Stand-Up and Solo Performance: How Richard Pryor Paved the Trail for Margaret Cho & Others (Past Times Solo Performance Series Book 13) (English Edition) [Kindle-editie] beoordelingen het boek quotes

Today’s stand-alone comedians are a breed apart from those who came before. No longer content with simply getting laughs, they see themselves as sociopolitical commentators; they’re not afraid to get up close and personal, or say what’s really on their minds. And all seem to aspire to a one-person show on a New York stage—or a Home Box Office comedy special, which now amounts to a more or less comparable venue.But how does an aspiring comic graduate from doing routines in clubs to performing solo shows in theatres? How does one raise the stakes and make the segue? How do you set yourself apart from the crowd? In short, how do you go “beyond stand-up,” in George Carlin’s words, to “comedy as art”? This close look at the groundbreakers and road pavers offers some perspective: Mort Sahl, the first funster to spin the comedy world on its ear…Lenny Bruce, who expanded on the definition of stand-up by taking on topics like racism and organized religion…uncompromising satirist George Carlin…pioneer African American comic Dick Gregory, who broke the color barrier…Richard Pryor the first stand-up to find box office success with a performance film…Korean American comedian Margaret Cho, who has picked up where Pryor left off… and Marga Gomez, whom Robin Williams has hailed as “a lesbian Lenny Bruce.” This ebook is a bonus chapter in the revised and expanded edition of ACTING SOLO: THE ART AND CRAFT OF SOLO PERFORMANCE, which will be available in Fall 2012. (The chapter will appear in the print edition of the book; it will not be included in the digital versions of ACTING SOLO).