Customer Reviews

How to Be a Stand-Up Comic

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

While reading this book is mildly amusing, you will not learn how to construct a joke or bring out your funny side by reading it. In short you won't learn much about "how to be a stand up comedian". I was disappointed because I do think Belz is a funny guy. I just didn't think the book was very instructive.

First of all, I had a terribly hard time locating this book... For good reason it turns out. Although published in 1988, 'How To Be a Stand Up Comic' appears to be a remainder from an earlier, long forgotten era. Shoddy production value, crappy packaging and all together amateur layouts do little to improve this book's allure - once opened it can be read in a single bowel-movement. Not to say that this book is entirely disappointing, it isn't. Richard Belzer is a master of his craft. Being a Stand Up Comic. Writing and assembling a book which captures his celebrated, irreverent wit proves daunting. Entirely devoid of substance this 208 page collection of cheap, grainy B&W photos masquerades as a `book,' containing no more than 6 pages of text. What fills up the remaining 202 pages are a serious of poor-quality black and white photographs of `The Belz' in a series of `comedic' skits. Whereas these pictures could ideally have served to coincide and reinforce the text, Belzer uses them as a way to replace his written word leaving the `reader' cheated. This is basically a scrappy attempt at a half-hearted and entirely unrealized premise. Rarely do you see a talent such as Richard Belzer's so blatantly betrayed. I anxiously await the publication of his next work `Conspiracies You Don't Have To Be Crazy To Believe' which will hopefully ameliorate my current feeling of betrayal.

I bought this book used on Amazon.com and paid [...] for it. I thought; "what a great deal!". It was a total scam. It's NOT informative, helpful or even funny. I found myself wondering; "Was he drunk when he wrote this?". The only good thing about the book is that it can be read in about an hour then used to start a nice cozy fire on a cold winter day when the power is out and there is nothing better to do. Great! I've just wasted another thirty seconds writing a review. I really didn't even want to give it one star, but there is no zero star rating. I feel as though Belzer should issue a public apology to his fans for insulting us.

Peter Wolf
[...]

I'm serious about that. This isn't a stand-up routine. When I was in eighth grade, I did a project on how to be a stand-up comedian, and of all of the books that I used for research, this was the one that I used the most. The others were a bit... well... boring. I thought stand-up comedy was supposed to be entertaining, and the other books weren't. I could have just read straight through this book in one sitting, but I was supposed to look through several books.

The truth is that this book is really a stand-up comedy routine on how to be a stand-up comedian. As another review mentioned, there is very little text in it, and mostly pictures, but the text was very useful for me. Some of the pictures were helpful. There are a lot of jokes in it, but that's a good thing. Another review commented on the profanity, but that's something that sells. A lot of comedians do it. It really is an informative book, and I can't believe that it's not as easy to find.

I might be the only person that was helped by it, but it might help you even more.

I was disappointed at all the four letter words, vulgarity and the mention of one night stands while he is married. I felt it was also degrading to women. I love Richard Belzer as an actor but as a writer I was disappointed in the book. Does he want his two daughters to read his book?