Comedian as Confidence Man: Studies in Irony Fatigue (Humor in Life and Letters)
Brand: Wayne State University Press
Categories: Books, Literature & Fiction, History & Criticism



Dimensions: 6 x 0.57 x 9 inches
ISBN-13: 978-0814346792
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0814346790
Publisher: Wayne State University Press
Print length: 272 pages
Publication date: September 1, 2019
subtitle: Paperback – September 1, 2019
author: Visit Amazon's Will Kaufman Page search results Will Kaufman
review: Editorial Reviews Review Comedian as Confidence Man is still the most important, insightful read about comedy that I've ever found, especially my brand of comedy and the inherent frustrations related to it. Elated to see it back in print.-- (08/17/2018) [The book] is at once a history and penetrating interpretation of the complexities of humor and of the various individuals selected for examination. Kaufman's analytic sweep of literary texts and comic performances is wildly imaginative: Sinclair Lewis's Main Street , Garrison Keillor's Lake Wobegon Days , Benjamin Franklin's literary confidence games, Herman Melville's The Confidence Man , the routines of stand-up comics Lenny Bruce and Bill Hicks, the works of Kurt Vonnegut, and Mark Twain's Huckleberry Finn and Pudd'nhead Wilson . In between are excellent insights into an array of the most influential writers and stand-up comics.--Joseph Boskin "American Studies Journal " Highly readable and carefully documented.--Dana Rufolo-Horhager "American Studies in Europe " The Comedian as Confidence Man breaks new ground, not only in interpreting works that have been exhaustively mined, but in making us see new relationships in comic performance that cut across media. Such a foray can only encourage new approaches to the study of American humor.--Thomas Grant "University of Hartford " The Comedian as Confidence Man is a lively, fascinating analysis of humorists and their work which examines the humorist's internal conflict between the social critic who demands to be taken seriously and the comedian who never can be -- the irony fatigue condition. [The book] concentrates on eight American literary and performing comedians from the 18th, 19th, and 20th centuries, whose social observations require the obligatory, 'Only kidding, folks!" even when they may not be.-- (06/01/1997) Useful new study of American humor.--Forrest G. Robinson"American Studies" (01/01/1998) Very readable and mighty interesting. Better yet, it really does talk about culture (and the role comedians play in it) without becoming wearily, predictably ideological, and without forcing readers on a death march down the tangled roads of theory.-- (09/19/2018) About the Author Will Kaufman is a folk musician and professor of American studies at the University of Central Lancashire. He is the author of Woody Guthrie's Modern World Blues.