Biography Humor

In his debut memoir, Won’t Be Silent, Abe Gurko invites you to join him in celebrating a life that he calls “finally worth living.” It’s an honest, rollicking ride filled with joyous and life-affirming as well as challenging, daunting, and heartbreaking situations that he navigates with aplomb, though not always.

When Harold Ross founded The New Yorker in 1925, he described it as a “comic weekly.” And although it has become much more than that, it has remained true in its irreverent heart to the founder’s description, publishing the most illustrious literary humorists of the modern era. This anthology gathers together, for the first time, the funniest work of more than seventy New Yorker contributors.

In Five Minutes to Kill, actor and comedian Fred Stoller tells the story of the Young Comedians Special in 1989. He and five other talented, then-unknown comics took the stage with the hopes that their five-minute sets would propel them to fame and fortune. Some, like David Spade and Rob Schneider, hit it big; others didn’t. By turns hilarious and heart-wrenching, Five Minutes to Kill is the bittersweet story of what happened to six of America’s funniest people after their first big breaks.

For the hundreds of thousands of followers of the Bangor, Maine Police Department on social media, the "Got Warrants?" feature brings a regular dose of levity. Pulled straight from daily reports, these short interludes provide a welcome spin on the standard police log. Collected here is a fresh batch of all-true police-related hijinks. Poking fun at human nature and turning ne'er-do-wells into sages of silliness, Got Warrants? reminds us all to step back, take a deep breath, and try not to take things so seriously.

From a childhood spent making smoke bombs, killing wasps and carving soap in '70s Kent, Harry Hill then found himself in charge of hundreds of sick people as a junior doctor. Out of his depth and terrified, he chucked it all in to pursue his dream of becoming a stand-up comedian. Battling his way through the '90s comedy circuit, he quickly rose to become a household name and one of the UK's most celebrated comics, almost making it to the top of the showbiz tree.

Norman Wisdom's early years could easily have come straight from the pages of a Dickens novel. Left by their frightened mother and ill-treated by a brutal father, Norman and his brother were forced to fend for themselves, sleeping rough in London and stealing food to survive. This is a rags to riches tale of the man Charlie Chaplin said would take his mantle and who went on to make millions laugh around the world for over five decades.

What does it mean to be Jew(ish) in 2020? Caught between tradition and modernity, between a Jewish family and a non-Jewish son, Matt Greene ponders the big questions concerning identity, religion, family and Seinfeld. When his son was born to a non-Jewish mother, Matt began to consider the upbringing he'd put behind him - the sense of not belonging, the forbidden foods, the holidays that felt more like punishments.

"El mejor trofeo de la vida es reírse". De ese modo pensaba Cantinflas, uno de los mejores cómicos del cine en el siglo XX. Un actor versátil dotado de una habilidad interpretativa extraordinaria y una genialidad sorprendente para seducir con su espíritu sarcástico y burlón.

How does the son of a Presbyterian minister wind up winning a Pulitzer Prize for writing a wildly inaccurate newspaper column read by millions of people? In Class Clown, Dave Barry takes us on a hilarious ride, starting with a childhood largely spent throwing rocks for entertainment—there was no internet—and preparing for nuclear war by hiding under a classroom desk. After literally getting elected class clown in high school, he went to college, where, as an English major, he read snippets of great literature when he was not busy playing in a rock band (it was the sixties).

From poignant to bizarre, the "writers" of these 25 letters are a diverse group with the strangest requests. The cleverly written songs are even funnier than the letters.

Con Frank Martínez. Ser comediante no es cosa fácil, ni materia de risas, no señor. Tratar de hacer reír al otro es una experiencia endemoniada, muy divertida eso sí, pero infernal. Acompaña al reconocido comediante colombiano Gonzalo Valderrama a descubrir junto a sus famosos invitados cuáles son las obsesiones, procesos creativos, retos y pecados que tienen a estos ´standuperos´ en llamas y de tour descendiendo por los círculos del Infierno.

Picking up where her successful autobiography Enter Talking left off, Joan Rivers delivers a searing and funny account—as only she can—of private tragedy, a public fall from grace, and triumph against all odds. In Still Talking, Joan opens up about her rise to the top, dishes on fellow celebrities, and recounts the end of her treasured friendship with mentor Johnny Carson. Still Talking details Joan's courageous battle with life's obstacles and how she overcame the terrible circumstances that plagued her, surviving it all through laughter.

Александр Бессонов, признанный мастер короткой прозы из Новосибирска, автор книг "Чарли" и "Добрее", победитель "Беспринцыпных чтений 2020" с рассказом "Граф Монте-Кристо" представляет новый сборник "Мадам". Потрясающую искренность, сдобренную характерным бессоновским юмором, ежедневно для прочтения вместе с утренним кофе выбирают более 150 000 подписчиков ВКонтакте, Инстаграме, на Фейсбуке, Пикабу и Яндекс.Дзене.

We all make mistakes in life from which we draw valuable lessons. I, on the other hand, cannot seem to learn my lessons the normal way. I must mess up spectacularly, sometimes multiple times, for my thick skull to allow a lesson to pass through it. This book is a reflection on some of the lessons my brain somehow held on to and the crazy, funny, and outright stupid situations that led to these lessons learned.

Step into my world as I share a collection of stories and essays that offer an intimate glimpse into my life. I wear many hats—Man of God, Husband, Father, Grandfather, Comedian, and more—but all are worn with pride. Through these reflections, I invite you to see the world as I do, through the lens of a Black man living in today's United States. In this book, I open up about my journey—celebrating successes, confronting challenges, and navigating the complexities of life.

Die Sprachanwendung Jean Pauls gleicht dem kontrollierten Ritt eines wilden Dinosauriers mit fünf Drachenköpfen. Man weiß zwar nie was als nächstes passiert, aber es geht auf überraschendste und angenehmste Arten und Weisen immer weiter. Dabei entpuppt sich der Autor als Meister mannigfaltiger Metaphern, welche praktisch in jedem Satz Denkanstöße, Ideen und Phantasien beim Zuhörer anregen und diesen in ein Parallel-Universum des grenzenlosen Geistes versetzen, der Berge spalten, Seelen gebären und Welten zu erschaffen vermag, was einen vom ersten Moment an fesselt, verzaubert und inspiriert.

This book contains numerous short stories as seen through the eyes of a dusty old baker. The stories are made up of observations, history, and imagination, as the author watches the world go by as he sits at the large table in the middle of his bakery.

In dieser Sonderreihe von WortArt zum Anlass des 30-jährigen Bestehens wird jeweils ein(e) Wegbegleiter(in) und "WortArtist(in)" per Audio-Porträt und anhand eines Zusammenschnitts der besten Klassikernummern aus dem Programmarchiv des/der Künstler(in) präsentiert. Somit entsteht ein einzigartiges Highlight für die Lach- und Denkmuskeln. Ein Audioporträt zusammengetragen aus 30 Jahren Fleißarbeit mit vielen herausragenden Szenen und Programmen der deutschen Humorlandschaften.

Comica amatissima, nonché regista, donna di teatro e amante della lirica, Simona Marchini si racconta per la prima volta in questa autobiografia che ha l’andatura di un monologo intenso e disincantato, recitato al lettore come una sorta di pièce teatrale inedita e risolutiva. Con lo stile dolceamaro e ironico cui ci ha abituato, Simona Marchini ripercorre in queste pagine le tappe di una vita fuori dagli schemi.

I have a profit-and-loss view of the world. It is an entertaining short story full of short statements that entails fifty hilarious little points about money.