Three-time Emmy-award winner Gene Perret's Comedy Writing Step by Step has been the manual for humor writers for 24 years. With this, his first update, Perret offers readers a treasure trove of guidelines and suggestions covering a broad range of comedy writing situations, along with many all-important insights into the selling of one's work. From the basics of comedy writing as a craft... disciplining one's wit discovering what works visualization avoiding the obvious on through the nitty-gritty of the work... finding a topic constructing monologues, sketches, and scripts writing to your...

Breakfasts with Archangel Shecky, by three-time Emmy Award-winner Gene Perret, is a humorous story of a guardian angel who can not only turn water into wine (well, actually coffee into Merlot--not a great Merlot, but passable), but can also turn a struggling Philadelphia comedian wannabe into an entertainer of star quality. Is Shecky really an angelic visitor from the other side? Or is he just a blowhard deadbeat who's trying to con a few free drinks and a meal or two from a kid who wants desperately to make it in the comedy profession? Well, that's part of the mystery that makes this tale...

Two questions that people ask television comedy writers repeatedly are: "How do you guys ever think them up?" and "Is writing for a television show anything like it was on the old Dick Van Dyke Show?"

Tales from the Script invites you inside the writing rooms and into the writers meetings for such legendary television shows as The Carol Burnett Show, Laugh-In, Mamas Family, Welcome Back Kotter, Threes Company, the variety shows of Bill Cosby and Tim Conway. Youll also be part of the planning, preparation, and production of almost all of the Bob Hope Specials, including his...