Overview

This comprehensive comedy course will aid you in entertaining family audiences by increasing the humor in your variety act. It provides: The fundamentals of comedy History of comedy Specific techniques that have been identified as tending to generate laughter Examples of how those techniques have been used Thought-provoking questions to help you decide how you might use those techniques Methods enabling you to connect more fully with your audience. And offers exercises assisting you in: identifying your style of humor and finding your performance character. strengthening your creativity. writing individual jokes. creating entire routines. This book helps you create your own comedy material uniquely suited to you and your audiences, and realize your full potential as an entertainer. Turn your routines into unique performances and never feel the need to clone others again. (This is Volume 4 in the series: Creativity for Entertainers. The volumes can be read in any order)

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Reviews

Johnson, a.k.a. Charlie the Juggling Clown, offers this delightful, exhaustive, and charmingly illustrated guide to delighting an audience, vaudeville-clown style, offering a rich array of gags, set-ups, exercises, skit and scene models, and much practical advice crafted to give readers a serious leg up... Comedy Techniques for Variety Artists bursts with crowd-tested ideas and approaches for cooking up (or perfecting) an act to entertain a family audience. While the opening pages offer illuminating thoughts on how jokes work, what jokes are appropriate for individual acts, and the niceties of timing and running gags, the emphasis throughout is on highly specific techniques and routines any performer can make their own. Making it your own is crucial for any performer. Johnson encourages this with a host of exercises for readers... These follow inviting, incisive chapters on classic comedy techniques and routines ... that briefly examine the history of these bits reaching back to the circus, the funny pages, Burns & Allen, and Fibber McGee and Molly-and persuasive consideration of why they work: The advice throughout is flexible and pragmatic. The joy of the book is in how explicable Johnson makes this, and how he lays bare the structure and logic of the many amusing routines he shares, inviting readers to understand-and to create. This guide to crafting variety-show comedy for family audiences illuminates and inspires. -- Book Life, a division of Publisher's Weekly

Author Information

Bruce Johnson has a BA in Technical Theater. He began performing as Charlie the Juggling Clown in 1974. He combines juggling, magic, origami, trick cartoons, pantomime, puppetry, clowning, and audience interaction to entertain family audiences. He is also a Foley Artist. Internationally recognized as a variety arts historian and entertainer, he has lectured and performed in North America, Europe, and Asia. His honors include Clown Camp Red Nose Philosopher, Ministry Clown Hall of Fame Initial Inductee, and the World Clown Association Lifetime Achievement Award. Visit Bruce at brucecharliejohnson.com

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