Seriously Funny (Magill’s Literary Annual 2004)
At a glance:
- Author: Gerald Nachman
- First Published: 2003
- Type of Work: Media
- Time of Work: 1953-1965
- Setting: San Francisco, Los Angeles, Chicago, and New York
- Genres: Nonfiction
- Subjects: 1950’s, 1960’s, New York, United States or Americans, Acting or actors, Twentieth century, New York City, Chicago, California, Los Angeles, Wit or humor, Fame, San Francisco, Theater, Films, movies, or motion pictures, Television or television broadcasting, Songs or songwriters, Nightclubs, Censorship, Entertaining or entertainers, Radio or radio broadcasting, Jokes
- Locales: New York, Chicago, IL, Los Angeles, CA, San Francisco, CA
Appropriately, Seriously Funny, Gerald Nachman’s study of the American comedy renaissance of the 1950’s and 1960’s, begins with Mort Sahl. Sahl was the first stand-up comic to comment on politics. He was an innovator of the first order, a hipster who wore slacks and sweaters in the style of the era’s graduate students and who took the stage armed with a daily newspaper for a prop. “I’m for capital punishment. You’ve got to execute people—how else are they going to learn?”
In the early 1950’s, nightclub comics wore tuxedos and did not discuss current...
[The entire page is 1930 words long]
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