Comedy Performance

In Twerkin’ and the City, Ayana “YaYa” Ellis shares her unadulterated, no-nonsense wisdom about how sharing your heart, your head, and your bed with the wrong person can take you down the road too often traveled by women who truly deserve better. With the voice of a woman experienced, Ellis teaches the best relationship lessons with humor, candor, and compassion.

Mark Twain's lifetime spans America's era of greatest economic growth. And Twain was an active, even giddy, participant in all the great booms and busts of his time, launching himself into one harebrained get-rich-quick scheme after another. But far from striking it rich, the man who coined the term "Gilded Age" failed with comical regularity to join the ranks of plutocrats who made this period in America notorious for its wealth and excess.

Nicholas Parsons was the host of the Just a Minute for nearly 52 years - from its first broadcast on 22nd December 1967 until his last show on 23rd September 2019, aged 96. He was a comedy 'straight man', West End actor, radio personality, game-show presenter, chat-show host, quiz master supreme and larger-than-life stage superstar. Here we celebrate his life and work with a series of programmes compered by Paul Merton, plus Series 85 of Just a Minute - his final series.

On his new album, Stark Raving Black, Lewis Black brings his singular style of profane and profound humor to the stage. Compelled by his passions and discontentedness with the absurdities of the world, he erupts in a hand-shaking, body-trembling, spewing of diatribe-laced dialectic comedy. Focusing on the personal and the political, Lewis guides his audience through a catalogue of the woes of the world, from the absurdities of aging (60 is not the new 40!) to the pitfalls of becoming a "mainstream" comedian to the insanity of Washington and Wall Street.

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When 21-year-old Jay Mohr moved from New Jersey to New York City to pursue his dream of stand-up stardom, he never thought the first real job he'd land would be on Saturday Night Live. But, surprisingly, that's just what he did.

Hawthorne presents several ideas which form the very core of the conservative critique: that man's sinfulness is an immutable part of his character; that rationalists, reformers, and progressives delude themselves with their utopian notions of the perfectibility of man; that in their delusion they do incalculable damage to the culture, while leaving human nature untouched; and that, no matter the "progress" they make, evil lurks, waiting to rear its ugly head and shatter their dreams.

Acclaimed biographer Jem Roberts narrates his brilliant new biography of the Beatles and their relationship with comedy. Includes a foreword written and narrated by Kevin Eldon, who also voices George Martin throughout the audiobook. Fab Fools is the full, hilarious story of how John, Paul, George, and Ringo laughed their way to the toppermost of the poppermost in their classic films, cartoons, and even pantomime, not to mention their experimentations with audio comedy through Sir George Martin's Parlophone comedy classics series.

Mi voleva Strehler, spettacolo di e con Maurizio Micheli, registrato dal vivo e pubblicato da Volume Audiobooks nella collana Audiocomic. Con oltre mille repliche all’attivo “Mi voleva Strehler" è un monologo cult, un pezzo di teatro-cabaret ineguagliato. In scena Maurizio Micheli veste i panni dello scalcinato attore Fabio Aldoresi che, come tanti suoi colleghi, sogna la svolta: diventare un attore famoso e importante.

What happens when SuperGoodMedia, a ridiculous out-of-town newspaper chain, buys the venerable Boston Daily Tribune, which has published every day since 1823? Heads roll and the few journalists left wonder when it will be their turn. That’s protagonist Nick Nolan’s worry, too—until he gets exclusive coverage of a single mother who claims that the Virgin Mary is speaking to the world through her young comatose daughter.

In 2004 Dom Joly wrote a spoof autobiography called Look At Me, Look At Me. In Here Comes the Clown, he takes up the story of his life from 14 January 2000 when the very first episode of Trigger Happy TV aired on Channel 4 and everything changed for him. Suddenly he was famous; reality was weirder than any fiction he could conjure up. This is the story of what happened next, through snippets of recollections from his adventures in show business....

In their first book together, Sam and Pete lay out what it truly takes to stay in the spotlight. A celebration of their unlikely friendship, the book features brand new, insane stories from their lives, including: behind the scenes, never-before-told tales from the jungle and the ballroom, hosting the NTAs red carpet, their journey creating the podcast, and plenty more. Expect swearing, heaps of positivity from Sam and, of course, zero sarcasm from Pete.

For almost a decade, Richard Herring has been answering sexist trolls on International Women's Day when they ask 'when is International Men's Day?' in the mistaken belief there isn't one. If only the trolls had learned to use Google they'd realise that there is an International Men's Day - it's on November 19th. In The Problem with Men Richard expands on his Twitter discussions and tackles some of the big questions surrounding the problems of toxic masculinity - for women, but also for men.

Do you want to be more humorous? Have you ever watched someone effortlessly make a group laugh and wished you knew their magic? Well, wonder no more. The mystery of charisma is finally unveiled; the fallacy of "you either have it, or you don't" has been laid bare. Anyone can learn to make people laugh. Observing a couple of surprisingly simple rules, Make People Laugh is a comedic tour de force, as it explores all the facets of laughter. Turn your lazy bones into funny bones, and you will have made the world a better place.

More Rules for Life is the latest collection from comedian and rule-maker Kitty Flanagan. Following the success of her best seller, 488 Rules for Life, Kitty realised there was still a lot of work to be done. What if there were people who didn't know that you're supposed to take the lettuce off the sandwich before toasting it? Or that you should never make eye contact with someone while eating a banana? What if young people didn't realise that TikTok is not actually a job? And what about old men on ladders? Someone needs to tell those guys to get down.

Whether you're an aspiring comedian, a seasoned performer, or simply someone with a passion for making others laugh, this comprehensive guide will take your comedic skills to new heights. Delve into the world of comedy writing, performance techniques, and the nuances of timing, delivery, and stage presence that separate the ordinary from the extraordinary.

Penguin presents the unabridged, downloadable audiobook edition of Where Have All the Bullets Gone?, written and read by Spike Milligan. Back to those haunting days in Italy in 1944, at the foot of Mount Vesuvius, with lava running in great red rivulets down the slope towards us, and Jock taking a drag on his cigarette and saying, "I think we've got grounds for a rent rebate."

As one of America's hottest female comedians, Lisa Lampanelli has earned critical acclaim across the country for her no-holds-barred style and ability to make people laugh at their own stereotypes and differences. Now, from the gutter-mouth comedienne who "talks like a truck driver but resembles a '50s housewife" (New York Times) comes her over-the-top, laugh-out-loud memoir, Chocolate, Please.

A Matter of Facts is a personal journey into the world of quizzes. At the start Shaun enters the World Quiz Grand Prix, pitching his knowledge against the nation's finest minds, including Eggheads and Chasers...he fails. Unperturbed, he sets out to improve his skills through memory training, practice and even hypnosis in an attempt to move himself up the rankings of the quizzing elite. His adventure sees him get his old quizzing 'band' back together to see if he can triumph in the leagues.

In her hit Netflix comedy special Baby Cobra, an eight-month pregnant Ali Wong resonated so strongly that she even became a popular Halloween costume. Wong told the world her remarkably unfiltered thoughts on marriage, sex, Asian culture, working women and why you never see new mum comics onstage but you sure see plenty of new dads. The sharp insights and humour are even more personal in this completely original collection.