Table of Contents
Your Mind is a Funny Thing
The first three chapters are available to read for free here online. If the section title is underlined, that means it's available to read now!
Chapter One - Laughter
standup would be so much easier if I could just tickle you
Monkeys who can't find the remote
Chapter Two - Funny
Goldilocks and the three jokes
Chapter Three - Humour
Chapter Four - Comedy
Two types of people walk into a place and say a thing
Back up a sec
You can't make me laugh
Fuck
Comedic Uranium
Would comedy exist in utopia?
Giggling at funerals
Roots
Chapter Five - Timing
Are we there yet?
Microtiming
Mesotiming
The myth of the long set up
Before it gets old
Macrotiming
Say no more
Timeless jokes
Another Term For “Not Funny Anymore”
Chapter Six - The Comedian
No comedian is an island
What if Richard Pryor was from the suburbs?
Women
The outsider
A computer that can be programmed to tell jokes
Holy Ground
Irony
Zaniness
Chapter Seven - The Audience
The Stepford Audience
Improv
Please, have another drink
Hecklers
Five minutes of grace
Chapter Eight - Funnier
Making you laugh... with science!
Connoisseurs of comedy
How to be funny with your friends
How to learn
Finding your audience
Knowing What Works
It's all in the delivery...?
Comedians Need you More Than you know
Stimulus and response
A page more blank
Bibliography
Index
Falling Off The Edge
What I wish every open mike comedian knew before getting on stage. Especially the ones who aspire to be 'edgy'.
Respecting the Stage
This should be really obvious, but for some reason it isn't. For some reason, lots of performers go on stage asking for the audience's time without respecting its value.
But I Got Laughs
The dividing laugh between a real comedian and just someone on stage being sometimes funny is determined by going beyond mere randomness.
