“Andrew Hankinson is a brilliant writer, and this is a fascinating book. And I say that as someone with zero interest in stand-up comedy.”
Melissa Harrison, author of The Stubborn Light of Things
“Cleverly structured… So smartly done and so unbelievably timely too… One of the best books I've read this year.”
Stuart Heritage, author of Bedtime Stories For Worried Liberals
“Fantastic … The structure is superb.”
Adelle Stripe, author of Black Teeth and a Brilliant Smile
“A demonstration in form and fact of what a less polarized, more humane, discussion about comedy, politics, taste and people looks and feels like, and it's so very necessary.”
Mark Blacklock, author of Hinton
“The best book I've yet read about freedom of expression.”
Andy Miller, author of The Year of Reading Dangerously
“Credit to Hankinson for tackling these broad, important ideas—what speech is acceptable, what’s forbidden—and trying to understand them through the prism of a specific environment.”
NJ McGarrigle, The Irish Times
“Thought-provoking… the author takes the history of the nearly-forty-year-old club as a microcosm of the comedy industry; Hankinson see its values, its unspoken rules and attitude to acceptable speech, onstage and off, as a useful reflection of American culture as a whole.”
Madeleine Brettingham, TLS
“This oral history is dominated by discussion of freedom of speech and what should be acceptable within the confines of a comedy club… it captures the intensely combative, competitive, hierarchical and often petty atmosphere of an iconic comedy venue.”
Alastair Mabbott, The Herald
“A fascinating tour through the history of a comedy club in a constant state of flux caused by the political and technological upheavals outside its walls.”
The Telegraph
“If you're interested in comedy or free speech or power you MUST read Andrew Hankinson's new book about the Comedy Cellar which is one of those great bits of writing that makes everyone's position feel interesting.”
Sarah Ditum
“A fascinating read.”
Georgina Godwin, Monocle
“Compelling… the sacrifice of authorial vanity gives this book warmth, honesty, and a resistance to easy conclusions.”
Sarah Ditum, UnHerd
“It is brilliant.”
Padraig Reidy , editor of Little Atoms
“A deeply thoughtful and perceptive new book … [A] truly brilliant voice.”
Jason Hazeley, writer on Charlie Brooker’s Screenwipe and Paddington
“For all those interested in comedy, free speech and how they do those things in New York, Andrew Hankinson’s Don’t applaud. Either laugh or don’t is really excellent, and has made me immediately want to read his other book.”
Dara Ó Briain, comedian and television presenter
“This book is fucking fantastic… Honestly one that was nearly impossible to stop reading.”
Doug Stanhope, comedian
“Fascinating.”
Al Murray, comedian, actor, musician and writer
“Cannot stop thinking about it. It's the story of an NYC comedy club but it's also about the culture war, even as it rages all around us. What a fantastic book.”
Andy Miller, co-host of Backlisted
“Insightful, and brings back amazing memories of the greatest club in comedy history.”
Colin Quinn, comedian, actor, and writer
“It's incredible.”
Bonnie McFarlane, comedian, writer, and co-host of My Wife Hates Me
“Done with such skill that you imbibe stuff by osmosis… Unsettling and understated, this report from the frontline of live comedy is more memorable and thought-provoking than any number of polemics on free speech and offence. Andrew Hankinson is a master of showing, not telling.”
Helen Lewis, author of Difficult Women
“An extraordinary insight into the workings of stand-up—the people, the practicalities, the politics, the lines that are crossed… original and affecting.”
Dan Davies, author of In Plain Sight
“Plenty of readers will be offended by certain jokes or comments—that’s the nature of the business—but Hankinson ably captures the importance of the Comedy Cellar. A well-crafted tale of comedy stars and thorny social issues that shows just how hard it is to make people laugh.”
Kirkus Reviews
“When someone comes to write the definitive account of Laughter in the Age of Trump — the cruel guffaws, the neutered snickers, the strange inversions whereby the left went into a collective cringe while the authoritarian right waved the flaming brand of free speech — Andrew Hankinson’s superb oral history of a single New York club, the Comedy Cellar, in Greenwich Village, will be heavily featured … Hankinson probes the owners, the comedians, the staff, and the audience.”
The Atlantic, ‘Summer Reading Guide 2021’
“What can comedy tell us about the ways the world is changing? This history of storied New York stand-up club The Comedy Cellar offers an in-depth look at the space that helped many a famous comedian break out. But, as befits a venue frequently associated with Louis CK, it also explores the comedy scene’s part in larger cultural controversies, and the Comedy Cellar’s penchant for stoking them.”
Tobias Carroll, Inside Hook
Praise for You Could Do Something Amazing With Your Life [You Are Raoul Moat]:
“Immersing the reader in Moat's self-justifications, You Could Do Something Amazing With Your Life [You Are Raoul Moat] is both an experiment in empathy and an exploration of the limits of empathy—holding the reader hostage in the echo chamber of an angry and confused man's head.”
Louis Theroux
Praise for You Could Do Something Amazing With Your Life [You Are Raoul Moat]:
“A claustrophobic true-crime account in the tradition of Truman Capote’s In Cold Blood…[Hankinson’s] purpose is to show Moat as a product of our culture and society…Moat is presented as an intriguing case study in disintegration, making bad choices then devoting all his intelligence to justifying them in his own head.”
Gavin Knight, The Guardian
Praise for You Could Do Something Amazing With Your Life [You Are Raoul Moat]:
“The second-person voice is a notoriously tricky one to maintain and Hankinson uses it to great effect…Another strength is the overwhelming sense that Moat is not in control of his own narrative.”
The Saturday Paper
