Funny on Purpose: The Definitive Guide to an Unpredictable Career in Comedy

Randazzo’s guide to making it in the professional comedy world covers an impressive range of comedy formats including standup, improv, sketch, TV, writing, directing, animation, and YouTube. Randazzo, A former editor of the Onion and creative director of adultswim.com, competently advises on both the artistic and business sides of comedy. And he supplements his advice with interviews of successful comedians including Judd Apatow, Joan Rivers, and Weird Al Yankovic. Randazzo’s advice is not sugar-coated; he makes it clear throughout the book that doing comedy professionally is difficult and painful, and it never gets easier. But while reading this book is certainly no admission ticket to next year’s Saturday Night Live cast, it provides a great overview of the field for people interested in pursuing a career in comedy. The broad survey includes tons of little details (reviews of websites that accept submissions, tips on how to create funny characters), any one of which might be the thing to jumpstart a comedian’s success. Agent: Daniel Greenberg, Levine Greenberg. (May)