Entertainment Comedy

Comic glow and self-mockery. Addiction and depression. Dave Itzkoff draws a lively portrait of Robin Williams. It's a fresh and original look at the actor whose work touched millions of people around the world.

Born in Chicago, February 14, 1894, Benjamin Kubelsky would later become known as Jack Benny. As a boy, he was encouraged by his Jewish immigrant parents from Poland to become a concert violinist. He learned to play quite well and hit the vaudeville stage, where he played popular songs and honed a suave-but-fragile personality, telling self-deprecating jokes. Benny guested on the "Ed Sullivan" radio show March 19, 1932 and was an instant success.

Alan Zweibel started his comedy career selling jokes for seven dollars apiece to the last of the Borscht Belt standups. Then one night, despite bombing on stage, he caught the attention of Lorne Michaels and became one of the first writers at Saturday Night Live, where he penned classic material for Gilda Radner, John Belushi, and all of the original Not Ready for Prime Time Players. From SNL, he went on to have a hand in a series of landmark shows - from It’s Garry Shandling’s Show to Curb Your Enthusiasm.

Two classic collections of Nora Ephron’s uproarious essays—tackling everything from feminism to the media, from politics to beauty products, with her inimitable charm and distinctive wit—now available in one audiobook. This edition brings together some of Ephron’s most famous...

NEW ENTRY IN THE ICARUS SAGA FROM NEW YORK TIMES BEST-SELLING AUTHOR TIMOTHY ZAHN. Ten thousand years ago, a mysterious people known as the Icari vanished from the Spiral, leaving behind a network of portals that can instantaneously transport passengers hundreds or thousands of light-years...

What do the lives of Lincoln, Helen Keller, Joan of Arc, and other historical figures have in common with Paula Poundstone? In the hands of this wryly observant and self-deprecating comedian, the answer is outrageously funny and unexpectedly touching. Poundstone compares her crazy life to theirs, as she holds forth on her children, her career, and the time in her life when it appeared she would lose them both.

Barbara Sinatra’s first public love letter to the husband she adored, she celebrates the sensational singer, possessive mate, sexy heartthrob, and devoted friend that she found in Frank in Lady Blue Eyes. For more than two decades, Barbara was always by Frank Sinatra's side, traveling the...

From actor and comedian Joel McHale comes the most important celebrity-penned book of this, or any, generation – Thanks for the Money: How to Use My Life Story to Become the Best Joel McHale You Can Be. Part shocking tell-all memoir, part aspirational how-to guide, and mostly all book, this...

I'm Dying Up Here chronicles the collective coming of age of the standup comedians who defined American humor during the past three decades. Born early in the Baby Boom, they grew up watching The Tonight Show, went to school during Vietnam and Watergate, migrated en masse to Los Angeles in the mid-1970s, and created an artistic community unlike any before or since. They were arguably the funniest people of their generation, living in a late-night world of sex, drugs, dreams, and laughter.

Have you ever wanted to go to prison? Of course not. What normal person would? But haven't you wondered what it would be like? To be locked up? To do hard time? What is it really like? Is it as bad as the movies? It can't be, can it? Spoiler alert: It is! How did I cope with it? By making jokes out of the situation, which was easier said than done some days. I wanted to write something unique, something different from anything you have ever seen before.

Award-winning master critic Robert Gottlieb takes a singular and multifaceted look at the life of silver screen legend Greta Garbo, and the culture that worshiped her. “Wherever you look in the period between 1925 and 1941,” Robert Gottlieb writes in Garbo, “Greta Garbo is in people’s...

An Esquire Best Book of 2022! Written with inside access, comprehensive research, and a down-to-earth perspective, Phasers on Stun! chronicles the entire history of Star Trek, revealing that its enduring place in pop culture is all thanks to innovative pivots and radical change. For over five...

In seinem neuen Hörbuch öffnet Oliver Kalkofe sein Boomer-Herz und seine persönlichen Fotoalben. Er nimmt uns mit auf eine Zeitreise in die eigene Jugend und fragt sich im Namen aller Babyboomer: War früher wirklich mehr Lametta? Oliver Kalkofe analysiert die vermeintlich goldenen Boomer-Zeiten mit bewährt drastischer Komik und raffinierter Wortkunst.

Decades before The Daily Show, The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour proved there was a place on television for no-holds-barred political comedy with a decidedly antiauthoritarian point of view. In this explosive, revealing history of the show, veteran entertainment journalist David Bianculli tells the fascinating story of its three-year network run---and the cultural impact that's still being felt today.

When you take the most absurd parts of history, science, economics, and geography, you end up with a pretty confusing picture of humanity. Why do we have borders? What's the furthest you can get from the ocean? And why did Vikings wear those silly helmets? These are just a few of the strange questions that bounce around the head of Joseph Pisenti. In his YouTube channel, Pisenti presents illogical truths in a logical manner. Here, he builds on this nonsensical humor of the universe with in-depth analysis of empires, economies, and ecosystems as he helps answer the ridiculous.

From the break-out star of BuzzFeed and the People's Choice Award-winning comedian comes a collection of hilariously anguished essays chronicling awful moments from his life so far, the humiliations of being an adult, and other little indignities. Matt Bellassai has no idea what he's doing. Well, to be fair, he did become semi-Internet famous by getting drunk at work, making him a socially-acceptable - nay - professional alcoholic. He's got some things figured out. But the rest is all just a terrible, disgusting mess.

Seinfeld, Friends, Frasier, ER, Cheers, Law & Order, Will & Grace…Here is the funny, splashy, irresistible insiders’ account of the greatest era in television history -- told by the actors, writers, directors, producers, and the network executives who made it happen…and watched it all fall...

Someone I love did a truly terrible thing, and I'm working three jobs on top of my one as a showgirl at the Benton Las Vegas Grand to make up for it before anyone finds out—too late. Cole Benton III, the ruthless CEO of the Benton Worldwide hotel empire, calls me into his glass office overlooking the Vegas skyline, demanding to know why I stole all the money from one of his grandmothers charity funds. I can't tell him that.

The first all-encompassing biography of Elliott Smith, offering an intimate portrait of his life and musical legacy with brand-new interviews, lyrics, and correspondence from the people closest to him, many speaking for the first time Nobody Broke Your Heart is a tender, nuanced narrative of...

Often imitated but never bettered, I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue is the only authentic antidote to panel games. This collection finds unflappable chairman Humphrey Lyttelton giving silly things to do to regular panelists Tim Brooke-Taylor, Barry Cryer and Graeme Garden, as well as special guests Stephen Fry and Rob Brydon. Highlights include old favourites such as One Song to the Tune of Another, 84 Chicken Cross Road, Sound Charades, New Definitions and of course the brilliantly baffling, fiendishly funny Mornington Crescent.