NPR Laughter Therapy: Funny for a Living: Funny for a Living Audiobook

This extended session of Laughter Therapy explores the history of all things funny, presenting a cornucopia of comedy from the pioneers of vaudeville and the silent film era, to the wildly creative innovators that transformed television in the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s, to the modern practitioners that continue to bend the boundaries of comedy today. Chronically serious? Prepare to be cured by this collection of revealing profiles and interviews with some of the funniest personalities ever. Featuring

• Charlie Chaplin
• Buster Keaton
• Groucho Marx
• Sid Caesar
• Ernie Kovacs
• Bob and Ray
• Imogene Coca
• Mel Brooks
• Carl Reiner
• Bob Newhart
• Jonathan Winters
• Bill Cosby
• Phyllis Diller
• Joan Rivers
• Jerry Seinfeld
• Conan O’Brien
• Amy Poehler
• Margaret Cho
• Jim Gaffigan
• Sarah Silverman

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“Thisradio program offers an audio history of comedians from yesteryear to thepresent day, through a series of interviews by various NPR reporters. Theproduction is tied together by host Ophira Eisenberg, who creates a smoothtransition between each interview. The program is dryly humorous, mainlytalking about the inner workings of the comedians’ comedy, with a few shortsound clips of their acts interspersed. The history begins in the 1950s, withinterviews of authors who wrote about such comedians as Charlie Chaplin andGroucho Marx. The later interviews with actual comedians, such as Carl Reinerand Jim Gaffigan, are more engaging. Some of the comedians listed as beingfeatured actually give only a single comment about another comic.”

— AudioFile