“Funny [and] fascinating . . . If you’re a comedy nerd you’ll love this book.” —Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Named a Best Book of the Year by Kirkus Reviews, National Post, and Splitsider Based on over two hundred original interviews and extensive archival research, this groundbreaking work is a narrative exploration of the way comedians have reflected, shaped, and changed American culture over the … shaped, and changed American culture over the past one hundred years.
Starting with the vaudeville circuit at the turn of the last century, the book 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.
“Entertaining and carefully documented . . . jaw-dropping anecdotes . . . This book is a real treat.” —Merrill Markoe, TheWall Street Journal
more
For me, this was a Covid-inspired selection. In search of something to provide some laughs during this very unfunny period of time we’re living in, I scrolled through the comedy section on my Kindle and stumbled upon this book. The front cover shows a number of dead comedians that I grew up listening to and some that are still around so that caught my attention along with the title which inferred that some personal tidbits on the lifestyles of these people would be exposed. And on that assumption, the book did not disappoint.
Starting with the vaudeville era of the 20’s and continuing through the remainder of the twentieth century, the author, Kliph Nesteroff, lets us know about the jerks, the good guys, the philanderers, the alcoholics, the heavy weed smokers, the big time cocaine users, and those who took the heroin path. Breaking into comedy takes as much guts and resiliency as it does talent and material, and for those comedians who worked in Las Vegas in the 50’s and 60’s it also took a lot of working with the Mafia figures who dominated everything. And if you didn’t go along, well, that’s also described in the book. It also exposes how many comics, some of whom are the most well known in American entertainment history, shamelessly stole their material from other acts and got away with it. All of these elements offered an interesting education for me and some truly eye-opening surprises. I won’t mention any of them in this review to make sure that any surprises I had will also offer potential readers the same revelations.
If the 5-star rating system were solely based on research, I’d give this author the full 5 stars, but as an analogy, the book was like a director falling in love with his film so much that he/she loses perspective on the need to edit. The result is something that goes on too long and passages become boring. I found myself skipping through parts of the book that could have and should have been shorter and able to be concisely described rather than the over-dependence on seemingly every garnered fact that was learned.
And by the way, Mr. Nesteroff, it’s not your right as the author to describe someone as a slob or other inflammatory insult unless you’re making your own personal observation. It appears that during your interviews with certain comedians it was their opinion, not yours, so that is another problem I encountered.
Overall, I did learn many interesting things that I’ll remember both good and bad about certain performers. If nothing else, a number of these comedians have many YouTube clips available for their standup routines and that’s been something I’ve started watching to give me those laughs I was searching for when I first discovered the book, so thank you Kliph Nesteroff for these great comic reminders.
What would this review be without one funny passage to end with? America’s first standup comic was a man named Frank Faye, and he was disliked by many fellow comedians as well as people in the Hollywood community for his notable arrogance and vocal anti-Semitic views. After marrying a young Barbara Stanwyck, the joke going around was, ‘Who has the biggest prick in Hollywood?’ Answer, ‘Barbara Stanwyck.’
if you want to know about most comedians and relatives…this is the book for you. “who was his uncle’s nephew on his mother’s side? I didn’t know that!” pretty convoluted, if you like that sort of read. all true facts, but very complicated.