The Comedians: Drunks, Thieves, Scoundrels, and the History of American Comedy
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Book Overview
In The Comedians , comedy historian Kliph Nesteroff brings to life a century of American comedy with real-life characters, forgotten stars, mainstream heroes and counterculture iconoclasts. Based on over two hundred original interviews and extensive archival research, Nesteroff's groundbreaking work is a narrative exploration of the way comedians have reflected, shaped, and changed American culture over the past one hundred years. Starting with the vaudeville circuit at the turn of the last century, Nesteroff introduces the first stand-up comedian--an emcee who abandoned physical shtick for straight jokes. After the repeal of Prohibition, Mafia-run supper clubs replaced speakeasies, and mobsters replaced vaudeville impresarios as the comedian's primary employer. In the 1950s, the late-night talk show brought stand-up to a wide public, while Lenny Bruce, Mort Sahl, and Jonathan Winters attacked conformity and staged a comedy rebellion in coffeehouses. From comedy's part in the Civil Rights movement and the social upheaval of the late 1960s, to the first comedy clubs of the 1970s and the cocaine-fueled comedy boom of the 1980s, The Comedians culminates with a new era of media-driven celebrity in the twenty-first century.
Format:Hardcover
Language:English
ISBN:0802123988
ISBN13:9780802123985
Release Date:November 2015
Publisher:Grove Press
Length:432 Pages
Weight:1.72 lbs.
Dimensions:1.7" x 6.0" x 8.9"
Customer Reviews
1 rating
If you like skipping from fact to fact, this is your book.
Published by Wayne , 1 year ago
A frenetic book where one is barraged on each page with micro-facts, seemingly all related to comics and drug culture. Nothing uplifting about this book and questionable if some of the many comedians profiled in it were ever funny. I found myself disliking most of them as I read the book. I prefer to be inspired by people's lives, not demoralized.
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