English Storytelling

Greg Behrendt, author of best-selling relationship books He’s Just Not That Into You, It’s Just a F***ing Date and How to Keep Your Marriage From Sucking, is back with over an hour of top notch comedy recorded live at Acme Comedy Company in Minneapolis. Behrendt brings his hilarious stories and observations to the stage explaining why sobriety isn’t for everyone, what makes parenting so different in the 21st Century, and how to handle a friend that you hate. Why Are You In Here? offers reassurance for those imperfect parenting moments and hearty laughs even Behrendt’s teenage daughters would appreciate.

We live in a world where smart fridges are more articulate than most politicians, where the leaders of two nuclear powers engage in a battle of elementary school wits, and where every fact can be dismissed as fake news. Sometimes it seems like the only humor left is tinged with bitterness and despair. Robert Isenberg doesn’t believe that’s true. He knows it’s possible to find humor - true humor - everywhere. 

You may not believe in Santa Claus, at least not at your current age, but if you celebrate Christmas, you know there was a time when you believed with all your heart, a time when you weren’t quite sure, and a time when the truth became all too clear. The 12 stories that follow reflect a mix of those emotions and events, told by the man - then boy - who experienced them in the early 1950s.  

So you have come to a point of your life where you see the world and are at peace with what you see. You trust our leaders. Our land is well and thriving. Our children learn goodness and wholesome things at the hands of gentle teachers. Guns are no longer needed. To that I say I hope you enjoy your visit to Earth, and please clean up after yourself before get back into your flying saucer and leave. The rest of us are freakin' out. Don't mind us if we don't get up while you leave and say good-bye.

Benjamin Franklin left behind quite a legacy as an inventor, politician, and philosopher. Yet when he first arrived in Philadelphia, his future wife thought he had “a most awkward, ridiculous appearance.” Franklin recalls that this was because at the time he was carrying a large dinner roll under each arm and eating a third as he walked down the street. This delightful excerpt from his memoir shows how Franklin got his start in the printing business and demonstrates his skill as a humorist.

From his first interactions with “The Mob” in his early childhood and his nightmarish life with his father until he was on his own at 15 years of age through his marriages and how he became one of the best and most famous stand-up comedians of his time, Kip Addotta tells all. He names names and details the how-to and fine-tuning of comedy. 

A humorous self-help book filled with tales from the author who came out of a three-year relationship and was completely clueless as how to navigate the emerging trend of modern digital dating. The reader will not only get just the tips but also some hilarious, self-deprecating stories that you can laugh at or commiserate with - or both!

The New York Times best-selling mother-daughter duo is back with more hilarious, witty, and true tales from their lives. Whether they are attempting to hike the Grand Canyon, setting up phone calls with their dogs, or learning what “adulting” means, Lisa and Francesca are guaranteed to make you laugh, cry, and appreciate the funniest moments in life. Like the perfect glass of rosé, they’re always here to help you escape from your own busy, modern life and instead, get lost in theirs.    

If the first six months of running the Smugglers Tavern had been a baptism of fire, the subsequent years were about as much fun as bobbing for apples in a vat of acid. Having swapped the tin roof of a cold British fish market for the sunny skies of a Spanish holiday island, Joe and Joy succeeded in thwarting the first wave of attacks from bungling bureaucrats, bewildered holidaymakers, and their own spectacular ineptitude. What they didn't realize was that their enemies were regrouping. Not only that, but those enemies had made camp a lot closer to home.

West Winging It: An Unpresidential Memoir is the personal story of Pat Cunnane and his journey from outsider to insider, from his dreary job at a warehouse to his dream job at the White House. Pat pulls the drapes back on the most famous and exclusive building in the United States, telling the story of the real West Wing with compelling and quirky portraits of the people who populate the place, from the president to the press corps.

Eric Lax has been with Woody Allen almost every step of the way. He chronicled Allen's transformation from stand-up comedian to filmmaker in On Being Funny (1975). His international best seller, Woody Allen: A Biography (1991), was a portrait of a director hitting his stride. Conversations with Woody Allen comprised interviews that illustrated Allen's evolution from 1971 to 2008. Now, Lax invites us onto the set - and even further behind the scenes - of Allen's Irrational Man, which was released in 2015, and starred Joaquin Phoenix and Emma Stone.

R. Scott Murphy returns with his second batch of Fun Stories. Inspired by Friends, Seinfeld, The Office, and The Far Side, the Fun Stories series offers amusing audiobooks, albums, and Kindle selections to help lighten your day. Murphy shares embarrassing work stories, conducts crazy countdowns, sets out on silly Google safaris, and invites your participation through his interactive storytelling game called Mental Kickball.

Humorist Mike Farragher grew up Irish, Catholic, and guilty in the swamps of Hudson County, New Jersey. These humorous essays, read by the author, provide a side-splitting, sweet, and sometimes salty take on life, spirituality, parenting, and Celtic heritage. Tune in for a whiplash ride through the Irish American psyche!

When Matthew retreated to an isolated mountain village in Spain, he was looking forward to peace and quiet. A friendly old man, a pushy old woman, and an invasive swarm of hornets had other ideas. A humorous, lighthearted series of five very short stories.

Move over Erma Bombeck, Dave Barry, and Hendrik Groen - Bettye Strickland has the senior living beat now! Her candid commentary on life in the slow lane is sure to bring smiles, chuckles, and outright laughter to listeners of all ages....

Over the years while writing, directing, and acting at radio theater workshops and in the Mark Time Radio Show performances at Minneapolis' CONvergence science fiction conventions, Brian Price and Jerry Stearns found that they shared a love for classic Beat poetry, Lord Buckley, and prose poems, so they started doing some of their own. This is a collection of their unique hybrid of humor, music, character, and performance.

Mark Twain's lifetime spans America's era of greatest economic growth. And Twain was an active, even giddy, participant in all the great booms and busts of his time, launching himself into one harebrained get-rich-quick scheme after another. But far from striking it rich, the man who coined the term "Gilded Age" failed with comical regularity to join the ranks of plutocrats who made this period in America notorious for its wealth and excess.

Do everyday annoyances make you want to tear out what's left of your hair? Author and comic book store owner Rembert N. Parker feels your pain, and he's here to give you a piece of his mind. With dry wit and hilarious adages, Parker tackles an eclectic mix of topics, from Academy Award mistakes to using sci-fi principles on Supreme Court decisions. If you like observational humor, expanding your point of view, and in-depth looks at the past, present, and future, then you'll love Rembert N. Parker's side-splitting stories.

Warning: This book makes jokes about the Third Reich, the Reign of Terror, World War I, cancer, Millard Fillmore, and Chernobyl. When advertising legend Jim Riswold is stricken with leukemia and prostate cancer, he quits the business that made him famous to become a "fake artist", creating a controversial body of work with a controversial cast of characters, from Hitler to Mao to Kim Jong-Il. It was a decision that would save his life.

Such barking, such endless yapping from a dog that usually holds his peace unless he is unduly troubled can only mean one thing. It is our turn to be honored by a visit from Oscar the 'possum. Oscar is what you'd call a shadowy figure. He never does come out where you can see him in broad daylight, like birds and squirrels and other creatures do. I don't know if it's because he doesn't like the looks of us or he thinks we wouldn't like the looks of him. Or maybe he's just too shy to come right up and introduce himself.