Laughing in the Dark: A Decade of Subversive Comedy - Hardcover

Stone, Laurie

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0880014741 ISBN 13: 9780880014748

Publisher: The Ecco Press, 1997

Synopsis

A collection of essays, reviews and interviews from the Village Voice explores the idea of what makes us laugh and think, discussing the work of Richard Pryor, Dennis Miller, Whoopi Goldberg, Eric Bogosian, Rosie O'Donnell, Tracy Ullman, and many other artists who have shaped American comedy.

About this title

From Kirkus Reviews

Novelist and Village Voice critic Stone (Starting with Serge, 1989) offers an anthology of poorly executed essays on stand-up comedy. Purportedly a study covering the last decade, this is instead a haphazardly organized collection of previously published pieces, written largely in a vernacular that will be lost on readers who are neither bicoastal nor metropolitan. Furthermore, Stone cannot avoid injecting her painfully PC views into nearly every piece, which would not be terrible were it not for her amazing inconsistency. A blind spot vis-...-vis Judaism shows, and her criticism of Fiddler on the Roof in a discussion of revitalized Yiddish theater belies a loathing for Orthodoxy in particular. It seems only Jewish comics like Danny Hoch (who, admittedly, is one of the lesser-knowns that Stone features in Laughing), who are sufficiently secular and mulitcultural, are acceptable to Stone. Elsewhere, Stone is careless and even cruel, as in her comparison of a comedian to the ``surface flash and pointlessness of minimalist fiction''--tell that to Gass or Sorentino--or her statement regarding Spalding Gray's eye disease that ``in this age of AIDS and cancer, the threat of blindness to one eye has to be a comedy.'' And with all her deserved attention to the rise of gay comedy, there is no mention of Canada's Kids in the Hall, the troupe that revolutionized drag and gay comedy in the 1980s and toured the US only two years ago. Clearly a book for Stone fans only; to the reader looking for an unbiased, funny view, caveat emptor. -- Copyright ©1997, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

From Library Journal

It is said that all humor is built on truth, and Stone aims at the truth in this thought-provoking collection of interviews and essays that first appeared in the Village Voice. She thoroughly examines the comedy circuit and its offshoots (i.e., performance art, offbeat revues, and subversive theater) from the 1980s through the present, concentrating on individual performers. Brutally descriptive and erudite, she candidly dissects the performers, their material, audience impact, and what contributes to an individual brand of humor. A broad cross-section of names are included?veterans such as Bill Cosby and Joan Rivers share these pages with the lunatic fringe of Paul Reubens and Jim Carrey and perfomers form the gay scene (Peggy Shaw, the Five Lesbian Brothers) and television (Jay Leno, Rosie O'Donnell) among a host of others. No subject is taboo here in these frank pieces?proving that comedy is often no joke. The book may leave readers with a bitter aftertaste of the dark side of this art. Recommended for circulating libraries with large entertainment collections.?Carol J. Binkowski, Bloomfield, N.J.
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: The Ecco Press
• Publication date: 1997
• ISBN 10: 0880014741
• ISBN 13: 9780880014748
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 299