'Don't applaud. Either laugh or don't. (At the Comedy Cellar.)'

[c]

This new book by Andrew Hankinson sounds potentially interesting. His book on Raoul Moat was incredible. Definite pre-order from me.

Edited to add blurb:

This is the story of a place called the Comedy Cellar, a tiny basement club in New York City which helped launch the careers of some of the biggest comedians of our time. It also ended up on the frontline of the global culture war following the rise and fall of its most famous star, Louis CK.

It's where performers hone their acts by experimenting, taking risks, and being able to get it wrong. And that's largely due to the club's owners, the Dworman family. They made a space where freedom of expression was total. The only threat to it was a lack of laughs.

But how did Manny Dworman, an Israeli taxi driver, create a bastion for so many influential comedians? What makes a club thrive, or a joke work? Where should the moral limits of laughter lie? And why do the fork-count and the comedians' table matter so very much?

Andrew Hankinson tells the story using the words of the owners, comedians, and increasingly vocal customers using interviews, complaints, emails, text messages, letters, and petitions, raising questions about language, identity, taste, racism, power, and more in this many-sided conversation about the perils, pride, and politics of modern comedy.

[Mister Six]

Is that the title of the book? Jesus, it's awful.

[Pearly-Dewdrops Drops]

He stole this title from my book, 'Please applaud. Don't laugh. (At the Jeb! 2016 Rally.)'

[c]

Yeah it's crap

[Shaky]

Yeah, even "Laugh or Don't" would've been better than that.

[Annie Labuntur]

Titter or Titter Ye Not.

[amputeeporn]

Andrew Hankinson tells the story using the words of the owners, comedians, and increasingly vocal customers using interviews, complaints, emails, text messages, letters, and petitions, raising questions about language, identity, taste, racism, power, and more in this many-sided conversation about the perils, pride, and politics of modern comedy.

Does this mean it's an oral history? I love those - just read the one on The Replacements (which made them my favourite band), loved the one on Warren Zevon and on The Strokes am currently reading the one on Saturday Night Live (enjoyable but the worst of the several of these I've read - maybe too loose a narrative and maybe SNL too american a phenomenon? Plus, after the original cast and Eddie Murphy, what are you really reading about?)

Anyway - interested in this. Always meant to read the Moat one.

[Puce Moment]

LOL or xLOL