The Improv: An Oral History of the Comedy Club that Revolutionized Stand-Up

by Budd Friedman, Tripp Whetsell, Jay Leno (Foreword by)

Overview

Featured in the New York Times 2017 "Holiday Gift Guide for Hardcover Fans"

Get an insider's oral history of the World's most iconic comedy club, featuring exclusive interviews with today's most hilarious stars recalling their time on stage (and off) at the Improv. 

In 1963, 30-year-old Budd Friedman—who had recently quit his job as a Boston advertising executive and returned to New York to become a theatrical producer—opened a coffee house for Broadway performers called the Improvisation. Later shortened to the Improv, its first seedy West 44th Street location initially attracted the likes of Judy Garland, Liza Minnelli, Albert Finney, and Jason Robards, as well as a couple of then-unknowns named Dustin Hoffman and Bette Midler. 

While it drew near-capacity crowds almost from day one, it wasn't until comedians began dropping by to try out new material that the Improv truly hit its stride. The club became the first venue to present live stand-up in a continuous format, and in the process reinvented the art form and created the template for all other comedy clubs that followed. 

From the microphone to the iconic brick wall, the Improv has been the launching pad for practically every major name in American comedy over the last five-plus decades. Now, in The Improv, Friedman, along with a Who's Who of his most famous alumni—including Jay Leno, Jerry Seinfeld, Jimmy Fallon, Larry David, Billy Crystal, Lily Tomlin, Judd Apatow, Al Franken, Paul Reiser, Howie Mandel, Bob Saget, Drew Carey, and many more—tell it like it was in the first-ever oral history of how this game-changing comedy club came to be. 

The Improv gives readers an exclusive look at what really happened onstage and off-mic at one of America's most venerable institutions.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781942952442
Publisher:	BenBella Books, Inc.
Publication date:	09/19/2017
Sold by:	Penguin Random House Publisher Services
Format:	eBook
Pages:	400
Sales rank:	599,995
File size:	9 MB

About the Author

Budd Friedman, the man who could well be called the father of the modern comedy club, was born in Norwich, Connecticut, moved to New York, fought in Korea and returned to Manhattan, where he obtained a degree in Advertising and Marketing from New York University. Less than enthralled with advertising, he hit upon the idea that was to become the Improvisation. The rest, as they say, is history. Ever the entrepreneur, Budd produced a political/satirical theatrical revue in New York entitled What's a Nice Country Like You Doing in a State Like This? He became Jay Leno and Bette Midler's first manager, and in 1975 he opened a West Coast branch of the Improv on Melrose Avenue in Los Angeles.

Budd auditioned for and won the coveted role of "Budd Friedman" in Man on the Moon, the biopic about Andy Kaufman starring Jim Carrey and Danny DeVito. In 2002, he hosted and executive produced a one-hour primetime special for NBC celebrating the 40th anniversary of the Improv. He also co-created and executive produced National Lampoon's Funny Money for the Game Show Network. More recently, he reprised his role of "Budd Friedman" in Judd Aptow's Funny People. He continues to bring stand-up into the hearts and minds of everyone in the United States. As of 2015, there were 22 Improv comedy clubs in 12 states.

Tripp Whetsell is a New York-based author, entertainment journalist and critic specializing in comedy, television, film, music and pop culture history. His work has appeared both in print and online for such publications as VanityFair.com, TV Guide, The Wall Street Journal, New York Post, The New York Times, New York Magazine, New York Daily News, Closer Weekly, The Los Angeles Times and The Hollywood Reporter. This is his third book.

Table of Contents

Foreword by Jay Leno

Prologue

Introduction

Part One

1. Growing Up Fatherless and Struggling to Find My Way


2. Broadway Bound and the Unexpected Detour


3. Building the House That Hilarity Built


4. Flying by the Seat of My Pants


5. The Improv Gets Hot


6. A Future Film Legend Wanders into West 44th Street and I Nearly Produce My First Show


7. The Singing Waitresses


8. Liza Minelli and Judy Garland . . . Onstage at the Improv


9. Not So Blown Away by Bette Midler . . . at First


10. Comedians Start Coming to the Improv


11. The Anointment of King Richard

Part Two

1. Revelry and Rivalry


2. Stiller and Meara


3. More Momentum, My Monocle—and Lily Tomlin’s Grand Entrance


4. The One and Only Rodney Dangerfield


5. Robert Klein Elevates Stand-Up—and the Improv—to a New Level


6. Locking Horns with David Brenner


7. Richard Lewis


8. The Hippest Room in America


9. The Improv’s Gentle Giant


10. The Improv and The Tonight Show


11. A Tale of Two Comedy Clubs


12. Meeting Jay


13. Producing My First Show

Part Three

1. Expansion


2. My Early California Adventures


3. Andy Kaufman Turns Stand-Up Upside Down


4. Dissing Larry David


5. A Tsunami Named Robin


6. Comedy’s Tragic Prinze


7. A Troubling Nemesis Named Mitzi Shore


8. Going Up in Flames


9. Old Enemies and New Beginnings

Part Four

1. An Evening at the Improv


2. The Improv Explodes . . . and the Stakes Get Even Higher


3. The Comedy Boom Busts and Finding Fallon


4. Passing the Baton and Looking Ahead: The 2000s to the Present

Acknowledgments

About the Authors

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

“The Improv was a cauldron of talent. Whetsell writes about it wonderfully and with respect for its importance to comedy.”
—Robert Klein

“They used to say that if you made it New York you could make it anywhere. Maybe so, but if you didn’t make it at the Improv, it was time to pack your bags and move to ‘anywhere.’”
—Richard Lewis

“This book is a great walk down memory lane for me. All hail the Improv and all the laugh-filled times and wonderful nights that happened in front of those brick walls.”
—Bill Maher

“The Improv played a vital part in my early stand-up days as it did in the careers of the dazzling array of stars, eccentrics, and colorful characters whose stories adorn this bright and greatly entertaining book. Get at least two copies, in case you lose one.”
—Dick Cavett

“Here’s a book I’ll probably never finish, because for years to come I’ll be picking it up again and again and rereading parts over and over, whenever I need perking up. It’s the history of an art form, though that sounds way too stuffy, and of an institution—the great American comedy club, especially the Improvs of New York and LA.”
—Tom Shales, Pulitzer Prize–winning former television critic for The Washington Post and #1 bestselling coauthor of Live from New York and These Guys Have All the Fun

“An entertaining ride through the glory years—the people, the stories, the feuds, the laughs—of the club that started the stand-up comedy boom in America.”
—Richard Zoglin, author of Hope: Entertainer of the Century and Comedy at the Edge: How Comedy in the 1970s Changed America

“The Godfather of the comedy club is finally called to testify . . . and he sings like a canary.”
—Bill Knoedelsder, author of I’m Dying Up Here: Heartbreak and High-Times in Stand-Up Comedy’s Golden Era

Editorial Reviews

"The Improv was a cauldron of talent. Whetsell writes about it wonderfully and with respect for its importance to comedy."
—Robert Klein 

"They used to say that if you made it New York you could make it anywhere. Maybe so, but if you didn't make it at the Improv, it was time to pack your bags and move to ‘anywhere.'"
—Richard Lewis 

"This book is a great walk down memory lane for me. All hail the Improv and all the laugh-filled times and wonderful nights that happened in front of those brick walls."
—Bill Maher 

"The Improv played a vital part in my early stand-up days as it did in the careers of the dazzling array of stars, eccentrics, and colorful characters whose stories adorn this bright and greatly entertaining book. Get at least two copies, in case you lose one."
—Dick Cavett 

 "Here's a book I'll probably never finish, because for years to come I'll be picking it up again and again and rereading parts over and over, whenever I need perking up. It's the history of an art form, though that sounds way too stuffy, and of an institution—the great American comedy club, especially the Improvs of New York and LA."
—Tom Shales, Pulitzer Prize–winning former television critic for The Washington Post and #1 bestselling coauthor of Live from New York and These Guys Have All the Fun 

"An entertaining ride through the glory years—the people, the stories, the feuds, the laughs—of the club that started the stand-up comedy boom in America."
—Richard Zoglin, author of Hope: Entertainer of the Century and Comedy at the Edge: How Comedy in the 1970s Changed America 

"The Godfather of the comedy club is finally called to testify . . . and he sings like a canary."
—Bill Knoedelsder, author of I'm Dying Up Here: Heartbreak and High-Times in Stand-Up Comedy's Golden Era

From the Publisher

What better medium for an oral history than an audiobook? And Johnny Heller is the right narrator to bring the humorous backstory of an iconic comedy club to life. Budd Friedman started The Improvisation in 1963 as a coffeehouse for Broadway performers, hoping to earn enough to make a living and make the contacts needed for his dream of eventually producing a Broadway show. Known as The Improv, the club began attracting a who’s who of up-and-coming comedy talent. Delivering anecdotes and apocrypha, Heller relishes his turn at the mic, wisely not imitating the comedy greats but telling their stories with all the enthusiasm, amusement, anguish, and trials and tribulations they experienced on and off stage. S.J.H. © AudioFile 2017, Portland, Maine

DECEMBER 2017 - AudioFile