5 comedy books that show you how to be funny
You might not know this yet, but I’m a comedy writer. I’ve done comedy in the US and the UK, I’ve done stand-up, I’ve written sketch comedy, and I’ve done improv.
I’ve even taught both sketch and improv. I’ve been doing comedy in some capacity for over a decade.
So I’m excited to share with you today five books that are close to my heart. These are the books that taught me everything I know about comedy writing and being funny in person.
Whether you are a stand-up, an improviser, or a fiction writer who wants to include more humor in your written work, these books will help you.
These are also helpful for actors who want to get better at performing acting.
Writing Down the Bones by Natalie Goldberg
I try to stay away from overly hyped descriptions, but I sincerely believe this is a book every writer should read (unless you’re already a practitioner of zen).
It does two great things:
It presents you with a new philosophy of writing. It’s a whole new way of thinking that makes it more fun and less stress.
The book includes writing exercises every chapter, so not only are you getting food for thought, you’re able to put it into practice right then and there.
Using the concepts of zen, you’ll open up your mind to improve your writing and feel better while you do it.
If your pen is feeling clogged or you’re suffering from Imposter’s Syndrome, start with this book. It’ll teach you to love writing again, or maybe for the first time, if you’ve always struggled with it.
The Upright Citizens Brigade Comedy Improvisation Manual
I know it says comedy improvisation, but it will help your comedy writing, too.
This book basically teaches what UCB teaches in their intro and intermediate improv classes. Their style of improv focuses heavily on sketch comedy structures and generating ideas for sketch comedy.
If you want to know how to…
write funny scenes that can stand alone
write comedy for television or movies
incorporate comedic structures into your fiction
… this book will teach you.
If you don’t know the underlying structures behind how comedy happens in a scene, grab this book.
Comic Insights: The Art of Standup Comedy by Franklyn Ajaye
The first part of this book is an intro to standup. It tells you how to structure your material, practice it, and improve it.
The second part is interviews with standup greats, where they share the secrets of their process and how they broke in to the comedy scene.
This book started me off strong: I did not bomb my first open mic.
I got a lot of laughs, actually! This book taught me how to avoid the mistakes that people usually make the first time out.
It’s a great big for the beginner or even an amateur standup who’s been trying for a while but wants to improve.
Note: Some of the people in this book have been “cancelled” since their interview. If you’d rather not read interviews with people like that, don’t get the book, or skip those sections.
The Tao of Comedy: Embrace the Pause by Bobbie Oliver
This book uses the precepts of Daoism to understand comedy and improve your standup.
Comedy doesn’t have to be stressful. In fact, it shouldn’t be stressful. If you’re not having a good time, your audience won’t have a good time.
Comedians talk a lot about getting into a “flow” or riding the “energy” of their audience, and when we talk about flow or energy, we’re talking about what Oliver has captured in her book.
“You don’t do the standup. The standup does you.”
-Bobbie Oliver, The Tao of Comedy
This book is a total paradigm shift, and this book will really up your game for any type of comedy performance, but especially standup.
What Are You Laughing At?: A Comprehensive Guide to the Comedic Event by Dan O’Shannon
This book is about comedy in general. It’s written by an expert with decades of experience. O’Shannon wrote Frasier, Modern Family, worked on Cheers, to name a few.
He breaks down for you exactly how a joke works and what the different aspects of a joke are.
Comedy and being funny will stop being this mysterious thing that happens to you sometimes when you’re really feeling good and in the moment, and instead you can make it happen whenever you’d like.
You can understand how comedy works. Figure out what inputs you need to get laughter as your output.
It goes over the historical theories of comedy as well as O’Shannon’s own explanation. I think you have to know the theory to really get comedy to work. If you have no idea what’s going on behind the joke, you’re relying on luck and charm, and that won’t always come through for you.
Read this book and any of the others I’ve recommended here, and you’ll be way funnier, on command and without fail.
For the most part.
How to get funnier
If you’ve never tried standup, or improv, or acting onstage, I recommend taking a class and trying it.
Whatever form of comedy you haven’t tried before, go out and do it. All of the forms operate in very different ways and require different skills, but once you’ve sampled them all, you’ll begin to notice underlying truths about comedy you wouldn’t have grasped otherwise.
Here’s your checklist:
Sign up for a standup open mic
Take an improv class
Write sketches (standalone comedy scenes, like SNL or WKUK)
Act in a comedic play
Once you’ve tried all these, you’ll have comedy epiphanies that will change your life, and make you way funnier.
Are you struggling to make comedy? This will help.
Even if you’re eager to learn from and read these books, you might still feel like something is holding you back from creating at your full potential.
But if you don’t know what it is that’s holding you back, it’s impossible to beat it.
Want to create more than ever before, and love doing it?
Download the 21 Creativity Killers Guide (and how to beat them).
It will diagnose your exact “creativity killer,” the one thing that’s holding you back from your comedy dreams. Not only that, but it will give you the exact steps you need to conquer it.
Stop struggling. Start creating.
Get our 21 CREATIVITY KILLERS GUIDE (and how to beat them)!
