By Steve Allen - Steve Allen's Private Joke File (2000-12-20) [Paperback]

by Steve Allen

Why Did Steve Allen Cross the Road? Steve Allen is a legend among comedians and entertainers. He's been playing to audiences on stage, radio, film, and television for more than fifty years, gaining acclaim for his unique wit and energy. Now for the first time, he shares more than a thousand of his favorite one-liners, anecdotes, limericks, quotes, and other generally funny things. The entries are divided into nearly two hundred categories to make it easy for anyone to find the right laugh for any occasion. If you're faced with the prospect of having to "say a few words," Steve Allen's Private Joke File is the perfect place to look for ideas and inspiration on such topics as awards, drinking, baseball, lawyers, dentists, insurance, marriage, the stock market, and dozens of other subjects. A My wife and I had words, but I never got to use mine!* If ignorance is bliss, he should die of joy. * "How are the acoustics here?" "Great, I can hardly hear you!"* I learned to rumba very early in life ... I had a tricycle with a loose seat.* Room for rent, by young lady, freshly plastered.Steve Allen has also included a number of his favorite essays and monologues. Steve Allen's Private Joke File is great to flip through for fun or for function, and for those of us looking for a good laugh -- to give one or to have one -- it's indispensable.

Paperback

First published December 5, 2000

About the author

Stephen Valentine Patrick William "Steve" Allen was an American television personality, musician, actor, comedian, and writer. Though he got his start in radio, Allen is best-known for his television career. He first gained national attention as a guest host on Arthur Godfrey's Talent Scouts. He graduated to become the first host of The Tonight Show, where he was instrumental in innovating the concept of the television talk show. Thereafter, he hosted numerous game and variety shows, including The Steve Allen Show, I've Got a Secret, The New Steve Allen Show, and was a regular panel member on CBS' What's My Line?

Allen was a "creditable" pianist, and a prolific composer, having penned over 14,000 songs, one of which was recorded by Perry Como and Margaret Whiting, others by Steve Lawrence and Eydie Gorme, Les Brown, and Gloria Lynne. Allen won a Grammy award in 1963 for best jazz composition, with his song The Gravy Waltz. Allen wrote more than 50 books and has two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

Reviews

[robert · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not having watched much of Steve Allen's stuff, I was surprised how intelligently and humorously he can write. Some very witty stuff. Better than some joke books that I have read. But not all that better. Nothing really funny, just witty and clever.

[Michael P. · Rating 1 out of 5]

An entirely unfunny book. Allen should have kept these jokes private.