The Physical Comedy Handbook

Excellent book. There is great insight into the world of physical comedy and I found the exercises to be very helpful and explained in great detail. In particular I like how the author notes variations and pitfalls as well to all of the exercises. I came away with an appreciate for how fun/play meets practice and technique in the world of physical comedy. I've also been inspired to go back and watch films and skits from some of the masters (Keaton, Chaplin, Marx Brothers, etc). Well worth the time and effort. As other reviewers already mentioned, some illustrations would have been a big help with certain exercises, but the book is still worth a 5 star review in my opinion.

This is a great book that teaches a dying art form of comedy. Written on one of the world's great teachers of physical comedy. Very highly recommended.

Use for Theatre Repertory 👍🏾. Recommended

I loved this book! Very well written, with a perfect blend of specific instruction balanced with open-ended freedom to explore each exercise. I've been using many of these techniques on stage for years, but it was incredibly validating to see them written out and to understand why they were already such an integral part of my unconscious comedic mind.

Nice resource. Great explanations of different physical comedy bits, really inspires the imagination!

I like not having to read through a lot of wordy horse pucky to get to the point. I have been able to add some good moves to my clown routine from reading this book.

It's a challenging topic - how do you write about things that probably should be shown? This book does an excellent job, and some of these exercises are a permanent part of our curriculum.

Beautiful, Beautiful, Beautiful! Time and time again I have found the exercises in this book useful as a student of physical comedy. The book is well set out starting performers off with solo work and taking them all the way up to ensemble work, building the performers' physical vocabulary along the way. The book gives easy to follow, useful descriptions of technique. I can only hope that later editions will include step-by-step illustrations for some of the techniques. I highly recommend this book, and yes it is something you'll refer to again and again.