, all right...David Sedaris has written yet another book of essays (his sixth). Subjects include a parasitic worm that once lived in his mother-in-law's leg, an encounter with a dingo, and the recreational use of an external catheter. Also recounted is the buying of a human skeleton, and the author's attempt to quit smoking. In Tokyo. Master of nothing, at the dead centre of his game, Sedaris proves that when you play with matches, you sometimes light the whole pack on fire.

Out now!

Judith Lucy is unarguably one of Australia's most talked about comediennes, whether it be for her candid discussion of her family background or the controversy of her hiring and then sacking from breakfast radio. In both situations she has been able to consistently turn the hardships in her life into comedy gold with one-woman shows such as Colour me Judith (2000) and I Failed! (2006).

This year she has come out with her story about her adoptive family and how her feelings about them go beyond the comedy references she has made about them in the past.

[From Penguin Australia's website]
Judith Lucy has been cracking jokes about her parents for years. But when a birth relative's casual comment implied that she despised them, Judith was shocked. Sure, she had been talking about Ann and Tony Lucy like they were one-dimensional Irish nutbags who'd ruined her life for years, but there was always more to them and her own feelings than that.

So Judith decided it was time to write the full story of her parents and her childhood. And here it is, a reference book on all things Lucy from:

A is for Adoption (she is) to C is for Cleaning (they didn't) and for Counselling (you'll find out why she had a lot of it) to D is for Diets (she was put on one at eight) to H is for Heart Attack (her father's) to M is for Make Up (her father's) to N is for Nuts (there was a falling out over testicles) to R is for Review (to do with Nuts) to T is for Tanscendental Meditation (it didn't work) to X is for Xmas (when a lot of this started) and beyond...

In amongst the gags Judith explores the people her parents were and the impact of finding out - at twenty-five - that she was adopted. We meet Judith's birth mother by learn that ultimately it was her very unusual parents who made her who she is today.

The Lucy Family Alphabet is funny and ruthlessly honest, but also a moving tribute to the lunatics who raised one of Australia's best-known comedians.

Judith Lucy Homepage

Out now!

Will the real Steve Jobs, please stand up?

I really didn't want to start off with that, but I couldn't think of anything better.

The Fake Steve Jobs is a blog that has been around since 2006 and is a satire of the life of the Apple chief executive and co-founder. Written by an anonymous blogger, it satirically examined the intricacies of the Apple world, many of the things going on in the world of IT and in Steve Jacobs life himself. For a long time it was not known who this blogger was, and some even speculated it was Steve Jobs himself.

When the news that a book, "Options", was coming out by the Fake Steve Jobs, it was finally revealed (with some nice detective work) that the mystery blogger was Daniel Lyons - senior editor of Forbes magazine and a capable fiction writer.

Options continues the satire of the blog of Steve Jacob's 'life' but continues it into a narrative about the recent scandal at Apple and other IT companies of back-dating of stock options.

It features many well known Silicon Valley figures and Fake Steven even gives Bono a serve in his own satirical manner “He’s the only person I know who’s more self-absorbed than I am. Which, when you’re not feeling good about your life, can be a really great thing. With Bono you can hang out all night and never once get to talk about your problems.”

It sounds like an excellent read for the techie in your life. While the book is not available yet in Australia, check it out on US websites now!

The Blog: http://fakesteve.blogspot.com/
The NYTimes review of the book

Steve Martin, the original 'Wild and Crazy Guy!' has written an autobiography which is released in Australia on December 1.

Steve had the highpoint of his standup career in the midseventies, but then stopped in 1981 as he tried to pursue a movie career. Steve, an award winning author and comic recounts his early years as a young magician up until his mid thirties, along with the highs and lows of a comic career. Great reading if you've loved him since his first film role in The Jerk.

[From the website]

In the midseventies, Steve Martin exploded onto the comedy scene. By 1978 he was the biggest concert draw in the history of stand-up. In 1981 he quit forever. This book is, in his own words, the story of "why I did stand-up and why I walked away."

Emmy and Grammy Award winner, author of the acclaimed New York Times bestsellers Shopgirl and The Pleasure of My Company, and a regular contributor to The New Yorker, Martin has always been awriter. His memoir of his years in stand-up is candid, spectacularly amusing, and beautifully written.

At age ten Martin started his career at Disneyland, selling guidebooks in the newly opened theme park. In the decade that followed, he worked in the Disney magic shop and the Bird Cage Theatre at Knott's Berry Farm, performing his first magic/comedy act a dozen times a week. The story of these years, during which he practiced and honed his craft, is moving and revelatory. The dedication to excellence and innovation is formed at an astonishingly early age and never wavers or wanes.

Martin illuminates the sacrifice, discipline, and originality that made him an icon and informs his work to this day. To be this good, to perform so frequently, was isolating and lonely. It took Martin decades to reconnect with his parents and sister, and he tells that story with great tenderness. Martin also paints a portrait of his times -- the era of free love and protests against the war in Vietnam, the heady irreverence of The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour in the late sixties, and the transformative new voice of Saturday Night Live in the seventies.

Throughout the text, Martin has placed photographs, many never seen before. Born Standing Up is a superb testament to the sheer tenacity, focus, and daring of one of the greatest and most iconoclastic comedians of all time.

A book that I came across in my travels that might of use to those aspiring comedians out there.

The Comedy Bible: From Stand-up to Sitcom--The Comedy Writer's Ultimate "How To" Guide

From the editors:
"Do you think you're funny?

Do you want to turn your sense of humor into a career?

If the answer is yes, then Judy Carter's The Comedy Bible is for you. The guru to aspiring stand-up comics provides the complete scoop on being -- and writing -- funny for money.

If you've got a sense of humor, you can learn to make a career out of comedy, says Judy Carter. Whether it's creating a killer stand-up act, writing a spec sitcom, or providing jokes for radio or one-liners for greeting cards, Carter provides step-by-step instructions in The Comedy Bible. She helps readers first determine which genre of comedy writing or performing suits them best and then directs them in developing, refining, and selling their work.

Using the hands-on workbook format that was so effective in her bestselling first book, Stand-Up Comedy: The Book, Carter offers a series of day-by-day exercises that draw on her many years as a successful stand-up comic and the head of a nationally known comedy school. Also included are practical tips and advice from today's top comedy professionals -- from Bernie Brillstein to Christopher Titus to Richard Lewis. She presents the pros and cons of the various comedy fields -- stand-up, script, speech and joke writing, one-person shows, humor essays -- and shows how to tailor your material for each. She teaches how to find your "authentic" voice -- the true source of comedy. And, perhaps most important, Carter explains how to take a finished product to the next level -- making money -- by pitching it to a buyer and negotiating a contract.

Written in Carter's unique, take-no-prisoners voice, The Comedy Bible is practical, inspirational, and funny.

About the Author
Judy Carter has appeared in clubs across the country, as well as on many TV shows, has coached over 5,000 comics in comedy workshops, and has brought her message of "turning problems into punch lines" to Fortune 500 companies. She has been featured in The Wall Street Journal and on Oprah. Carter's other talents include snowboarding and making stuffed matzo balls. She lives in her native California, in Venice Beach. The above picture is not retouched...because they didn't have that technology at the time it was taken."

Available in good bookstores in Australia. Although even good bookstores would probably have to order it in for you!!

I've also added links to her workshops (in the US) and her standup comedy blog! Enjoy!

Mel Brooks (born Melvin Kaminsky in 1926), one of the most prolific comics of the 20th Century. I grew up on reruns of Get Smart, films such as Young Frankenstein, Robin Hood: Men in Tights and Space Balls. In the last decade he turned his hand to the world of Broadway musicals via the cult movie The Producers which was played to acclaim by Matthew Broderick and Nathan Lane. It played continuously on Broadway for 6 years (finishing in April, 2007) winning 12 Tony awards, the most for any musical.

While the comedy of Mel Brooks is never subtle, it is pervasive, with catchphrases entering modern popular culture. Whether it is someone who says "Missed it by that much." in their best Don Adams impersonation or "It's good to be the king.", it is hard to meet a person who doesn't laugh at some of his gags, or at the very least crack a wry smile. Who could forget the scene in Blazing Saddles where the sherrif takes himself hostage to get out of trouble!?

This biography by James Robert Parish traces the early years of Mel Brooks, through the peak of his film career in the 1970s to the low point in the mid 1990s and eventual rebirth via The Producers.

If you're a fan of the man quoted as saying "Tragedy is when I cut my finger. Comedy is when you walk into an open sewer and die.", then you better go out and get your copy now!

Available at all good booksellers

Saw a review for this book and it sounded like a hoot. Perhaps the perfect book for your friend who has a rabbit for a pet! I immediately thought of Miss A's family who have their own eccentric rabbit :D

[From Random House Australia]
Originally published by the author in four volumes, FLUFFY is described by Simone Lia as 'a story of unanswerable questions, love, despair, adventure and happiness'. Fluffy is a baby rabbit who is being looked after by an anxious, single man called Michael Pulcino. Michael tries to make it clear to Fluffy that he is not his daddy, but Fluffy appears to be in denial. Michael is being pursued by Fluffy's nursery school teacher, and partly to escape her, he and Fluffy set off to visit his family in Sicily. Will Michael escape her? Will Fluffy come to terms with the reality that he is not a human being? All is at least partly resolved in Simone Lia's utterly irresistible graphic novel.

Review from The Age [by Cameron Woodhead]
"Simone Lia's graphic novel, Fluffy is sure to be a bestseller. The children's book illustrator applies her craft to some rather adult themes and the result is adorable, hilarious and a bit disturbing. Fluffy is a bunny rabbit - a sort of Miffy with severe neurosis. We've all had pets who think of themselves as people, but Fluffy thinks of himself as human with unshakable conviction. For committed bachelor Michael Pulcino, this is a problem: Fluffy, sure that Michael is his daddy, follows him everywhere. In this case, Michael flees to Sicily, to visit family and escape the amorous attentions of Fluffy's pre-school teacher [Fluffy goes to school!? - G], Miss Owers. Lia's cutsey-pie illustrations and off-beat comic genius combine to make Fluffy a delight for young and old."

Read it? Let me know how it is. I'm fairly sure they eat rabbit in Sicily...

Available at all good bookstores

The Somnambulist by Jonathan Barnes (RRP $29.95) is a book with a ludicrously long word for the title. For those like myself who use dictionary.com, the word refers to sleepwalking!

[From publisher's website]
"‘Be warned. This book has no literary merit whatsoever. It is a lurid piece of nonsense, convoluted, implausible, peopled by unconvincing characters, written in drearily pedestrian prose, frequently ridiculous and wilfully bizarre. Needless to say, I doubt you’ll believe a word of it.’ So starts the extraordinary tale of Edward Moon, detective, his silent sidekick the Sonambulist and a devilish plot to recreate the apocalyptic prophecies of William Blake and bring the British Empire crashing down. With a gallery of vividly grotesque characters, a richly evoked setting and a playful highly literate style this is an amazingly readable literary fantasy and a brilliant debut."

Cameron Woodhead of The Age gave it a good write up on the weekend. "This book is a quirky piece of 19th-century speculative fiction, a pseudo-Victorian romp that follows the exploits of Edward Moon, a detective and magician with an unusual sidekick - the somnambulist - a sleeper who's eight-feet tall and can survive almost anything. Investigating a series of strange murders, Moon meets a cast of Dickensian villains, from devious albinos to killers dressed as schoolboys. Part mystery, part horror story, part occult fantasy - this is extravagantly perverted, devilishly imaginative literary pulp."

Sounds good doesn't it? Make sure you recommend it at your next book club, I know I will! I hope to review it for the website in the future, if anyone out there reads it before me, please let me know!

Out now at all good bookstores.