Biography Humor

An improv comedian all his life, and a standup comedian for over 15 years, Dave Gutteridge combines his comedy experience with the latest scientific research on humor and the human brain to offer his take on what exactly it is that makes us laugh. Whether you're trying to get a little funnier, on stage or in daily life, or if you're just curious about humor and laughter, this book will provide insights not only on how and why we laugh, but on how we relate.

Yankees flock to the sunny South where flowers bloom even in the middle of winter and summertime rules for most of the year. What nobody tells you is why the Yankees hightail it back North again. Yankee, Go Home exposes the gritty side of the South. Get lost in Arkansas and chased through Alabama by a madman. Find out who really won the Civil War and why. Discover the South through the eyes of a Yankee in this memoir of a Yankee in the South.

Richard has a meeting with his bank manager, and considers the merits of a career that allows you to wear scruffy trousers and make jokes about bottoms. An hilarious episode from Richard's new book, How Not to Grow Up.

No two are exactly alike, but they are as inevitable and as prevalent as the common cold. They are "dates from hell", those traumatic dates that are too terrible to believe, yet too vivid ever to forget. The only thing better than recounting details of your own hellish date is hearing about other people's disaster dates. Here are true-life accounts of dates gone horribly wrong.

Much like her hit TV show, I Love Lucy, Americans in the 1950s fell in love with Lucy. Born in New York in 1911, Lucille Ball was always a natural performer. She danced in the chorus of Broadway shows and acted in small parts in Hollywood movies. But Ball's true gift was comedy. She found a way to showcase her gifts in 1951 when CBS gave her the chance to star in a sitcom.

In 1978, Kim "Howard" Johnson ran away to join the circus - Monty Python's Flying Circus, that is. The Pythons converged on Tunisia to film their timeless classic Life of Brian, and Howard found himself in the thick of it, doubling for nearly all the Pythons, playing more roles in the film than John Cleese, and managing to ruin only one shot. He became the unit journalist, substitute still photographer, Roman soldier, peasant, near-stalker, and, ultimately, friend and confidant of the comedy legends.

He street jams in spandex and wrestles in lycra. He's been a magician, a ventriloquist and a clown. He's hugged some of the biggest stars in the world, and pretty much anyone else who's crossed his path. He mucks about, wears silly costumes and manhandles his friend Alan Carr on national TV on a weekly basis. And people have literally paid him to do all this. Good times!

In this musical romantic comedy, with actors, singers, and full orchestra, meet Emily who may or may not be with the right guy. She gets plenty of time to wonder about him as he haunts the pub where she works. Meet Ben, a twenty-something teacher who may one day find the courage to approach the miraculous beauty studying at the back of that pub. And meet Pablo, the handsome and awkward Spaniard, an unlikely hero who puts the pub back in post-puberty-based musical romantic comedies.

Unceremoniously dumped by his fiancée, Mitch moves to London for what is to be an 18-month wild ride with bad decisions and extreme characters. While he's under siege by obnoxious bosses and maneuvering a barrage of advances from men and women of all ages, Mitch's intimate confessions and musings are simultaneously delightful and embarrassing. He may lack principles and have a complete disregard for consequences, and he's not easy to like - but he's entirely entertaining.

For more than 40 years Eric Morecambe and Ernie Wise lit up our TV screens with their wonderful humour. This is the inside story, as written and read, by Eric's son Gary. As well as his unique position from inside the family he did extensive research through both families archives to uncover new facts about the duos early years. It provides a fascinating and entertaining picture of two of our most loved entertainers.

Hans Scheibner verfasste die legendären Songtexte "Das macht doch nichts, das merkt doch keiner" und "Schmidtchen Schleicher". Als Liedermacher, Autor und Kabarettist begeistert er ein großes Publikum. Nach den Kriegsjahren arbeitete er als Verlagskaufmann und Journalist. Seine Liebe aber galt dem Theater und Kabarett. Ob auf der Bühne oder in diversen Fernsehsendungen, oft kam es wegen seiner scharfzüngigen Bemerkungen zum Eklat.

In 2004 Dom Joly wrote a spoof autobiography called Look At Me, Look At Me. In Here Comes the Clown, he takes up the story of his life from 14 January 2000 when the very first episode of Trigger Happy TV aired on Channel 4 and everything changed for him. Suddenly he was famous; reality was weirder than any fiction he could conjure up. This is the story of what happened next, through snippets of recollections from his adventures in show business....

History is chock full of characters and events that could turn your hair white. From rampaging pirates to raunchy monarchs, Oh Yikes! has thrilling stories to spare about history's wildest, scariest moments.

S'Mother is a hilarious memoir based on 30 years of unsolicited advice, news updates, and opinions in the form of thousands of inappropriate, embarrassing, and utterly crazy letters showing the pathological extremes maternal instincts can take. Why is a grown woman so frantic that her adult son screw on his windows to keep out killer bees? Are adult trick-or-treaters really that much of a threat?

When everything sucks, change everything...and that's exactly what Hannah Friedman set out to do in an ambitious attempt to bust out of a life of obscurity and absurdity and into an alternate world of glamour, wealth, and popularity.

Through her pranks, sketches, and videos about everyday life, Jenn has become a mouthpiece for millennials and one of YouTube's fastest rising stars! Jenn McAllister, better known as JennxPenn, has been obsessed with making videos since she found her parents' video camera at the age of eight. A shy child, Jenn turned to film because, unlike with life, you can always have a do-over. Really Professional Internet Person offers both an insider's guide to building a successful YouTube channel and an intimate portrait of the surreality of insta-fame.

When The Flip Wilson Show debuted in 1970, Black faces were still rare on television, Black hosts nonexistent. So how did Clerow “Flip” Wilson go from Jersey City grade-school dropout to national celebrity, heralded on the cover of Time as “TV’s first black superstar”? Flip is a candid, entertaining biography of a consummate comedian who changed the face of American popular culture.

This is a guide on how to fight a bigfoot, or at least how to increase your chance of survival surrounding a fight with the giant apelike beast known as bigfoot. The odds are against you, but that doesn't mean it's absolutely impossible.

Lauren Weedman is not okay. She's living what should be the good life in sunny Los Angeles. After a gig as a correspondent with The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, she scored parts in blockbuster movies, which led to memorable recurring roles on HBO's Hung and Looking. She had a loving husband and an adorable baby boy. In these comedic essays, she turns a piercingly observant, darkly funny lens on the ways her life is actually not okay.

Let’s face it: Talking about race can be difficult. It’s a slippery subject, rife with as many perspectives as there are people in the world. But laughter gets us talking. It has the power to break down barriers and draw us closer together. In Open Mic, acclaimed author and speaker Mitali Perkins invites us to listen in as 10 authors for young adults - some familiar, some new - step up to the mic and share their stories about what it’s like growing up between cultures.