Showing results by publisher "Phoenix Books" in Performing Arts

The place: New York. The time: the early 1980s. The scene: the red-hot comedy clubs, very late at night. The cast: five would-be stand-up comics, their egos, and their girls. The result: a downright hilarious novel about trying to be funny for fame, fortune, and fornication. This is Bill Maher's report from the front, a stageside table at the birth of the comedy boom. You'll laugh in all the right places.

This laugh-out-loud memoir takes listeners backstage and inside the writers’ room of one of America’s best-loved shows. With more than 17 million viewers and more than 70 Emmy nominations—including two wins for best comedy—Everybody Loves Raymond reigned supreme in television comedy for almost a decade.

For more than fifteen years Moe Moskowitz and the Punsters were the court jesters of National Public Radio, performing the funniest songs and nonsense that NPR has to offer. Here, Moe and the Punsters are joined by NPR's Bob Edwards, Alex Chadwick, Terry Gross, Cokie Roberts, Susan Stamberg, Robert Siegel, Carl Kasell, and Frank Tavares, among others. These are all those voices we know and love, but they're actually being funny and satirical and spontaneous!

Emmy Award-winner Jonathan Winters proves once again that he was one of the greatest performers to ever grace this galaxy. His impersonations of famous personalities, from Jimmy Carter to Marlon Brando, will put you away - which Jonathan said is, after all, what they did to him. We thank Jim B. Smith for being wise enough to purchase one of the very first telephone answering machines in the 1980s. As Jonathan Winters' best friend, Jim knew that doing so would provide Jonathan a 24-hour-a-day performance platform.

From the comic mind of the one and only Jonathan Winters comes this side-splitting collection of the comedian's most off-the-wall antics and impressions. Grandma Frickert, Chester Honeyhugger, and other comic characters all make appearances on this best-of compilation.

Dave Barry didn't know what he was letting himself in for when he invited his Legion of Alert Readers to submit their nominees in the Bad Song Survey. "Song badness," he soon learned, "is an issue that Americans care deeply about."Now John Ritter and Arte Johnson present for you the songs that Americans love to hate. There is Gary Puckett and the Union Gap Band's "Young Girl" ("Young girl, get out of my mind, my love for you is way out of line..."), which is not to be confused with "Woman", and "This Girl Is a Woman Now"....

This is an equal opportunity recording! No race, sex, ethnic group, religion, profession or recreational activity escapes the slings and arrows of this outrageous compendium of jokes, barbs and fabricated anecdotes. From mother superiors to ventriloquists, from hat-check girls to senators, everybody gets a dose of not-so-gentle humility in the course of this merciless, raunchy performance.

Join Rick Reynolds as he guides you through the foibles, fumbles and pratfalls of his own life beginning with his bizarre childhood. From the drowning of his father at a family picnic, to a bank-robbing stepfather, to his mother's 3 marriages and innumerable affairs, Reynolds portrays a striking picture of the lengths people will go for love and the human connection.

Recorded live at the Friar's Club in New York City, this collection of stand-up routines features some of the greatest American comedians at the height of their comic skills. Presented by Joey Adams—and with introductions by television legends Milton Berle and Phyllis Diller—this recording captures performances by Norm Crosby, Freddie Roman, Soupy Sales, and Henny Youngman. In this nostalgic, hysterical collection, you'll laugh all the way through hundreds of hilarious jokes, gags, and putdowns.

Debuting at the Lunt-Fontanne Theatre in 1991, Catskills of Broadway was a critically acclaimed show that played to sold-out houses for more than a year, followed by a national tour. This audio recording captures the hilarity provided by comedians Dick Capri, Louise Duart, Mal Z. Lawrence, and Freddie Roman.

"Take my wife—please!" Henny Youngman, the king of one-liners, delivers a classic collection of jokes. For more than sixty years, Henny Youngman provoked giggles, roars, and belly laughs for audiences on stage, in nightclubs, and on radio television. In his famous style, Henny delivers rapid-fire jokes in succession. He adds even more zest to this recording with a variety of anecdotes featuring the greatest names in show business. From funny bone ticklers to groaners, these jokes and stories are delivered the way only Henny Youngman, the Master of Comedy, can.