The comedian describes his life and battle with liver cancer, which prompted him to pursue his dream of appearing on "Late Night with David Letterman."

Full of revealing portraits of many of the best-known comedic talents of the 1970s, "I'm Dying Up Here" is also a poignant tale of the price of success and the terrible cost of failure--professional and moral.

The comedian describes his life and battle with liver cancer, which prompted him to pursue his dream of appearing on "Late Night with David Letterman."

New York Times comedy critic Jason Zinoman delivers the definitive story of the life and artistic legacy of David Letterman, the greatest television talk show host of all time and the signature comedic voice of a generation. In a career spanning more than thirty years, David Letterman redefined the modern talk show with an ironic comic style that transcended traditional television. While he remains one of the most famous stars in America, he is a remote, even reclusive, figure whose career is widely misunderstood. In Letterman, Jason Zinoman, the first comedy critic in the history of the New York Times, mixes groundbreaking reporting with unprecedented access and probing critical analysis to explain the unique entertainer’s titanic legacy. Moving from his early days in Indiana to his retirement, Zinoman goes behind the scenes of Letterman’s television career to illuminate the origins of his revolutionary comedy, its overlooked influences, and how his work intersects with and reveals his famously eccentric personality. Zinoman argues that Letterman had three great artistic periods, each distinct and part of his evolution. As he examines key broadcasting moments—"Stupid Pet Tricks" and other captivating segments that defined Late Night with David Letterman—he illuminates Letterman’s relationship to his writers, and in particular, the show’s co-creator, Merrill Markoe, with whom Letterman shared a long professional and personal connection. To understand popular culture today, it’s necessary to understand David Letterman. With this revealing biography, Zinoman offers a perceptive analysis of the man and the artist whose ironic voice and caustic meta-humor was critical to an entire generation of comedians and viewers—and whose singular style ushered in new tropes that have become clichés in comedy today.

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • “Driving, wild and hilarious” (The Washington Post), here is the incredible “memoir” of the legendary actor, gambler, raconteur, and Saturday Night Live veteran. When Norm Macdonald, one of the greatest stand-up comics of all time, was approached to write a celebrity memoir, he flatly refused, calling the genre “one step below instruction manuals.” Norm then promptly took a two-year hiatus from stand-up comedy to live on a farm in northern Canada. When he emerged he had under his arm a manuscript, a genre-smashing book about comedy, tragedy, love, loss, war, and redemption. When asked if this was the celebrity memoir, Norm replied, “Call it anything you damn like.”

David Spade is best known for his harsh “Hollywood” Minute Sketches on SNL, his starring roles in movies like Joe Dirt and Tommy Boy, and his seven-year stint as Dennis Finch on the series Just Shoot Me. Now, with a wit as dry as the weather in his home state of Arizona, the “comic brat extraordinaire” tells his story in Almost Interesting. First Taking fans back to his childhood as a wannabe cool younger brother and recounting his excruciating road-tour to fame—when he was regularly mistaken for a ten year-old, Spade then dishes about his time crisscrossing the country as a comedian, for low-paying gigs and dragging along his mother’s old suitcase full of props. He also covers his years on SNL during the beloved Rock/Sandler/Farley era of the 1990s, including his close working relationship and friendship with Chris Farley and brags about the ridiculous perks that fame has brought into his life, including the constant fear of being fired, a crazy ex-assistant who attacked him while he was sleeping, a run-in with Eddie Murphy on the mean streets of Beverly Hills, and of course an endless supply of hot chicks. Sometimes dirty, always funny, and as sharp as a tack, Almost Interesting reminds you why David Spade is one of our generation’s favorite funny guys.

In every life situation, focus on all the positive outcomes. Destruction comes from focusing only on the negative. Whatever you focus on and give your attention to is what will manifest. Whatever you constantly think about is where youre focusing your energy. When you find yourself thinking in agreement with the dark side, direct your thinking to have your mind focus on anything positive. Ensure that your mind is nourishing you with its thoughts. By directing your thoughts, you can choose your mindstate. Never let your mind think whatever it wants. You will become the essence of your constant thought. Watch your mind!

Miranda Tate and her closest friends have been let in on a powerful secret: their teachers are famous dead writers. After a heroic first semester, Miranda's got Bard Academy's ghost faculty in her debt, a new boyfriend in hot basketball player Ryan Kent, and she's just turned in a paper about The Scarlet Letter that she's sure is A material. But when the Bard Queen Bee, Parker Rodham, claims she's attacked in the woods, Ryan is all too happy to play bodyguard. Then teachers start disappearing and the campus is abuzz with news of the Hooded Sweatshirt Stalker -- not to mention sightings of a monster in the woods. But it's Miranda who feels like a moving target when she is accused not only of plagiarism but of suspicious involvement in the attacks! Meanwhile, rumors are flying about what it really means that Miranda's wearing Ryan's varsity letterman jacket. And she just can't shake her nagging feelings for Heathcliff, who entrusted her with the locket that keeps him in the "real" world even though every one else thinks he's back where he belongs, in the pages of Wuthering Heights. Is he the campus stalker? Does she like him more than she likes Ryan? And how is that possible if he's only a character from a book?

LATE NIGHT BUMPERS /// Foreword by David Letterman -- Official 40th Anniversary Edition of the classic bumper photography seen before and after commercial on Late Night with David Letterman, photographed by Marc Karzen -- including anecdotes about shoots plus behind-the-scenes images all shot from 1982-1992. Hardcover 72 pages book size: 10" x 8.25" Printed in USA

The must-have guide to traditional, emerging and creative TV funding models that are being developed and exploited by social media-savvy documentary filmmakers. Each chapter covers a different form of funding and combines advice from industry insiders - producers, buyers, specialist media agencies and corporate funding bodies - and entertaining case studies that illustrate the benefits and pitfalls of each method. With practical tips, case studies and advice it reveals what grantors, brands and NGOs are looking for in a pitch (they all have different needs and expectations), and the cultural differences that can trip up the unwary producer. Funding examples range from blue-chip TV documentaries, such as Planet Earth, which was co-funded by the BBC, Discovery NHK and CBC to The TV Book Club (More 4), which is funded by Specsavers opticians; to Lemonade Movie, which harnessed the power of Twitter to source free equipment and post-production resources. Readers will discover: the difference between co-productions, pre-sales and acquisitions; how to develop and pitch advertiser funded programming; the new rules on product placement; where to hunt for foundation and grant funding and how to fill in those fiendish application forms; the power of crowd-funding and how to harness the internet; how to sniff out grants and funds held in non-film focused organisations such as the Wellcome Trust; why corporations are keen to fund your documentary and how to get them to part with their money without giving up your editorial control.