Most Helpful Customer Reviews
|
|
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Great book - poorly printed, 11 Aug 2003
Tony Allen is a bit of a legend - he's really good and everybody knows he's really good, but you never see him performing anywhere. This book, which is a personal meditation on the art of comedy, goes some way to expalining why. He tells of the how the TV show he was on was censored, he tells how alternative comedy has become a business. But he makes what might have been a boring rant entertaining (at one point he sneaks in the best shaggy dog story I've heard, dressed up as a piece of journalism). The potted history of comedy in one chapter makes the book worthwhile on its own.The only problem was the printing - 10 point sans-serif light-grey type on white paper. I suppose this is supposed to be post modern, but it just makes the text very hard to read.
|
|
|
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A Comedy Revolutionary speaks!, 2 Nov 2002
By A Customer
Anybody interested in the history of comedy, especially the rise of what was called "Alternative Comedy", should know about Tony Allen. This book tell you in his own words.The book is part history book, part exploration of comedy technique. For any current comedy performers, Tony Allen has some very useful ideas, especially about the distinction between a performer and an entertainer. His damning commments on the current state of the comedy club circuit are also very illuminating.
|
|
|
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Just Give Me Some Truth Now, 4 Jul 2003
With Tony Allen’s book ”Attitude-the secret of stand-up comedy” it is best to forget the title and zany front cover and turn to page two. Rodin’s thinker is presented there, with the microphone attached. That really sums up the essence of this book - it is about a thoughtful gentle giant on stage, who happens to be both deep and extremely funny. Disguised behind the label of historical comedy (from Lenny Bruce to RD Laing) is a commentary on existence itself, by T.A., the godfather of 'alternative comedy', Master of Ceremonies of the London Alternative Cabaret in the late seventies. No cheap thrills here, but an amazing range of comment on the last thirty years of time, from the work-van picking you up in the morning to a psychotherapist telling you to “stay with that feeling”, from meditation to chaos theory in the rain forest, from sexual experiments in communes to the Kalahari desert.
If life seems a bit of a bad joke to you - whether you’re Berlusconi the buffoon or the inmate of a refugee boat on its last legs - then this book is for you. It’s about life, and painfully putting yourself on the line to draw out of life what is most precious: “Much love, much passion, much power” - Allen’s sweet parting wish to heckling audiences at the end of his act. As a deeply religious, pretty asexual and very straight person I am often offended by what he says. His dialogue with God in the book for example is extremely short. But He’s of a searing honesty. The acidity of the sixties, the street wisdom of the seventies, the great gap experience of the eighties - it’s all in there. On top of that, Allen is the guy who got arrested at Speaker’s Corner!!! For free Speech!! Several times! Put on death row. The story of how - is told in the book incl. a live picture by the man who interviewed him after his death. With all due respect, we demand the guillotine - in line with Mr. Robert Zimmermann’s lines… “If my thoughts and dreams could be seen.. “
|
|
|
Most Recent Customer Reviews
|
by Jimmy Carr
by Steve Allen
by Oliver Double
by Keith Johnstone
With an Amazon.co.uk Gift Certificate, you can get them what they want (even if you don't know what that is). 
Make sure you always get what you want with an Amazon.co.uk 
Amazon Home