Funny Biography

Labor Day, 1969: Two recent college graduates move to New York to edit a new magazine called the National Lampoon. Over the next decade, Henry Beard and Doug Kenney, along with a loose amalgamation of fellow satirists such as Michael O’Donoghue and P. J. O’Rourke, popularized a smart, caustic, ironic brand of humor that has become the dominant voice of American comedy. Ranging from sophisticated political satire to broad raunchy jokes, the National Lampoon introduced iconoclasm to the mainstream, selling millions of copies to an audience both large and devoted.

The superb classic memoir from a dazzlingly eccentric and endlessly fascinating author - a woman very much ahead of her time - including her time spent on the glorious island of Skiathos. Nancy Spain was one of the most celebrated - and notorious - writers and broadcasters of the '40s, '50s and '60s. Hilarious, controversial and brilliant, she lived openly as a lesbian (sharing a household with her two lovers and their various children) and was frequently litigated against for her newspaper columns - Evelyn Waugh successfully sued her for libel...twice.

Do you try to share the lessons you learned in life with your children? Do they listen? Karen S. Veazey shares with us more humorous life lessons she has tried to share with her children. This, her second book, contains 150 funny stories about family, friends, pets, growing up in the South, being married for decades, aging parents, and many other unlikely places to find humor. The lighthearted lessons learned will NOT give you the answers to life’s big questions, but they might help you find humor in life’s mishaps.

In A Surgeon under Israeli Occupation, author Dr. Shawki Harb chronicles his experiences about life, Palestine, and medicine that he’s witnessed throughout 50 years of a surgical practice.

A late bloomer’s coming-of-age memoir asks how does one accept and free themselves from visible and invisible disabilities and still retain their sense of connection and humor? Nothing Special is a disarmingly candid tale of two sisters growing up in the 1970s in rural Connecticut. Older sister Chris, who has Down syndrome, is an extrovert, while the author, her younger, typically developing sister, shoulders the burdens and grief of her parents.

Thirty-three funny and heartwarming stories.

For the last 25 years, Jeff Silverman has been the President of YukYuk's comedy club: one of the world's largest stand-up comedy chains. With a career spanning more than forty years, Jeff has helped launchthe careers of Jim Carey, Howie Mandel and Russell Peters, and started his business career with the 99-cent Roxy Theatre back in the '70s, showcasing cult underground movie marathons. He went on to run the New Yorker Theatre and Horseshoe Tavern music venues, bringing in bands like The Police and The Ramones for the very first time.

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.

The Amy Binegar-Kimmes-Lyle Book of Failures is a funny memoir. If you have ever failed at love or finances, been fired, not fit in, self-diagnosed yourself with disorders and conditions, and/or said "I really need to get my s*** together", this is the book for you.

A funny look at childhood's lost, magical moments, viewed through the heart of a father. Crawling, walking, play dates, hopscotch, hibiscuses, potty training, princess dresses, gymnastics classes - and Baby Dolphins - the whole wide world of her questions and his answers.

Eric Litsky brings us on a funny, rollicking, heartfelt trip down memory lane, from coming of age adventures, to growing up and still being the free-spirited and roguish adult that keeps the neighborhood on its toes. And then there was the time I nearly burnt down my house. I didn’t mean to. I blame it on the poor science education I received at PS 176. One afternoon I watched the movie “Young Tom Edison” on channel 9’s “Million Dollar Movie.” I thought it would be a great idea to invent something that would change the world.

Until he was 17, Brett Preiss lived in the dusty outback of Australia, where he was one of four siblings in a dysfunctional family. He learned how to survive under the most bizarre and extraordinary circumstances. In this book, he shares the trials and tribulations of his youth through anecdotes that will leave you in tears of joy or sorrow. Travel back to the ’60s and ’70s and watch Brett transform from a sperm to adolescence.

How hard could it be? Michael Francis doesn’t know anything about gardening. Yet he decides to start a lawn-care and landscaping business. What could possibly go wrong? Eager to make a success of his ambitious new career, he relocates from New York to Greenwich, Connecticut, where he rents an apartment, buys some equipment, and promptly chops down the wrong tree. He soon learns that stinging nettles and shorts are not a good mix, as disaster looms behind every hedge.

In 1952 20th century entertainment icon Eddie Cantor survived his first heart attack. He coins the name cardiactor. Sixty years later, grandson Brian Gari undergoes a sudden open heart surgery and has a quadruple bypass. Little did Brian know at two and a half that his posing with his grandpa for the Heart Fund would end up being so prophetic. This is Brian's personal story of what you can expect (and not expect) when undergoing one of the most serious operations one can ever endure.

Leaving Cuba was traumatic for my family. Assimilating in Hoboken, New Jersey, was challenging and often comical. Situations that seemed insurmountable as a child are funny in retrospect...now that I know the outcome!

When the Lambchop family gets to Boston, Stanley is excited to go on a Duck Tour, eat lunch at Quincy Market, and see Fenway Park baseball stadium. Stanley even gets to be in a reenactment of American Colonist Paul Revere’s famous midnight ride. But Stanley has a problem. The Lambchops’ friend, Dr. Dan, is in town, too, and he’s giving a speech about his cure for flatness. And he wants Stanley to talk about being flat! But does Stanley want to change and be a regular kid, or would it be better to stay flat after all?

If you thought Dennis Miller was done ranting, guess again. In Still Ranting After All These Years, recorded in early 2002, Miller is in fine form, commenting on everything from "War and Terrorism" to Enron; from "Obsessed Parents" to the "End of Class"; to "Truth in the Media" and so much more. Throughout, Miller is what we have come to expect from him: smart, cutting, laugh-out-loud funny, and more times than not...right.

Comedy writer, Mike McColl Jones, has lots of funny friends. Graham Kennedy, Bert Newton, Don Lane, Tommy Hanlon Jnr, Stuart Wagstaff, Steve Vizard, Frankie J. Holden... Mike has written for them all. In a career spanning decades, Mike has been an insider at television's funniest moments - on and off the screen. In My Funny Friends, Mike shares 'insiders' stories about the who's who of Australian television.

Funny Bones tells the story of how the amusing calaveras - skeletons performing various everyday or festive activities - came to be. They are the creation of Mexican artist Jose Guadalupe (Lupe) Posada (1852-1913). In a country that was not known for freedom of speech, he first drew political cartoons, much to the amusement of the local population but not the politicians. He continued to draw cartoons throughout much of his life, but he is best known today for his calavera drawings.

No Smiling Allowed is a comedic take on life in the former Soviet Union, as an immigrant in America. Julia Bendis has compiled many years of funny stories about her old-fashioned and traditional Russian parents, their understanding of how life works in the United States, their hilarious adventures, and her own younger generation's view of what it was like to blend in as a weird-looking kid from Russia.