Mowgli
NEW AND IMPROVED
£27.50
THE BLURB:
Mowgli is a critically acclaimed improvised comedian and
magician. For the first time ever he is revealing the cogs
that make his comedy mind turn. Whether you want to create
unique material, learn how to improvise more effectively on
stage, deal with the unexpected or just add humour to your
show Mowgli draws back the curtain on his improvised comedy
world, and guides you hand in hand (not in a creepy way)
round the techniques he has used and taught others to great
effect.
This truly is a book like no other.
Featuring:
How To Deal With Hecklers
How To Create A Unique Act
How To Write Jokes
Fimprovisation Revealed
... and SO much more
What Others Have Said:
"Not only will this book help you get to grips with the
tricky task of adding humour to your performances, it will
help you do it organically; allowing you to be more 'You'. I
found the chapters on Writing and adding your own
personality to an effect invaluable."
- Alexander Marsh
MY COMMENTS:
In many ways, performing mentalism is closer to performing
improv than performing magic is. With magic, you have the
sleights and props to practice and master. With mentalism,
you do have prop management, but it's mostly all verbal and
handling the audience, much like performing improv. Thus,
in theory, a good book on performing improvisation should
provide some great insight to improving one's performance
abilities.
Case in point: NEW AND IMPROVED by Mowgli.
Now, I will tell you that Mowgli is a psuedonym and, yes,
it's obvious where his inspiration for that name came from.
But let's focus on the book.
The book has eighteen sections. Most are not that long,
which makes this a very quick read. I found myself reading
this whole thing in an evening.
Here's the table of contents:
Welcome
An Intro To Improv
Yes
Practising In Your Head
Bring A Little Bit Of Yourself To The Party
Off The Top Of Your Head
Listen
Silence
Reading a Room
The Other Guy Is More Important
The Four W�s
Dealing With Hecklers
Improvisation To Creation
Comedy, Magic and Mentalism
F For... Fimprovisation
The Notebook
Are You Game?
Farewell
Acknowledgements
To clarify, we're not talking about improvisational comedy.
If you're looking for a text on how to create funny moments,
funny fines, funny situations, and just in general, be
funny, you will be disappointed by this book. It certainly
touches on these topics and certainly has some wonderful
points to make about it. However, this book is not about
improvisational comedy. It's about improvisation.
Simply, the book has some invaluable insight into
improvisation, handling audiences, and controlling one's
performance environment. He explains how improvisations
sometimes is improvised and how to make things look
improvised, even though they're not. As you can tell by the
contents, Mowgli logically moves the readers through various
important topics on the subject.
Once again, I'll state that any book that imparts sincere
wisdom of the craft of performing is worth getting. This
163 page book, seen from the perspective of an improv
performer, is definitely worth getting as most of the
insight can apply to mentalists. In fact, the book is
written for magicians and mentalists, which makes it even
more attractive to the working performer. Definitely
recommended.
Mowgli is a critically acclaimed improvised comedian and
magician. For the first time ever he is revealing the cogs
that make his comedy mind turn. Whether you want to create
unique material, learn how to improvise more effectively on
stage, deal with the unexpected or just add humour to your
show Mowgli draws back the curtain on his improvised comedy
world, and guides you hand in hand (not in a creepy way)
round the techniques he has used and taught others to great
effect.
This truly is a book like no other.
Featuring:
How To Deal With Hecklers
How To Create A Unique Act
How To Write Jokes
Fimprovisation Revealed
... and SO much more
What Others Have Said:
"Not only will this book help you get to grips with the
tricky task of adding humour to your performances, it will
help you do it organically; allowing you to be more 'You'. I
found the chapters on Writing and adding your own
personality to an effect invaluable."
- Alexander Marsh
MY COMMENTS:
In many ways, performing mentalism is closer to performing
improv than performing magic is. With magic, you have the
sleights and props to practice and master. With mentalism,
you do have prop management, but it's mostly all verbal and
handling the audience, much like performing improv. Thus,
in theory, a good book on performing improvisation should
provide some great insight to improving one's performance
abilities.
Case in point: NEW AND IMPROVED by Mowgli.
Now, I will tell you that Mowgli is a psuedonym and, yes,
it's obvious where his inspiration for that name came from.
But let's focus on the book.
The book has eighteen sections. Most are not that long,
which makes this a very quick read. I found myself reading
this whole thing in an evening.
Here's the table of contents:
Welcome
An Intro To Improv
Yes
Practising In Your Head
Bring A Little Bit Of Yourself To The Party
Off The Top Of Your Head
Listen
Silence
Reading a Room
The Other Guy Is More Important
The Four W�s
Dealing With Hecklers
Improvisation To Creation
Comedy, Magic and Mentalism
F For... Fimprovisation
The Notebook
Are You Game?
Farewell
Acknowledgements
To clarify, we're not talking about improvisational comedy.
If you're looking for a text on how to create funny moments,
funny fines, funny situations, and just in general, be
funny, you will be disappointed by this book. It certainly
touches on these topics and certainly has some wonderful
points to make about it. However, this book is not about
improvisational comedy. It's about improvisation.
Simply, the book has some invaluable insight into
improvisation, handling audiences, and controlling one's
performance environment. He explains how improvisations
sometimes is improvised and how to make things look
improvised, even though they're not. As you can tell by the
contents, Mowgli logically moves the readers through various
important topics on the subject.
Once again, I'll state that any book that imparts sincere
wisdom of the craft of performing is worth getting. This
163 page book, seen from the perspective of an improv
performer, is definitely worth getting as most of the
insight can apply to mentalists. In fact, the book is
written for magicians and mentalists, which makes it even
more attractive to the working performer. Definitely
recommended.
The following item is not sold or distributed by the Marketplace of the Mind.
It is available only through the link below ("Link to Site").
