A spirited and provocative engagement of black feminism.

The most comprehensive, smart, helpful and inspiring guide to improve available today. Applicable to comedians, actors, public speakers and anyone who needs to think on their toes. From The Improv Handbook: The problem for improvisers is anxiety. faced with a lot of nameless eyes staring at us, and feeling more than anything else like prey, we are likely to want to display very consistent behavior, so that anyone who looks at us, looks away and then looks back sees the same thing. Thus we become boring, we fade into the background, and we cease to be of interest. The Improv Handbook provides everything someone interested in improvisational comedy needs to know, as written by a husband and wife comedy duo with years of experience and teaching in the field. in addition to providing a comprehensive history of improvisational theater as a backdrop, it also looks at modern theories and practices of improvisation on a global scale, including how the form of comedy has evolved differently in different parts of the world, from Europe to the UK to the Chicago scene. The Improv Handbook also contains an essential performance segment that details different formats of improvisation. Chapter topics include Theatresports, Micetro, Gorilla Theatre, and the inventions of Keith Johnstone and Del Close as well as other popular forms of improv, like those on "Whose Line is it Anyway." The core section of the book is called simply, "How to Improvise" and delves into issues of spontaneity, the fundamentals of storytelling, working together, upping the ante, and character development. 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 TikTok sensation from the UK has come to North America! A mind-blowing murder mystery on a ship full of magical passengers. If Agatha Christie wrote fantasy, this would be it! For a thousand years, Concordia has maintained peace between its provinces. To mark this incredible feat, the emperor’s ship embarks upon a twelve-day voyage to the sacred Goddess’s Mountain. Aboard are the twelve heirs of the provinces of Concordia, each graced with a unique and secret magical ability known as a Blessing. All except one: Ganymedes Piscero—class clown, slacker and all-around disappointment. When a beloved heir is murdered, everyone is a suspect. Stuck at sea and surrounded by powerful people and without a Blessing to protect him, Ganymedes’s odds of survival are slim. But as the bodies pile higher, Ganymedes must become the hero he was not born to be. Can he unmask the killer and their secret Blessing before this bloody crusade reaches the shores of Concordia? Or will the empire as he knows it fall? “VOYAGE OF THE DAMNED's endearingly quirky main character is the shining star of this magical, murderous, romantic romp through a fantasy world as colorful as it is captivating.” ? Thea Guanzon, New York Times bestselling author of THE HURRICANE WARS

"These four volumes in this major series . . . provide a single-source reference to the status of the field of women's history and to ways that the field can be expanded. . . . A basic set for all academic libraries." —Library Journal Academic Newswire Berger and White focus on Sub-Saharan Africa, tracing women's history from earliest times to the present. By exploring their place in social, economic, political, and religious life, the authors highlight the changing societal position of women through shifts over time in ideas about gender and the connections between women's public and private spheres.

Exploring the history of the genre, alongside modern theories and practice, The Improv Handbook explores Theatresports, Micetro and Gorilla Theatre, as well as the innovations of Keith Johnstone, Del Close and Whose Line Is It Anyway? Spontaneity, storytelling, collaboration and character are examined in detail, before concluding with practical advice on improvising for audiences, asking the crucial question: How do you attract an audience in the first place? First published in 2008, this new edition features a foreword by comedian Mike McShane, as well as fresh exercises on endings, managing blind offers and master/servant games, along with new and expanded interviews with Keith Johnstone, Neil Mullarkey, Jeffrey Sweet and Paul Rogan--back cover.

The TikTok sensation from the UK has come to North America! This special first edition hardcover will include a gorgeous, shimmering jacket with effects, beautifully illustrated endpapers and detailed-stained edges. A mind-blowing murder mystery on a ship full of magical passengers. If Agatha Christie wrote fantasy, this would be it! For a thousand years, Concordia has maintained peace between its provinces. To mark this incredible feat, the emperor's ship embarks upon a twelve-day voyage to the sacred Goddess's Mountain. Aboard are the twelve heirs of the provinces of Concordia, each graced with a unique and secret magical ability known as a Blessing. All except one: Ganymedes Piscero--class clown, slacker and all-around disappointment. When a beloved heir is murdered, everyone is a suspect. Stuck at sea and surrounded by powerful people and without a Blessing to protect him, Ganymedes's odds of survival are slim. But as the bodies pile higher, Ganymedes must become the hero he was not born to be. Can he unmask the killer and their secret Blessing before this bloody crusade reaches the shores of Concordia? Or will the empire as he knows it fall? "VOYAGE OF THE DAMNED's endearingly quirky main character is the shining star of this magical, murderous, romantic romp through a fantasy world as colorful as it is captivating." ? Thea Guanzon, New York Times bestselling author of THE HURRICANE WARS

After a vacation in Mexico, Mrs. Stickum-Stamp, Kate, and Billy were happy to be home. But when they went to bed that night, Kate and Billy discovered they still had their "sea-legs" on, for the bed seemed to be moving!

He only wanted the family he lost at the age of ten. His young bride wanted to be a star. So, when opportunity knocked, this young chauffeur took his wife out of Deadwood and headed for Los Angeles to make their dreams come true. Only after a few short months on the road Robert learned his wife Violet has turned her head toward a Vaudeville agent, who promised her fame, fortune, and expensive gifts, turning his dreams into a nightmare. This is not just a genealogist's tale, but the untold story of love, betrayal and murder of the vermin who would destroy everything. Now, a.k.a. Zane R. Southern has to fight not only for his wife, but also for his life. However, facing the gallows doesn't seem as hard as the thought of losing her. This story is based on the real life of Robert Lawrence Victor Smith, and the events that led to his journey back from the end of the world.

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 bêtes 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.

Physicians have had a major role in framing the middle-class values of modern western society, especially those relating to the professions. This book questions the bases of this hegemony, by looking first at the early modern physician's insecurities in terms of status and gender, and then at the wider world of medicine in London which the College of Physicians sought to suppress. The College's proceedings against irregular practitioners constitute a case-study in the regulation of an occupation critical for the well-being of contemporary Londoners. However, the College was, it is argued, an anomalous body, detached from most other forms of male authority in the urban context, and its claims lacked social recognition. It used stereotyping to construct an account designed for higher authority, but at the same time, its regulatory efforts were constantly undermined by the effects of patronage. The so-called irregular practitioners emerge as extremely diverse in country of origin, religious belief, and levels of formal education, yet the full analysis provided here also shows that most were literate, and that a significant number later became members of the College. Many were London artisans, barber-surgeons and apothecaries who can be seen as the 'excluded middle' between the two better-known extremes of the physician and the quack. In suppressing artisan practitioners, the College was also seeking to suppress contractual or 'citizen' medicine, an alternative system of structuring relations between the active patient and the practitioner which was fully integrated in contemporary urban custom and practice, but which has since disappeared. The College's selective account also inadvertently reveals the existence of female artisans who practised medicine outside the household routinely and for payment. Although distorted by the College's proximity to the Crown and to élite patrons, the Annals of the College give access to the rich variety of medical practice in early modern London and to the forms of resistance and self-presentation with which those outside the College justified, or denied, their identity as practitioners.