A Funny Time to Be Gay [NOOK Book]

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Overview


In A Funny Time to Be Gay, Ed Karvoski Jr. traces the evolution of gay and lesbian comedy from the few pioneers in New York’s Greenwich Village in the seventies, to the mavericks who played San Francisco’s famed Valencia Rose in the eighties, to the comics who starred in their own TV specials in the nineties and continue to headline comedy clubs.

Among the more than 30 humorists spotlighted…

· TOM AMMIANO - longtime San Francisco elected official

· JUDY CARTER - three-time author including The Homo Handbook

· KATE CLINTON - three-time author ...

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More About This Book

Overview


In A Funny Time to Be Gay, Ed Karvoski Jr. traces the evolution of gay and lesbian comedy from the few pioneers in New York’s Greenwich Village in the seventies, to the mavericks who played San Francisco’s famed Valencia Rose in the eighties, to the comics who starred in their own TV specials in the nineties and continue to headline comedy clubs.

Among the more than 30 humorists spotlighted…

· TOM AMMIANO - longtime San Francisco elected official

· JUDY CARTER - three-time author including The Homo Handbook

· KATE CLINTON - three-time author including Don’t Get Me Started

· SABRINA MATTHEWS - star of own Comedy Central special

· BOB SMITH - three-time author including Openly Bob and star of own HBO special

· JASON STUART - frequent TV guest appearances

· ROBIN TYLER - performer, producer and proprietor of a women’s cruise line

· SUZANNE WESTENHOEFER - star of own HBO special

· DANNY WILLIAMS - longtime MC at RSVP Cruises

… and more!

“To the next generation of showbiz hopefuls who are gay or lesbian and choose not to hide it: make a grand entrance onto the comedy-club stages and television and film studios. The closet door has been set ajar. As any of these openly gay and lesbians comics will tell you, ‘A funny thing happened on the way out of the closet!’”

-- Ed Karvoski Jr., from author’s introduction

Editorial Reviews

About.com
“You’ll be the one laughing out loud on the plane as you read!” -- “Favorite Books for Summer 2011” by Kathy Belge, Lesbian Life at About.com
Julia Willis
...a great reference guide to gay and lesbian comics working today, giving you a good sense and a better idea of whose act you'll want to catch at a venue near you. ... This guy [Karvoski] is good at what he does. ... So come on — put your hands together and give a warm welcome to the past, present and future of queer comedy.
— Lambda Book Report
More Reviews (3) Fewer Reviews
Meryl Cohn
Karvoski manages to cull works that pack an equal punch on the page. Each interview and excerpt seems like a private conversation with the comic, which reflects Karvoski's own fascination with the topic. .. 'A Funny Time to Be Gay' anecdotally includes some of the history of gay and lesbian comedy over three decades, filtered through Karvoski's own funny perspective.
— Frontiers Newsmagazine (Los Angeles)
Tom Kuntz
You think Ellen DeGeneres had it tough, hiding her homosexuality in the closet all those years until she hit the big time in television? What about comics out of the closet who have struggled in relative obscurity in large part because they are openly gay?... Many of their routines are now available to a wider audience through a new compilation, 'A Funny Time to Be Gay,' collected by Ed Karvoski Jr.
— The New York Times
Library Journal
Stand-up comedian and writer Karvoski points out that the proliferation of gay and lesbian comedy on cable-and occasionally broadcast-television and at comedy clubs is an important development in the entertainment industry. His goal here is to document this development, though his enjoyable compilation is more a selective overview than a thorough documentation (e.g., why isn't Lea Delaria included?). He serves up very brief interviews with 32 openly gay and lesbian comics to accompany longer examples of their material. Some of the pieces are hysterical and very biting, but many of the routines fall flat on the printed page. The book is well organized by place and time, covering the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s, mostly from the obvious locales of San Francisco and New York, and contact and booking information for selected comedians is provided. A good complement to Growing Up Gay (Hyperion, 1995) and Out, Loud and Laughing (Anchor, 1995), both of which include only contemporary works, this book will benefit curious readers and those without cable television or comedy club access. For public libraries with popular gay and lesbian collections.-Christopher Lee Cochran, Acad. for Educational Development Lib., Washington, D.C.

Product Details

  • ISBN-13: 9781439144992
  • Publisher: Touchstone
  • Publication date: 1/11/2011
  • Sold by: SIMON & SCHUSTER
  • Format: eBook
  • Pages: 256
  • Sales rank: 1,085,962
  • File size: 4 MB

Meet the Author


Entertainment and pop-culture reporter Ed Karvoski Jr. is the author of five books including the best-seller “A Funny Time to Be Gay,” released in e-book edition in January of 2011. He and his books have been featured in countless publications including The New York Times, USA Weekend, Publishers Weekly, The Advocate and Out. In addition, The Village Voice dubbed him “an insatiable vacuum cleaner in the show-biz closet.” Karvoski has also received the Stonewall Society's Pride in the Arts Literary Award.

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