Daily Mirror
It's juvenile. It's sophisticated..... it's entertaining.....FOUR STARS
Observer
This anthology is the next best thing to a comedy cabaret.....PAPERBACK OF THE WEEK
The Scotsman
As alternative as comedy gets..... RELEASE OF THE WEEK; FOUR STARS
chortle.co.uk
featuring the best names in the business.....it makes an intriguing read for any fans of stand-up.....a breezily entertaining read
Book Description
Stand-ups try out being funny on the page!
--This text refers to an alternate
Paperback
edition.
Product Description
To satisfy the needs of the hundreds of thousands of people who pay good money to see stand-up every year, Malcolm Hardee ('the comedian's comedian' WHSmith Online; 'a national monument' The Guardian) presents a comedy club on the page with a bill featuring the glitterati of British stand-up comedy. We let the famous names and new talents alike try out their written humour and their only brief is to make us laugh. We plan to make the book an annual event, and are sure it will soon become the world's largest virtual comedy club. Contributors include: Keith Allen, Jo Brand, Simon Day, Jenny -clair, Boothby Graffoe, Ricky Grover, Jeremy Hardy, Hattie Hayridge, John Hegley, Jeff Innocent, Mark Lamarr, Chris Lynam, Simon Munnery, Rob Newman, Mark Steel, Arthur Smith, Jim Tavare, Mark Thomas
From the Publisher
We gave the famous names and new talents alike carte blanche to try out their humour on the page in any weird and wonderful way they chose - fiction, fantasy, skewed slices of real life and beyond.
From the Author
The thing about this Sit-Down Comedy book is.....well, it's actually not quite the book we expected. But, if you commission people with original minds to write anything they fancy in any style in any genre, you're bound to get something unexpected. What we got was a series of very well-written tales of beheadings, psychopaths, robbers, tramps, bombs in toilets, some gentle poetic fantasy and one piece that I think even owes a debt to Samuel Beckett. It's occasionally very funny, but not the superficial laugh-a-minute gagathon we all thought we were going to get. It's better than that. Fortunately, the publisher liked it, still laughed at lots of bits and gave us the money. So here it is. Oy oy!
From the Back Cover
THE PERFECT STAND-UP NIGHT IN
To gratify the humour glands of the thousands of punters who pay good money to see stand-up every year and those now too infirm or lazy to bother, Malcolm Hardee ('the spiritual father of alternative comedy' Independent on Sunday) comperes a comedy club of the written word with a bill featuring the glitterati of British stand-up comedy. Malcolm gives the famous names and new talents alike cart blanche to try out their humour on the page in any weird and wonderful way they choose - fiction, fantast, skewed slices of real life and beyond. Their only brief is to make us laugh.
TWISTED FICTION FROM THE STARS OF STAND-UP
--This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.About the Author
Malcolm Hardee, 'The spiritual father of Alternative Comedy' Independent on Sunday, was born in Lewisham in 1950 and has been causing uproar ever since. In his youth he lead a life of petty crime and was in and out of prison for various misdemeanours including the theft of a cabinet minister's Rolls. After falling into comedy by accident he soon became a legend for his stunts - which include driving a tractor naked through the Edinburgh Festival - and nuturing of new talent from Vic Reeves to Harry Enfield. He runs the Up the Creek comedy club in Greenwich and lives on a floating pub, The Wibbley Wobbley, in Rotherhithe.
