Comedy Writing for Late-night TV: How to Write Monologue Jokes, Desk Pieces, Sketches, Parodies, Audience Pieces, Remotes, and Other Short-form Comedy

Nice book

This is an up-to-date guide on how to write for a specific comedy genre, in this case the late night talk shows presented by the likes of Conan O'Brien, Jay Leno and Bill Maher. It says something about the size of this sector in American television that a writer can produce a specialist work like this. Some of the references might be unfamiliar to UK audiences (but can be discovered via Youtube). The section on joke-writing is very detailed; he's virtually giving away trade secrets. It's refreshing to read joke-writing guides that clearly demonstrate that joke-writing can be taught and that it's not an innate gift. In my opinion this book is much better than many recent British comedy writing books, with the possible exception of Sally Holloway's book. The skills taught in Toplyn's book are transferable to other areas of comedy. My only criticism is the absence of exercises to work on through the book.

If you are a stand up comedian, don't read this book - not because it's not brilliant, it is but because I don't want other stand ups to use some of the excellent techniques that Toplyn talks about in this book.It is a great book, perhaps the slight drawback is that all the references are to US shows but as long as you have seen some US shows, like Letterman or The Tonight Show then you'll understand the formats that Joe talks about.If you want to get a job writing TV comedy then I would highly recommend this book. Along with Sally Holloway's Easy Guide to Joke Writing, I think this is one of the very best books I've read about writing comedy.

It's does what it says on the tin. It gives you the tools, or rather a great many strategies, that are applicable for writing for Late Night Chat Show hosts. It claims to have wider comedic applications and I think it does... but they are limited in comparison to it's target market.

Excellent

Essential. So many useful tips.