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Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 808.7
EAN: 9781582975054
ISBN: 1582975051
Label: Writers Digest Books
Manufacturer: Writers Digest Books
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 350
Publication Date: July 08, 2009
Publisher: Writers Digest Books
Studio: Writers Digest Books
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Product Description:
DID YOU HEAR THE ONE ABOUT
Every great joke has a punch line, and every great humor writer has an arsenal of experiences, anecdotes, and obsessions that were the inspiration for that humor. In fact, those who make a career out of entertaining strangers with words are a notoriously intelligent and quirky lot. And boy, do they have some stories.
In this entertaining and inspirational book, you'll hear from 21 top humor writers as they discuss the comedy-writing process, their influences, their likes and dislikes, and their experiences in the industry. Youll also learn some less useful but equally amusing things, such as:- How screenwriter Buck Henry came up with the famous plastics line for The Graduate.
- How many times the cops were called on co-writers Sacha Baron Cohen and Dan Mazer during the shooting of Borat.
- What David Sedaris thinks of his critics.
- What creator Paul Feig thinks would have happened to the Freaks & Geeks crew if the show had had another season.
- What Jack Handey considers his favorite Deep Thoughts.
- How Todd Hanson and the staff of The Onion managed to face the aftermath of 9/11 with the perfect dose of humor.
- How Stephen Merchant and Ricky Gervais created the original version of The Office.
- What its really like in the writers room at SNL.
Funny and informative, And Here's the Kicker is a must-have resource - whether youre an aspiring humor writer, a fan of the genre, or someone who just likes to laugh.
Average Rating: 
Rating: -
As an aspiring actor-comedian-screenwriter, I knew I had to have this book the minute I heard about it. It features interviews with 21 top writers of their craft. Read it. Stop reading what I have to say and buy it already!
Rating: -
An absolutely terrific book.
Mike Sacks interviews 21 top humor writers and the bantering that ensues is laugh out loud funny as well as quite informative.
The writers he has interviewed are all top notch scribes at the top of their game and each and every one are razor sharp witty and supremely knowledgable and intelligent in their chosen craft.
I wanted to savor this book and was sorry to finish it and wished it contained even more interviews.
The book was filed in the "writing reference" section of my local Borders and even though I guess this could be technically construed as a "reference book", it should be displayed front and center in any bookstore.
In the pure enjoyment section.
Rating: -
I'm a screenwriting major at a film school in California. I picked up this book outside of class and took a LOT from it.
It's divided up in
easy
to read
segments.
The interviews are very insightful, both in terms of crafting comedy, forging a career in showbusiness, and in life in general.
Highly recommend for any aspiring comedy writer, comedian or actor.
Rating: -
Plain and simple, this is just a really, really enjoyable read. It's smart and it's well-executed and it's compulsively readable. The thing is, there's something so refreshing to a book that's about real comedians. Real writers. Real people. That's it. And you have this great author there with you the entire time, guiding you through these peoples' heads. Don't get me wrong, I'm not the biggest fan of everyone interviewed here (see: David Sedaris), but even then I was charmed by his thoughts and the interplay between he and Sacks.
As an aside, generally speaking I stick to straight-up fiction, and as an aspiring writer (by which I mean I've published absolutely nothing) the last thing I want to read on the weekends/at night after a terrible day at a soul-sucking job is something I feel like was written to instruct me on how to write. Please, don't instruct me. I may suck at it, but please, don't patronize me with your thoughts "On Writing." That means you, Stephen King.
In "And Here's the Kicker," though, Sacks completely steers clear of that pratfall and has composed what is at its heart a wonderfully understated paean to the humor and comedians we all love. By book's end you've encountered the leading comedic minds of recent memory (God Bless Harold Ramis) and will simply feel warm and fuzzy about humor writing as craftwork. None of the usual drivel about how underneath the jokes funny people are actually sad, sad, emotionally-stunted people. Oh the irony! We're all sad people, Judd Apatow.
No, here Sacks provides you with far more than just cliches and platitudes and musings on the difficulties faced by the likes of Chris Farley, John Belushi, and Richard Pryor. Here we learn who the real comedians are. How they operate. Who they are beyond just words on a page. I was pleasantly surprised by this.
Rating: -
As a professor at a local university, I am often asked to read new texts or journals. However, this book was a delightful change! Mike Sacks has a knack of capturing the comedians' inner most thoughts. He excels at using his own humor to add interest to each interview. I loved the book!
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