Zen and the Art of Stand-Up Comedy
Toronto-based comedian Sankey may not be a household name, but his how-to book is a worthy complement to Judy Carter's Stand-Up Comedy: The Book (Dell, 1989) and far better than Richard Belzer's slight How To Be a Stand-Up Comic (Citadel, 1992). While Carter offers more specific advice on joke writing to beginners, Sankey provides more depth, musing helpfully on writing, delivery, set structure, and more. He may be right to advise that naturally funny people can learn to do stand-up, but Sankey could say more about the daunting hurdles to latter-day professional success. His Zen references are judiciously sparse, and his conclusion that stand-up comics can learn from Zen about being "in the moment" and staying loose on stage rings true. For strong performing arts collections.?Norman Oder, "Library Journal"Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.