Dramatic Foolery in association with Amazon.com Books presents:

A booklist and a bookstore

Recommended books covering the topics of physical comedy, clowning, theatre, mask, mime, and movement-theatre, as well as books I think will interest people involved in these fields.

By clicking on a title you can place an order for the book through Amazon.com.

Amazon.com discounts most of these books. They provide excellent customer service, credit card security, privacy, and a wide range of shipping options to both U. S. and worldwide customers.

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Featured Book

Clowns For Beginners
by Joe Lee (a.k.a. A History of Clowns for Beginners)

Part of the Writers and Reading Documentary Comic Book Series, A History of Clowns For Beginners is more than a comic book and not just for beginners. This book provides a needed antidote to candy-coated revisionist histories of clowning. By presenting a range of fools from mythical trickster figures to new vaudevilleans, Joe Lee illustrates the full diversity and multiplicity of clowning. He also focuses on often forgotten or censored clown qualities like sexuality, subversiveness, violence, politics, and mysticism.

A History of Clown for Beginners can inspire a search for greater range and depth to one's clown character, and perhaps a little originality.

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More books!

Mask Improvisation for Actor Training and Performance by Sears A. Eldredge

Teachers, actors, and physical performers will all find something useful in this practical book. Mask Improvisation includes history, theory, exercises (a full course of study), and even cut out masks to use in the exercises.

The Pleasantries of the Incredible Mulla Nasrudin by Idries Shah

Short teaching stories and jokes about the Middle Eastern trickster, Mulla Nasrudin. These tales contain many levels and meanings as well as entertainment.

Compassionate Laughter: Jest for Your Health by Patty Wooten, R.N.

Clown and Nurse Patty Wooten condenses quite a bit of material about humor: hospital humor, life humor, clown humor, stress-fighting humor, caregiving humor, and even spiritual humor. An excellent book for clowns who perform in hospitals as well as for hospital staff developing a humor therapy program. Also contains a great resource list.

Gesundheit!: Bringing Good Health to You, the Medical System, and Society Through Physician Service, Complementary Therapies, Humor, and Joy
by Patch Adams, M.D. with Maureen Mylander

A true clown doctor, Patch Adams describes his philosophies on medicine and humor, and his plans for a free and silly hospital.

The Comic Toolbox : How to Be Funny Even If You're Not by John Vorhaus

A funny book that balances the mechanics of humor writing with creativity and soul. Vorhaus give short shift to physical comedy, so you may have to transpose the structure of verbal jokes to physical ones. What do you expect from a writer of Married With Children ? The book is strong on character, though.

Acrobats of the Soul by Ron Jenkins

A collection of articles about the so-called New Vaudevilleans. Jenkins writes about such performers as Penn and Teller, Cirque du Soleil, Bill Irwin, Avner the Eccentric, and Spalding Gray. Jenkins sometimes over extends his interpretations of these acts, but the descriptions, pictures, and excerpts make up for it.

Creating a Character : A Physical Approach to Acting by Moni Yakim with Muriel Broadman

I've found the exercises and ideas in this book very helpful for melding the physicality, energy, and imagery of a character, especially early in the creative process. The second part of the book is aimed at actors working on scripted roles.

 

 

Suggestions? e-mail: fool@dramaticfool.com
Last updated May 26, 1997

Copyright ©1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, and 2004 by Drew Richardson