2006-06-12
On Being Funny
Author: Eric Lax
Subtitled "Woody Allen and Comedy", this is not a biography, though it reveals a lot of Allen's character (the same author would write a biography in 1992), nor a book full of jokes, though there are some good ones inside. Rather, it is a thoughtful discussion of the serious business of comedy, constructed as much as possible of quotes from Allen's own mouth. As Chapter 7 opens, "digging a grave at a cemerery would be funnier to watch than two guys cutting a comedy," Ralph Rosenblum said one day as he and Woody edited Sleeper.
Indeed, Sleeper (Woody Allen's 1974 Christmas vehicle) was the focal point of much of the narrative. Lax spent about two years following Allen around to gather material for the book, and during that time Sleeper was written, shot, edited, and screened successfully. Allen's standup, Broadway, and television career is also covered, but movies were he made his mark and the movies he had done to date are the focus of the majority of this 1975 work.
This is the kind of book that would be made into a DVD extra for a "collector's edition" today, and it would have been better for it. Illustrating points about comedic films by quoting several pages of scripts is a losing proposition. As was economical then, the only photographs are together in the middle of the book on a series of glossy pages, and the rest of the text offers no breaks. Like a Woody Allen movie, however, it is not too long and maintains a constant level of interest from start to finish. If you're interested enough to pick up the book in the first place, seeing it through to the end will not be a chore.
I can only recommend On Being Funny to three kinds of people: fans of Sleeper, for whom half of this book is a "making-of" documentary, fans of Woody Allen, and people fascinated by the construction and deconstruction of comedy. I picked this up from the free giveaway dumping ground outside the local used book store because I'm a little of the second and more of the latter. I have never seen Sleeper and felt a little left out from some of the material, although the explanations are mostly adequate. I see that the movie is out on DVD: watch it and read this book afterward if you're intrigued as well as amused. Otherwise I doubt this is the best general-interest book on the famous writer/director/actor.
Subtitled "Woody Allen and Comedy", this is not a biography, though it reveals a lot of Allen's character (the same author would write a biography in 1992), nor a book full of jokes, though there are some good ones inside. Rather, it is a thoughtful discussion of the serious business of comedy, constructed as much as possible of quotes from Allen's own mouth. As Chapter 7 opens, "digging a grave at a cemerery would be funnier to watch than two guys cutting a comedy," Ralph Rosenblum said one day as he and Woody edited Sleeper.
Indeed, Sleeper (Woody Allen's 1974 Christmas vehicle) was the focal point of much of the narrative. Lax spent about two years following Allen around to gather material for the book, and during that time Sleeper was written, shot, edited, and screened successfully. Allen's standup, Broadway, and television career is also covered, but movies were he made his mark and the movies he had done to date are the focus of the majority of this 1975 work.
This is the kind of book that would be made into a DVD extra for a "collector's edition" today, and it would have been better for it. Illustrating points about comedic films by quoting several pages of scripts is a losing proposition. As was economical then, the only photographs are together in the middle of the book on a series of glossy pages, and the rest of the text offers no breaks. Like a Woody Allen movie, however, it is not too long and maintains a constant level of interest from start to finish. If you're interested enough to pick up the book in the first place, seeing it through to the end will not be a chore.
I can only recommend On Being Funny to three kinds of people: fans of Sleeper, for whom half of this book is a "making-of" documentary, fans of Woody Allen, and people fascinated by the construction and deconstruction of comedy. I picked this up from the free giveaway dumping ground outside the local used book store because I'm a little of the second and more of the latter. I have never seen Sleeper and felt a little left out from some of the material, although the explanations are mostly adequate. I see that the movie is out on DVD: watch it and read this book afterward if you're intrigued as well as amused. Otherwise I doubt this is the best general-interest book on the famous writer/director/actor.
