7 Knee-Slapping Memoirs by My Favorite Stand-Up Comics

The first book in twenty-five years from Jerry Seinfeld features his best work across five decades in comedy.

Since his first performance at the legendary New York nightclub “Catch a Rising Star” as a twenty-one-year-old college student in fall of 1975, Jerry Seinfeld has written his own material and saved everything. “Whenever I came up with a funny bit, whether it happened on a stage, in a conversation, or working it out on my preferred canvas, the big yellow legal pad, I kept it in one of those old school accordion folders,” Seinfeld writes. “So I have everything I thought was worth saving from forty-five years of hacking away at this for all I was worth.”

For this book, Jerry Seinfeld has selected his favorite material, organized decade by decade. In page after hilarious page, one brilliantly crafted observation after another, readers will witness the evolution of one of the great comedians of our time and gain new insights into the thrilling but unforgiving art of writing stand-up comedy.

From the stand-up comedian, actress, and host beloved for her cheeky swagger, unique voice, and unapologetic frankness comes a book of comedic essays for fans of Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me by Mindy Kaling and We’re Going to Need More Wine by Gabrielle Union.

If you’ve watched television or movies in the past year, you’ve seen Michelle Buteau. With scene-stealing roles in Always Be My Maybe, First Wives Club, Someone Great, Russian Doll, and Tales of the City; a reality TV show and breakthrough stand-up specials, including her headlining show Welcome to Buteaupia on Netflix, and two podcasts (Late Night Whenever and Adulting), Michelle’s star is on the rise. You’d be forgiven for thinking the road to success—or adulthood or financial stability or self-acceptance or marriage or motherhood—has been easy; but you’d be wrong.

Now, in Survival of the Thickest, Michelle reflects on growing up Caribbean, Catholic, and thick in New Jersey, going to college in Miami (where everyone smells like pineapple), her many friendship and dating disasters, working as a newsroom editor during 9/11, getting started in standup opening for male strippers, marrying into her husband’s Dutch family, IVF and surrogacy, motherhood, chosen family, and what it feels like to have a full heart, tight jeans, and stardom finally in her grasp.

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

“An inspiring story that manages to be painful, honest, shocking, bawdy and hilarious.” —The New York Times Book Review

From stand-up comedian, actress, and breakout star of Girls Trip, Tiffany Haddish, comes The Last Black Unicorn, a sidesplitting, hysterical, edgy, and unflinching collection of (extremely) personal essays, as fearless as the author herself.

Growing up in one of the poorest neighborhoods of South Central Los Angeles, Tiffany learned to survive by making people laugh. If she could do that, then her classmates would let her copy their homework, the other foster kids she lived with wouldn’t beat her up, and she might even get a boyfriend. Or at least she could make enough money—as the paid school mascot and in-demand Bar Mitzvah hype woman—to get her hair and nails done, so then she might get a boyfriend.

None of that worked (and she’s still single), but it allowed Tiffany to imagine a place for herself where she could do something she loved for a living: comedy.

Tiffany can’t avoid being funny—it’s just who she is, whether she’s plotting shocking, jaw-dropping revenge on an ex-boyfriend or learning how to handle her newfound fame despite still having a broke person’s mind-set. Finally poised to become a household name, she recounts with heart and humor how she came from nothing and nowhere to achieve her dreams by owning, sharing, and using her pain to heal others.

By turns hilarious, filthy, and brutally honest, The Last Black Unicorn shows the world who Tiffany Haddish really is—humble, grateful, down-to-earth, and funny as hell. And now, she’s ready to inspire others through the power of laughter.

A brand-new audio series collecting live recordings of the most hilarious stand-up comedy routines from Laugh Out Loud’s hit Comedy in Color franchise, which debuted on Pluto TV.

Comedy In Color, Volume 1 welcomes listeners to the largest international comedy festival on earth with curated stand-up sets from ten jam-packed shows at the world-famous Just For Laughs Comedy Festival in Montreal. Lil Rel Howery (best known for his breakout role in Jordan Peele’s Oscar–winning film, Get Out, and the Fox series, Rel) will serve as host, providing original material and personal stories from his experiences at JFL, as well as introducing our line-up of forty of the funniest comedians from Comedy In Color, including Chris Distefano, Aida Rodriguez, Vir Das, Godfrey, Ronny Chieng, and Nate Bargatze. Lil Rel’s set is also featured in Volume 1. Laugh Out Loud debuted the Comedy In Color stand-up franchise on Pluto TV earlier this year, and has already seen immense success, bolstering Laugh Out Loud as one of the top comedy channels on Pluto TV.

In addition to Howery, additional comedians featured in Volume 1 include: Aisha Alfa, J.B. Ball, Tone Bell, Nate Bargatze, Joel Kim Booster, Aisha Brown, Sophie Buddle, Ronny Chieng, Vir Das, Tim Dillon, Chris Distefano, Dominique, Naomi Ekperigin, Rachel Feinstein, David Gborie, Godfrey, Matt Ingebretson, Gary “G Thang” Johnson, Josh Johnson, Russell Kane, Michael Kosta, Nish Kumar, Mike Lawrence, Ismael Loutfi, Ms. Pat, Mark Normand, Jessimae Peluso, Charlie Pickering, Tony Roberts, Jordan Rock, Aida Rodriguez, Ron G, Ahir Shah, Beth Stelling, Sarah Tiana, Jesus Trejo, Ahamed Weinberg, Gina Yashere and Jenny Zigrino.