Over at The Bob and Davider, Bob Odenkirk has posted about a recent live reading of the book Comedy by the Numbers:

Eric Hoffman and Gary Rudoren's book is overfull of crazy rules and explanations on our favorite subject and the gang of boobs, including ME, Paul F., Jay Johnston, Brian Posehn, Matt Besser, Tim Heidecker and Kate Flannery all proved they could read a book out loud. This will be available as a BOOK ON TAPE (CD, old man), in a few short months and it WILL BE GREAT!

For more pictures from the show, check out AWESOME "By The Numbers" SHOW!!

Meanwhile, the latest Sound of Young America podcast features CBTN authors Hoffman and Rudoren. It's embedded after the jump for your listening pleasure.

C.H. Dalton is the fake professor author of A Practical Guide to Racism, a new book that is a parody of racism. (Ed: seriously, this was the best sentence we could come up with to describe this book.)

ANYway, this is a pretty funny excerpt from the book, from a section on Gypsies: Common Gypsy Grifts. This was our favorite:

THE ZOLTAR MACHINE
Frustrated by his small stature, a young boy asks a Gypsy machine to make him "big" in exchange for money. When the mark wakes up the next day, he is a grown man, but this soon grows tiresome, and there is no way to change back. Needless to say, the Zoltar machine keeps the nickel.

Blogger Fimoculous read all the way to the bottom of this book deal announcement and discovered some Demetri Martin news:

Humor
Stand-up comic, Daily Show "youth" correspondent, and star of an upcoming self-titled Comedy Central program Demetri Martin's first book, a mix of observations, essays, charts, palindromes, puzzles, and doodles, pitched as the Godel Escher Bach of humor books, to Ben
Greenberg at Grand Central, in a pre-empt, by Daniel Greenberg at Levine Greenberg Literary Agency (NA).

We can't wait! (More on Godel, Escher Bach here.)

Jon Friedman, captain of The Rejection Show (and writer/producer of approximately one billion other awesome comedic ventures), screens part of his voice over reel at a recent performance:

Also!
  * Jon vs. The Wonder Years
  * Confessions Of A New Coffee Drinker
  * The Rejected Show's official book, now pre-orderable!

Borat (left, with what we can only assume is supposed to be a Kazakh version of Oliver Twist) showed up in LA yesterday for his only live appearance promoting his new book, "Borat Touristic Guidings To Minor Nation of U.S. And A.(etc)" The blog losanjealous reports:

"An eyeball survey of the demographics of the packed room–kids, Europeans, goths, business types, hipsters, nerds, geeks in Borat and Ali G costumes, various media outlets, etc.–demonstrated the impressive reach of the Borat phenomenon. The man is a rock star. Every “high five!” or “Yagshemash!” or “Jenqui!” was met with woos from the crowd."

More pictures and words here: Borat at Borders, November 8, 2007

I've talked about Comedy by the Numbers before, and we'll talk about it again. Basically, I like the book, I like the videos and I like the funny dudes behind it all. A pair of interviews came out recently with each of the two masterminds. The first is from LAist and is with Eric Hoffman. Here's a sample:

In the book, You mention that writers and improvisers don't like having their sketches called skits. What are some other faux-paus we should avoid?
Don't talk about their dead mother. They hate that. Don't say things like, "How did you remember all of those lines?!", no matter how much of a complimentary tone you put into it. Avoid saying, "Do you know Kramer?" In fact, don't reference any other comedian at all. For example, don't ask them if they think Larry the Cable Guy is funny. I know you're just trying to make conversation, but chances are they're secretly jealous of him and his catchphrase. And please don't offer suggestions like, "You should use a big watermelon like Gallagher. HE'S funny!" A comedian will immediately treat you like a heckler.

The second interview is with Gary Rudoren and comes from Gothamist. Here's a little from that one:

You warn the readers of Comedy by the Numbers that priest molestation humor might not be in vogue by the time they read the book and that they should consult their local scene for what's in and what's out. What types of humor have gone out of vogue since you wrote the book?
Well, we find ourselves at a distressing moment in history where it’s old hat to wring laughs from the idiocy and incompetence of the Bush administration and it’s too early to satirize the idiocy and incompetence of Bush in his ex-presidency. So we’re in a comedic grey area. Or gray area. I’m never sure which is the right way to spell that. Although these are uneasy times for political humor, optimistically, I predict if Guiliani gets the nomination, there will be a comedy gold rush! Rudy has embraced many of the numbers from our book including #10, 27, 28, 41,57,85, 98, 112, 117, 121 and 125. Thanks Rudy! And don’t stop being you – comedy will thank you!

What types of humor do you label as having worn out their welcome?
Berlin Wall jokes, little-girl-trapped-in-a-well humor, and apartheid chuckles, for example are all out of vogue and also, I sense that “millennium = disaster” jokes are finally over.

Previously: Video - Comedy by the Numbers on Novelty Items

Comedian, actress and former Daily Show correspondent Lauren Weedman has a new book out that offers an "hilarious collection of truths, half-truths, and exaggerations", including about her time working on TDS. To promote the book, Weedman recently gave an interview to Starpulse. Here's a Daily Show-centric excerpt:

Once you joined The Daily Show, how did being paid to be funny change the nature of being funny?
I didn't do well with it, because I am not a stand-up, and I would never say I was a comedian. I did theater, and I write plays, solo shows. I used to be pretty overweight, and that's kind of a cliché, but coming from being a big fatty, I always had that kind of energy about me, of making jokes. I would never say I'm a stand-up because I don't like it that much. Since I've been more in the route of being paid to be funny, it does make me a bit more manic. I don't like it as much. It's harder. Because then you do feel like, like I say in the book, my fear was that I will end up like Chris Farley or something. That I'll start doing drugs to make sure I'm funny, because the pressure is so high. That's a good point, because that's exactly what got me fired. As soon as the pressure was on, I did not believe I was that funny-- and some people will agree-- that I wasn't that funny, that I couldn't do it, and that I'm just an actress. I'm funnier now than I was then.

For the complete interview, check out Starpulse Sits Down with Comedian and Recent Author Lauren Weedman.

Meanwhile, here's a clip of Wee