Off the Mic The World's Best Stand-Up Comedians Get Serious About Comedy

by Frances-White, Deborah; Shandur, Marsha

• ISBN13: 9781472526380
• ISBN10: 1472526384
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2015-10-08
• Publisher: Bloomsbury Methuen Drama

Summary

What is it to be a stand-up comedian? To be funny, solo? You have no character-role, no double-act partner, and nowhere to look but out into the darkness, with just a microphone, an audience and your imagination.
This is a job without an annual appraisal; a job where you are publicly appraised every ten seconds. The results are harsh and obvious: if the audience isn't laughing, you 'died'; if they can't stop, you 'killed'.
Deborah Frances-White and Marsha Shandur unpack the inner-workings of the minds of comics, sharing their secrets, insecurities and successes; their bêtes noires and their biggest fears. Featuring interviews with a host of comedians including Eddie Izzard, Moshe Kasher, Sarah Millican, Jim Jeffries, Stewart Lee, Lewis Black, Jenny Eclair, Todd Barry, Richard Herring, Marc Maron, Stephen K Amos, Rich Hall, Zoe Lyons, Marcus Brigstocke, Phill Jupitus, Gary Delaney, Mark Watson, Greg Davies and many more, this excellent book lets you in to the hearts and minds of celebrated comedians, away from the stage and off the mic.

Author Biography

Deborah Frances-White is a stand-up comedian who has performed comedy all over the world. She has a residency in the West End of London, has performed at The Edinburgh Festival, The Melbourne Comedy Festival, The Adelaide Fringe Festival, The New Zealand Laugh Festival, and has hosted The Melbourne Comedy Festival Roadshow. She has premiered a one hour stand up show in New York and done two UK tours. The Improv Handbook (2008) which she co-authored with Tom Salinsky is published by Methuen Drama.

Marsha Shandur is a radio presenter and producer and music supervisor. She began her career producing all of the Edinburgh Festival coverage on Edinburgh's Radio Forth, then went on to present and produce at the UK's Xfm. Whilst there, she both interviewed comedians on air, and for her podcast Marsha Meets, which was twice named one of the World's Top Ten Best Comedy Podcasts by the Guardian. She now lives in Toronto where she is a music supervisor, choosing the soundtrack for shows and films such as E4's The Inbetweeners and Made In Chelsea.