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Step by Step to Stand-Up Comedy Paperback – July 13, 2000

by Greg Dean (Author), Steve Allen (Foreword)

4.5 207 ratings

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Step by Step to Stand-Up Comedy - Revised Edition
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If you think you're funny, and you want others to think so too, this is the book for you! Greg Dean examines the fundamentals of being funny and offers advice on a range of topics, including:

writing creative joke material
rehearsing and performing routines
coping with stage fright
dealing with emcees who think they're funnier than you are
getting experience
and lots more. Essential for the aspiring comic or the working comedian interested in updating his or her comedy routine, Step by Step to Stand-Up Comedy is the most comprehensive and useful book ever written on the art of the stand-up comedian.

Print length

208 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Heinemann Drama
Publication date

July 13, 2000
Dimensions

6.1 x 0.43 x 9 inches
ISBN-10

0325001790
ISBN-13

978-0325001791
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Editorial Reviews

About the Author

GREG DEAN is a former Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus clown, a street performer, and a regular at the Comedy Store in Hollywood. Through his popular "Stand-Up Comedy Workshop" at the Santa Monica Playhouse, Dean has worked with many of todays top comics. He currently lives in Los Angeles, California.

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Heinemann Drama (July 13, 2000)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 208 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0325001790
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0325001791
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 10.7 ounces
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6.1 x 0.43 x 9 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #199,920 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #235 in Comedy (Books)
- #1,162 in Performing Arts (Books)
- #6,169 in Schools & Teaching (Books)

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4.5 207 ratings

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Greg Dean

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Greg Dean has been teaching and writing about the fundamentals of joke writing and performing stand-up comedy for forty plus year. When he began, Dean quickly realized there were no documented fundamentals for teaching stand-up comedy. So, for the past four decades he’s made it his life’s mission to identify, name, and teach the basic techniques used by all great joke writers and comedians.

These fundamental are published in his book Step By Step to Stand-Up Comedy - Revised Edition. These same joke writing and performing techniques are available as a series of exercises in his Step By Step to Stand-Up Comedy - Workbook Series.

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Christo

Maybe that's not the best mix of words but I think it makes my ...

Reviewed in the United States on October 4, 2014

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This book exceeded my expectations of what a comedy-writing how-to could be. I was expecting some exercises, some thoughts on getting material flowing, but this book intellectually encapsulated comedy in the clearest nutshell. Maybe that's not the best mix of words but I think it makes my point. In addition to making the ideas and necessities of writing jokes simpler than I ever dreamed possible, Mr. Dean gave excellent advice on everything from shaping a routine to dealing with hecklers. The accounting of the stand up comedy life is honest and hopeful. I picked up this book because I'm interested in writing for late-night comics, not necessarily performing myself. But by the end of the book, I really wanted to summon up the courage and try it myself. I loved this book. I'm one of the people he describes in the book - I've always been funny in informal situations, I've done lots of public speaking during which I've killed, but I've never put myself in the situation where everyone is expecting me to be funny. This book gave me the courage to try.

5 people found this helpful

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GeeMan

Not Just for Stand-Up Comics!

Reviewed in the United States on November 29, 2000

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Greg's book has really helped me on 2 independent fronts: The effective performance of stand-up comedy, and COMEDY WRITING! This is an important point for those who are writers, not performers. Of all the books I've ever read on comedy, this is the first one to actually outline a concrete process for quickly generating a significant volume of humorous material. This should be very useful for anyone doing any kind of script writing.
Naturally, the writing methods described in the book are also quite helpful for performers, as are the in-depth instructions for actually doing stand up comedy. I've used this book as a constant source of inspiration in rehearsing and to raise my spirits right before performances. It's literally the kind of book that I can open to just about any page, read for 10 minutes, and come away with renewed energy and enthusiasm.
Some books I've read on this subject have a few good parts, but this one has high-quality material from start to finish. If you're looking for a true textbook on comedy (both writing and performance), this is the only book you'll need.

26 people found this helpful

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Jean de Terre

Good start, not a silver bullet

Reviewed in the United States on February 10, 2013

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A bit about me and what I think about comedy books in general:
I've been doing comedy for about a year now and this is the first book I read. It is not perfect, but that is not the fault of the author. To write a perfect book on comedy would probably be very difficult and probably beyond the talents of even a very famous comedian. The problem is people who know how to do things do not always know why it works or can explain it to other people. Comedy, or any type of performance, is especially tricky because it is something that is learned with experience and things learned in this way are often difficult to communicate to someone who does not have the relevant experience.

What this book tries do:
First of all Dean gives you his joke writing method. It is formulaic and unnatural. However it does have a number of virtues. In the first place it forces you, a neophyte, to begin to think analytically about what goes into making up a one-liner. This is a very important first step - it is not good enough to intuitively know when things are funny, you have to learn to analyze what the elements are which make it funny. In the second place Deane's method does something important, which I think any good writing method does, it forces you to ask questions about what you are writing, and the answers to these questions give you the seed for the ideas for the next thing you write, or for editing what you have already written. Again this is a bit unnatural, but if you've ever written anything and tried to seriously edit it, you will know what this is like. It involves taking a critical look at your own creation and crossing out the things that don't work or trying to improve them.

Secondly Dean gives a lot of great pointers for creating material and performing and rehearsing. This is where the book really begins to shine. It is also stuff which you can come back to after you've been doing it a while. The bits I like the most were this: Firstly, using the point of view of a character to help you write, i.e. asking questions about how that character would feel. This goes all the way to personifying things such body parts or abstract things like air, in order to write from their perspective. It's a great way to produce material or enrich material you've already written. Secondly getting rehearsal right - if you rehearse something with interruptions or other problems, those problems will likely manifest themselves on stage (at least in the early days). Thirdly, whatever emotional/mental state you are in the, the audience is in. This bit is gold and very deep. It is worth pondering as you progress.

What was left out, what can be found in other books:
Writing:
I think any comic can learn about writing by reading material that is meant for any sort of writer and not just comic writers. For example one bit of useful writing advice is to show people and not tell them. E.g. you don't tell someone "she was afraid" instead you show them: "She felt goosebumps on her skin and her heart began to beat faster". Secondly, detail is important and brings something to life. Thirdly, don't say more than necessary, keep it as short as possible. Fourthly, edit, edit, and edit.

A more specific point is why things are funny. I think very few authors deal with this topic properly. Only one I know has nailed it, and he isn't even an author of a comedy how-to-book, it was Ricky Gervais when he was talking to Jerry Seinfeld, Louis CK and Chris Rock. (It's on youtube). He said he thinks comedy is about empathy. In other words the audience has to be able to relate to the plight of the characters in whatever you are telling them in some way. But more than that, they also have to be able to detach themselves from that plight and see it from a birds-eye-view, so to speak. This is because if they don't, then what you've got is closer to tragedy or drama. In comedy, it's ok to laugh at trouble, and that's because of this element of detachment. In summary: comedy = empathy + detachment (if that sounds like a paradox, then welcome to the world of comedy).

Performance:
This is the toughest thing to learn. Here I think Franklin Ajaye's book is probably the closet to the mark. Somehow your delivery needs to seem natural - like when you are funny around your friends or family. It can not seem forced or like you are trying to be clever. The reason is that then the audience will not relate to you, i.e. that will not empathize. I could write a lot about how to do that, but I think the key point is to "get out of your head" while on stage. One way to do that is to yell or at least talk very loudly and used exaggerated gestures. In any case I doubt I can give good advice on this as I'm only just beginning to discover how to do it myself.

Well I hope that helps any people who want to start in comedy. It's a tough game - you start at the bottom on the open mic scene, and the key is to persevere and be nice to people you meet. You may well find that few people will talk much to you in the first several months - that's because there are heaps of people who give it a go once or twice, and the veterans don't see it as being worth investing time getting to know someone who won't stick around. But if you keep at it, some of the folks who've been doing it for a while will slowly get to know you.

44 people found this helpful

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Parker Jennings

As Funny as it is Informative

Reviewed in the United States on January 11, 2015

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An excellent purchase and a handy tool to have at my disposal.
I've met Greg Dean at his workshop in Santa Monica. The Man is a natural teacher of comedy. He's got some chops!

Anyway, the easy-to-read lessons and adaptive format in this book has led me through some of my perfomances, giving me that advantage and confidence over my competition.
Dean is obsessed with teaching the pillars of comedy to serve the uniqueness of everybody, rather than spewing his own style of comedy for others to mimick. By reading this book, you won't turn into Greg Dean. You'll turn into an accelerated comedic version of yourself. And that's what really matters.
Greg Dean's "Stand-up Comedy" is just as entertaining as it is informative. A must-have for those interested and wanting to explore the discipline of stand-up comedy

7 people found this helpful

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andrea

Molto professionali

Reviewed in Italy on May 31, 2022

Verified Purchase

Ottima libreria

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Amazon Customer

To the point

Reviewed in Canada on November 19, 2018

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I like the way this book is constructed. It step by step approach lets you understand how jokes are built. I used to write jokes only when I was inspired or when I had an idea. This book, gives you great tips to start from nothing and also to problem solve jokes that are not quite there yet. It's a nice comedy writing toolset. I also like the rehearsal techniques, it contains some good tips to stay out of your head when you perform. All in all, it's worth it.

S Smyth

Useful for more than jokes

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on January 26, 2018

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A thorough approach via which the aspiring iJokeStar has a way to compose a joke and/or consider how one could be improved. As al;ways, though, "it's the way I tell em." can make or break the joke :-) The method described is applicable to other lines of writing and/or thinking. For example: A plot twist for a fiction. A new perspective for a business idea. To me, for example, onepeleton is a joke wrapped up as a business idea :-)

edo000

Well explained

Reviewed in Japan on November 17, 2018

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My first English book. Well explained, though I expected more joke examples.

Maxime

Il faudrait traduire ce livre en français

Reviewed in France on April 4, 2013

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Il faudrait traduire ce livre en français parce qu'il est vraiment très bon et on manque de bouquins de ce genre en français.
Le livre de Berrou Ecrire un one-man-show et monter sur scène est bien sur la méthode d'écriture mais celui-ci de Dean est encore plus clair, plus simple, plus efficace.

2 people found this helpful

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