How to Be Funny, by Steve Allen, with Jane Wollman
Discovering the comic you
First off, it’s a large book. It’s a heavy book. You could use it to knock in fence posts.
Then, once you’re done splitting your favourite farmer’s posts, and dodging his shotgun blasts, you can have a read.
But if you’re still intimidated by books with lots of pages, remember the benefits of carrying one around.
Recall the famous story about a soldier’s life being saved against a bullet, by his pocket bible. In this way, Steve Allen’s How to Be Funny would save you from a tank shell.
But you’d need a pretty big pocket.
Once you get over its size, you’ll notice its format. Sure, it uses chapter titles, headings here and there, numbers and lists, but the general style is that of an interview.
Journalist Jane Wollman takes up the back and forth of asking the pressing questions. The kind that would make any news broadcast. Things like, “What about your comedy do people enjoy?”, or “Did you eat anything funny for breakfast?”
Disclaimer — these two questions don’t appear in the book.
Really, it’s more serious than that. Not deadly serious — like the aliens that abducted you last night — but she asks him about comedy and he gives his thoughts on it. As you might have guessed from the page count, the answers can be long and winding.
They can be interesting, somewhat amusing, or a little bit unnecessary. Here and there, some bits could be cut and you wouldn’t notice.
Other times, when questions get asked, you might want Wollman to follow a particular thread, for her to steer the conversation in another direction.
But too bad, you can’t go back to 1987.
Either way, a minor, and pretty pointless quibble, because you cannot choose the direction of a book, unless you’re the author. In which case, the book won’t get written. And in that case, it wouldn’t end up in a case, or if it’s digital, would simply leave an empty spot in a library.
From questions and answers, chapters segue to bits and pieces Allen’s done over the years, to provide each sub topic with examples. These come in the form of monologues and transcripts of items he’s performed during his career.
Quite early in the book, there’s a chapter for Constructing Jokes by Formula, which takes you through different approaches he’s used in creating material. These come after a bit of theorising, looks at them, then wanders off in analysis which doesn’t fit the chapter title.
At this point, if you don’t find the theory provoking, you may just skip over it. As long as you don’t rip out the pages, because that could ruin future readers’ dissatisfaction.
On the eight formulas themselves, they come with Allen’s explanation and examples with each. They’re done nicely and you’ll have no trouble understanding the techniques.
Getting them to work, is understandably, up to you.
When the book discusses ad libs, you’ll see how gifted Steve Allen was. The transcripts in here show he could go off script — at will — when talking to audience members, or when making speeches, and think of funny lines on the spot.
While it’s impressive, this came after years of dedication and creating his own material for nightly shows.
But you wouldn’t know that if you skipped over it, would you?
What I mean to say is, it’s hard work to get to the top. If you read the book, remember that, and don’t be intimidated.
In Writing Monologues, Sketches and Comic Essays, there’s talk of weird product names. Hotpoint as a refrigerator gets a mention in an Allen bit. That’s even more relevant today.
There are another couple of sketches for you to analyse. The Lincoln at Home sketch doesn’t have any jokes. It makes an interesting read to see how it’s done.
The chapter rounds out with an essay Allen wrote for a magazine. For any office worker, the material is still up to date.
The book has an inspection of satire. And it’s a pretty good one.
You get Allen’s commentary on this type of humour, with the examples in the form of a couple of sketches. There’s one he submitted to The Big Show, which he performed with Gary Coleman. There’s also an edited-down, 5 ½ pages, of Steve Allen’s written contribution to a sketch based on 60 Minutes.
When it goes into stand-up comedy, you’ll read about Steve Allen’s views on its various aspects. This is where Jane Wollman loads in some questions about sex in comedy.
Clear the stage! Tonight we have a double act.
That is, the role of men and women, and how it affects them as performers, according to audience expectation and reaction.
The chapter meanders with some thoughts about stand-up, then comes back a bit when it touches on the blue material of three comedy legends; Lenny Bruce, Richard Pryor and Eddie Murphy. The reason things get better is it moves on with Allen’s comedy store monologue about performing clean.
But after it comes back, it decides to get completely lost. Like a drunk in a forest at midnight with moon completely obscured. See if you can understand the two page, 56 item list, called Who Will Star?
Then the chapter sobers up with a good anecdote about Steve’s bells (No, that’s not a typo). That segues into a bit about whistles (not wolf whistles).
It carries on with a bit more of Allen’s ad libbing genius, some advice to performers, before the chapter wraps up with the best bit, his 1980 Emmy Award monologue.
Moving forward, with the chapter that covers characterisations, you find out the author was funny when he crossed his legs.
Which means there isn’t too much to tell. While it’s interesting enough, it’s simply about performers in the industry at the time, with only the bits of dialogue to make it more fitting with the book and chapter’s themes.
The best parts involve the tale of Allen being pushed into a swimming pool, and the short story of making a little boy cry.
It’s actually a heart warming tale of a clown. Steve Allen had clown make up applied before a show, and he tried to talk to a boy in the audience. On seeing him face to face, the boy burst into tears.
That’s the heart-warming part.
Years later, Allen had a ride in a Manhattan cab. It turns out, the cab driver was the little boy who cried on tv, and… you’ll need to read the book to see what happens.
Or Google it, you’ll probably find it there.
Two late chapters bring you to television. The book’s title, How to be Funny, is really abused. These chapters have Allen recounting a brief history of American comedy shows and some personal experiences.
The two chapters could easily have been excluded, or rolled into one. The satire sketch examples offered are nice, but could have been included in earlier chapters.
There’s some redemption when Allen talks about doing many dangerous stunts as host of an old show. Only vaguely relevant to the book’s title, but fun to read. A little later, he explains where the idea for the bird call sound he sometimes did came from (bandleader-drummer Bobby Rosengarden was involved). It comes in another nice anecdote that ends with a neat joke.
How to Sell Jokes, the book’s final chapter, gives you performers’ mailing addresses, should you want to offer material to Rodney Dangerfield, Phyllis Diller, or Joan Rivers.
There are a few others, but I don’t want you penning letters at the expense of disturbing them.
Gotta keep the graveyard clutter free.
A single page epilogue completes the book.
One thing to mention, before I sign off. Every chapter ends with a Homework Assignment. These are signed off by J.W.
Who could that be?
The assignments look at the things the chapters talk about, then give you little tasks; read particular books, analyse comedians, devise your own sketches for tv etc.
Whether Allen had any input here is unknown. Either way, they’re fine enough exercises. The only one that seemed a bit out of place was the satire one, which asked you to satirise a sitcom.
That sounds more like a parody, and even then, making fun of funny things that are already funny doesn’t really work.
To some extent it might.
Verdict
Steve Allen, and Jane Wollman, have produced a big book for people with an attention span.
Read it all, and you’ll get discussions about comedy, some of Steve Allen’s history, see comedy laid out, get a brief look at the some of comedy’s sub genres, in amongst other things.
Stick with it, and the chapter ending assignments will challenge you to create little bits of work, while you find the odd tip buried within lengthy discussions.
There are also some nice anecdotes.
Recommended for:
Studying the included transcripts and monologues.
Not for:
A quick read. It can be overly rambling.
Other thoughts
Steve Allen has laid it all out here.
Actually, he hasn’t. Another 300+ pages come in his 2nd book in the “series”, Make ’Em Laugh.
One for another time…
Length
290 pages listed, with another 5 in the introduction. For the most part, this is wall to wall text. Not for the faint hearted.
Quicker readers will take 2–3 days.
Slower, dedicated people, will be through in 2–3 weeks.
