How to Write All Kinds of Comedy Jokes, by Dean Burkey
Volume 1: How to Write Comedy Jokes
That’s a pretty direct title. At the same time, pretty broad, so when you’re reading a book with numerous plugs to his volume 2–4, you’ll wonder; what’s missed from this one?
Time to find out.
Straight away, Burkey gives you 8 different categories to search out humour (9, if you count miscellaneous). Each one with subtopics for you to investigate.
Already at this point, it’s worth mentioning my first moan/niggle JM.
From the get go, sentences are interspersed with small dark capital letters. What is this?
Turns out he’s citing authors whose names are referenced at the book’s end.
It interrupts the flow.
Another point of irritation is that Burkey can talk in what seems like paragraphs, but instead lists points, then resumes usual paragraph style. So he’ll talk about dog walking.
Take it on a lead.
Enjoy the pleasantry of your surroundings. The walk should be a challenge for the person walking and for the dog. If he’s dragging you along, get more lively.
If you’re dead, shouldn’t you be some place else?
It’s an unnecessary distraction in formatting (like in my articles).
These things aside, Burkey gives you more than enough to beat the blank page. Useful, because I still have more of this article to write.
Keeping with the directness, the book goes straight from picking topics, to tackling the blank page and moves on to joke structure.
There is some waffle, but not much, and not enough to note, which is why I’ve written this.
The book takes you through a number of ways to get from setups to punchlines, which he’s clearly been thinking about a lot. One method came to him in a dream.
Sometimes I dream about having good interpersonal relationships.
After that, he gets to making punchlines funny. Which is where he might lose you. How do you get to make your punches funny? Why of course, look at volume 2.
This is followed by a number of jokes to study.
Further analysis of reaching good punchlines comes under the heading/chapter, ‘Lots of Laughs’. This is really good at pointing you in the direction of Volume 3. Oh, man…
There are some more jokes to look at, then close to a page of performance tips. If you’re reading this in bed, put it down; you’ll immediately improve.
Then he points you towards volume 2 and 3 again. Which is a good time for me to say you can read the next part of this article in a future review.
Yes, I know that’s funny, but calm down. Compose yourself. Change your wet pants… and good.
Now you’re back, Burkey shares some knowledge for crafting and refining jokes. He provides some examples of jokes he’s written and how he’s made them better.
Before I move on, since I’ll defend Dean Burkey (if only for a moment); getting funny punchlines is not something a book can give you. It can hint at it, push you in the correct direction, but the final determiner is the audience and how much effort you’re putting in.
Don’t let this deter you; it’s part of the game.
Think of all the famous comics who’ve bombed, all the comedy films by trained writers which fall flat, and even sitcoms which fail to make it past their first season.
The real critique for this book that Burkey is holding back some tips for future volumes.
But as he says inside, he needs the money. Plus, he’s not the only author who does this (which confirms his innocence).
On again with the review.
The ‘Secret of Comedy’ is quite good. He then introduces famous names with their short quotes on their own comedy secrets. After which, he descends into lists again, or possibly paragraphs.
Once he finds his way back to proper formatting, there’s another one, two, or three nudges in the direction of his other volumes.
At this point, I admit, “Burkey, you’ve won. I’ll buy them, just please, stop mentioning them…”
On to the next part of the book.
As listed in the table of contents, that’s, ‘A Glimpse at the Topics Covered by Volumes 2–4.’
I say, “Please stop, Dean, please. Take my wife. I’ve even used your Christian name. I’ll call you Mr. Burkey. Can this please be a book of its own?”
Dean say, “No.”
Moving on to page 64, and the ’Special Bonus Features’. The first two are the same; it involves a novel method of picking a joke writing topic.
If you want to find out what that is, read — How to Write All Kinds of Comedy Jokes Volume 1: How to write Comedy Jokes DB.
Then comes about 12 pages of spoof pieces, followed by a page and a half of a disclaimer (perhaps he feels guilty. I would too if I released this for sale). Then comes 4 pages of book explanation & source citation.
Yep, it’s a wonder there’s enough room in this book’s pages for any comedy writing advice. But there is some here, and he does take you from ideas, the blank page, and turning them through joke set up theories.
Apart from a little thank you at the end and urging your to check out future volumes — which he honestly hasn’t done before — you get his web address to visit.
Oh, and the citations part.
The citation part of the book its most impressive and the author’s certainly done his work. As they say in comedy, save the best ’til last.
Review in short; Dean Burkey’s crazy, but I can relate.
PS
The spoof pieces are also worth reading because they’re quite amusing.
PSS
I liked the citations because it gave me more references to check out. There’s also his other volumes for those interested, in case you weren’t aware of their availability.
Verdict:
In parts, a promising book where the writing style and constant author citations can distract. With references to future books cropping up too many times, an edit to fix these issues would make this a much better book, because good information is contained inside.
Recommended for:
- Topics to write on. The author’s generous and given you topics, and sub topics, leaving you to break them down as you want.
- Getting material from set up to punch. A number of theories are discussed, with ways to tackle writer’s block also shown.
Not for:
Readability.
This feels like it’s caught between physical copy and ebook, with a writing style that flits from one to the other. If he formatted its entirety like the spoof pieces section, the whole thing would be easier to get through.
Other thoughts:
If this book was tidied up, and constant in-text citations removed, it would make a better read. Remove a number of plugs for successive volumes & move the part on upcoming volumes 2–4 to the back of the book.
Length:
On joke writing, about 70 pages, another 12 or so for the spoof pieces, with the remainder gap ‘plugged’. The book’s total count is listed at 98.
Quicker readers will get through this in a number of hours.
The slower, dedicated type, will find their way to the end in a few days.
My article citation
JM — Jody Musgrove, of Just One More Watch on YouTube. A very good watch review channel from a Scotsman hiding out down under. He often uses the phrase, “moans and niggles”.
DB — Dean Burkey, author of some books on comedy writing + other titles which might involve some element of fiction and comedy. Have a look for his books on Amazon to support his endeavours.
Please note, these links go to ‘homepages’, not individual products/videos, and they’re not affiliate links. I have no relation to these two people, and as a result of appearing here, they will lose sales/viewership. Sorry!
