Humor Celebrity

For half a century Ken Dodd has been sending audiences around Britain in to spasms of laughter and at the age of 80 he is still performing. How did this feather duster salesman from Liverpool become one of the greatest comic geniuses of his generation? In this entertaining biography we follow his life from schooldays in Knotty Ash to the top of his profession with the odd excursion through the courts and Shakespeare!

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.

Like Kofi Annan, Larry Miller is one of the most irresistible comic personalities working today. Known for years as an actor, writer, comedian, and sexual pioneer, he's gained a new following as a cultural commentator and frequent guest on political shows. Now, in Spoiled Rotten America, he fixes his gaze on what's funny about our daily lives; which includes, roughly speaking, everything.

At the dawn of human civilization, a blind prophet foretold the coming of one who would transform American literature forever, thrilling millions with his prose and debauching thousands with the meltingly seductive rhythm of his poetry. Now he has arrived. His name is Neal Pollack, the author of The Neal Pollack Anthology of American Literature, and he walks among us.

Linda Smith (1958-2006) was a national treasure and voted "wittiest person alive" on Radio 4. From her childhood in Erith, featuring her "sweet smiling fascist grandmother", and holidays abroad (to the Isle of Wight), to her early stand-up days and comedy career, Warren Lakin recalls Linda's story and their life together.

I don't know how it happened. Really, I don't. I was a student at the University of Buffalo, located, of all places, in Buffalo, New York. I guess that's why they called it the University of Buffalo? The year was mid-1960s. Every word of this story is true. Maybe embellished a little to satisfy my creative urge. But it's a story I remember as if it were yesterday. Then again, maybe it was. In the scheme of things. You'll laugh. A lot. You'll remember. A lot. You might even want to go back to college. Well, that might be a bit of a stretch!

Mit genügend Humor wird alles leichter. Bastian Bielendorfer dokumentiert deshalb vom ersten Tag an, durch welche Absurditäten sich unser Leben seit dem Beginn des Corona-Wahnsinns verändert hat. Innerhalb weniger Stunden wird die Hausärztin zur Seuchenexpertin, der Postbote zum Hochrisikoarbeiter. Und Bastis Zuhause mutiert zur Zwangs-WG mit Frau, Mops und Schwiegermutter. Nach ein paar Tagen im Hausarrest erklärt Basti der Corona-Angst den Krieg und beginnt mit seinen schriftstellerischen Aufräumarbeiten in einer Welt, die nie wieder so sein wird wie zuvor.

Once there was a little girl from Fargo, North Dakota, named Maggie Goldfarb who grew up, moved to Manhattan, and morphed into Magnolia Gold, the highly paid editor in chief of Lady magazine. With a corner office, a designer wardrobe, and dozens of loyal employees, Magnolia has been hired to update the dowager of women's magazines. She's on her way to giving Lady a face-lift when she is ignominiously replaced.

Disillusioned by her glitzy life in London and her desirable but cruel TV-presenter boyfriend, Rosie Richardson chucks it all in and spends four years running a refugee camp in Africa. Then famine strikes in a nearby province and an influx of starving refugees threatens to overwhelm the camp. Frustrated by the cautious response of the aid agencies, Rosie decides on a drastic short-term solution.

Writer-Producer Robert Youngson’s seminal compilation documentaries of silent comedy in the 1960s inspired a Renaissance in the legacies of Charley Chase, Snub Pollard, and, above all, Laurel and Hardy as well as other comedians from movies of the teens and '20s. Youngson died young, but his widow, Jeanne, tells author Manago about her late husband’s obsession with movies, laughter, and food.

Best known for her positive outlook on life, no matter what the circumstances, award-winning comedian/actress Alyse Kenny shares fun stories, positive anecdotes, and personal tips to get you through this crazy time. Unmasked reveals more about Alyse’s private life than ever before - from her humorous take on Zoom dating and garage birthday parties to her more private “aha” moments and behind-the-scenes tales from the years she worked on staff at ABC’s The View and The Dr. Oz Show.

That's the message of this fresh and funny relationship book by beloved actress-comedian Loni Love. Full of down-to-earth advice on love, sex, and dating, Loni delivers answers to women's most pressing relationship questions along with plenty of hilarious been-there-done-that tales - from hooking up to breaking up to everything in between.

For Alex Davidson, being a celebrity publicist at a Los Angeles PR firm isn't the glamour job she thought it would be. Her love life is zilch, her newest client is an actor fresh out of rehab, and her firm has just been bought out by a rival agency. Suddenly, Alex finds her once-secure job at stake.

The Gift Bag Chronicles, the follow-up to So 5 Minutes Ago, continues the outrageous misadventures of Hollywood girl-about-town Alex Davidson, who has moved up the ladder at her firm. Formerly a mere publicist, she's now the head of the 'event planning' division, which means she's a party planner. And what goes on behind the scenes while the real stars (and the plastic surgeons who want to be treated like real stars) sip champagne, makes for the funniest, zingiest, sexiest story yet.

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.

Acclaimed biographer Jem Roberts narrates his brilliant new biography of the Beatles and their relationship with comedy. Includes a foreword written and narrated by Kevin Eldon, who also voices George Martin throughout the audiobook. Fab Fools is the full, hilarious story of how John, Paul, George, and Ringo laughed their way to the toppermost of the poppermost in their classic films, cartoons, and even pantomime, not to mention their experimentations with audio comedy through Sir George Martin's Parlophone comedy classics series.

Die Gruberin ganz persönlich. Seit Jahren begeistert Monika Gruber ihre Fans auf der Bühne, zuletzt 20.000 Menschen in der zweimal ausverkauften Olympiahalle - aber wie macht sie das eigentlich? Wie ist sie jedes Mal auf den Punkt vorbereitet? Was sollte man vor dem Auftritt essen - und was eher nicht? Was passiert nach der Show? Und wie schafft man es, sich in der kleinsten Künstlergarderobe der Welt hinter Bierkisten unfallfrei umzuziehen und zu schminken?

Erinnerungen eines legendären Theatermachers. Erstmals erzählt Tom Pauls von dem Moment, der ihn für die Bühne begeisterte, von Selbstzweifeln während seines Schauspielstudiums, den Widersprüchen vor 1989 sowie dem Neuanfang nach 1990. Noch nie sprach er so persönlich von den Höhen und Tiefen seiner Karriere, über die Rolle des Theaters in der DDR, die Ostalgie sowie gegenwärtige Katastrophen wie Elbe-Hochwasser und Corona-Pandemie. Ohne Herausforderungen ging es bei ihm nie. Aber mit Possen bringt er unverdrossen sein Publikum zum Lachen und macht immer weiter Theater.

Once women like Phyllis Diller, Jean Carroll, and Moms Mabley took the stage, their impact changed the face of stand-up comedy forever. Listen in as Evergreen breaks down the comedic stylings of some of the funniest women in the world in this curated collection, available for the first time in audio.

This book is equal parts self-help and hilarious reality written by a funny lunatic - the last guru you will ever need, folks, right in this book. Adrian, yup that’s me, writing in the third person like well...a crazy person (calm down it's OK for you to laugh at my crazy) - he has written an inspiring tale of survival and not becoming just another victim or statistic. This book details serious childhood and adulthood trauma from physical, verbal, and sexual abuse to bullying in school and growing up poor with a tyrant of a father in the hot streets of Miami....