The Improv Handbook is the most comprehensive, smart, helpful and inspiring guide to improv available today. Applicable to comedians, actors, public speakers and anyone who needs to think on their toes, it features a range of games, interviews, descriptions and exercises that illuminate and illustrate the exciting world of improvised performance. First published in 2008, this second edition features a new foreword by comedian Mike McShane, as well as new exercises on endings, managing blind offers and master-servant games, plus new and expanded interviews with Keith Johnstone, Neil Mullarkey, Jeffrey Sweet and Paul Rogan. The Improv Handbook is a one-stop guide to the exciting world of improvisation. Whether you're a beginner, an expert, or would just love to try it if you weren't too scared, The Improv Handbook will guide you every step of the way.

THE NEW BOOK FROM DEBORAH FRANCES-WHITE, BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF THE GUILTY FEMINIST Six Conversations We're Scared to Have - from The Guilty Feminist will face up to one of the biggest challenges in feminism right now - how we can have difficult conversations well, how we can disagree well, how we can build bridges and change minds, including our own. In Deborah's own words, 'Six Conversations... is a book I simply have to write. This is a dialogue I've been having with those I trust in private for a long time. This is a conversation I need to be brave enough to have in public. I am part of a movement that has called Time's Up on top-down power at the expense of those who have been used and discarded. I want to live in a world where people in marginalised groups have a real voice that enacts fast change. I also speak as someone whose formative years were spent in a high control group, where people rarely said what they meant. We said what we needed to, to avoid punishment and shunning which meant our words often didn't match our thoughts and actions. I know what that fosters and where it ends. I feel compelled to look at the way our society is changing and look at how we can mature together and build better, stronger, more usable bridges more quickly to make the world a genuinely better place for those who desperately need it to be. And isn't that all of us right now?' Praise for Deborah Frances-White and THE GUILTY FEMINIST: 'Breathes life into conversations about feminism' PHOEBE WALLER-BRIDGE 'Genius' SUNDAY TIMES 'Funny, fresh, thought-provoking' OBSERVER 'Very funny, very clever, very thoughtful and very relevant' DOLLY ALDERTON 'Everything you wanted to know about feminism but were afraid to ask' EMMA THOMPSON 'Quite possibly the defining feminist of our generation' ELIZABETH DAY 'Encouraging every woman to say: "I get to be heard. I deserve to be seen" ' DAILY EXPRESS

THE NEW BOOK FROM DEBORAH FRANCES-WHITE, BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF THE GUILTY FEMINIST Six Conversations We're Scared to Have - from The Guilty Feminist will face up to one of the biggest challenges in feminism right now - how we can have difficult conversations well, how we can disagree well, how we can build bridges and change minds, including our own. In Deborah's own words, 'Six Conversations... is a book I simply have to write. This is a dialogue I've been having with those I trust in private for a long time. This is a conversation I need to be brave enough to have in public. I am part of a movement that has called Time's Up on top-down power at the expense of those who have been used and discarded. I want to live in a world where people in marginalised groups have a real voice that enacts fast change. I also speak as someone whose formative years were spent in a high control group, where people rarely said what they meant. We said what we needed to, to avoid punishment and shunning which meant our words often didn't match our thoughts and actions. I know what that fosters and where it ends. I feel compelled to look at the way our society is changing and look at how we can mature together and build better, stronger, more usable bridges more quickly to make the world a genuinely better place for those who desperately need it to be. And isn't that all of us right now?' Praise for Deborah Frances-White and THE GUILTY FEMINIST: 'Breathes life into conversations about feminism' PHOEBE WALLER-BRIDGE 'Genius' SUNDAY TIMES 'Funny, fresh, thought-provoking' OBSERVER 'Very funny, very clever, very thoughtful and very relevant' DOLLY ALDERTON 'Everything you wanted to know about feminism but were afraid to ask' EMMA THOMPSON 'Quite possibly the defining feminist of our generation' ELIZABETH DAY 'Encouraging every woman to say: "I get to be heard. I deserve to be seen" ' DAILY EXPRESS

THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER 'Breathes life into conversations about feminism' PHOEBE WALLER-BRIDGE 'Very funny, very clever, very thoughtful and very relevant' DOLLY ALDERTON Why do we find it so hard to say 'No'? How can feminism be more inclusive? What can rom-coms tell us about taking charge? The Guilty Feminist will challenge you, reassure you and empower you to see the world differently. From inclusion to intersectionality, #MeToo to men's rights, rom-coms to pornography, Deborah Frances-White tackles urgent questions for the modern woman. Featuring interviews with activists, businesswomen and all-round inspirations, The Guilty Feminist examines how women can abandon their guilt, say No (when they mean it), say Yes (when they want to), and to change the world - and ourselves - for the better. Includes interviews with Jessamyn Stanley * Zoe Coombs Marr * Susan Wokoma * Phoebe Waller-Bridge * Hannah Gadsby * Reubs Walsh * Bisha K. Ali * Becca Bunce * Mo Mansfield * Leyla Hussein * Amika George 'Genius' Sunday Times 'Funny, fresh, thought-provoking' Observer 'Everything you wanted to know about feminism but were afraid to ask' EMMA THOMPSON 'Quite possibly the defining feminist of our generation' ELIZABETH DAY 'Encouraging every woman to say: "I get to be heard. I deserve to be seen" ' Daily Express 'A passionate and engaging manifesto, reminding readers that feminism isn't one-size-fits-all' I

The Improv Handbook is the most comprehensive, smart, helpful and inspiring guide to improv available today. Applicable to comedians, actors, public speakers and anyone who needs to think on their toes, it features a range of games, interviews, descriptions and exercises that illuminate and illustrate the exciting world of improvised performance. First published in 2008, this second edition features a new foreword by comedian Mike McShane, as well as new exercises on endings, managing blind offers and master-servant games, plus new and expanded interviews with Keith Johnstone, Neil Mullarkey, Jeffrey Sweet and Paul Rogan. The Improv Handbook is a one-stop guide to the exciting world of improvisation. Whether you're a beginner, an expert, or would just love to try it if you weren't too scared, The Improv Handbook will guide you every step of the way.

"The Improv Handbook" is a great new guide that covers the history of improvisation and includes chapters on spontaneity and the fundamentals of storytelling.Although there are already several successful books on the market about the theory and practice of improvised theatre, there's nothing comprehensive, helpful, fun and full of experience and advice."The Improv Handbook" is a great new guide from a husband and wife team who have years of studying, performance and teaching behind them. Beginning with a history of improvisation, the book works through different types of format and performance including TheatreSports and the inventions of Keith Johnstone and Del Close. The core section of the book is called, simply, "How To Improvise" and includes chapters on spontaneity, the fundamentals of storytelling, working together, upping the ante and characters.Having established the fundamentals, the two authors go on to elaborate on more advanced techniques and skills. The book concludes with sections on how to improvise in front of an audience and - just as crucially - how to attract an audience in the first place." The Improv Handbook" should become a standard book in the field - it's smart, fun, helpful, and inspiring, and it's on a mission to bring Improv to a much wider audience.

What is it to be a stand-up comedian? To be funny, solo? You have no character-role, no double-act partner, and nowhere to look but out into the darkness, with just a microphone, an audience and your imagination. This is a job without an annual appraisal; a job where you are publicly appraised every ten seconds. The results are harsh and obvious: if the audience isn't laughing, you 'died'; if they can't stop, you 'killed'. Deborah Frances-White and Marsha Shandur unpack the inner-workings of the minds of comics, sharing their secrets, insecurities and successes; their betes noires and their biggest fears. Featuring interviews with a host of comedians including Eddie Izzard, Moshe Kasher, Sarah Millican, Jim Jeffries, Stewart Lee, Lewis Black, Jenny Eclair, Todd Barry, Richard Herring, Marc Maron, Stephen K Amos, Rich Hall, Zoe Lyons, Marcus Brigstocke, Phill Jupitus, Gary Delaney, Mark Watson, Greg Davies and many more, this excellent book lets you in to the hearts and minds of celebrated comedians, away from the stage and off the mic.

"The Improv Handbook" is a great new guide that covers the history of improvisation and includes chapters on spontaneity and the fundamentals of storytelling.Although there are already several successful books on the market about the theory and practice of improvised theatre, there's nothing comprehensive, helpful, fun and full of experience and advice."The Improv Handbook" is a great new guide from a husband and wife team who have years of studying, performance and teaching behind them. Beginning with a history of improvisation, the book works through different types of format and performance including TheatreSports and the inventions of Keith Johnstone and Del Close. The core section of the book is called, simply, "How To Improvise" and includes chapters on spontaneity, the fundamentals of storytelling, working together, upping the ante and characters.Having established the fundamentals, the two authors go on to elaborate on more advanced techniques and skills. The book concludes with sections on how to improvise in front of an audience and - just as crucially - how to attract an audience in the first place." The Improv Handbook" should become a standard book in the field - it's smart, fun, helpful, and inspiring, and it's on a mission to bring Improv to a much wider audience.