The Ten Commandments of Comedy

The Ten Commandments of Comedy
Author: Gene Perret
Publisher: Linden Publishing
Total Pages: 77
Release: 2013-01-22
Genre: Performing Arts
ISBN: 1610351533

Beginning comedy writers and performers may think funny can't be taught, but legendary comedy writer Gene Perret, winner of three Emmy Awards, tells otherwise in this guide to what makes a good joke work. Outlining the 10 commandments of comedy, the unbreakable rules that every gag must follow in order to be funny, this book liberates readers and allows them to immediately begin writing better and funnier comedy material. By following Perret's commandments, readers will better understand how to write jokes that connect with audiences and discover why unsuccessful material isn't working and how it can be fixed. From the First Commandment (""Thou Shalt Surprise"") to the Tenth (""Thou Shalt Be Clever""), this work stands as a fast guide to the essentials of humor that is perfect for business presenters, after-dinner speakers, professional comedians, and anyone who wants to be funny.

Preaching Punch Lines

Preaching Punch Lines
Author: Susan Sparks
Publisher: Smyth & Helwys Publishing, Incorporated
Total Pages: 119
Release: 2019
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 9781641731386

Praise for Preaching Punchlines: The Ten Commandments of Comedy "With what I've learned, I just may show up preaching at a church near you." -Lewis Black, Comedian "...this lively, practical, and searching book...will make seasoned (i.e., jaded) preachers think again and look at what is demanded of them in what ought to be the joyful role of communicating the divine comedy of healing and transfiguration." -Rowan (not Atkinson, alas) Williams, Former Archbishop of Canterbury "A preacher with a motorcycle, cowboy boots, a wicked sense of humor, and a heart that warms you like a huge Southern-style breakfast. That's my pastor!" -Tamron Hall, Broadcast journalist and television host Waiting in the wings is an untapped power that can transform the craft of preaching. It isn't studied or taught because it has been mistaken as trivial or simply the means to get a laugh. What is this ignored superpower? The art of stand-up comedy. In Preaching Punchlines: The Ten Commandments of Comedy, Susan Sparks brings two decades of experience as a preacher and a professional stand-up to mine the strategies comedians have employed for years. Lessons include framing messages that people will listen to, remember, and share; finding your creative voice; building bridges and community; and bringing full authenticity in the pulpit. The art of stand-up comedy is not just about jokes; it's about developing intimacy, honesty, and trust-three dynamics that must be present before any sermon is truly heard.

The Ten Commandments of Theater

The Ten Commandments of Theater
Author: Anne Johnston-Brown
Publisher:
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2007
Genre: Performing Arts
ISBN: 9781575255842

The Ten Commandments of Theater is a ten-chapter, step-by-step handbook to guide theater actors through the acting process from the moment they are first cast in a role until the final curtain comes down. Each chapter is written as a Commandment ? a rule of the theater that must be respected in order to achieve success in a particular performance, as well as an overall acting career.These Commandments include points on:? proper warm-up routines? scoring a script? researching and developing a character? formulating a personal acting process? and other guidelines that fall under the umbrella of ?Method? acting.Unlike many other acting handbooks, The Ten Commandments of Theater is concise and understandable for even the greenest of actors. It is a must for young and veteran actors alike, providing tried-and-true techniques to help create a more successful acting process.ANNE JOHNSTON-BROWN is a graduate with Highest Honors from Cal State, San Bernardino, with her B.A. in Theatre Arts (Acting Emphasis). Over the past decade, Anne has accumulated a host of performance credits, including: Fanny Brice in Funny Girl, Annie Oakley in Annie Get Your Gun, Maria Rainer in The Sound of Music, Mama Rose in Gypsy, Anna in The King and I, and many more. She most recently appeared on the Kodak Theatre stage as the Narrator in Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat alongside Eric Martsolf (Passions) and Brad Maul (Days of Our Lives). She was a top-ten finalist at the ACTF Irene Ryan Competition in 1998 and has since won six Inland Empire Theatre League Outstanding Actress Awards. She is currently a proud member of the renowned Moho?s, a sketch comedy troupe founded and directed by comedian Fred Willard and his wife, Mary. Anne is a resident of San Bernardino and lives with herhusband, Tom, of eighteen years.

Ten Commandments to an Extraordinary Life

Ten Commandments to an Extraordinary Life
Author: E. W. Jackson, Sr.
Publisher:
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2008-07
Genre: Christian life
ISBN: 9780615217444

A young woman marries a man who already has a handicap daughter and a tragic car accident forces the woman to have to choose whether or not to save her handicap stepdaughter or her biological daughter. She chooses to save her biological daughter and then tries to keep her decision a secret...but someone saw the entire accident.

Laugh Your Way to Grace

Laugh Your Way to Grace
Author: Rev. Susan Sparks
Publisher: Turner Publishing Company
Total Pages: 173
Release: 2010-05-01
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1594733430

Laughter—the GPS System for the Soul Laughter was honored by the ancients as a spiritual healing tool and celebrated by the world's great religions. So why aren’t we laughing along the spiritual path today? What would happen if we did? In this personal and funny look at humor as a spiritual practice, Rev. Susan Sparks—an ex-lawyer turned comedian and Baptist minister—presents a convincing case that the power of humor radiates far beyond punch lines. Laughter can help you: Remove the fearful mask of a God who doesn’t laugh Debunk the myths that you don’t deserve joy Find perspective when faced with adversity Exercise forgiveness for yourself and others Reclaim play as a spiritual practice Heal—emotionally, physically, and spiritually Keep your faith when God is silent Live with elegance, beauty, and generosity of spirit Whatever your faith tradition—or if you have none at all—join this veteran of the punch line and the pulpit in reclaiming the forgotten humor legacy found in thousands of years of human spiritual history.

The NEW Comedy Bible

The NEW Comedy Bible
Author: Judy Carter
Publisher:
Total Pages: 294
Release: 2020-01-07
Genre: Performing Arts
ISBN: 9781947480841

The New Comedy Bible is a step-by-step, no excuses manual for writing, performing, and launching your career as a stand-up comic. Written by Judy Carter, the author of The Comedy Bible (2001), which was called by The Washington Post and Forbes as a "Comedy Essential." This new book, penned in classic Carter's style -- part career coach and part comedy dominatrix -- has 100% new content where you will: Partake in 48 new exercises to turn your problems into punchlines Create 60 minutes of new material Discover your authentic comedy persona Conquer stage fright and slay hecklers Push part procrastination and get booked Whether you're a beginner just starting out or a pro looking to create new material for your next Netflix Comedy Special, Carter's proven methods are legendary among today's top performers. Alumni of her workshops include: Seth Rogan, Hannah Gadsby, Sherri Sheppard, and Maz Jobrani among others. As Lily Tomlin says, "Judy Carter helps others find their authentic persona and communicate in a way that makes audiences laugh." Interviewed by Oprah Winfrey, she said, "Judy Carter can show you how to make your sense of humor pay off." The exercises in this book will get you off the couch and onto the stage, helping you develop the skills necessary to envision, and achieve, a successful career in comedy.

The Ten Commandments in Medieval and Early Modern Culture

The Ten Commandments in Medieval and Early Modern Culture
Author: Walter Melion
Publisher: BRILL
Total Pages: 255
Release: 2017-09-04
Genre: History
ISBN: 9004325778

Over the course of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, as more and more vernacular commentaries on the Decalogue were produced throughout Europe, the moral system of the Ten Commandments gradually became more prominent. The Ten Commandments proved to be a topic from which numerous proponents of pastoral and lay catechesis drew inspiration. God’s commands were discussed and illustrated in sermons and confessor’s manuals, and they spawned new theological and pastoral treatises both Catholic and Reformed. But the Decalogue also served several authors, including Dante, Petrarch, and Christine de Pizan. Unlike the Seven Deadly Sins, the Ten Commandments supported a more positive image of mankind, one that embraced the human potential for introspection and the conscious choice to follow God’s Law.

Comedy Rules

Comedy Rules
Author: Jonathan Lynn
Publisher: Faber & Faber
Total Pages: 207
Release: 2011-08-18
Genre: Performing Arts
ISBN: 0571277977

Jonathan Lynn's credits include creating and co-writing the long-running comedy series Yes, Minister and Yes, Prime Minister, as well as hit films Clue, My Cousin Vinny, Nuns on the Run and The Whole Nine Yards. With experience as a comedy actor, writer and director, here Jonathan Lynn shares valuable and hilarious lessons in all aspects of creating great comedy, all illustrated with brilliantly insightful and revealing anecdotes about his work and the legedary actors, writers and comedians he's worked alongside.

The Lawgiver

The Lawgiver
Author: Herman Wouk
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Total Pages: 256
Release: 2012-11-13
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1451699409

"A lighthearted and delightful tour de force" (The Washington Times). A romantic and suspenseful epistolary novel about a group of people trying to make a movie about Moses in the present day, The Lawgiver is a story that emerges from letters, memos, e-mails, journals, news articles, Skype transcripts, and text messages. At the center of The Lawgiver is Margo Solovei, a brilliant young writer-director who has rejected her rabbinical father’s strict Jewish upbringing to pursue a career in the arts. When an Australian multibillionaire promises to finance a movie about Moses, Margo does everything she can to land the job, including reunite with her estranged first love, an influential lawyer with whom she still has unfinished business. Two other key characters in the novel are Herman Wouk himself and his wife of more than sixty years, Betty Sarah, who, almost against their will, find themselves entangled in the movie. As Wouk and his characters contend with Moses and marriage, the force of tradition, rebellion and reunion, The Lawgiver reflects the wisdom of a lifetime. Inspired by the great nineteenth-century novelists, one of America’s most beloved twentieth-century authors has now written a remarkable twenty-first-century work of fiction.

Talk to the Snail

Talk to the Snail
Author: Stephen Clarke
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA
Total Pages: 276
Release: 2008-12-02
Genre: Travel
ISBN: 1596917431

Have you ever walked into a half-empty Parisian restaurant, only to be told that it's "complet"? Attempted to say "merci beaucoup" and accidentally complimented someone's physique? Been overlooked at the boulangerie due to your adherence to the bizarre foreign custom of waiting in line? Well, you're not alone. The internationally bestselling author of A Year in the Merde and In the Merde for Love has been there too, and he is here to help. In Talk to the Snail, Stephen Clarke distills the fruits of years spent in the French trenches into a truly handy (and hilarious) book of advice. Read this book, and find out how to get good service from the grumpiest waiter; be exquisitely polite and brutally rude at the same time; and employ the language of l'amour and le sexe. Everything you need is here in this funny, informative, and seriously useful guide to getting what you really want from the French.