Shtick to Business


Book Description

What do comedians know about killing it in business? Just ask a behavioral economist who teaches MBAs by day and decodes comedy by night. Dr. Peter McGraw--a business school professor, professional speaker, and founder of the Humor Research Lab (aka HuRL)--translates the genius and madness of the world's funniest people into powerful prescriptions for professional success. Drawing on cutting-edge research, case studies, and his own comedy successes (and failures), Peter reveals surprising business lessons from the masters of comedy: What Bill Murray and Groucho Marx know about career management. Why Dave Chappelle and Joan Rivers are a blueprint for brand building. What Tina Fey and Amy Poehler can teach you about leadership and teamwork. How Jerry Seinfeld's daily rituals made him the wealthiest comic alive. The insights in Shtick to Business will help you improve innovation and outsmart the competition. You'll build new skills--enhanced creativity, better decision-making, and a marketing mindset--to launch a business, tackle tough management problems, and build a serious career. And you'll never have to tell a joke.




Shtick to Business


Book Description

What do comedians know about killing it in business? Just ask a behavioral economist who teaches MBAs by day and decodes comedy by night. Dr. Peter McGraw--a business school professor, professional speaker, and founder of the Humor Research Lab (aka HuRL)--translates the genius and madness of the world's funniest people into powerful prescriptions for professional success. Drawing on cutting-edge research, case studies, and his own comedy successes (and failures), Peter reveals surprising business lessons from the masters of comedy: What Bill Murray and Groucho Marx know about career management. Why Dave Chappelle and Joan Rivers are a blueprint for brand building. What Tina Fey and Amy Poehler can teach you about leadership and teamwork. How Jerry Seinfeld's daily rituals made him the wealthiest comic alive. The insights in Shtick to Business will help you improve innovation and outsmart the competition. You'll build new skills--enhanced creativity, better decision-making, and a marketing mindset--to launch a business, tackle tough management problems, and build a serious career. And you'll never have to tell a joke.




The Humor Code


Book Description

Part road-trip comedy and part social science experiment, a scientist and a journalist travel the globe to discover the secret behind what makes things funny, questioning countless experts, including Louis C.K., along the way.




Shtick Shift


Book Description

Rabbi Simcha Weinstein grew up in England. As a short fellow, he waited for his growth spurt. That never happened, so to avoid the anti-Semitism he confronted, he became funny. He later turned that humour into his own stand-up and wrote a book describing how Jewish humour has changed in the 21st century and how comedians like Sacha Baron Cohen, Sarah Silverman and Jon Stewart now use the old taboos to get lots of laughs.




Selling Sucks


Book Description

Praise for Selling Sucks "Whew! A terrific new book that blows the lid off the old-school methods of selling-which don't work anymore-and shows you how to make sales almost like magic! I love this book!" —Joe Vitale, author of The Attractor Factor and many other books "I love to buy, so I'm going to give every salesperson I know a copy of this book. Maybe they'll finally stop the old-school, hard-sell shtick that compels me (and everyone else) not to buy." —Michael Port, bestselling author of Book Yourself Solid "Selling sucks, but making sales doesn't. Read Frank's book to learn the crucial difference that will almost certainly mean success or failure for your business in the new era of commerce." —Mark Joyner, bestselling author of Simpleologywww.simpleology.com "Ready to join the ranks of the top sales pros? Buy Selling Sucks. Apply its lessons. Then watch your results go through the roof." —Randy Pennington, author of Results Rule! "Rumbauskas has the ability to overcome the obvious and allow his readers to look at sales in a new dimension. While many people focus on sales tricks, Rumbauskas shows, in great detail, how to get your prospects to buy because they come to you informed and trustful of you before you even say 'hello.' He's one of those guys I listen to every time he speaks. He speaks out of tested methods and not opinion. Prior to marketing online, I spent fourteen years running some of the largest automobile dealerships in the USA. This is one book I would make recommended reading for every person who wants to become an elite sales professional. Selling Sucks is a money-making winner." —Mike Filsaime, MikeFLive.com "Selling Sucks is a must-read for any entrepreneur who wants to run a high-profit, high-integrity business. Rumbauskas's advice is inspiring, clear, and more importantly, easy to implement. It's honestly one of the best how-to self-marketing books on the market. Get this book now if you're serious about exploding your sales and making more money." —Marie Forleo, author and Fox News Online Life Coach www.thegoodlife-inc.com "Rumbauskas has written an indispensable guide to moving from an average salesperson to a top sales pro. This is a must-read for anyone serious about their sales career." —Paul McCord, author of Creating a Million-Dollar-a-Year Sales Income




Jewish Comedy: A Serious History


Book Description

Finalist for the National Jewish Book Award “Dauber deftly surveys the whole recorded history of Jewish humour.” —Economist In a major work of scholarship that explores the funny side of some very serious business (and vice versa), Jeremy Dauber examines the origins of Jewish comedy and its development from biblical times to the age of Twitter. Organizing Jewish comedy into “seven strands”—including the satirical, the witty, and the vulgar—he traces the ways Jewish comedy has mirrored, and sometimes even shaped, the course of Jewish history. Dauber also explores the classic works of such masters of Jewish comedy as Sholem Aleichem, Isaac Babel, Franz Kafka, the Marx Brothers, Woody Allen, Joan Rivers, Philip Roth, Mel Brooks, Sarah Silverman, Jon Stewart, and Larry David, among many others.




Culture Shock


Book Description

‘Will McInnes has nailed it. Inspiring and comprehensive,Culture Shock is aspirational future thinking with its feet firmly on the ground’ Jemima Kiss, Digital Media correspondent, The Guardian Join the work-place revolution There's a revolution afoot . . . don't be left behind. A new dawn has broken. Business has changed profoundly—fueled by aggressively advancing technology and a volatile global economy. So why has most business culture remained unchanged? Most organizations are closed, secretive, siloed, slow to change, and deeply hierarchical. It's time to shock these cultures. Let's burn up the old and start something new. The wonderfully inspiring Will McInnes is here to make a change—he wants us all to work in places that are supportive, open, conducive to creativity, motivating, and fun. In this book he maps out brilliant ways to create an uplifting work culture. Learn to create a more open, democratic, and productive workplace Packed with real-world examples and backed up by facts Step-by-step, practical framework with actionable tasks to help you transform the way you work for the better




The Comedians


Book Description

“Funny [and] fascinating . . . If you’re a comedy nerd you’ll love this book.” —Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Named a Best Book of the Year by Kirkus Reviews, National Post, and Splitsider Based on over two hundred original interviews and extensive archival research, this groundbreaking work is a narrative exploration of the way comedians have reflected, shaped, and changed American culture over the past one hundred years. Starting with the vaudeville circuit at the turn of the last century, the book introduces the first stand-up comedian—an emcee who abandoned physical shtick for straight jokes. After the repeal of Prohibition, Mafia-run supper clubs replaced speakeasies, and mobsters replaced vaudeville impresarios as the comedian’s primary employer. In the 1950s, the late-night talk show brought stand-up to a wide public, while Lenny Bruce, Mort Sahl, and Jonathan Winters attacked conformity and staged a comedy rebellion in coffeehouses. From comedy’s part in the civil rights movement and the social upheaval of the late 1960s, to the first comedy clubs of the 1970s and the cocaine-fueled comedy boom of the 1980s, The Comedians culminates with a new era of media-driven celebrity in the twenty-first century. “Entertaining and carefully documented . . . jaw-dropping anecdotes . . . This book is a real treat.” —Merrill Markoe, TheWall Street Journal







Lipshtick


Book Description

Get comfy, pull up a pan of blondies, and settle in for some girlfriend talk. Get the lowdown on who's low and how's down, whose long-standing but unspoken conflict with her mother is contributing to her sexual repression, and whose boyfriend named his penis. A hysterical send-up of everyday life and love with lots of heart, Lipshtick is a quick fix, a good schmooze, a heartfelt sob or two. It will take you on a trip through things universal to all pairs of X chromosomes worth their salt: for coping with social dances in junior high (where the sexes meet like a hormonal high noon) to the joys of plucking out your chin hair like evil weeds; from the natural order of a girl's fantasies (like sweets that don't make you fat, spending that doesn't break the bank, a beautiful nap in the middle of a long day) to why flings with bad boys are the ultimate in dating pleasure (finding the right boy to lust after is a lifelong struggle--eventually you grow to be picky about who rejects you); from getting married (His best quality? He was like family. His worst quality? He was like family.) to the sad state of postnatal breasts. Gwen Macsai cover it all--with a shtick twist. You'll laugh, you'll cry, you'll thank God you're not her. No situation unaccounted for, no mole left unexamined, Macsai captures a woman's life from her first leg-shave to her last dose of hormone replacement therapy. When you finish Lipshtick you'll have added another great girlfriend to your already glittering array. And in this world you can't have enough girlfriends or laughter.