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Beyond A Joke bruce Dessau, comedy critic for the past 20 years and a regular on the Edinburgh Comedy Award panel, brings to bear his knowledge and expertise in this witty, readable study of what makes stand-up comedians tick. Dessau takes a historical perspective, stretching from Joseph Grimaldi to Russell Brand, and reveals a constant pattern of excess - excessive sexual appetites, drug and alcohol consumption, narcissism and self-obsession - inextricably linked to the drive to make roomfuls of strangers laugh. It's a pattern which takes its toll - the rollcall of comedians who died prematurely is long. Dessau knows most of the contemporary comedians he writes about, and there is an enjoyable sense of getting the inside story.
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