How to be Really Funny

by Mark Stolzenberg

Explains how to amuse any audience, using such classic principles of comedy as pantomime, slapstick, and improvisation. Includes photographs of famous comics from Chaplin and Jack Benny to Lucille Ball and Eddie Murphy.

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Be a Mime

by Mark Stolzenberg

Perform the illusions that have captivated millions! Everything you need to know about the art of communicating without words is revealed here. Master the mechanisms involved in such famous routines as the traffic cop and robot, each with variations that make the act your own. Detailed coverage of body movements, including sequential photographs that break down every action, plus tips to get you thinking in character, will have you walking in the wind or escaping from boxes in no time.

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Editorial Review: Be a Mime

A must-have for any children’s theater group—Be A Mime is a serious, yet easy-to-read look at an often-maligned art form. Stolzenberg describes mime as “silent theater, expressionistic and transcendental in that it often deals with the hidden and the underlying meanings and forces in the universe.” That sounds pretty deep, but children are an ideal audience for this sort of thing—after all, they’re a lot less jaded than adults, and therefore more receptive to those meanings and forces. The book is filled with instruction, improvisational exercises and possible scenarios that will help kids create their own theater.

—Donna Friedman