Step by Step to Stand-Up Comedy Book

I found this to be an excellent book for improving my stand-up technique. I had always wanted to try stand-up comedy, and had gone to three or four open mics this spring with low to medium success, then decided to do a bit more research on techniques and theory. I tried a few other books but this one resonated the most with me. The author, Greg Dean, is a well-respected comedy coach who has helped many aspiring comics, and does a great job distilling his wisdom into practical advice in the form of this approachable guide. I was still skeptical, but even the first time I incorporated his joke-building technique from the initial chapters I got much bigger laughs. The book does a great job of discussing what makes jokes funny and what makes audiences laugh, but does so in a way aimed at improving your jokes, rather than focusing on an academic discussion of the psychology. I found the explanation of joke structure, first and second narratives, setup, punchline construction, personas, and delivery extremely useful. The middle parts of the book on editing and refining jokes and material felt a bit pedantic to me - if you've spent time doing other kinds of public speaking this will seem fairly obvious, and you'll recognize you just have to find your own process for editing and revising your routines. The last few chapters have some great insights on dealing with performance issues specific to comedy (hecklers, flopping) and some that are less specific (stage fright), as well some ideas for finding (or making) venues when you're getting started.