The Improv

Praise

 ”The Improv was a cauldron of talent. Whetsell writes about it wonderfully and with respect for its importance to comedy.”
—Robert Klein 

“They used to say that if you made it New York you could make it anywhere. Maybe so, but if you didn’t make it at the Improv, it was time to pack your bags and move to ‘anywhere.'”
—Richard Lewis 

“This book is a great walk down memory lane for me. All hail the Improv and all the laugh-filled times and wonderful nights that happened in front of those brick walls.”
—Bill Maher 

“The Improv played a vital part in my early stand-up days as it did in the careers of the dazzling array of stars, eccentrics, and colorful characters whose stories adorn this bright and greatly entertaining book. Get at least two copies, in case you lose one.”
—Dick Cavett 

 ”Here’s a book I’ll probably never finish, because for years to come I’ll be picking it up again and again and rereading parts over and over, whenever I need perking up. It’s the history of an art form, though that sounds way too stuffy, and of an institution—the great American comedy club, especially the Improvs of New York and LA.”
—Tom Shales, Pulitzer Prize–winning former television critic for The Washington Post and #1 bestselling coauthor of Live from New York and These Guys Have All the Fun 

“An entertaining ride through the glory years—the people, the stories, the feuds, the laughs—of the club that started the stand-up comedy boom in America.”
—Richard Zoglin, author of Hope: Entertainer of the Century and Comedy at the Edge: How Comedy in the 1970s Changed America 

“The Godfather of the comedy club is finally called to testify . . . and he sings like a canary.”
—Bill Knoedelsder, author of I’m Dying Up Here: Heartbreak and High-Times in Stand-Up Comedy’s Golden Era