Poking a Dead Frog

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A fascinating, laugh out loud funny look at the mysterious art of comedy, as told by legendary humorists from Amy Poehler to Mel Brooks What makes people laugh How do you know if a joke will click with the audience And how do you get a job as a comedy writer, anyway InPoking a Dead Frog, top humor writers like Adam McKay Step Brothers, Talladega Nights , Michael Schur The Office, Parks and Recreation , and Glen Charles Cheers, Taximany of whom have never before been interviewed at this length, or at all offer insight into their influences and creative processes, their self doubt and breakthroughs, and how they managed to succeed in the mysterious, unpredictable business of comedy Packed with behind the scenes stories, from a typical day in the writers room at the Onion to why a sketch does or doesn t make it onto Saturday Night Live, Poking a Dead Frog is a must read for comedy buffs, writers, and pop culture junkies. Download Poking a Dead Frog Author Mike Sacks – kino-fada.fr There is some very good advice for comedy writers in this book, most notably that one has to do the following Go to Harvard Every comedy writer, it seems, went to Harvard If you haven t yet gone to Harvard, go to the Harvard bookstore, buy a sweatshirt and then tell people you went to Harvard Nobody will ask questions Stick with writing but do it because you love it not because you re going to make a ton, or even a few pounds, of money Work on the Harvard Lampoon...Eh A lot of gossip and very little writerly advice I became bored halfway through.The wonderful thing about birthday gifts is you end up reading books you never would have picked up on your own, so I am extremely grateful my friend, who knew that I loved both comedy and writing, guessed that I might enjoy a book of interviews with and advice from comedy writers Though the title Poking a Dead Frog refers to a quote implying that attempting to dissect humor is an unwise endeavor, I found this book fascinating and inspiring.Mike Sacks presents the words of dozens of comedy writ The wonderful thing about birthday gifts is you end up reading books you never would have picked up on your own, so I am extremely grateful my friend, who knew that I loved both comedy and writing, guessed that I might enjoy a book of interviews with and advice from comedy writers Though the title Poking a Dead Frog refers to a quote implying that attempting to dissect humor is an unwise endeavor, I found this book fascinating and inspiring.Mike Sacks presents the words of dozens of comedy writers here, many of whom I had never heard of, even though I knew their work and some whose work I didn t know either Some offer Pure, Hard Core Advice, which read as short personal essays focused on one or two bits of advice for aspiring comedy writers Few of these are revolutionary write a lot, network well, write what you know, etc , but they re nice reads because of how they re tied to the writer s personal experience And...An excellent book for aspiring comedy writers as well as fans of classic comedy TV and movies This book has great, in depth interviews with some of the greatest comedy writers of all times, such as Mel Brooks It also contains interviews with writers that, quite frankly, I ve never heard of, but their shows movies are legendary, including writers for Monty Python, SNL, Cheers, Seinfeld, David Letterman, etc It also includes valuable career advice from today s popular stand up comedians comedy An excellent book for aspiring comedy writers as well as fans of classic comedy TV and movies This book has great, in depth interviews with some of the greatest comedy writers of all times, such as Mel Brooks It also contains interviews with writers that, quite frankly, I ve never heard of, but their shows movies are legendary, including writers for Monty Python, SNL, C...Even if you aren t an aspiring comedy writer, you just might enjoy Poking a Dead Frog There s a lot of material here, and you may not click with every interview, but at over 400 pages, there s plenty here for any comedy fan The interviews are in three different formats, a traditional question and answer, Ultraspecific Comedy Knowledge, and pure hard core advice The interviews are longer and give the subject opportunity to reminisce and expound The other two formats are short, only a page or Even if you aren t an aspiring comedy writer, you just might enjoy Poking a Dead Frog There s a lot of material here, and you may not click with every interview, but at over 400 pages, there s plenty here for any comedy fan The interviews are in three different formats, a traditional question and answer, Ultraspecific Comedy Knowledge, and pure hard core advice The interviews are longer and give the subject opportunity to reminisce and expound The other two formats are short, only a page or two, about the comedy business how to get a literary agent don t bother , writing jokes for the Oscars show, and so on Much of the advice is no surprise keep at it and rewrite, rewrite, rewrite.I have no career aspirations, so I was able to enjoy this book for the laughs In fact, if you don t read anything else in the book, read the interview with Peg Lynch I had not heard of Peg she is over 90 years old and got her start doing ...Whilst comedy is something that we all enjoy and if you don t, I m afraid we ll never be Bosom Buddies Golden Girls maybe remember how missionary Dorothy was this book is really all about the background of the industry and what it takes to break into it.Long story short it sucks You have to beg, grovel, sell your soul and your body here s lookin at you Chris Farley one word Chippendales It warrants some merit for the insider stories, but basically it comes down to write, write, Whilst comedy is something that we all enjoy and if you don t, I m afraid we ll never be Bosom Buddies Golden Girls maybe remember how missionary Dorothy was this book is really all about the background of the industry and what it takes to break into it.Long story short it sucks You have to beg, grovel, sell your soul and your body here s lookin at you Chris Farley one word Chippendales It warrants some merit for the insider st...The title of this book refers to the old quotation about how analyzing humour is like dissecting a frog, in that the frog dies and nobody laughs Unfortunately, the book lives up to that premise, in that is neither funny nor very insightful about comedy The chapters include interviews with various writers and performers, most of which are not that interesting on their own The chapters labelled pure, hardcore advice are mislabelled The ones categorized as ultra specific comedic knowledge ar The title of this book refers to the old quotation about how analyzing humour is like dissecting a frog, in that the frog dies and nobody laughs ...I read Mike Sacks previous book, Now Here s The Kicker, on an airplane and it definitely entertained me Reading about these figures in comedy, both in front and behind the camera, was an amazing insight into the industry and how some of my favorite shows are made.So of course I picked this up.To me it had just as great a selection of interviewees as the prior book, mixing stand up with long time writers of Articles, Websites, Radio, Television, Movies both new and old.It s a thick book to rea I read Mike Sacks previous book, Now Here s The Kicker, on an airplane and it definitely entertained me Reading about these figures in comedy, both in front and behind the camera, was an amazing insight into the industry...Absolutely the best book I ve ever read on comedy writing and one of the best about comedy and humor in general I ve read his other book on comedy writing and was kinda meh, not so with this one This is a warm, loving, kind hearted book with a wealth of knowledge about comedy history and each individual s take on comedy and their par there I found this book very inspirational and enlightening It has just a smattering of stand up comics, which is my...Wow If you are a writer or a fan of comedy or both , you won t be able to put this down Sacks interviews comedy legends like Mel Brooks or Cheers co creator Glen Charles, or shares Pure, Hard Core Advice from talents like Amy Poehler, or Ultraspecific Comedic Knowledge Writing for Monty Python by Terry Jones Paul Feig shares the character bible for Freaks and Geeks SNL s Bill Hader suggests 200 movies every comedy writer should see The scope of the project is incredible and he execu Wow If you are a writer or a fan of co...

Poking a Dead Frog
  • English
  • 05 March 2017
  • Kindle Edition
  • 464 pages
  • Mike Sacks
  • Poking a Dead Frog