I picked up this little gem from Goodwill the other day. I was grabbed by the straightforward title Stand-Up Comedy: The Book. And then was I sold by the fact that a book with such an audacious title was written by the relatively unknown comedienne, Judy Carter, who’s website judycarter.com refers to her as a humorist and motivational speaker. So how is this woman allowed to write the definitive text on stand-up comedy?

Well, because she provides the definitive test on Funny. Right there on the cover is an invitation to all those looking at this book at Goodwill’s across the nation to take a chance on the book as they will gain definitive proof if they are funny or not within the first few pages.¹

The first question of the test is “Are you Jewish, Black or Italian? If you answer yes proceed directly to chapter 2.” Chapter one was an examination on “what is funny?” What? I’ve met many people in my days, and just because someone is Jewish, it doesn’t make them funny. I’ve met people that are Asian who are hysterical. Yet Judy Carter allows these races to skip over the very first chapter in her book to help them understand what is funny.

Among the massively dated suggestions in the book, written in 1989, was her urge to keep your material personal. As she says “Everyone has a K-mart joke.” I think the validity of this book resides in this statement. Listen to Steve Martin, Woody Allen, George Carlin, or any great comedian from the past forty years. Their jokes transcend their age. A Wild And Crazy Guy is just as laugh out loud² as when it was first conceived back in the seventies.

I guess what I’m trying to get at here is that no one can tell you that you’re funny, make you funny, or even help you make yourself funny. As Woody Allen said on being funny, “it’s an inborn thing that some have…it’s just in the genes…” No book is going to present the definitive roadmap to being a successful comedian, no matter how much a book will attempt to peddle a shortcut to it. Jerry Seinfeld sums up the road being a successful comedian in two words, "just work." If you love to write, then write. If you love to perform, then perform. If you're funny, you're funny. If not, "well I would suggest insurance sales."

¹While I feel many people are generally good-natured, very few are funny. 98% of all of humanity is not funny. This is why a 10-question test doesn’t give you the authority to perform brain surgery.
²Or LOLz to some.

Labels: Book, Comedy, review, Stand-Up