Don't Applaud. Either Laugh or Don't. (At the Comedy Cellar.)

by Andrew Hankinson

Overview

This is a book about three things:
1. A room called the Comedy Cellar.
2. Who gets to speak in that room.
3. What they get to say.

The Comedy Cellar is a tiny basement club in New York’s Greenwich Village. Run according to the principles of its owners, the Dworman family, it became a safe place for stand-ups to take risks and experiment. Superstar comedians such as Amy Schumer, Dave Chappelle, Jon Stewart, and Louis CK became regulars, celebrities started to hang out, the club hosted debates, and everyone was encouraged to argue at its back table. Then the Comedy Cellar ended up on the frontline of the global culture war.

Andrew Hankinson speaks to the Cellar’s owner, comedians, and audience members, using interviews, emails, podcasts, letters, text messages, and previously private documents to create a conversation about who gets to speak and what they get to say, and why. Moving backwards in time from Louis CK’s downfall to when Manny Dworman used to host folk singers including Bob Dylan, this is about a comedy club, but it’s also about the widening cultural chasm.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781950354542
Publisher:	Scribe Publications Pty Ltd
Publication date:	05/04/2021
Pages:	400
Product dimensions:	5.80(w) x 8.30(h) x (d)

About the Author

Andrew Hankinson is a journalist who was born, raised, and lives in Newcastle upon Tyne, northern England. He started his career at Arena magazine and is now a freelance feature writer who has contributed to publications including GQ, The Observer, The Guardian, and Wired. His first book, You Could Do Something Amazing With Your Life [You Are Raoul Moat], won the CWA Non-Fiction Prize in 2016.

Editorial Reviews

A proper creative nonfiction writer who tells true stories with art, in the fine tradition of The New Journalism. A terrific, vital, painful subject.”
—Richard T Kelly, author of The Knives

“A valuable historical document but also a timely and important investigation into morality, masculinity, censorship and freedom of speech in the modern age. It has all the makings of a future cult classic. There’s no book like it.”
—Benjamin Myers, author of Male Tears

“A demonstration in form and fact of what a less polarized, more humane, discussion about comedy, politics, taste and people looks and feels like, and it's so very necessary.”
—Mark Blacklock, author of Hinton

“Fantastic … The structure is superb.”
—Adelle Stripe, author of Black Teeth and a Brilliant Smile

“Done with such skill that you imbibe stuff by osmosis … Unsettling and understated, this report from the frontline of live comedy is more memorable and thought-provoking than any number of polemics on free speech and offence. Andrew Hankinson is a master of showing, not telling.”
—Helen Lewis, author of Difficult Women

“An extraordinary insight into the workings of stand-up—the people, the practicalities, the politics, the lines that are crossed … original and affecting”
—Dan Davies, author of In Plain Sight

“This book is fucking fantastic … Honestly one that was nearly impossible to stop reading.”
—Doug Stanhope, comedian

“A deeply thoughtful and perceptive new book … [A] truly brilliant voice.”
—Jason Hazeley, writer on Charlie Brooker’s Screenwipe and Paddington

“It's incredible.”
—Bonnie McFarlane, comedian, writer, and co-host of My Wife Hates Me

“Insightful, and brings back amazing memories of the greatest club in comedy history.”
—Colin Quinn, comedian, actor, and writer

“Cannot stop thinking about it. It's the story of an NYC comedy club but it's also about the culture war, even as it rages all around us. What a fantastic book.”
—Andy Miller, co-host of Backlisted

“When someone comes to write the definitive account of Laughter in the Age of Trump—the cruel guffaws, the neutered snickers, the strange inversions whereby the left went into a collective cringe while the authoritarian right waved the flaming brand of free speech—Andrew Hankinson’s superb oral history of a single New York club, the Comedy Cellar, in Greenwich Village, will be heavily featured … Hankinson probes the owners, the comedians, the staff, and the audience.”
—The Atlantic, ‘Summer Reading Guide 2021’

“A surprisingly serious history of the Comedy Cellar, home base for Jerry Seinfeld, Chris Rock, Louis C.K., and numerous other stars …[Hankinson] approaches this story like a mystery: Will stand-up comedy survive? Sure, it’s popular now—boosted by social media and countless specials on cable TV and streaming services—and the success of the historic Greenwich Village venue is a significant piece of its history. But stand-up is under considerable pressure due to the growing battle between envelope-pushing comics and those complaining about what they see as racist or misogynistic … A well-crafted tale of comedy stars and thorny social issues that shows just how hard it is to make people laugh.”
—Kirkus Reviews

“A fascinating tour through the history of a comedy club in a constant state of flux caused by the political and technological upheavals outside its walls.”
—The Telegraph

Praise for You Could Do Something Amazing With Your Life [You Are Raoul Moat]:

“Immersing the reader in Moat's self-justifications, You Could Do Something Amazing With Your Life [You Are Raoul Moat] is both an experiment in empathy and an exploration of the limits of empathy—holding the reader hostage in the echo chamber of an angry and confused man's head.”
—Louis Theroux

“A claustrophobic true-crime account in the tradition of Truman Capote’s In Cold Blood … [Hankinson’s] purpose is to show Moat as a product of our culture and society … Moat is presented as an intriguing case study in disintegration, making bad choices then devoting all his intelligence to justifying them in his own head.”
—Gavin Knight, The Guardian

“The second-person voice is a notoriously tricky one to maintain and Hankinson uses it to great effect … Another strength is the overwhelming sense that Moat is not in control of his own narrative.”
—The Saturday Paper

From the Publisher

2021-03-13
A surprisingly serious history of the Comedy Cellar, home base for Jerry Seinfeld, Chris Rock, Louis C.K., and numerous other stars.

Hankinson, who has written for Wired, GQ, Esquire, and other publications, approaches this story like a mystery: Will stand-up comedy survive? Sure, it’s popular now—boosted by social media and countless specials on cable TV and streaming services—and the success of the historic Greenwich Village venue is a significant piece of its history. But stand-up is under considerable pressure due to the growing battle between envelope-pushing comics and those complaining about what they see as racist or misogynistic. Noam Dworman, the club’s owner, has always been a staunch advocate for free speech. As he told the author, “Nobody should ever get fired for anything they say, no matter what, and the only reason to fire somebody should be if, you know, people stopped watching or something. So, meaning like, if I found out that some comedian or someone who was under my thumb in some way said the most horrible things about Jews or whatever it is, I don’t think I’d fire them, I’d just say it’s not my business.” Hankinson shows both sides, even rewriting the book to deal with the fallout from accusations of sexual misconduct by Louis C.K. and its effect on the Comedy Cellar when he launched his comeback there. The author narrates the story in reverse chronological order, and because the stakes are raised, he offers transcripts of his interviews with a minimum of paraphrasing or editorializing. It’s a risky approach, but it mostly pays off because Dworman is eloquent, as are the comics Hankinson quotes. Even the fans complaining about jokes are well spoken, though they are generally outnumbered. Plenty of readers will be offended by certain jokes or comments—that’s the nature of the business—but Hankinson ably captures the importance of the Comedy Cellar.

A well-crafted tale of comedy stars and thorny social issues that shows just how hard it is to make people laugh.

Kirkus Reviews