Reviews for Truth in Comedy: The Manual of Improvisation

The average rating for Truth in Comedy: The Manual of Improvisation based on 2 reviews is 4.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2012-10-10 00:00:00 Michael Mizell A great intro to Harold and improv in general with some useful exercises, including helpful example scenes. I appreciate the simplicity of the idea that "the truth is funny", and that all we need to do is get out of the way to find it. One of my favorite quotes from the book: "There are a few squares in our society that think kung fu is about kicking people's heads in...Coming here to learn to make people laugh is equally absurd. To assume that making the audience laugh is the goal of improvisation is almost as absurd as assuming you go to a dojo to learn to kick somebody's face in. It's just not true! "Still, they laugh. It is a side-effect of attempting to achieve something more beautiful, honest, and truthful, something that has far more to do with the theatre--which puts your attention on what is important about being a human in a community..." I also had no idea how many of my favorite comic actors had passed through Del Close's training. For example, former students at Second City include: Steve Carell, Tina Fey, Amy Poehler, Mike Myers, Chris Farley, Tim Meadows, Stephen Colbert, Amy Sedaris, Kevin McDonald. It is pretty incredible that one person could have such a large influence on modern comedy, yet still be relatively unknown to mainstream consumers of popular culture. Perhaps encouraging, even...

Review # 2 was written on 2012-06-23 00:00:00 Jeanette Lee This is one of the books that helped shape who I am as a person. I first read it as a teenager, and now I'm re-reading it again. The idea that the truth is funny has become a key concept in my life, and one o the key reasons comedy holds the high place it does in my value system. For improvisers and actors, this book is indispensable. Written by some of the founders of the art, it wastes no time in diving into the core concepts (yes and, support, honesty, etc.) and the fleshes itself out to discuss other topics in detail. It's also a practical guide to teaching improv, and contains many examples of the techniques the authors used to teach themselves and others the craft.