Listen and read

Step into an infinite world of stories

  • Listen and read as much as you want
  • Over 400 000+ titles
  • Bestsellers in 10+ Indian languages
  • Exclusive titles + Storytel Originals
  • Easy to cancel anytime
Subscribe now
Details page - Device banner - 894x1036

The Comedians: Drunks, Thieves, Scoundrels, and the History of American Comedy

Language
English
Format
Category

Non-Fiction

“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 ground breaking 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, 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-fuelled 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, The Wall Street Journal

© 2015 Grove Press (Ebook): 9780802190864

Release date

Ebook: 3 November 2015

Others also enjoyed ...

  1. We Had a Little Real Estate Problem: The Unheralded Story of Native Americans & Comedy Kliph Nesteroff
  2. Wild and Crazy Guys: How the Comedy Mavericks of the '80s Changed Hollywood Forever Nick de Semlyen
  3. The Last of the President's Men Bob Woodward
  4. Congratulations, Who Are You Again?: A Memoir Harrison Scott Key
  5. The Man that Shocked Britain - Gate of Horn, Chicago, December 1962 Lenny Bruce
  6. Some Luck Jane Smiley
  7. Girl in a Band: A Memoir Kim Gordon
  8. Dangerous Rhythms: Jazz and the Underworld T. J. English
  9. Thud! Terry Pratchett
  10. Astor: The Rise and Fall of an American Fortune Anderson Cooper
  11. The Indignant Generation: A Narrative History of African American Writers and Critics, 1934-1960 Lawrence P. Jackson
  12. John Lennon: The Life Philip Norman
  13. The Power of Cute Simon May
  14. Gray Malin: Dogs Gray Malin
  15. Defending America: Military Culture and the Cold War Court-Martial Elizabeth Lutes Hillman
  16. Building the Land of Dreams: New Orleans and the Transformation of Early America Eberhard L. Faber
  17. Feeding Gotham: The Political Economy and Geography of Food in New York, 1790–1860 Gergely Baics
  18. Art Rebels: Race, Class, and Gender in the Art of Miles Davis and Martin Scorsese Paul Lopes
  19. Postcards from Absurdistan: Prague at the End of History Derek Sayer
  20. Going Postal Terry Pratchett
  21. Journalists between Hitler and Adenauer: From Inner Emigration to the Moral Reconstruction of West Germany Volker R. Berghahn
  22. Worlds Beyond Time: Sci-Fi Art of the 1970s Adam Rowe
  23. This Will Be Funny Someday Katie Henry
  24. The Fabulous Bouvier Sisters: The Tragic and Glamorous Lives of Jackie and Lee Sam Kashner
  25. Embattled Europe: A Progressive Alternative Konrad H. Jarausch
  26. Meet Me in Another Life: A Novel Catriona Silvey
  27. Freedom Jonathan Franzen
  28. Recursion Blake Crouch
  29. Dark Matter: The compulsive alternate-universe thriller, now on Apple TV+ Blake Crouch
  30. Not Even Past: Barack Obama and the Burden of Race Thomas J. Sugrue
  31. Broken Lives: How Ordinary Germans Experienced the 20th Century Konrad H. Jarausch
  32. An Unkindness of Magicians Kat Howard
  33. Come, Tell Me How You Live: An Archaeological Memoir Agatha Christie
  34. Wishful Drinking Carrie Fisher
  35. Reflections on the Musical Mind: An Evolutionary Perspective Jay Schulkin
  36. A Freewheelin' Time: A Memoir of Greenwich Village in the Sixties Suze Rotolo
  37. Magic Lessons: A Prequel to Practical Magic Alice Hoffman