"Se ambite a diventare stand-up comedian ecco il libro che fa al caso vostro: un breve e agile manuale sull'arte del far ridere. Da uno dei maggiori esperti di scrittura comica arriva un nuovo testo ricco di spunti e consigli per trovare la propria voce, usare i filtri comici personali, costruire e decostruire i bit per migliorare la performance. Tanti anche i suggerimenti su come evitare il terrore dei flop, sfruttare i propri punti deboli, imparare a conoscere il pubblico e a valorizzare la propria comicità. L'obiettivo sarà rafforzare la sicurezza nella scrittura e nell'elaborazione delle battute, arrivare a sentirsi a proprio agio davanti al microfono e capire che, in fondo, anche se capita di fare fiasco non è la fine del mondo, anzi, può essere l'ispirazione per il prossimo pezzo."

Giving Voice to Profound Disability is devoted to exploring the lives of people with profound and multiple learning difficulties and disabilities, and brings together the voices of those best placed to speak about the rewards and challenges of living with, supporting and teaching this group of vulnerable and dependent people – including parents, carers and teachers. Along with their personal insights the book offers philosophical reflections on the status, role and treatment of profoundly disabled people, and the subjects discussed include:

• Respect and human dignity

• Dependency

• Freedom and human capabilities

• Rights, equality and citizenship

• Valuing people

• Caring for others

The experience and reflections presented in this book illustrate the progress and achievements in supporting and teaching people with profound disabilities, but they also reveal the challenges involved in enabling them to develop their full potential. It is suggested, also, that these challenges apply not only to this group, but also to people who, through sickness, accident and old age, face equivalent levels of dependency and disability.

Giving Voice to Profound Disability will be of interest to all those involved in the lives of severely and profoundly disabled people, including parents, carers, teachers, nurses, therapists, academics, researchers, students and policymakers.

Ask any great poker player how he'd play a hand and he'll always say, "it depends." Though that can be an infuriating response, the truth is, it does depend. The key to becoming a great poker player is in knowing on what it depends. Decide to Play Great Poker tells you exactly what it depends on. Poker is a game of numerous variables: table position, flop texture, bet sizing, pocket holdings, players in a hand, and so much more. Decide to Play Great Poker will teach you how to identify and analyze these variables, interchange them within basic game-situation templates, and leave you feeling knowledgeable, comfortable, and confident in any poker situation. Instead of just enumerating rules that work only some of the time, this book teaches you how to become a great poker thinker and strategist, so you can expertly navigate any new poker challenge that comes up. Most players think the goal of poker is to make money. They're wrong! The goal of poker is to make good decisions. The money is simply the way you measure how well you're fulfilling that objective. Are you ready to start making world-class decisions at the poker table, as well as reap the substantial rewards that those decisions yield? All you have to do is decide: Decide to Play Great Poker.

Meet Radar Hoverlander, a witty, gifted con artist with the mind of David Mamet, the voice of Tom Robbins, and the morals of a sailor on shore leave.
 
What do the Merlin Game, the Penny Skim, the Doolally Snadoodle, and the Afterparty Snuke have in common? They're all the work of world-class con artist and master bafflegabber Radar Hoverlander. Radar's been “on the snuke” since childhood, but he's still looking for his California Roll, the one big scam that'll set him up in sushi for life.
 
Trouble arrives in the stunning, sassy package of Allie Quinn—either the last true innocent or a con artist so slick she makes Radar look like a Quaker. Radar's hapless sidekick, Vic Mirplo, a lovable loser who couldn't con a kid out of a candy cane, thinks Radar's being played. But if love is blind, it's also deaf, dumb and stupid, and before Radar knows it, he's sucked into a vortex of double-, triple-, quadruple-crosses that'll either net him his precious California Roll or put him in a hole in the ground. 
 
As timeless as a perpetual-motion machine, as timely as a Madoff arraignment, The California Roll brings you deep inside the world of con artistry, where every fact is fiction and the second liar never has a chance.

Il poker su internet, cinque anni fa, non esisteva nemmeno. Tra cinque anni potrebbe far diventare il poker live una cosa del passato. Per ora, è una frontiera selvaggia di azione non-stop, poiché i giocatori si affrontano da ogni angolo del globo. In questa guida, John Vorhaus insegna tutto quello che c'è da sapere per dominare il gioco su internet.

"Come essere divertenti senza essere persone divertenti". Così recita il sottotitolo dell'edizione originale. Ovvero, scrivere il comico non è una questione di magia, di ispirazione, e non è nemmeno un fatto di personalità. È una tecnica basata su conoscenze e strumenti che tutti possiamo imparare. Questo libro offre una cassetta degli attrezzi per chi voglia capire come funzionano e come si usano i meccanismi che fanno scattare la risata. Tanti sono i principi fondamentali a cui ispirarsi: "la legge degli opposti comici", la "risposta del tutto fuori luogo", "il pesce fuor d'acqua" o "il mito dell'ultima grande idea". Si scoprirà, per esempio, che commedia vuoi dire verità e dolore. Oppure che il più grande ostacolo tra sé e il comico è la paura, per cui basta uccidere l'editor dentro di noi per far fluire magnifiche idee comiche. Basta non vergognarsene troppo.

Outlines an aggressive approach to poker.

Offers a number of hints for the beginning writer on how to improve style, content, character development, and other aspects of writing for television, film, novels, or other media. Hints are offered in short treatments and offer such advice as trying to write badly as a stretching exercise, and recognizing types of story transformation such as when the main character learns the lesson of the theme. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)