Exploring Topics
Research on a particular comedian might begin with an individual name, but will branch out to explore the surrounding context. Begin by sharing your topic.
Books
The Dark Side of Stand-Up Comedy by ISBN: 9783030372149Publication Date: 2020his book focuses on the “dark side” of stand-up comedy, initially inspired by speculations surrounding the death of comedian Robin Williams. Contributors, those who study humor as well as those who perform comedy, join together to contemplate the paradoxical relationship between tragedy and comedy and expose over-generalizations about comic performers’ troubled childhoods, addictions, and mental illnesses. The book is divided into two sections. First, scholars from a variety of disciplines explore comedians’ onstage performances, their offstage lives, and the relationship between the two. The second half of the book focuses on amateur and lesser-known professional comedians who reveal the struggles they face as they attempt to hone successful comedy acts and likable comic personae. The goal of this collection is to move beyond the hackneyed stereotype of the sad clown in order to reveal how stand-up comedy can transform both personal and collective tragedies by providing catharsis through humor.
I'm Dying up Here by ISBN: 1586488961Publication Date: 2010-07-27In the mid-1970s, Jay Leno, David Letterman, Andy Kaufman, Richard Lewis, Robin Williams, Elayne Boosler, Tom Dreesen, and several hundred other shameless showoffs and incorrigible cutups from all across the country migrated en masse to Los Angeles, the new home of Johnny Carson's Tonight Show. There, in a late-night world of sex, drugs, dreams and laughter, they created an artistic community unlike any before or since. It was Comedy Camelot -- but it couldn't last. William Knoedelseder, then a cub reporter covering the scene for the Los Angeles Times, was there when the comedians -- who were not paid for performing -- tried to change the system and incidentally tore apart their own close-knit community. In I'm Dying Up Here he tells the whole story of that golden age, of the strike that ended it, and of how those days still resonate in the lives of those who were there.
Punching up in Stand-Up Comedy by ISBN: 1003352804Publication Date: 2023-01-30Punching Up in Stand-Up Comedy explores the new forms, voices and venues of stand-up comedy in different parts of the world and its potential role as a counterhegemonic tool for satire, commentary and expression of identity especially for the disempowered or marginalised. The title brings together essays and perspectives on stand-up and satire from different cultural and political contexts across the world which raise pertinent issues regarding its role in contemporary times, especially with the increased presence of OTT platforms and internet penetration that allows for easy access to this art form. It examines the theoretical understanding of the different aspects of the humour, aesthetics and politics of stand-up comedy, as well as the exploration of race, gender, politics and conflicts, urban culture and LGBTQ+ identities in countries such as Indonesia, Finland, France, Iran, and India. It also asks the question whether along with contesting and destabilizing existing discursive frameworks and identities, a stand-up comic can open up a space for envisaging a new social, cultural and political order? This book will appeal to people interested in performance and performance studies. It will also be of interest to students and researchers of media, popular culture, digital culture, sociology, digital sociology and anthropology, and English literature.
Stand-Up Comedy in Theory, or, Abjection in America by ISBN: 1282903446Publication Date: 2000-01-01A cultural theory of stand-up comedy.
Why Stand-Up Matters by ISBN: 9781472578921Publication Date: 2015-11-19Funny, lively and unpredictable, stand-up comedy is above all a medium to be enjoyed. Popular as a good night out and packing the TV schedules, stand-up permeates British society and culture.Ubiquitous though it is, we are generally reluctant to consider comedy's social consequences. When comedians offend we seem ready to consider the potential for stand-up to do some wider harm, yet we rarely consider the good that it might do.This book looks at the social and political impact of stand-up comedy in both its positive and negative forms. Drawing on exclusive interviews with comedians such as Stewart Lee, Josie Long, Joe Wilkinson and Mark Thomas, and examples of comic material on everything from revolution, terrorism and homosexuality, to knitting and the inefficiency of the home shower, it explores comedy's role in determining our attitudes and opinions. While revealing the conventions comics use to manage audience response, Sophie Quirk demonstrates how comedy audiences allow themselves to be manipulated, and the potential harm - and real benefits - that may arise from 'just' being funny.
Multidisciplinary Databases
- EBSCOhost
Search EBSCOhost databases, books, and journals here. You may select all or individual databases to search them simultaneously.
- Google Scholar
Searches for scholarly materials such as peer-reviewed papers, theses, books, preprints, abstracts and technical reports from broad areas of research. It includes a variety of academic publishers, professional societies, preprint repositories and universities, as well as scholarly articles available across the web.
- ProQuest Databases
This is a portal to a growing list of Proquest research products, including Theses & Dissertations, Historical Newspapers, ABI/Inform business collection, and more. Note: we do not subscribe to all the titles on the list.
Subject Specific Databases
- Ethnic NewsWatch
Current articles from ethnic-focused news groups worldwide.
- Film & Television Literature Index with Full Text
Film and television books, articles, reviews, essays, and more.
- GenderWatchFocuses on the impact of gender across a broad spectrum of subject areas.
- MLA International Bibliography with Full Text
Produced by the Modern Language Association (MLA), the electronic version of the bibliography dates back to the 1920s. The database contains millions of citations as well as full text for 1,000 journals.
Note: to watch the video on how to search, go to MLA International Bibliography on EBSCO - PsycINFO
Now called APA PsycINFO. Abstract and index of Psychology and the psychological aspects of related disciplines, such as medicine, nursing, sociology, business, education, etc.
- Sociological AbstractsInternational literature in sociology and related disciplines in the social and behavioral sciences.
Primary Sources for Stand-Up Comedy
What is a Primary Source?
A primary source is material that was created at the time being studied. It can be a document, a recording or an artifact. It serves as an original source of information about the topic. Primary sources are distinguished from secondary sources which usually are analysis, commentary or a filtered account of the topic.
Types of primary sources (might also work as search terms for finding primary resources in the library catalog or Summon):
- Film/video clips
- Personal narrative: autobiographies, memoirs
- Audio recordings
- Artwork
- Photographs
- Historical newspapers or magazines
Tools for finding Primary Sources:
- YouTubeYouTube is a great place to find clips of your comics doing stand-up.
- Docuseek2Docuseek 2 is a platform for independent, documentary, educational and social issue video and films. It provides access to over 750 documentaries covering a wide variety of subjects including social issues, sustainability, the environment, and many more. Includes captions.
- Kanopy
Kanopy is an on-demand streaming video service for educational institutions that provides students and faculty access to more than 26,000 films. Kanopy provides students access to one of the largest collections of films in the world – including award-winning documentaries, training films and theatrical releases – on every topic imaginable. If you are a faculty member who needs a film activated for a class, please use the request form in Kanopy. Please include the class name and number, and the date the film is needed.
- ProQuest Historical Newspapers
Provides full-text PDF articles from several major U.S. newspapers including: Atlanta Daily World, Chicago Defender, Chicago Tribune, Los Angeles Sentinel, New York Amsterdam News, New York Times, Pittsburgh Courier, and Washington Post.
- Readers' Guide Retrospective:1890-1982 (H.W. Wilson)
Provides indexing of over three million articles from more than 550 leading magazines, including full coverage of the original print volumes of Readers’ Guide to Periodical Literature.