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Truth in Comedy: The Manual of Improvisation By Charna HalpernDel CloseKim Johnson ( Meriwether Publishing )
Release Date: 1994-04
Average Customer Rating:
List Price: $17.95
Price: $12.21
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Product Description
The 'Harold', an innovative improvisational tool, helped many actors on the road to TV and film stardom, including George Wendt (Norm on Cheers). Now it is described fully in this new book for would-be actors and comics. The 'Harold' is a form of competitive improv involving 6 or 7 players. They take a theme suggestion from the audience and 'free associate' on the theme into a series of rapid-fire one-liners that build into totally unpredictable skits with hilarious results. The 'Harold' is a fun way to 'loosen up' and learn to think quickly, build continuity, develop characterisations and sharpen humour.
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Amazon.com Review
Who would have ever thought that learning the finer points of improvisation could be such fun? The "Harold," an innovative improvisational tool, helped Saturday Night Live's Mike Myers and Chris Farley, George Wendt (Norm on "Cheers") and many other actors on the road to TV and film stardom. Now it is described fully in this new book for the benefit of other would-be actors and comics. The "Harold" is a form of competitive improv involving six or seven players. They take a theme suggestion from the audience and free-associate on the theme, creating a series of rapid-fire one-liners that build into totally unpredictable skits with hilarious results. The teams compete with scoring based on applause. The "Harold" is a fun way to "loosen up" and learn to think quickly, build continuity, develop characterizations and sharpen humor.
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 Not bad
This is the first improv book I haver ever read; as a result, I was very new to the concept of basic improv and learned pretty much the solid foundation of improv. Yet for somebody more advanced, and read other improv, they might not find this book helpful.
The downside to this book, is that it is very boring and presented in a technical way like you are reading a boring college textbook. That is what I hated about his book, but the author made up for that by providing practical examples to illustrate her point. If it weren't for that, there is no way anybody can learn anything from this book.
Overall, a great improv book.
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 So that is how it is done
I have been doing improv comedy for 5 years and now I know what we were doing wrong and what we were doing right. If you are thinking about starting out in improv this is the book to start with, if you are doing impov and have not yet read it, buy it.
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The Manual Of Improv
Even if you're not a "long-form" improviser, this book is a must read for anyone actively working in an improv group.
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This book is The Bible of improv.
Any improviser worth his/her salt owns at least one copy. And can quote from it directly.
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The definitive book on The Harold
I began taking a long form (The Harold)improv class about a year ago. Halfway through my term, the instructor suggested a few books to read on the subject. After reading through the first few pages of this manual, it became clear to me that this was the class that I had been taking for over a year. Charna Halpern-with a fee quotes and exercises by the late, great Del Close-have put together an excellent "how to" book that any improviser, from beginning to proffessional would find etxremely helpful. For anyone interested in imrovisation this is the book for you!
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