Comedy Education

The Upright Citizens Brigade knows comedy, but more than that, they know how to coach aspiring comics and average joes alike on the ins and outs of how to create your own stand-out, unique voice. Led by UCB founders Matt Besser, Ian Roberts, and Matt Walsh, this series features conversations with experts in the field including Amy Poehler, Adam McKay, Ben Schwartz, Lennon Parham, Jessica St. Clair, Andy Daly, Bobby Moynihan, and Nick Kroll, among others.

The temptation to sin and lure of the forbidden can be impossible to ignore. Rebecca Beiler's recent sexual urges are at odds with her strict religious upbringing. Married at 17 to a sexually repressed man who left her a widow, at age 26 she now finds herself yearning to be taken hard by hot men with chiseled bodies. When an indiscretion with a neighbor leads to a six-month expulsion from her community, Rebecca attempts to purge herself of her sinful desires by giving into them, in full. Unfortunately, each new intoxicating encounter only intensifies her cravings — intense lustful ...

Just as Fred is settling down in his new abode, he receives word that a favor is being called in, one he promised to a dangerously powerful member of otherworldly royalty. Bracing danger, adventure, and unknown threats, Fred is instead asked to take on an entirely different role than anticipated. Acting as interim professor at one of the few universities for supernatural entities, Fred will have to navigate a strange environment, eccentric coworkers, and unenthusiastic students. Yet that alone won't be enough, for this college has more history than the tales in its tomes.

A fresh portrait of the man behind James Bond, and his enduring impact, by an award-winning biographer with unprecedented access to the Fleming family papers. Ian Fleming's greatest creation, James Bond, has had an enormous and ongoing impact on our culture. What Bond represents about ideas of...

The story of what happened to Flashman, the caddish bully of Tom Brown's Schooldays, after he was expelled in drunken disgrace from Rugby school in the late 1830s...

Learn how to persuade cats--the world's most skeptical and cautious negotiators--with this primer on rhetoric and argument from the New York Times bestselling author of Thank You for Arguing! Cats are skilled manipulators who can talk you into just about anything without a single word. They can...

#1 INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER AN ADAM SAVAGE BOOK CLUB PICK The book-length answer to anyone who ever put their hand up in math class and asked, “When am I ever going to use this in the real world?” “Fun, informative, and relentlessly entertaining, Humble Pi is a charming and very readable...

""A pleasure. ... Suitable for beach reading or for mainlining before a dinner party."" —Dan Piepenbring, New York Times Book Review (Editors' Choice) ""Absorbing. ... As thoughtfully written as it is nuts."" —Chicago Tribune A collection of the world’s most mind-boggling...

Tucker Max graduated with high honors from the University of Chicago in 1998 and received an academic scholarship to Duke Law School, where he graduated in 2001, despite the fact that he spent part of one semester--while still enrolled in classes--living in Cancun. He took these degrees and set...

Executives from The Second City—the world’s premier comedy theater and school of improvisation—reveal improvisational techniques that can help any organization develop innovators, encourage adaptable leaders, and build transformational businesses. For more than fifty years, The Second City...

This book has been in my head for four years. It's great for students, teachers or anyone interested in writing and producing sketch comedy. Section One: The History of Comedy to Today's Sketch Comedy: Do you know the world's oldest joke? Section Two: Elements of Sketch Comedy Writing: Characters, Setting, Style, etc. Sections Three: Let's write your first/next sketch - Brainstorming, Improv, Outlines and Drafts Section Four: Producing your sketch on stage or video EIGHT IS NEVER ENOUGH started performing in Times Square since 2002, Now famous for its off-Broadway Improv comedy shows and ...

“Hanley’s dyslexia makes this audio format especially significant, as it represents an accessible way for readers with learning disabilities, just like him, to comprehend and enjoy his story.”—Booklist This program is read by the author, comedian and severe dyslexic Phil Hanley, who...

"In the beginning we were happy. And we were always excessive. So in the beginning we were happy to excess." With these opening lines Sean Wilsey takes us on an exhilarating tour of life in the strangest, wealthiest, and most grandiose of families. Sean's blond-bombshell mother (one of the...

They say you can’t teach stand-up comedy, but you can certainly give a lot of good advice. In the Recorded Books Original 28 Stand-Ups, the best stand-up comedians in the business share tips of the trade and full-fledged stories to impart the lessons they learned treading the boards, hitting the road, and of course, on occasion, bombing.

With his trademark humor and flair, bestselling linguist John McWhorter busts the myths and shares the history of the most controversial language topic of our times: pronouns The nature of language is to shift and evolve—but every so often, a new usage creates a whole lot of consternation...

Bestselling author and renowned professor Mary Karr offers a master class in the essential elements of great memoir—delivered with her signature wit, insight, and candor. Credited with sparking the current memoir explosion, Mary Karr’s The Liars’ Club spent more than a year at the top of...

From the author of the eye-opening and controversial essay on poverty that was read by millions comes the real-life Nickel and Dimed, and Linda Tirado explains what it’s like to be working poor in America, and why poor people make the decisions they do. We in America have certain ideas of...

From one of the world’s most celebrated humor writers, this easy-to-follow, step-by-step book lays out a clear system for producing living, breathing comedy characters that audiences will fall in love with.

America emerged from Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal with strong democratic values and broadly shared prosperity. But for the past thirty years American politics has been dominated by a conservative movement determined to undermine the New Deal’s achievements. Now, the tide may be...

Seinfeld, Friends, Frasier, ER, Cheers, Law & Order, Will & Grace…Here is the funny, splashy, irresistible insiders’ account of the greatest era in television history -- told by the actors, writers, directors, producers, and the network executives who made it happen…and watched it all fall...