Customer Reviews

How to be Funny

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

This book is simply a systematic way to find humor in one's everday experiences.

As a professional speaker I found it IMMENSELY valuable. Jon Macks is basically telling the reader that there are different directions from which you can approach a person or situation to create humor.

The negative reviews seemed to expect a funny book. And there are some hysterical lines. However that is not the point. The jokes are there to reinforce the concepts. For example;

Gilbert Gottfried is asked on Hollywood Squares (a scripted show) "What do you do about a hairy back?"

He responds, "Close my eyes and imagine she's wearing an alpaca sweater."

While the joke is funny, painting a great picture, the point of this was to show the use of hard consonants to create funny words or sounds - use of the word alpaca is the point of the response.

If you write or speak and want to be funnier, this is a great book for you. Steve Allen's book of the same title is also a great book, written for the same purpose.

The book is pretty good in a lot of respects, but the techniques and methods Jon delivers seem more theoretical than practical. Steve Allen's How to be funny: Discovering the comic you is a better book in that respect. An even better and more practical/simple book I had found is Stanley Lyndon's How to be funny (howtobefunny.net). But considering everything, all 3 books are good and cover the various points on being the everyday funny person. My advice is that you buy all three as they don't cost that much together. Have fun!

Rogers.

I have to admit, most of the tips that john gives in this book are histerical. Overall the book is funny, but John only gives you certain situations of everday life that you could make funny, and he tells you what is funny , but he doesnt explain why things are funny that well and he doesnt give you great explanation to carry the jokes out to actually be funny. If you want a funny book, this would be one to read, but if you want to know what funny is and good instruction how to carry it out, i would reccomend to buy something other than this book.

The book is an easy read and can be read in one or two sittings.

As a non-american, reading the books and understanding most of the examples required me to look up for most of the mentioned personalities and TV shows.
Most of the techniques are very specific and I found them to only work within a given society only.

The other techniques in the book are plain commonsense...but nonetheless they might be a good reminder for those who lost it:P

I wouldn't suggest this book for non-americans.

In my line of work (real estate), I often have to speak to groups of people, and I always worry that I'm boring them. I also meet a lot of new people, and I am always trying to find ways to break the ice with them. This book was the answer to my prayers. I always thought I COULD be funny, but this book helped me actually BE funny.
Tonight I'm on my way to a monthly PTA meeting which could not be more dull. I'm thinking of buying a copy of this book for every member - God knows everyone in the meeting could use it!
And if you're already funny, then you'll enjoy just reading this book. It's sure to make you chuckle out loud.

In all fairness, this book does have a few interesting points amidst its 200 pages. Unfortunately, the majority of the information is common sense and there isn't enough solid content to warrant an entire book. Too much fluff and popular excerpts conveying obvious information that most people already know.

I found myself laughing at this book. It was pretty good. The only problem that I found with it were the constant quotes and advice from Carrie Fisher. I mean oh my gosh, like, on every other page! Don't get me wrong, she gives good advice, it's just that she's not funny, she's not a comedian! What gives? Perhaps it would have been better had I caught Pricess Leia's stand up act at the Tatooine comedy house. Unfortunatly I didn't. If you want a truly funny book try Instru-Mental from the Adventures With Boys series!

This book needs a warning label - "Buyer Beware". How does Macks get to write these books? If his record on writting TV shows (Jon Macks just completed writing the disaterous series "K Street" on HBO which was just cancelled) means anything to anyone, then save your dollars. This guy can't really come up with anything funny to say that is not still from the Michael Jackson era or Monica Lewinsky and Bill Clinton era. I tried to enjoy the book based on what I saw of the author on television recently. There are plenty of other books out there from well seasoned comedians that will do you better.

This book is great! It's small and portable, there are pages in there, and there's even text added to almost every single page, yeah, readable text!

If you thought the above paragraph was funny, then read no further and just order this book, if you didn't think it was funny, get the book and then teach me how to be funny. Not only does the book gives you great tips on how to improve your comedy skills for your everyday life, but the book itself is impossible to put down, every single page is full of hilarious text that will make you want to read the book over and over again.

Many comics get their early inspirations from people close to them; a parent, sibling, friend or even the guy/gal next to you in the bathroom stall. This book is just as inspirational, without the BO. The topicality of the book is outdated, but the points that it makes will last through any generation.

This book's title gives it a lot to live up to, but doesn't deliver. It's always better to under promise and over deliver, but this is the complete opposite. The book is hard to read, and hard to relate to. I have tried to apply some of the things in this book, but was rewarded with an awkward, silent gaze. I had more success with my own humor than what is described in this book.

-Michael Le Clech
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