I first joined Audible.com after listening to some audio books from the library. I especially enjoyed "Born Standing Up" by Steve Martin where the iconic "rock star" of comedy from the late 1970s/early 1980s recounts the development of his standup career. Although this book contains some comedy; this is more of a memoir or journal, really an autobiography of that phase of his life. He shares some jokes and their origins and he plays a few banjo riffs as segues. That book helped inspire and empower my section "Tips on How to Write Like Steve Martin" in my forthcoming book: "How to Write All Kinds of Comedy Jokes!" (Or whatever the title will be. I'm still open for suggestions.)
I had already read "Born Standing Up" once and listened to it at least twice from the library, so I didn't want to have to pay for it, so when I saw the chance to get a free audio book from Audible.com, I jumped on it!
Audible.com offers two special introductory offers:
and 
It's one or the other. I jumped on the one that said free; and free is always good. But I think the other deal's even better. Free gets you a free audio book and a 14-day free trial, which is just less than half a month. But the $7.49 for a month for 3 months saves you the cost of 1 1/2 months, not just two weeks. So if you already know the value of audio books, try the second offer. Whichever one you choose, enjoy!
I had fun searching through their collection of audio books so much that I actually chose a different book than "Born Standing Up". I picked Greg Dean's "Step by Step to Stand-Up Comedy" (Unabridged) which gives you 7 hours and 17 minutes of instruction on how to put together and perform standup comedy routines!
After that, I got "The Woody Allen Collection: Without Feathers, Getting Even, Mere Anarchy, Side Effects" (Unabridged) 11 hours and 53 minutes of Woody Allen reading his own comedic short stories and humorous essays! Includes an exclusive Audible's 31 minutes, 15 seconds interview with Woody about his recording experience. If you like Woody Allen's prose, this one's by far the best value, because you get to hear him read four books' worth of prose and listen to the interview with him too.
Next I chose "Abbott & Costello: Masters of Comedy" -- 8 hrs and 11 mins of my favorite comedy team!
Finally, fourth, I picked "Born Standing Up". (Actually, that was much later than fourth, because I found several freebies on Audible.com that I downloaded before that.)
With Audible.com, you can download a vast selection of books to enjoy on a variety of listening devices. I don't have any of those listening devices yet, so I just listen to them on my computer. But you can listen to them on your Kindle, iPhone, Android, Blackberry, etc.
My idea was that I could play audio books on comedy and how to be funny while I slept; and then when I awoke, I'd be hilarious! A man can dream; right? Besides, I love reading, but when my eyes get tired, I put my ears to work. I especially love hearing an author read his own book. I hope to record audio versions of my own books some day too.
So enjoy their $14.95/month Gold Membership for only $7.49/month for the first three months and also enjoy the many items and services which are Free for Members.
Or, with the free trial, you can give it a try for 14 days and still enjoy the many items and services which are Free for Members for those two weeks.
If you must hold a book in your hands and read it yourself, here are the books I mentioned in this blog post that are for sale at Amazon.com:
The Woody Allen Interview and "Abbott & Costello: Masters of Comedy" are solely sound recordings and thus, unavailable in book form.
And whether you read or listen, always learn something new every day!
By helping to make yourself a better person,
you're helping to make the world a better place.
Blessings & Joy,
Dean
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