Greetings, SHECKYmagazine.com readers, regulars, first-timers, robots, all!
It’s Tuesday, Sept. 27. Which means that our book will be available soon… like when the book retailers open their doors on Saturday morning, October 1. We’re all tingly, sorta. We’re not gonna get rich off this book. But we are thrilled that we’ll be immortalized via the printed word, in a book. (Although we hearken back to those articles we read in Wired and other publications that remind us that not even DVD’s or CD’s or even magnetic hard drives are permanent… or immortal. Whatever! It’s immortal enough for us!)
Have we not always endeavored to bring you in on our various adventures? Have we not always tried to give you a bizarre, ringside seat at the oddball experiences that we’ve encountered? Well, maybe we’ll do the same with having our name on a book. A hardback, tangible early 21st century, may-be-one-of-the-last hard copy books about standup ever published through conventional, Gutenberg-style, printed-on-a-page, not-an-Ebook, hold-it-in-your-hands, not-vanity-press-generated book. You can read this in the bathroom. It’s perfect for the e coli-brary™.
Our publishers– both here in North America and in London– have, in their employ, a cadre of decent, sincere people who have been, for some time now, engaged in laying the groundwork for a media blitz– centered on our book– that will have tongues wagging from from Sydney to Mumbai, from London, Ontario, to London, England, from Seattle to Sea World.
But we’ve been doing some grassroots promo of our own, shoving the book in the faces of all whom we encounter and creating press releases and websites and pestering various local, national and international media figures to mention our tome in their ever-contracting “newshole.”
We’re proud of the one-sheets we’ve concocted to promote the book. But we figured we’d need something less conventional, less vanilla to bring the word to our comedy brethren and their business cohort.
So… we climbed onboard the “Downfall Parody” bandwagon!
CAUTION: This video may images too strong for children and pets!
Last week, we got a Google Alert saying that our book had been reviewed…
Our book got its first review. At least we think it’s the first one. It’s by Steve Bennett, the Big Cheese over at Chortle (“The UK Comedy Guide”). He got a copy of our book after we asked/told the folks in the offices of the London publisher of our book– Quintet Publishing– to send a copy over to the folks at Chortle. After all, we’re sure that if Bennett had written a book about standup, he’d no doubt make extra sure that the folks at SHECKYmagazine.com got a copy for review.
The first thing we learned was that our book is called “Comedy Techniques” in the UK! And it has a different cover! Fancy that! We knew the book was going to be distributed worldwide, in different languages, but the idea of different covers or titles took us completely by surprise! (And are they so hung up on religion over there that the word “bible” in the title would tank sales?)
The second thing we learned is that “Comedy Techniques” is an inappropriate title for our book. As is “The Comedy Bible.” But we didn’t choose either one.
The third thing we learned is that it is exceptionally difficult to refrain from “fisking” a review of your book. (“Fisking” is internet slang. It’s a “point-by-point refutation of a blog entry or news story that highlights perceived errors, or disputes the analysis in a statement, article, or essay.” It’s named after an English journalist named Robert Fisk, whose dispatches from the Middle East were ruthlessly torn to shreds, in line-by-line analyses, by bloggers back at the beginning of the last decade.)
Don’t get us wrong. The review isn’t negative. But it’s not a glowing review, either. Folks are entitled to their opinions. (Which is why we made a point of getting a copy to Mr. Bennett in the first place.) And don’t get us wrong: We aren’t going to fisk every review of the book… in fact the following might as close as we come to doing so ever again! But there are some odd bits that we can’t let pass.
The opening line:
Comedy Techniques make the bold promise: ‘From improv to stand-up, and from satire to slapstick, here’s an essential guide to get yourself a cult following or mainstream success.’
Well… we didn’t actually make that “bold promise.” The publisher did. We suspect that this is the first of many “bold promises” that we’ll have to answer for. And we suppose that, after a while, we’ll give up. There are two kinds of people in this world: Those that believe all the dopey things that publishers say on a dust jacket or in a press release and those that realize that publishers say all kinds of dopey things on dust jackets and press releases that are not to be believed.
Bennett goes on to say:
It’s more of a Comedy 101, explaining the fundamentals of the art to an almost remedial level. An introduction might be a better description than the ‘resource’ it claims.
And we are okay with that. That is precisely what we thought. We winced when it was dubbed a “complete resource.” It is, after all, only 256 pages. But it is a tremendous introduction. And, while we don’t, as Mr. Bennett rightly points out, “delve too deep,” we nonetheless deliver a basic book on standup in an entertaining fashion. And we provide a lot of basic info, we daresay, in a far more entertaining fashion than it has been delivered in countless other books in the genre.
After a few paragraphs of mild snark, Bennett says:
Although basic, the advice offered by McKim and Skene – both American comedians – is pertinent and reliable. possibly because they’ve merely consolidated information that’s already widely available, not least from online comedy resources where comics hang out, such as Chortle or their own long-running blog, Shecky.
Here we have our usable, excerptable meme-let!
“The advice offered by McKim and Skene… is pertinent and reliable!” Says Chortle.co.uk
We’ll take it! (It’s not unlike the other meme-let that we’ve beaten to death– and rightfully so: USA Today calls SHECKYmagazine “charming, sincere and helpful!”)
Perhaps the review is “saved” by the very last lines:
The book’s most useful advice is surely to just get on and do it: start writing or performing without delay. For the aspiring comic, Comedy Techniques is probably another displacement activity delaying that vital day of action.
Perhaps not. When we were writing the book we imagined our reader countless times. We tried to consider nearly every statement through the eyes of the title’s aspiring comedian. We knew that we were creating a book that advised him or her to “just get on and do it: start writing or performing without delay,” as Mr. Bennett has so correctly discerned. In fact, in the press for the book, we’ve repeatedly said and written that the book is not so much a “how-to” as a “why-to.” We’ve tried to set the reader on a path to determining exactly why he/she wants to do comedy and we’ve been careful to refrain from any specific advice. We’ve sought to give that small push, that slightest bit of encouragement to someone thinking about trying standup. We tried to say that what’s being contemplated isn’t crazy, but could be quite fun and quite illuminating. So often the tone of books and articles that address the wanna-be comic on the precipice are either cavalier (“Give it a try! It’ll be great!”) or unnecessarily ominous (“Be prepared! Otherwise you’ll bomb and embarass yourself!) or overly technical. And, of course, no matter the tone of a book, it can always be a “displacement activity.” But we’d like to think that ours avoids being that.
We got an email here at SHECKYmagazine.com HQ, from “Neil.” He said:
Everything I read about learning, working in comedy and “how it’s done” makes my asshole squinch up and a voice booms in my head: “You, as you suspected, are worthless. Stop dreaming and pursue that marketing career.” I haven’t even gotten up for the first time yet and I feel like I’ll never have what it takes. I’m also getting a late start at 40. Any tips on how to stop feeling like such a turd sandwich? Thanks.
Are you in luck! We have a whole book full of tips! It’s our book! It’s called “The Comedy Bible: The Complete Resource For Aspiring Comedians!” (And it’s available NOW on Amazon.com by clicking here!)
Of course, if you can wait a few days, it’ll be in the stores (the bookstores, or what’s left of them) on October 1! That’s Saturday.
When you get the book, read it all. But pay particular attention to Chapter 4, the one called “Standup Preparation.” It’s probably the one that is most important to you and the one that may result in you shedding your reservations and hopping up onto that stage for the first time. Good luck!