Mike Thomas

Descriptions of Chicago's Second City comedy theater group as told to the author by troup members and historical information collected by the author.

Revolution and Revelation at the World-famous Comedy Theater

The Second City Unscripted

In 1959, a group of like-minded Chicagoans joined forces to open a hip new venue dedicated to coffee, cigarettes, conversation, and comedy. The result, a nightly cabaret featuring a troupe of inventive young actors skewering everything from politics to popular culture in witty, rapid-fire, improvised scenes, not only made delighted audiences laugh–it made history. Copping its iconic name from a New York journalist’s disparaging remark, Chicago’s Second City theater brashly defied the role of runner-up and single-handedly made the Windy City North America’s cradle of comedic brilliance from which generations of household names would spring. Now, in The Second City Unscripted, a Who’s Who of the celebrated comedy camp’s alumni–including Alan Arkin, David Steinberg, Harold Ramis, Dan Aykroyd, Eugene Levy, Amy Sedaris, and Stephen Colbert–tell it like it was in the house that hilarity built. Here are candid tales of John Belushi’s raw ambition and chemical experimentation, Bill Murray’s heckler-pummeling and lady-killing, superstar Mel Gibson’s roof-raising appearance in Braveheart regalia, and legendary director Del Close’s shuttling between the comedic asylum he ruled over and the real one he rehabbed in. In this unvarnished, unexpurgated, and unprecedented account, what happened onstage, backstage, and offstage at Second City isn’t staying there anymore. From the smash hits and near misses to the love affairs and the bitter feuds, from the showbiz politics and pitfalls to the inspired tomfoolery and heartbreaking tragedy, The Second City Unscripted is part memoir of a cherished era, part time capsule from a comedic renaissance, and part valentine to the exquisite art of being funny. It captures like never before the history of the men and women who caught lightning–and laughter–in a bottle.

Revolution and Revelation at the World-Famous Comedy Theater

Terry Philpot

The overwhelming majority of children and young people in care today are fostered, but for some this only increases their problems through untreated trauma, ill-judged placements, poorly supported foster carers and multiple moves. This practical and evidence-based book outlines the principles of family placement on the basis of planning and evidence, and explores the qualities, skills and insights that create positive placement outcomes. Fostering a Child's Recovery shows how the key to good fostering is well-trained and skilled foster carers who form part of a team of professionals who surround the child. This book will benefit all professionals and parents involved in providing recovery for traumatized children and young people in ensuring successful placements.

Family Placement for Traumatized Children

Fostering a Child's Recovery

Mandy Drake

Cognitive Behaviour Therapy Case Studies uniquely combines CBT with the Department of Health stepped care model to provide the first comprehensive case study-approach textbook. A step-by-step guide to using CBT, the book is structured around case examples of clients who present with the most commonly encountered conditions; from mild depression and GAD to more complex, enduring symptoms and diagnosis like OCD, personality disorder and social phobia. The distinctive practical format is ideal in showing how to put the principles of CBT and stepped care into effect. As well as echoing postgraduate level training, Mike Thomas and Mandy Drake provide an insight into the experiences the trainee will encounter in real-world practice.

Cognitive Behaviour Therapy Case Studies

At a squalid flat near the Cardiff docks, an early morning police raid goes catastrophically wrong when the police aren't the only unexpected guests. A plain clothes officer is shot dead at point blank range, the original suspect is left in a coma. The killer, identity unknown, slips away. Young and inexperienced, Will MacReady starts his first day on the CID. With the city in shock and the entire force reeling, he is desperate to help -- but unearths truths that lead the team down an increasingly dark path.

Ash and bones

Leo Lester

This book provides a concise introduction to China’s electricity sector, suitable for university students and business analysts. It is business focused, combining an introduction from an established regional electricity consultancy with five academic chapters covering governance, market stakeholders and reform, wind and solar power, environmental regulation, and developments in financing. It is written in an accessible but rigorous style for people with limited knowledge of the topic, with minimal jargon but full referencing throughout the academic chapters. Each academic chapter starts with a summary and three key points to guide the reader’s understanding.

China’s Electricity Sector

A dark slice of Cardiff crime for fans of TONY PARSONS, JAMES OSWALD and LUCA VESTE. There isn't always a welcome in the valleys . . . Bombs detonate in a busy souk, causing massive devastation. An explosion rips apart a mosque, killing and injuring those inside. But this isn't the Middle East - this is Cardiff . . . In a city where tensions are already running high, DC Will MacReady and his colleagues begin the desperate hunt for the attacker. If they knew the 'why', then surely they can find the 'who'? But that isn't so easy, and time is fast running out . . . MacReady is still trying to prove himself after the horrific events of the previous year, which left his sergeant injured and his job in jeopardy, so he feels sidelined when he's asked to investigate a vicious knife attack on a young woman. But all is not as it seems with his new case, and soon MacReady must put everything on the line in order to do what is right.

A gritty new police drama for fans of Stuart MacBride

Unforgivable

Dinah Bradley

Brathing Pattern Disorders and how to Overcome Them

Hyperventilation Syndrome

This book uniquely combines CBT with the Department of Health stepped care model to provide the first comprehensive case study-approach textbook. A step-by-step guide to using CBT, the book is structured around case studies of clients who present with the most commonly encountered conditions; from mild to more complex, enduring symptoms and diagnosis. This distinctive practical format is ideal in showing how to put the principles of CBT and stepped care into effect. As well as echoing postgraduate level training, it provides an insight into the experiences the trainee will encounter in real-world practice. Each chapter addresses a specific client condition and covers initial referral, presentation and assessment, case formulation, treatment interventions, evaluation of CBT strategies and discharge planning. Specific presenting problems covered include: - First onset and chronic Depression - Social Phobia - Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder - Generalised Anxiety Disorder (GAD) - Chronic Bulimia Nervosa and Anorexia nervosa - Alcohol Addiction - Personality Disorder The book also includes practical learning exercises for the reader and clinical hints, as well as extensive reference to further CBT research, resources and reading. This timely text will be invaluable for trainees on Improving Access to Psychological Therapies (IAPT) programmes, and anyone studying on postgraduate CBT courses.

Robert E. Quinn

Gretchen M. Spreitzer

Katherine Heynoski

What does teaching look like at its very best? How are great teachers able to ignite a love of learning and change students’ lives? In this book you’ll learn from seven remarkable teachers who stretch beyond the conventional foundations of good teaching to transform their classrooms into exciting, dynamic places where teachers and students cocreate the learning experience. Based on six years of extensive work, the book outlines a framework that identifies four dimensions of effective teaching and learning that are integrated in these highly effective teachers’ classrooms—and that all teachers can use to recognize and release the potential in themselves and their students.

How to Accelerate Learning and Change Lives

The Best Teacher in You

Meet Jacob Smith, your good-old British policeman. But Jacob's no ordinary beat bobby. He's a tactical firearms officer; a handsome, popular, financially secure specialist. He's a connoisseur of fine cinema, who also enjoys his expansive collection of do-it-yourself 'art' DVD's (the latest of which was 'borrowed' during a drugs warrant). And he likes to keep himself in shape, hence the large steroid habit - and the even larger amount of money he owes his dealer. And did we mention he's partial to women'sfeet? The girlfriend who's desperately trying to shrug him off? Or what about his parents' dark past? And now his family and friends are starting to worry... and his police superiors are increasingly taking notice of the way he conducts himself. Jake's a very busy boy. And life is about to get even more complicated... Pocket Notebook is the brilliant debut novel from serving police officer Mike Thomas. An angry black comedy, it follows Jacob's very public fall from grace, all of which he meticulously records in his police notebook.

Pocket Notebook

A cop killer on the loose in Cardiff - introducing a dark and gritty new voice in crime fiction, perfect for fans of Stuart MacBride and David Mark At a squalid flat near the Cardiff docks, an early morning police raid goes catastrophically wrong when the police aren't the only unexpected guests. A plain clothes officer is shot dead at point blank range, the original suspect is left in a coma. The killer, identity unknown, slips away. Young and inexperienced, Will MacReady starts his first day on the CID. With the city in shock and the entire force reeling, he is desperate to help - but unearths truths that lead the team down an increasingly dark path...

A Dead Cop. A City Afraid. A Killer on the Loose.

Ash and Bones

Sean O'Reilly

Kevin Hanna

When a young mechanical girl finds companionship with a mutant circus boy, the two must overcome the obstacle of their warring families.

The Clockwork Girl

Beloved TV comedic actor Phil Hartman is best known for his eight brilliant seasons on Saturday Night Live, where his versatility and comedic timing resulted in some of the funniest and most famous sketches in the television show's history. Besides his hilarious impersonations of Phil Donahue, Frank Sinatra and Bill Clinton, Hartman's other indelible characters included Cirroc the Unfrozen Caveman Lawyer, Eugene the Anal Retentive Chef and, of course, Frankenstein. He also starred as pompous radio broadcaster Bill McNeal in the NBC sitcom NewsRadio and voiced numerous classic roles — most memorably washed-up actor and commercial pitchman Troy McClure — on Fox's long-running animated hit The Simpsons. But Hartman's seemingly charmed life was cut tragically short when he was fatally shot by his troubled third wife, Brynn, who turned a gun on herself several hours later. The shocking and headline-generating turn of events stunned those closest to the couple as well as countless fans who knew Phil only from afar. Now, for the first time ever, the years and moments leading up to his untimely end are described in illuminating detail through information gleaned from exclusive interviews with scores of famous cast mates, close friends and family members as well as private letters, audio/video recordings, extensive police records, and more. Both joyous tribute and serious biography, Mike Thomas' You Might Remember Me is a celebration of Phil Hartman's multi-faceted career and an exhaustively reported, warts-and-all examination of his often intriguing and sometimes complicated life—a powerful, humor-filled and disquieting portrait of a man who was loved by many, admired by millions and taken from them far too early.

Mike Thomas

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