Ha Bloody Ha: Comedians Talking

by William Cook

Presenting the thoughts, feelings and experiences of around 30 contemporary comedians, in the first person, this book's contributors include: Lenny Henry, Harry Enfield, Sean Hughes, Paul Merton, Steve Coogan, Newman and Baddiel, Vic Reeves, Jo Brand, Julian Clary, Jack Dee, Eddie Izzard, Lee Evans, Harry Hill and Stewart Lee. The material is split into subject areas, such as previous lives, school days, influences, hecklers and television.

192 pages, Paperback

First published August 1, 1994

About the author

William Cook is the author of Ha Bloody Ha - Comedians Talking (Fourth Estate), The Comedy Store - The Club That Changed British Comedy (Little, Brown) and 25 Years of Viz (Boxtree). He edited Tragically I Was An Only Twin - The Complete Peter Cook and Goodbye Again - The Definitive Peter Cook and Dudley Moore, both published by Century, and Eric Morecambe Unseen. He has worked for the BBC and written for the Guardian, the Mail on Sunday, the New Statesman and Conde Nast Traveller.

Reviews

[Leonie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I quite enjoyed this. Interesting to see that most of the featured comedians are still big names comedy. The quality of the interviews and the commentary before each chapter was excellent. The thing that got me down was when the comics were talking about nightmare gigs where they died on their arses on stage and no on would speak to them after. Stand up comedy is definitely dog eat dog but you have to be tough to survive out there on the stage. Interesting if you're a fan of British comedy.