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Stand-up comic. Single dad. Radio personality. TV star. Prankster. Producer. Community activist. Man of faith.
Visit a church, comedy club, college campus, or barber shop, and you’ll find few people who aren’t familiar with, or fans of, Rickey Smiley. At least four million listeners in over eighty markets tune in every weekday morning to hear him banter with his radio show crew, hilariously prank call an unsuspecting listener, and perform skits...
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"The first major biography of an American icon, comedian Bill Cosby. Based on extensive research and in-depth interviews with Cosby and more than sixty of his closest friends and associates, it is a frank, fun and fascinating account of his life and historic legacy. Far from the gentle worlds of his routines or TV shows, Cosby grew up in a Philadelphia housing project, the son of an alcoholic, largely absent father and a loving but overworked mother....
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"Sober Stick Figure is a memoir from stand-up comedian Amber Tozer, chronicling her life as an alcoholic and her eventual recovery -- starting with her first drink at the age of seven -- all told with the help of childlike stick figures. Amber writes and illustrates the crazy and harsh truths of being raised by alcoholics, becoming one herself, stagnating in denial for years, and finally getting sober. As a teenager, Amber is an overachieving student...
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Journalist and cultural critic James Sullivan tells the story of Alternative America from the 1950s to the present, from the singular vantage point of George Carlin, the Catholic boy for whom nothing was sacred. This critical biography is an insightful (and hilarious) examination of Carlin's body of work as it pertained to its cultural times and the man who created it, from his early days as a more-or-less conventional comedian to his stunning transformation...
245) Belushi
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Director R.J. Cutler takes a revealing look at the brilliant life of comedic legend John Belushi. Known for his iconic characters and sketches on both stage and screen, few people knew his personal side, until now. Never-before-seen photos, letters and home-movies from the Belushi family archive give intimate access to the world-famous superstar. Family and friends who knew him best share intimate memories, including Dan Aykroyd, Gilda Radner, Chevy...
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"Before he was one of Variety's "10 Comics to Watch" and a comedy sensation followed by millions, Kountry Wayne found few legit options for a poor Black man coming from a small-minded country town in Georgia. For many years he turned to running his own game, but thankfully friends and family (and one patient probation officer) convinced him that he had talent beyond hustling. Once he began posting short sketches based on his on-the-nose Southern Black...
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"Today, women are ascendant in standup comedy, even preeminent. They make headlines, fill arenas, spawn blockbuster movies. But before Amy Schumer slayed, Tiffany Haddish killed, and Ali Wong drew roars, the very idea of a female comedian seemed, to most of America, like a punchline. And it took a special sort of woman-indeed, a parade of them-to break and remake the mold. In on the Joke is the story of a group of unforgettable women who knocked down...
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This book is about the adventures of a child who becomes a young man: how he thinks and dreams and lusts and fears and laughs and handles adversity. From the beginning of his distinguished career as a comedian, Robert Klein established himself as a pioneer in observational humor and razor-sharp routines that are infectiously funny. Now--for the first time--Klein brings his trademark humor and honesty to the printed page. In this portrait of a comic...
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Allan Sherman was the Larry David, the Adam Sandler of 1963. He led Jewish humor and sensibilities out of ethnic enclaves and into the American mainstream with explosively funny parodies of classic songs that won Sherman extraordinary success and acclaim across the board, from Harpo Marx to President Kennedy. Here, Mark Cohen argues persuasively for Sherman's legacy as a touchstone of postwar humor and a turning point in Jewish American cultural history....
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"Number One Is Walking is Steve Martin's cinematic legacy-an illustrated memoir of his legendary acting career, with stories from his most popular films and artwork by New Yorker cartoonist Harry Bliss. Steve Martin has never written about his career in the movies before. In Number One Is Walking, he shares anecdotes from the sets of his beloved films-Father of the Bride, Roxanne, The Jerk, Three Amigos, and many more-bringing readers directly into...
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"From the best-selling author of My Weird School: a new entry in the cheerful and engaging biography series centered on high-interest historic figures. Did you know that Lucille Ball could pick up radio signals through her teeth? Or that her career was almost destroyed because she was a registered Communist? Bet you didn't know that, as a studio executive, she green-lit both Star Trek and Mission: Impossible! Siblings Paige and Turner have collected...
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Lange is an artist haunted by his fair share of demons. After a suicide attempt, a two-year struggle with depression, and years of chronic opiate addiction, he entered recovery. Now, Lange explains the philosophy that has kept his existence boredom-free since the age of 13: the love of risk. An avid sports better and frequent card player, Lange believes that the true gambler gets high not from winning, but from the chaotic unknown of betting itself,...
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"A couple's powerful story of how God comforts us so that we can comfort others. Anthony Griffith, a stand-up comic from Chicago's South Side, has lived on the borderline of comedy and tragedy. At the very time his career as a stand-up comedian was taking off, and he had finally achieved his dream of appearing on The Tonight Show, he was also enduring an unimaginable personal nightmare: his two-year-old daughter, Brittany Nicole, was dying from cancer....
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"Comedian Zach Anner opens his frank and devilishly funny book, If at Birth You Don't Succeed, with an admission: he botched his own birth. Two months early, underweight and under-prepared for life, he entered the world with cerebral palsy and an uncertain future. So how did this hairless mole-rat of a boy blossom into a viral internet sensation who's hosted two travel shows, impressed Oprah, driven the Mars Rover, and inspired a John Mayer song?...
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Once there was a little slip of a boy who roamed the streets of London, hungry for life (and maybe a bit of bread). His dad long gone and his actress mother ailing, five-year-old Charlie found himself onstage one day taking his mum'ss place, singing and drawing laughs amid a shower of coins. There were times in the poorhouse and times spent sitting in the window at home with Mum, making up funny stories about passersby. And when Charlie described...
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For many years, television comedy was an exclusive all boys' club--until a brilliant comedian named Carol Leifer came along, blazing a trail for funny women everywhere. From Late Night with David Letterman and Saturday Night Live to Seinfeld, The Ellen Show, and Modern Family, Carol has written for and/or performed on some of the best TV comedies of all time. This hilarious collection of essays charts her extraordinary three-decade journey through...
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"Unsentimental, unexpectedly funny, and incredibly honest, Tragedy Plus Time is a love letter to every family that has ever felt messy, complicated, or (even momentarily) magnificent. Meet the Magnificent Cayton-Hollands, a trio of brilliant, acerbic teenagers from Denver, Colorado, who were going to change the world. Anna, Adam, and Lydia were taught by their father, a civil rights lawyer, and mother, an investigative journalist, to recognize injustice...
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Joan Rivers was known all over the world--from the Palace Theater to Buckingham Palace, from the bright lights of Las Vegas to the footlights of Broadway, from the days of talkies to hosting talk shows. But there was only one person who knew Joan intimately, one person who the authorities would call when she got a little out of hand. Her daughter and best friend, Melissa. Jo an and Melissa Rivers had one of the most celebrated mother-daughter relationships...
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