How To Be A Stand Up Comedian: The Beginners Guide Towards Becoming A Successful Stand-up Comedian Paperback – March 27, 2013

As a socially experimenting guy, I was interested in taking stand up to be more comfortable in social situations. So I picked this book up because, why not? It was free! The author lays out the book brilliantly and goes in depth with a lot of the creative process. He offers insight into the culture and community by, for example, affirming that you never steal another comic's jokes. You can put your own twist on it, but to steal is completely frowned upon. Furthermore he touched on everything from where to get inspiration, what it takes, a time line for getting off the ground, and coping mechanisms for getting booed off stage. What was most notable for me was the stand-up comedian's mindset. It was laid out brilliantly. A lot of it is honest self-development and success principles like having passion, constantly learning, and knowing who you are. It's very helpful stuff.Now for something I found odd. This was written by a standup, but the book just isn't funny. I found no personality, jokes, humor.. nothing. It was logical and straightforward. I expected more from a comic.

There's always the chance of bombing. I performed stand up improvised poetry years ago in front of a crowd and it was exhilarating. Comedy stand up must be similar. This book explains the whole concept of doing stand up. If failure is in the cards, next step: sit down.

Did you know that there’s a profession that can make you forget your worries for a while and help you to enjoy the lighter side of life? Tis the profession of a stand-up comic. Stand-up comedy has the marvelous influence of bringing pleasure and joy to people for many years now. If you are good at making people laugh and you love to tell jokes than this may be the book for you. Simon Cavalli is a real expert at this craft, and he has put together this easy to follow, one step at a time, methodical read, on how you can master the art of comedy. Simon, a comic himself has firsthand experience to guild you in a easy to follow and fun way, into possibly the job you have dreamed of doing. He will go over such topics as pre-gig preparation, and how to prepare yourself intellectually before you go on stage. He will open your eyes to things you may not have known, like who would have thought introverts make great comics? If you read this book you will definitely see that there was a lot of thought, time and first hand-knowledge put into this by a person who really cares about bringing joy to people as well as loves his art as a comic. My sister is one of the funniest people I know; she has a way of cracking me up with almost everything we talk about. I’m always telling her she needs to go to an open mic and try out stand-up comedy. This book is perfect for her and I can’t wait to give it to her. Thanks Simon for sharing your wonderful knowledge!

Book is riddled with grammatical errors, which makes it difficult at times to read.Not a lot of meat on the bone here. Some good advice, but mostly just glossing the surface. Topics could use more depth and the whole book comes off as hastily thrown together.Last chapter is just a bad sales pitch for something else the writer wants you to buy. I’ll pass.

I have always thought that being a comedian would be a very cool job, however, I have never had the nerve to try it. Luckily I live in a larger city with several comedy clubs so I go there often. I noticed they have an amateur night and have really been thinking about giving it a try. I picked up this book to help with pointers and also as motivation.This book gives some great tips on things I had never thought of when it comes to being a comedian. I am for sure going to put a little more practice into my routine before I even take on amateur night. I was about to go wing it, but I think I would have not even been accepted. I am so glad I purchased this book so I can practice a little more. Maybe some day you guys will see my name in lights. That is my goal. Thanks for the great tips in this book.

This book is only $1.00. it claims to show you how to be a stand up comedian. Two stars for the low price, but nothing for the information or editing. With a vast amount of books on the market that will actually TEACH you how to construct jokes, how to think of "funny" things about almost any situation, and how to set yourself up for success by doing stand up or comedy writing, this book skims over these topics with NONE of the "HOW", even though the word is in the title of the book.Just telling someone to "improve your jokes if they don't work" is like telling someone to just "get over it" when something horrible happens to them. By not going into any detail of HOW to do such a thing, you're pretty much on your own to figure it out by yourself. And if you're going to do that, why pay any amount for a book? And this is basically the entire book. The author simply skims over topics, using buzzwords that sound "motivational" but at the end you just go "Huh?".At one point, this book actually "teaches" you that being funny isn't all that important in stand up comedy! Seriously. That. somehow, if you have the right mindset (one of the buzzwords I mentioned earlier), being funny is secondary. Now, maybe that would work if you were a psychologist or the guy that cleans up an adult theater on the weekends, but for a comedian, being funny is kinda important you would think.This book often uses the word "would" when it should have been "will" or "is going to". Example: "This chapter would teach you how to think." What do you mean, WOULD? it's not going to anymore? Did it change it's mind? It was tough to read I have to say.With so many great books on this art form on Amazon, this one can be skipped and you will be none the worse for it. All this information can be found in those other books WITH the "how" to added!

Poorly written and so many sentences you have to reread several times to get their meaning. Confusing.Content is very repetitive. And also rather lacking in substance.If the content had been good it would be easy to overlook the bad writing, as the author is presumably a full time comedian, not a novelist. But sadly I found the content just wasn't there either.Not much information there at all. Just basically - be motivated, be prepared for hard work, expect many failures and just keep trying and improving. While this is all good advice, I was hoping for a little more.Not much information on actually "how to be a stand up comedian", which was disappointing as it's the title of the book. It's mostly about having the mindset.As someone looking to start out I really didn't find anything in here that I haven't already got from free YouTube videos. There's nothing on actually how to start - how to write jokes, how to present, how to be funny/engaging/successful.It's also very short. I read the whole thing cover to cover in about 40 minutes. On the kindle version, I was at 35% through when I finished the index and glossary.As the first and only book I've read on stand up comedy, I'm certainly hoping there are much more informative ones out there.I'd skip this one.

All good

great condition