BOOKS
     

BECOMING JIMI HENDRIX:
From Southern Crossroads to Psychedelic London,
The Untold Story of a Musical Genius
(Da Capo/Perseus)
by Steven Roby and Brad Schreiber

The first biography of the formative years of the greatest electric guitarist of all time. Leaving his broken home in Seattle, where he experienced near starvation, Jimi tours with the greats of R&B in the Deep South and discovers LSD and a whole new way of playing and writing music in Greenwich Village, prior to his breakthrough in London…and eventually America and the world.

Important Revelations in BECOMING JIMI HENDRIX:

    Jimi learning from master guitarists B.B. and Albert King, while touring the South

    Jimi getting arrested at one of the earliest US civil rights sit-ins, in Nashville

     Jimi experiencing racism, touring with groundbreaking, integrated group The Starliters

    The “promoter” who brought Jimi to New York and turned out to be a female impersonator

    The impact science fiction stories had on Jimi’s initial songwriting

    Jimi setting his guitar on fire, touring with Little Richard…in 1964

    Jimi refusing to work for the biggest drug dealer in Harlem

    Linda Keith, girlfriend of Keith Richards, getting Jimi “discovered” in Greenwich Village

     

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Becoming Jimi Hendrix radio interview:

BRAD WITH DAVID LEWIS, WMLB, ATLANTA (22 min.)

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                          Becoming Jimi Hendrix at Amazon

“It’s a fascinating book for the story it tells, but I would pay the cover price just for its amazing photographs.”
--Steve Coates, New York Times

“Hendrix’s career as a superstar has been well-chronicled; the more interesting details of how he became one are told here.”
--New York Times Book Review

"Most important, the book shows how Greenwich Village was crucial to Hendrix’s 1966 breakthrough."
--Rolling Stone

“Superb…I’m amazed by your detailed research and the eloquence of the writing. It makes an absolutely invaluable contribution to our knowledge of Jimi.”
--Tony Palmer, Emmy Award-winning director of over 100 films

 

 

Brad discusses Death In Paradise on ABC's Primetime Crime

 

The Critics on Death in Paradise:

"Death In Paradise co-authors Tony Blanche and Brad Schreiber have finally done the impossible-that even I could not achieve-publish a book with photographs that should be censored."
---Larry Flynt

"A colorful history of the L.A. County Coroner's Department."
---Los Angeles Times

"An intriguing look at the forensic science behind some of L.A.'s grisliest crime scenes."
---Los Angeles Magazine

"With crackling prose, glorious and gory photographs and mind-blowing accounts of your favorite celebrity exits, the authors have created the perfect book for a coffee table in hell."
---Jerry Stahl, consultant, "CSI" (CBS), author, "Permanent Midnight."

Death In Paradise at Amazon.com

Death in Paradise: 
An Illustrated History of the Los Angeles County Department of Coroner
(Running Press/Perseus)

Death in Paradise is the first authorized pictorial history of the world's most famous coroner's office. It features extensive archival photography of Southern California locations, famous and infamous victims, and medical and forensic technology.

Death in Paradise explores high-profile cases of suicide, accidental death, and murder in Hollywood from the early years of moviemaking to the present day.

What are the lingering controversies surrounding the deaths of director William Desmond Taylor in the 1920s and film comedienne Thelma Todd in the 1930s? Was the horrific 1940's "Black Dahlia" case linked to the little-known "Lipstick Murders"?

Walk along the City of Angels' darker side with modern tragedies involving George Reeves, Dorothy Dandridge, the Tate-La Bianca murders, Freddie Prinze, and the Simpson-Goldman mystery, among others.

The book also chronicles the evolution of the coroner's role, the founding of Los Angeles, and scientific developments in forensic science throughout the 20th century.
 

Stop the Show! 
A History of Insane Incidents and 
Absurd Accidents in the Theater  
(Da Capo Press/Perseus)

The first collection of theater's greatest blunders, from the West End and Broadway to the lowliest amateur theater, Stop the Show! revels in ruined lines, dangerous scenery, rude theatergoers, performers sabotaging each other and more.

Among the outrageous and mind-boggling events during live performances:

Richard Burton, after an afternoon of drinking with his brothers, accidentally urinates through his tights while swordfighting Michael Redgrave at Stratford-upon-Avon.

The Second City Toronto member who took LSD for the first time feels its effects hours later...in the middle of a comedy sketch, posing as a taxi cab driver.

A homeless woman climbs onstage during a production of Cats on Broadway, rubs up against stunned, costumed performers and begins singing off-key.

In London's intimate Bush Theatre, an actor finds himself onstage with a petrified burglar who sneaked inside the building to rob it, not knowing it was a theatre.

An April Fool's Day announcement in a Broadway theatre, claiming that Glenn Close, Richard Dreyfuss and Gene Hackman all have understudies going on for them creates a mass exodus from the theatre before the audience can learn it's a joke.

 "Mr. Schreiber's book of anecdotes should be deposited in every dressing room both on and off Broadway."
 --Eric Bogosian

"Among its many virtues is its historical sweep...provides a source of endless pleasure."
-Steven Leigh Morris, L.A. Weekly
 

“Fascinating and fun reading for anyone interested in the theatre.”                                           

--Robert Olen Butler, Pulitzer Prize winner, A Good Scent from a Strange Mountain

Stop The Show at Amazon.com

  
 
 

What Are You Laughing At?:
How to Write Funny Screenplays, Stories & More
(Michael Wiese Productions)

The definitive book on how to “write funny” is the first to compare writing comedic screenplays with fiction and nonfiction in all forms. Using principles developed in his UCLA Extension Writers’ Program class on humor writing and his CBS Studio City seminars on screenwriting, it includes an introduction by Christopher Vogler (The Writer’s Journey) and:

  • More than 80 excerpts from such top prose and screenwriters as Woody Allen, Steve Martin and Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.
  • Unique writing exercises developed exclusively for this book
  • Vital, additional information on writing comedy for TV, stage and audio

Where else would you find 11 Modes of Comedic Dialogue, 13 Things Bad Screenwriters Commonly Do and The Cream of Wheat Theory of Exposition?

WHAT THEY’RE SAYING ABOUT WHAT ARE YOU LAUGHING AT?:

"At last. A how-to book by someone who actually knows how to.
--Larry Gelbart, creator-writer, M*A*S*H, screenwriter, Tootsie

“Attention, aspiring writers! You’ll learn so much about the craft from Schreiber’s book that you can skip school altogether and spend your tuition money on sex and drugs.”
-Tom Robbins, novelist, Even Cowgirls Get the Blues, Jitterbug Perfume

“Some people are just plain funny. Some people don’t know funny when it bites them in their collective ass. For the rest of us in the middle, this book might help. That is, if funny is your idea of a good time.”
--Penn Jillette of Penn & Teller

"Brad Schreiber has the rare gift of demonstrating the art of comic writing even as he teaches it. He's like one of those professors whose class you couldn't sleep through. Laugh and learn."
--Phil Proctor, writer-performer, The Firesign Theatre

What Are You Laughing At? at Amazon.com

  

Weird Wonders and 
Bizarre Blunders: 
The Official Book of Ridiculous Records

Weird Wonders and Bizarre Blunders (Simon & Schuster) collects the most ridiculous records in the world--those that Guinness wouldn't dare print. Click here for sample records. The book features more than 425 records in the following categories:

The Human Body | Animal, Vegetable or Mineral | Science and Technology | Artistic Achievements | Buildings, Structures and Locations | Mechanical Inventions | Business and Commerce | Lifestyles | Human Accomplishments | Athletics and Hobbies

The Critics on Weird Wonders and Bizarre Blunders:

"This is truly funny stuff." 
--Tom Snyder

"Wonderful. What a lot of fun." 
--Mike Duffy, Detroit Free Press

"Wacky...hilarious stories." 
--National Enquirer

"I am impressed...A hilarious book. A very strange guy." -
--Bill Handel, KFI-A.M., Los Angeles

Weird Wonders and Bizarre Blunders at Amazon.com

 
 
The World's Best-Smelling Author

Although he is not yet a best-selling author, Brad Schreiber, a writer in Los Angeles, California, does have the distinction of being the world's best-smelling author. Schreiber collected 137 bottles of cologne, perfume, toilet water, after-shave lotion and scented bath oil from his friends. He dumped the contents into his tub and bathed in it for 13 hours, 24 minutes and 18 seconds. Schreiber has not used any underarm deodorant since his aromatic bath. -- (from Weird Wonders and Bizarre Blunders)