A useful book. Judy Carter demystifies joke structure with clear explanations then goes a level deeper by explaining effective ways to grab audience interest with your writing. Carter teaches you how to quickly spot a "hack" premise and drives home the point that stand-up involves far more than transcribing and rehashing the funny stories you tell at parties. Other reviewers have criticized the author for setting down ground rules and telling aspiring comics what NOT to do. This is actually one of the book's strongest points. The majority of terrible comics you've suffered through are the ones who break many of the ground rules (you know, they're the ones who open by saying "A little bit about me"). Even the most experimental and visionary comics understand the basic set-up of a joke, so Carter's expectation that her readers do the same isn't as boorish as her critics claim. Read this book and the Teach Yourself book and you should be ready to write a routine in a few weeks.

This is a brilliant book on comedy by a top writer and coach; extremely well designed and structured. Very instructional, like a "class in a book", and easy-to-use exercises that help sharpen your chops and take your skills to a new level, fast.

From a copywriting background, I also found this to be immensely useful for improving professional presentations, because of the audience-analysis and premise-setup-payoff process that's explained and taught with abundant examples.

I've bought most of the books available on comedy writing/improv/standup skills, and find this one to be the best, and is one I'll refer to for years to come. Excellent job, Judy - thanks for showing how it all works, much appreciated.

Ken C

What's hard about learning comedy from a book is that most of them teach you how to use a formula to write hack material. "How cold was it? It was so cold..." Judy Carter is on a rampage against hack and shows you how to write jokes that are fresh and current. She also shows you how to take your stories and turn them into jokes. I read through the whole book, and now am starting again from the beginning working step by step with a comedy buddy. I've developed tons of material! Thanks Judy!

There are many lame, half-baked and pointless
books on writing comedy. I've read almost
all of them and burned a couple. Judy Carter's
book is anti-lame, wholly baked, and point-ful.
If you can afford to buy just one book on the art
of creating comedy on the page or on the stage,
buy The Comedy Bible. If you can 't afford to buy
even one, what the hell's your problem? Get TCB
and you will get funnier (assuming you're funny now).