Today we talk about The Comedian’s Bible, a book by R.J.P. Marks published with our publishing house Europe Books.
Europe Books had the pleasure of interviewing the author R.J.P. Marks to get to know him better, how he found the inspiration to write his book The Comedian’s Bible, as well as how he describes his writing style.
- How did you find the inspiration to write this book?
I had a job which involved a lot of public speaking and felt my speeches needed the inclusion of some humour to be entertaining as well as informative. Initially I used a few stories and anecdotes from my own experience but started writing down other humorous material that I came across. I then started receiving invitations to act as MC at lunches and dinners outside of my job, some of which were monthly engagements to much the same audience. This required new material each time so my collecting increased and after many years I had enough humour to write five volumes. I was encouraged to write after noticing that many other books on humour involved content that was corny and not very funny. I wanted something more sophisticated and even scholarly. Puns can be funny but I like the more complex ones such as:
Mary Poppins and Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious
Well, it seems that Shirley Maclaine has given up acting and taken up a new profession as a psychic, but instead of reading palms or using tarot cards, she can predict a person’s future by smelling their breath.
I guess that would make her a…
“Super-California-Mystic-Expert-Halitosis”
- What are the crucial themes of your work?
In writing I wanted to produce something different to the normal joke books so came up with the idea of categorising the material according to its form of humour and this required over 90 categories such as anecdote, cynicism, insult, moral of the story and wordplay. Because of the variety of speaking engagements my accumulation deliberately sought material that would be suitable for a number of special interest audiences. My selection allowed me to get a laugh out of well-known characters in the audience but this was always tempered with lashings of self-ridicule which always is well received. My wish was that I could succeed in extracting the same positive reaction from my readers as I had received from my live audiences, bearing in mind that the latter had a lot to do with delivery. A suitable writing style and appropriate illustrations were chosen to hopefully achieve this.
- What would you like to hear from your readers about this work?
I would like to hear from readers that they were able to use the humour in this book as well as derive amusement from it. This could be done in communications of different sorts including email exchanges with friends. It would interest me to know what forms of verbal humour interested the readers most. I have found ridicule and satire effective in criticisms of offensive views and would wonder if readers also found it a potent tool. I would also like to hear that the readers appreciated cleverness in humour rather than crass slapstick more in the British than the American style. It would be interesting to hear which of the quotes from the many famous people including world leaders and professional comedians were the most popular. The cover image is a subtle reference to Tommy Cooper and Groucho Marx.
- How do you describe your Writing style?
I tend to write in much the same manner as I speak which hopefully gives my expression naturalness and authenticity. I don’t like bombast and admire the style of Earnest Hemingway with its minimalist, objective prose. I recognize that humorous stories usually depend on the punchlines so always try to frame these with maximum impact. I delivering spoken humour in a dry fashion and find audience reaction can be enhanced with understatement. I am aware of over 370 literary devices and use as many of these that are appropriate. Words fascinate me and I love playing with them as in, “I’d rather have a bottle in front of me than a frontal lobotomy.” I like the unusual humour of paraprosdokians and do indulge in a little off-colour humour such as limericks like:
There was a young lady named Gloria
Who was had by Sir Gerald DuMaurier
And another ten men, and Sir Gerald again
And the band from the Waldorf Astoria.
- Are you planning to write more books? Can you tell us something about it?
I have four other manuscripts lodged with Europe Books for consideration nominally called The Comedian’s Bible Vol II, Playful Use of Words, Tongue in Cheek Humour and a book on religions of the world called An Attempt to Solve the Insolvable. I also have three other volumes of the Comedian series ready for publication if the first proves popular. My biggest project by far is a book on words and general knowledge which is tentatively called The Big Beautiful Browser’s Book and due for completion later this year. It is a cross between a dictionary and an encyclopedia but on a very condensed basis and will be over 3,000 pages and is designed for School and Council libraries. It is not a reference book but rather a browsing book which can be used regularly for education and curiosity.
Europe Books thanks the author R.J.P. Marks once again for taking the time and answering our questions. We are really pleased to have walked alongside him on the editorial path that led to the publication of his book The Comedian’s Bible. We wish him the best of luck for his book and for his future works.
To you, my dear reader, I hope you strongly enjoy the humor in this book!
So, my dear reader, all I have to say is to enjoy your reading!
Your Editor!