History of stand-up comedy

Modern stand-up comedy began around the turn of the century, evolving from a variety of sources including minstrel shows and vaudeville. Early stand-up comedians spoke directly to the audience as themselves without props or costumes, which distinguished these acts from vaudeville performances. These comics stood in front of the curtain during their shows, like early 20th century "front cloth" stand-up comics in Britain and Ireland whose numbers allowed the stage behind them to be re-set for another act.

Aside from American and British versions in the early 1900s, other nations did not establish comedy scenes until decades later. Despite a history of staged comedy acts from the 16th and 17th centuries, modern stand-up in India emerged in the 1980s. Although a few performers in Spain and Brazil introduced stand-up comedy in the 1950s and 1960s, Spain, Brazil, Mexico, and Germany were not considered to have developed stand-up traditions until the late 1990s and early 2000s.

United States

Stand-up comedy has roots in various traditions of popular entertainment of the late 19th century, including vaudeville, the stump-speech monologues of minstrel shows, dime museums, concert saloons, freak shows, variety shows, medicine shows, American burlesque, English music halls, circus clown antics, Chautauqua, and humorist monologues like those delivered by Mark Twain in his first (1866) touring show, Our Fellow Savages of the Sandwich Islands.^{[1][2][3][4][5][6][7]} Unadulterated, vaudeville monologuist run-times were 10–15 minutes.^[8][9]

Pleasure gardens had outdoor "rooms" with themes.^[10] While pleasure gardens hosted shows of minstrelsy and burlesque, the era of American vaudeville can be traced back to 1836, at a pleasure garden called Niblo's Garden, but the term vaudeville wasn't in regular verbal use until the 1840s and didn't commonly appear in writing until the 1890s.^[11][12] With the turn of the twentieth century and spread of urban and industrial living, the structure, pacing and timing, and material of American humor began to change.^[13][14] Comedians of this era often depended on fast-paced joke delivery, slapstick, outrageous or lewd innuendo, and donned an ethnic persona—African, Scottish, German, Jewish—and built a routine based on popular stereotypes.^[15] During the stand-up eras of minstrel, vaudeville, and burlesque, jokes were generally considered to be in the public domain and humorous material was widely shared, appropriated, and stolen.^[16] Industrialized American audiences sought entertainment as a way to escape and confront city living. A precursor to stand-up, the era of American burlesque started in the 1860s and ran uncensored until 1937, when the term burlesque could no longer legally be used in New York; burlesque comics used stereotypes and sexually suggestive dialogic humor to appeal to heterosexual men.^[7][17][18] The burlesque routine Who's on First? was made famous by Abbott and Costello.

The founders of modern American stand-up comedy include Moms Mabley, Jack Benny, Bob Hope, George Burns, Fred Allen, Milton Berle and Frank Fay, all of whom came from vaudeville or the Chitlin' Circuit.^[19][20] They spoke directly to the audience as themselves, in front of the curtain, known as performing "in one". Frank Fay gained acclaim as a "master of ceremonies" at New York's Palace Theater. Vaudevillian Charlie Case (also spelled Charley Case) is often credited with the first form of stand-up comedy, performing humorous monologues without props or costumes. This had not been done before during a vaudeville show.

The 1940s–50s elevated the careers of comedians like Milton Berle and Sid Caesar through radio and television.^[21] From the 1930s–50s, the nightclub circuit was owned and operated by the American Mafia.^[22][23] Nightclubs and resorts became the breeding ground for a new type of comedian: a stand-up, specifically Lenny Bruce.^[24][25] Acts such as Alan King, Danny Thomas, Martin and Lewis, Don Rickles, Joan Rivers and Jack E. Leonard flourished in these venues.

Lenny Bruce in 1961

In the 1950s and into the 1960s, "new wave"^[26] stand-ups such as Mort Sahl and Lord Buckley began developing their acts in small folk clubs like San Francisco's hungry i (owned by impresario Enrico Banducci and origin of the ubiquitous "brick wall" behind comedians)^[27] or New York's Bitter End.^[28][29][30] These comedians added an element of social satire and expanded both the language and boundaries of stand-up, venturing into politics, race relations, and sexual humor. Lenny Bruce became known as 'the' obscene comic when he used language that usually led to his arrest.^[31] After Lenny Bruce, arrests for obscene language on stage nearly disappeared until George Carlin was arrested on 21 July 1972 at Milwaukee's Summerfest after performing the routine "Seven Words You Can Never Say on Television"^[32] Carlin's act was ruled indecent but not obscene, and the Supreme Court granted the FCC permission to censor in a 5–4 ruling from FCC v. Pacifica Foundation.

Other notable comics from this era include Woody Allen, Shelley Berman, Phyllis Diller, and Bob Newhart. Some Black American comedians such as George Kirby, Bill Cosby, Flip Wilson, Godfrey Cambridge, and Dick Gregory began exploring the criticism of "history and myth" in the 1950s–60s, with Redd Foxx testing the boundaries of "uncensored racial humor".^[33]

In the 1970s, several entertainers became major stars based on stand-up comedy performances. Richard Pryor and George Carlin followed Lenny Bruce's acerbic style to become icons. Stand-up expanded from clubs, resorts, and coffee houses into major concerts in sports arenas and amphitheaters. Steve Martin and Andy Kaufman were the most popular practitioners of anti-comedy from the 1970s into the 1980s.^[34] The older style of stand-up comedy (no social satire) was kept alive by Rodney Dangerfield and Buddy Hackett, who enjoyed revived careers late in life. Don Rickles, whose legendary style of relentless merciless attacks on both fellow performers and audience members alike kept him a fixture on TV and in Vegas from the 1960s all the way to the 2000s, when he appeared in the wildly popular Pixar Toy Story films as Mr. Potato Head, whom Rickles gave his grouchy onstage mannerisms. Television programs such as Saturday Night Live and The Tonight Show helped publicize the careers of other stand-up comedians, including Janeane Garofalo, Bill Maher and Jay Leno.

In the 1980s, Eddie Murphy shaped African American comedy when he created the Black Pack: similar to the Rat Pack, it was a group of stand-up comedians, its members included Paul Mooney, who wrote for Richard Pryor and later starred on Chappelle's Show.^{[35][36][37][38]}

From the 1970s to the '90s, different styles of comedy began to emerge, from the madcap stylings of Robin Williams, to the odd observations of Jerry Seinfeld and Ellen DeGeneres, the ironic musings of Steven Wright, to the mimicry of Whoopi Goldberg, and Eddie Murphy. These comedians would serve to influence the next generation of comedians.

After the height of the 80s stand-up comedy boom, there was a 90s comedy bust.^[39]

The Aristocrats is a 2005 film based on the original vaudeville joke The Aristocrats, where comedians tell their version of the dirty joke.^[40]

Dave Chappelle, performing standup in 2018

Official recognition of present-day stand-up comedians comes from the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor, the New York Friars Club roasts, and The Andy Kaufman Award.^[41]

The oldest Stand-Up comic seems to be Herbert Falk, born May 30, 1921,^[42] who performed at the Laughing Skull Comedy club in Atlanta when he was 99 yrs old on Jan 23, 2020. He later performed at the Helium Club in Buffalo, NY USA on Dec. 8th 2021 at 100 yrs old. His laughing skull routine can be viewed here . A lucky man he skirted death in WWII, volunteering to remove land minds under fire^[43] only to be happier delivering stand up 77 years later. He passed away January 2022, at 100 years old. His obituary can be found here.:

Germany

Entgleist Mixed Comedy Show at Bahnwärter Thiel Munich

Germany developed its stand-up culture in the 1990s, with a growing trend. Among the early pioneers of the later German comedy scene can be counted Loriot, Heinz Erhardt, Otto Waalkes, Dieter Hallervorden or Karl Dall.^{[citation needed]}

Nowadays, many German cities have built their stand-up culture. Berlin currently has the largest comedy scene in Germany, with its own comedy clubs, like Mad Monkey Room ^[44] since 2017.

Following with Munich, which today has a lot of German and English open mic shows, almost for every day of the week.^[45][46]

Britain and Ireland

Bronze statue of Britain's Max Miller

Early twentieth-century front-cloth comics started in music halls, paving the way for stand-up comedy in Great Britain.^[47][48][49] Notable front-cloth comics who rose through the variety theatre circuit were Morecambe and Wise, Arthur Askey, Ken Dodd and Max Miller.^[50][47] Until 1968, the heavy censorship regime of the Lord Chamberlain's Office required all comedians to submit their acts for censorship. The act would be returned with unacceptable sections underlined in blue pencil (possibly giving rise to the term "blue" for a comedian whose act is considered bawdy or smutty). The comedian was then obliged not to deviate from the act in its edited form.^[51]

The rise of the post-war comedians coincided with the rise of television and radio, and the traditional music hall circuit suffered greatly as a result.^{[citation needed]} By the 1970s, music hall entertainment was virtually dead. Alternative circuits had evolved, such as working men's clubs.^[51] Some of the more successful comedians on the working men's club circuit—including Bernard Manning, Bobby Thompson, Frank Carson and Stan Boardman—eventually made their way to television via such shows as The Wheeltappers and Shunters Social Club. The "alternative" comedy scene also began to evolve. Some of the earliest successes came from folk clubs, where performers such as Billy Connolly, Mike Harding and Jasper Carrott started as relatively straight musical acts whose between-song banter developed into complete comedy routines. The 1960s had also seen the satire boom, including the creation of the club, the Establishment, which, amongst other things, gave British audiences their first taste of extreme American stand-up comedy from Lenny Bruce.^[52] Victoria Wood launched her stand-up career in the early 1980s, which included observational conversation mixed with comedy songs. Wood was to become one of the country's most successful comedians, in 2001 selling out the Royal Albert Hall for 15 nights in a row.^{[citation needed]}

In 1979, the first American-style stand-up comedy club, the Comedy Store was opened in London by Peter Rosengard, where many alternative comedy stars of the 1980s, such as Dawn French and Jennifer Saunders, Alexei Sayle, Craig Ferguson, Rik Mayall and Ade Edmondson began their careers.^[53] The stand-up comedy circuit rapidly expanded from London across the UK. The present British stand-up comedy circuit arose from the 'alternative' comedy revolution of the 1980s, with political and observational humor being the prominent styles to flourish. In 1983, young drama teacher Maria Kempinska created Jongleurs Comedy Clubs before it closed in 2017. Stand-up comedy is believed to have been performed originally as a one-man show. Lately, this type of show started to involve a group of young comedians, especially in Europe.^{[citation needed]}

Mexico

In terms of live comedy in Mexico ^[es], the predecessors of this comic style are:

• The Tepichines ^[es] are a comic duo who were predecessors of a style consisting of parodies and double senses with creativity
• Miguel Galván (1957–2008) Originally from Juan Aldama, Zacatecas. He dropped out of architecture at the Universidad del Valle de México to take theater classes at the "Dimitrio Sarrás Actors Studio" for three years.
• Mara Escalante, is an actress, comedian and Mexican singer. She is known for the television series María de Todos los Ángeles, in which she has two characters, including the protagonist. She began her career in the mid-1990s.
• Polo Polo (1944-), whose routines are characterized by a high content of sexual references, with a touch of misogyny, relayed as a personal anecdote.
• Adal Ramones (1961-) was one of the first to transport the genre to Mexico from his nocturnal program, using the comic monologue.
• Evelio with V Chica (Evelio Arias Ramos, 1966–2008).
• Eugenio Derbez

The new generation of comedians decided to use their own lives as the theme of their comedy, imitating the American style:

• Héctor Suárez Gomís, son of Mexican comedian Héctor Suárez, is currently the host of the Latin American version of the comedy program Stand Up Comedy Central Presents, broadcast by Comedy Central from 2011 until 2014.
• Adal Ramones since 2013 leads the program called STANDparados ^[es] broadcast by Comedy District ^[es] before Classic TV.
• Kikis, (1980) comedian since late 2011, openly lesbian, has participated in Comedy Central Latin America as well as with Adal Ramones in STANDparados Comedy District.
• Luiki Wiki (1985-) began making comedy in January 2013 in Mexico City and later moved to Monterrey NL to start the first Open Mic in Monterrey (an event in which comedians can participate to try out new material with a real audience) together with other comedians of the genre. Later they created the first collective of comedy in Monterrey called For Laughter Standup Comedy. Luiki Wiki has participated in programs such as Es de Noche and I already arrived with René Franco and as with Adal Ramones in the 3rd season of the STANDparados program aired by Comedy District.
• Franco Escamilla (1981–) Comedian, musician, radio announcer and founder of "La Diablo Squad". He is mainly known for his comedy shows, has performed throughout the Mexican Republic and Latin America, even starting his own "World Tour", arriving to have confirmed performances in Europe and the United States, including trips to Japan and Australia. Currently known as the largest representative of stand-up comedy in this country.
• Hugo "El Cojo Felíz" (1988-), is a comedian, radio announcer, part of the devil Squad, has the radio program "La Hora Felíz" with the "Uncle Rober" and is considered the best pen in Mexico.
• Roberto Andrade Cerón the "Uncle Rober" (1979-) is a comedian, writer, radio announcer and has "La Cojo Feliz" the radio program "La Hora Felíz".
• Daniel Sosa
• Jose Luis Slobotzky
• Ricardo Perez
• Alex Fernandez
• Sofía Niño de Rivera
• Mauricio Nieto

Brazil

The one-man-show genre, which is similar, but allows other approaches (enacting characters, songs and scenes) was introduced in Brazil by José Vasconcellos in the 60's. Taking a step closer to the North American format, Chico Anysio and Jô Soares maintained the format - specially in their live nation-wide talks shows, and generally, in the opening monologues - bringing to Brazil a genre more similar to what is currently known as Stand-up.^[54]

Stand-up began to be interesting news in 2005 in São Paulo, when the first club was created, called Clube de Comédia Stand-Up: composed of Marcelo Mansfield, Rafinha Bastos, Oscar Filho, Marcela Leal and Márcio Ribeiro. In São Paulo the comedy club would present in Beverly Hills, the traditional comedy venue in Moema. Shortly afterwards it migrated to Mr. Blues and Bleeker Street, in Vila Madalena. In Rio de Janeiro, Comédia em Pé, (Comedy Standing Up): composed of Cláudio Torres Gonzaga, Fábio Porchat, Fernando Caruso and Paulo Carvalho, had its debue at the venue Rio Design Leblon. These were the first stand-up performances in the country.

In 2006, the comic Jô Soares watched Clube de Comédia in São Paulo and invited the comic Diogo Portugal for an interview in his talk show. That was a definitive moment to call attention towards the genre. He mentioned many different shows that he was a part of and attracted the public attention and media coverage to the bars that held these presentations. In Curitiba, with this momentum, many other stand-up nights began opening up. In São Paulo, Danilo Gentili, that had just become a part of Clube da Comédia, invited Mário Ribeiro and gathered other young comics that were frequent spectators at the club, to create Comédia Ao Vivo (Live Comedy): composed of Dani Calabresa, Luiz França, Fábio Rabin.^[55][56]

With the show CQC - Custe o Que Custar, on TV Bandeirantes, a nation-wide TV outlet, in 2008, the genre took gained its permanent spot on the national stage. With big names like Danilo Gentili, Rafinha Bastos and Oscar Filho, the curiosity grew exponentially.^[57]

Following CQC's example many channels and TV shows on Brazil's national television invested in Stand-up comedy. After this many other groups gained recognition in the clubs and live performances around the two biggest cities of Brazil.

Spain

Although the origins of this genre can be traced back to the monologues of Miguel Gila in the 1950s, the rise of live comedy in Spain took a long time in comparison with the American continent. The first generalized relationship with this comic genre occurred in 1999 with the creation of the Paramount Comedy channel, which included the New Comics program as one of its flagship programs, where monologuists such as Ángel Martín, José Juan Vaquero, David Broncano, and Joaquín Reyes stood out.

Also, in 1999 began the journey of the program The club of comedy, an open adaptation of the popular comic format. In its first stage (1999–2005), it underwent several chain changes and released comedians like Luis Piedrahita, Alexis Valdes or Goyo Jiménez. In its new stage, starting in 2011 in La Sexta and presented by Eva Hache, it tries to start in the genre of comic monologue media characters from different artistic fields such as: Imanol Arias, José Luis Gil, Isabel Ordaz and Santiago Segura.

Special mention deserves the Buenafuente ^[es] program, started in 2005. The presenter, Andreu Buenafuente, made an initial monologue of about 9 to 11 minutes where he links current issues with everyday humorous situations. This became the most famous part of the program and made him one of the most recognized comedians in Spain, for his connection with the public and his ability to improvise.

On the other hand, the comedian Ignatius Farray became one of the most representative icons of this genre today.

India

Modern stand-up comedy in India is a young art form, however Chakyar koothu was prominent in Trivandrum and southern Kerala during the 16th and 17th centuries. It had all the attributes of modern stand-up comedy and is widely considered to be the oldest known staged comedy act anywhere in the world.^{[citation needed]}

Even though the history of live comedy performances in India traces its early roots back to 1980s, for a long time stand-up comedians were only given supporting/filler acts in various performances (dance or music).^{[citation needed]}

In 1986, India's Johnny Lever performed in a charity show called "Hope 86", in front of the whole Hindi film industry as a filler and was loved by audience. His talent was recognized, and he would later be described as "the iconic comedian of his generation".^[58][59]

It was not until 2005, when the TV show The Great Indian Laughter Challenge garnered huge popularity and stand-up comedy in itself started getting recognised. Thus, a lot more comedians became popular and started performing various live and TV shows. The demand for comedy content continues to increase. Some popular comedians around 2005-2008 include Raju Srivastav, Kapil Sharma and Sunil Pal. Most of them performed their acts in Hindi.

New generation stand-up comedian Raju Srivastav in 2012

Raju Srivastav first appeared on the comedy talent show The Great Indian Laughter Challenge. He finished as second runner-up and then took part in the spin-off, The Great Indian Laughter Challenge — Champions, in which he won the title of "The King of Comedy".^[60] Srivastava was a participant on season 3 of Bigg Boss. He has participated in the comedy show Comedy Ka Maha Muqabla.^[61]

Kapil Sharma, an Indian stand-up comedian, known for comedy nights with Kapil

Kapil Sharma is ranked no. 3 at the most admired Indian personality list by The Economic Times in 2015.^[62] Currently he is hosting the most popular Indian comedy show "The Kapil Sharma Show" after "Comedy Nights with Kapil".^[63] Sharma had been working in the comedy show Hasde Hasande Raho on MH One, until he got his first break in The Great Indian Laughter Challenge, one of the nine reality television shows he has won. He became the winner of the show in 2007 for which he won 10 lakhs as prize money.^[63]

Sharma participated in Sony Entertainment Television's Comedy Circus.^[64] He became the winner of all six seasons of "Comedy Circus" he participated in.^[65] He has hosted dance reality show Jhalak Dikhhla Jaa Season 6^[66] and also hosted comedy show Chhote Miyan.^[67][68] Sharma also participated in the show Ustaadon Ka Ustaad.

Around 2008–2009, two other popular comedians Papa CJ and Vir Das returned to India and started making their marks on Indian comedy scene. Both of them were exposed to UK and US comedy routines and they performed mostly in English. At the same time, a few more youngsters got inspired and started taking plunge into stand-up comedy.

Since 2011, the stand-up comedy has been getting substantial appreciation.^{[citation needed]} The Comedy Store from London opened an outlet in Mumbai's Palladium Mall where people would regularly enjoy comedians from UK. The Comedy Story also supported local comedians and helped them grow. This outlet eventually become Canvas Laugh Club in Mumbai.

Around 2011, people started organizing different comedy open mic events in Mumbai, Delhi (and Gurgaon), Bangalore. All of this happened in association with growth of a counterculture in Indian cities which catered to the appetite of younger generations for live events for comedy, poetry, storytelling, and music. Various stand-up events were covered by popular news channels such NDTV / Aajtak etc. and were appreciated by millions of viewers.

As a result of these developments, plus the increasing penetration of YouTube (along with Internet/World Wide Web), Indian stand-up comedy started reaching further masses. While the established comedians such as Vir Das, Papa CJ were independently growing through various corporate / international performances, other comedians such as Vipul Goyal, Biswa Kalyan Rath, Kenny Sebastian, Kanan Gill, Kunal Kamra, Anubhav Singh Bassi grew popular through YouTube videos.

The industry, still in its early stages, now sees a lot more influx of aspiring comedians as it transforms the ecosystem around it.

References

1. Tafoya, Eddie (2009). The Legacy of the Wisecrack: Stand-up Comedy as the Great American Literary Form. Universal-Publishers. pp. 85–148. ISBN 9781599424958.
2. "Forms of Variety Theater". American Variety Stage: Vaudeville and Popular Entertainment: 1870-1920. Library of Congress (exhibit). Retrieved 24 January 2021. [T]he minstrel show was the most popular form of public amusement in the United States from the 1840s through the 1870s. It virtually ended, in its original form, by 1896, although vestiges lasted well into the twentieth century. Much humor in later comedy forms originated in minstrelsy and adapted itself to new topics and circumstances. The minstrel show also provided American burlesque and other variety forms with a prototypical three-part format. The minstrel show began with a 'walk around' with a verbal exchange between the 'end' men and the interlocutor. An 'olio,' or variety section, followed. Finally, a one-act skit completed the show.
3. Oliar, Dotan; Sprigman, Christopher (2008). "There's No Free Laugh (Anymore): The Emergence of Intellectual Property Norms and the Transformation of Stand-Up Comedy". Virginia Law Review. 94 (8): 1843. JSTOR 25470605. Retrieved 16 September 2020. Stand-up's early roots can also be traced back to minstrel, a variety show format based in racial stereotypes which was widely performed in America between the 1840s and the 1940s. Minstrel acts would script dedicated ad-lib moments for direct actor-audience communication: these spots often were used for telling quick jokes.
4. Lee, Judith Yaross (2006). "Mark Twain as a Stand-up Comedian". The Mark Twain Annual. 4 (4). Penn State University Press: 5. JSTOR 41582220. [Mark Twain] toured his first lecture, usually known as 'Our Fellow Savages of the Sandwich Islands,' for 100 performances beginning in 1866
5. Dudden, Arthur Power, ed. (1987). "The Importance of Mark Twain". American Humor. New York: Oxford University Press. pp. 47–48. ISBN 0-19-504212-3. [Mark Twain] is a reference figure for ... what we want to perceive to be the American character. As a public speaker and lecturer, indeed, the mature Mark Twain was very possibly our last performing humorist who presented himself as a 'general' personage—neither an easterner nor exactly a westerner, the embodiment ... of national regionalism, all parts equal, none predominating. This 'generic' persona, so different from Will Roger's lariat-twirling actor, is equally remote from the ethnic shtick of Woody Allen and Richard Pryor or the urban neurosis of Joan Rivers and David Brenner. He has no direct, obvious successors, only his impersonators; the humor of our contemporary nightclubs is fragmented and typecast. The foe of humbug, explicitly rebelling against outworn Romantic forms and themes, he detested high airs and smug complacency—putting him in the progression that has led to the stand-up insults of W.C. Fields as well as Lenny Bruce ... Among other feats, he contrived his public persona so as to convey the impression of (feigned) laziness, lack of erudition, easy success ... Mark Twain endures because he is greater than any of his possible classifications—crackerbarrel philosopher, literary comedian ... vernacular humorist, after-dinner speaker
6. Zoglin, Richard. "Stand-up comedy". Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. Retrieved 8 March 2019.
7. "Forms of Variety Theater". American Variety Stage: Vaudeville and Popular Entertainment: 1870-1920. Library of Congress (exhibit). Retrieved 24 January 2021. The popular burlesque show of the 1870s though the 1920s referred to a raucous, somewhat bawdy style of variety theater. It was inspired by Lydia Thompson and her troupe, the British Blondes, who first appeared in the United States in the 1860s, and also by early 'leg' shows such as 'The Black Crook' (1866). Its form, humor, and aesthetic traditions were largely derived from the minstrel show. One of the first burlesque troupes was the Rentz-Santley Novelty and Burlesque Company, created in 1870 by M.B. Leavitt, who had earlier feminized the minstrel show with her group Madame Rentz's Female Minstrels. Burlesque rapidly adapted the minstrel show's tripartite structure: part one was composed of songs and dances rendered by a female company, interspersed with low comedy from male comedians. Part two was an 'olio' of short specialties in which the women did not appear. The show's finish was a grand finale. The popular burlesque show of this period eventually evolved into the strip tease which became the dominant ingredient of burlesque by the 1930s.
8. Page, Brett (March 2004) [1915]. Writing for Vaudeville (10 ed.). Project Gutenberg. The pure vaudeville monologue, which was defined as a humorous talk spoken by one person, possesses unity of character, is not combined with any other entertainment form, is marked by compression [word economy], follows a definite form of construction, and usually requires from ten to fifteen minutes for delivery. Humor is its most notable characteristic; unity of the character delivering it, or of its 'hero,' is its second most important requirement. Each point, or gag, is so compressed that to take away or add even one word would spoil its effect; each is expressed so vividly that the action seems to take place before the eyes of the audience. Finally, every point leads out of the preceding point so naturally, and blends into the following point so inevitably, that the entire monologue is a smooth and perfect whole.
9. Double, Oliver (2014) [2005]. Getting the Joke: the inner workings of stand-up comedy (2nd ed.). New York: Bloomsbury Methuen Drama. p. 25. ISBN 978-1-4081-7460-9. The monologuists were like modern stand-ups because they addressed the audience directly and told jokes, but they probably only started doing this towards the end of the vaudeville era.
10. Robertson, Lisa (2011) [2000]. "Arts and Crafts in Burnaby: A Congenial Soil". Occasional work and seven walks from the Office for Soft Architecture. Vancouver, BC: Coach House. p. 88. ISBN 978-1-55245-232-5. Gardens were organized spatially as themed 'rooms' that were 'furnished' with urns, statues and specimen trees and shrubs. Balustrades, terracing, steps and gates extended the material, social and formal vocabularies of the house into the garden, in a renewed articulation and detailing of garden foreground.
11. Stubbs, Naomi J. (September 2013). Cultivating National Identity Through Performance: American Pleasure Gardens and Entertainment. Palgrave Studies in Theatre and Performance History. New York, NY: Palgrave Macmillan. pp. 20, 53, 76, 81, 88, 103, 112, 130. doi:10.1057/9781137326874. ISBN 978-1-349-46002-1. [V]audeville (indeed, the first recorded American usage of this word was at a pleasure garden) ... Niblo's Garden, for example, could be found in the heart of New York between 1828 and 1848 (continuing to 1895 as a theatre) ... [W]ith the introduction of theatres and saloons to several gardens ... [P]roprietors introduced changes to the offerings of their gardens, presenting minstrelsy, variety acts, magicians, etc ... Niblo's Garden was among the many to stage plays with Native American characters, such as Brougham's burlesque Po-ca-hon-tas ... Pleasure gardens were predominantly presented as exclusively white venues that actively sought to exclude and/or diminish the status of African Americans ... Odell's Annals of the New York Stage reveals that Niblo was employing the term [vaudeville] to describe 'unrelated acts on a single bill' in his gardens from at least 1836. It would appear, then, that the pleasure gardens were an early venue for vaudeville, employing the term in the commonly understood manner before the 1840s ... Concert saloons, roof garden theatres, vaudeville, world's fairs, public parks, and amusement parks can all be traced back to pleasure gardens.
12. "Forms of Variety Theater". American Variety Stage: Vaudeville and Popular Entertainment: 1870-1920. Library of Congress (exhibit). Retrieved 24 January 2021. 'Vaudeville' is an American term that dates from the 1840s. Its origin is generally traced to a French form of nineteenth-century pastoral play that included a musical interlude. The term rarely appeared until the 1890s when it was used, like 'variety,' to describe brief, varied acts without a narrative plot, scenario, book, or connecting theme. Nevertheless, these vaudeville acts were carefully structured according to tried-and-true formulas that helped provide rhythm, pace, and a kind of subliminal unity. This recipe proved remarkably successful until the rise of movies as a dominant form of popular entertainment in the early 1930s. A typical vaudeville show offered the audience a little bit of everything in eight to fourteen acts or 'turns.' The average show had about ten turns and included magic segments, musical numbers (especially solo and duet vocals), dance numbers, combination song-and-dance acts, acrobatics, juggling, comic routines (monologists were popular), animal acts, celebrity cameos, and appearances by criminals, pugilists, and others in the news.
13. Mintz, Lawrence E. (1977). "The 'New Wave' of Standup Comedians: An Introduction". Department of American Studies. American Humor. 4 (2, 'Special Issue: Standup'). University of Maryland: 2. JSTOR 42594580. The insult-dialogue and the joke — developed in the minstrel humor and in vaudeville — became the basis for most of the twentieth century standup comedy until relatively recently.
14. Oliar, Dotan; Sprigman, Christopher (2008). "There's No Free Laugh (Anymore): The Emergence of Intellectual Property Norms and the Transformation of Stand-Up Comedy". Virginia Law Review. 94 (8): 1842–43. JSTOR 25470605. Retrieved 16 September 2020. Pure joke telling, a form closer to modern stand-up, was not unknown in vaudeville, but it was not common until the last decade of the form, when vaudeville moved closer to stand-up by placing increasing emphasis on the character of the emcee. The emcee's patter had to be brisk as to not slow down the desired quick flow of the vaudeville bill, and the short jokes he would use seem to have set the standard for post-vaudeville stand-up comics.
15. Mintz, Lawrence E. (1977). "The 'New Wave' of Standup Comedians: An Introduction". Department of American Studies. American Humor. 4 (2, 'Special Issue: Standup'). University of Maryland: 2. JSTOR 42594580. The modern era of standup comedy probably begins with the so-called 'new humor' of the popular theater around the turn of the twentieth century. 'New humor' relied on an aggressive, fast-paced comedy, and upon the joke — a short humorous observation with a distinct 'punchline.'
16. Oliar, Dotan; Sprigman, Christopher (2008). "There's No Free Laugh (Anymore): The Emergence of Intellectual Property Norms and the Transformation of Stand-Up Comedy". Virginia Law Review. 94 (8): 1844. JSTOR 25470605. Retrieved 16 September 2020. We see evidence of joke stealing (though sharing or collective authorship might be better terms for the practice back then) dating from the very beginnings of vaudeville, burlesque, and minstrel, and we see no significant evidence during this formative period of any powerful norm against appropriation. Rather, we see many instances of performers appropriating material from other performers. Vaudeville performers often reprised short acts from well-known plays, sang parts of operas or danced in the styles of the moment. Originality was not a priority.
17. Oliar, Dotan; Sprigman, Christopher (2008). "There's No Free Laugh (Anymore): The Emergence of Intellectual Property Norms and the Transformation of Stand-Up Comedy". Virginia Law Review. 94 (8): 1843. JSTOR 25470605. Retrieved 16 September 2020. Burlesque was stand-up's third major precursor and involved a mix of satiric and ribald humor aimed at a male audience ... Vaudeville and burlesque jokes were usually short and lacked a narrative thread connecting one joke to another.
18. Davis, Andrew (2014) [2011]. Baggy Pants Comedy: Burlesque and the Oral Tradition. Palgrave Studies in Theatre and Performance History. Palgrave Macmillan. pp. 6, 34, 49, 55, 86, 124. ISBN 978-1-137-37872-9. On May 1, 1937, he [the mayor] closed the burlesque theatres of New York. Though many of them eventually reopened, they were prevented from using the word 'burlesque' ... Although burlesque is associated with the 1920s and 1930s, the American burlesque show dates back to the Civil War era ... [it] combined English burlesque with variety entertainment and blackface minstrelsy ... [it] depended on a balance between eroticism and comedy ... The comedy provided a release, through laughter, for those feelings [of sexual tension] ... The burlesque show was ... about dissipating those feelings through laughter ... The central figure in burlesque comedy was the comic. Immediately identifiable by his baggy pants and ragged coat ... While a one-liner or humorous anecdote will serve the needs of a stand-up comedian ... the burlesque comic ... is best served by a dialogue ... Burlesque humor was suggestive rather than obscene
19. Oliar, Dotan; Sprigman, Christopher (2008). "There's No Free Laugh (Anymore): The Emergence of Intellectual Property Norms and the Transformation of Stand-Up Comedy". Virginia Law Review. 94 (8): 1847. JSTOR 25470605. Retrieved 16 September 2020. Comics like Milton Berle, Henny Youngman, Jack Benny, and Bob Hope represent the transition from vaudeville ... These performers carried with them into this post-vaudeville period much of the 'vaudeville aesthetic'—fast-paced gags, word-play, remnants of theatre (music, song, dance, and costumes), and physical humor ... they told strings of jokes that ranged over a wide variety of topics and had little narrative or thematic connection to one another. This style of humor was the dominant form of stand-up between the late 1920s and the 1960s, and remains a secondary, but still significant form of stand-up today.
20. Cutler, Jacqueline (18 November 2013). "'Whoopi Goldberg Presents Moms Mabley': Eddie Murphy, Bill Cosby and Arsenio Hall all owe a debt". Zap2it. Archived from the original on 19 February 2014. Retrieved 24 August 2020.
21. Shifreen, Lawrence J. (1977). "The "New Wave" of Standup Comedians: An Introduction". Department of American Studies. American Humor. 4 (2, 'Special Issue: Standup'). University of Maryland: 1–3. JSTOR 42594580. The late 1940s and early 1950s saw the rise of a new wave of radio and television comedians like Milton Berle, Sid Caesar, Carl Reiner, and Jackie Gleason
22. Nesteroff, Kliph (2015). "Nightclubs". The Comedians: Drunks, Thieves, Scoundrels and the History of American Comedy. New York, NY: Grove Press. pp. 53, 56, 58, 62, 66. ISBN 978-0-8021-2568-2. Organized crime and nightclub comedy coexisted ... For a good forty years the Mob controlled American show business ... it didn't matter if these clubs were in Cleveland, Portland ... if it was a nightclub, the owners were the Mob ... Dominated by the Mob element, there were more nightclubs in South Florida than anywhere else in the country ... The Copacabana was the most important of all the Mob-run nightclubs ... To be a comedian in the 1930s, 1940s, or 1950s was to be an employee of organized crime.
23. Shouse, Eric (2020). "Shit Talking and Ass Kicking: Heckling, Physical Violence and Realistic Death Threats in Stand-Up Comedy". In Oppliger, Patrice A.; Shouse, Eric (eds.). The Dark Side of Stand-up Comedy. Palgrave Studies in Comedy. United Kingdom: Springer Nature Switzerland AG: Palgrave Macmillan. p. 265. doi:10.1007/978-3-030-37214-9_12. ISBN 978-3-030-37213-2. S2CID 216523473. Although mobsters no longer run most of the comedy clubs in the United States, cash intensive businesses like comedy clubs and strip clubs continue to be attractive to the Mob.
24. Shifreen, Lawrence J. (1977). "The "New Wave" of Standup Comedians: An Introduction". Department of American Studies. American Humor. 4 (2, 'Special Issue: Standup'). University of Maryland: 1–3. JSTOR 42594580. [O]n the nightclub circuit a new type of stand-up comic was materializing in the person of Lenny Bruce ... It was Bruce who moved from the slapstick world of W. C. Fields, the Marx Brothers, and Laurel and Hardy to a straight, 'lone ranger' approach to comedy. Added to his one-man routine was a base, sexually oriented humor mixed with the urban sophistication of an intellectual. His scathing social and political satire was not built around the old jokes of vaudeville but on new 'free form' routines that many considered 'hip.'
25. Oliar, Dotan; Sprigman, Christopher (2008). "There's No Free Laugh (Anymore): The Emergence of Intellectual Property Norms and the Transformation of Stand-Up Comedy". Virginia Law Review. 94 (8): 1851–52. JSTOR 25470605. Retrieved 16 September 2020. Lenny Bruce ... did not start his career as a pioneer, but as a typical Catskills 'toomler,' performing a clean act filled with hokey impressions and material liberally appropriated from other comics. After achieving some initial recognition ... Bruce began making changes to his act. He began writing all of his material himself (a radical concept at the time) ... The descendants of Sahl and Bruce comprise the majority of working comedians today.
26. Mintz, Lawrence E. (Spring 1985). "Special Issue: American Humor" (PDF). American Quarterly. 37 (1). The Johns Hopkins University Press: 71–80. doi:10.2307/2712763. JSTOR 2712763. Retrieved 2 August 2020. The March 1961 issue of Playboy magazine features ... [a] symposium on the 'new wave' standup comedy, involving Lenny Bruce, Mort Sahl, Jonathan Winters, and Jules Feiffer among others
27. McLellan, Dennis (2007-10-16). "Enrico Banducci, 85; owned hungry i nightclub". Los Angeles Times. ISSN 0458-3035. Retrieved 2016-05-23.
28. Greene, Grace F. (2012). "Rhetoric in Comedy: How Comedians Use Persuasion and How Society Uses Comedians". The Corinthian: The Journal of Student Research at Georgia College. 13 (11): 139. Retrieved 26 January 2021. From the 1950s to 1960s, comics known as 'in one performers' became virtually obsolete; comedy was becoming more about talking with an audience than it was talking to a fellow performer onstage. From this point, comics went from telling jokes based around their everyday lives to turning their everyday lives into a joke. Stand-up comedy was about making a statement, be it political or petty, about things any audience could understand, even if it was not believable.
29. "Hope for America: Performers, Politics and Pop Culture: The New Wave Hits the Mainstream". Bob Hope Gallery of American Entertainment. Library of Congress (exhibit). Ground Floor, Thomas Jefferson Building. 11 July 2010. Retrieved 2 August 2020. The new wave of satiric comedians hailed from college campuses and cellar nightclubs, such as San Francisco's 'the hungry i' (named for its 'hungry intellectual' clientele). These comics attracted younger, more affluent, more educated, more self-consciously 'hip' audiences than those for whom comedians trained in vaudeville performed. Critic Ralph J. Gleason commented that the new comedy 'bears a strong resemblance to jazz. It is rooted in the same dissent, nurtured in the same rebellion and articulated in the same language in which the priorities of the Establishment have no standing at all.' When the new comedians reached the mainstream through comedy albums and appearances on television variety shows, they often had to moderate their iconoclastic material to suit national tastes. In adapting, they relied on comic talent that transcended politics, and in so doing, became part of the mass culture they once had satirized.
30. Mintz, Lawrence E. (1977). "The 'New Wave' of Standup Comedians: An Introduction". Department of American Studies. American Humor. 4 (2, 'Special Issue: Standup'). University of Maryland: 2. JSTOR 42594580. [I]n the 1950s new comedians emerged with differences in style and content which were so evident as to prompt the use of the term 'new wave' to describe and to group them ... A few of the lionizers of the late Lenny Bruce give him the credit for singly 'inventing' it, others cite Mort Sahl and Lord Buckley as seminal figures, still others see its roots in the satiric improvisational theater developing during the period (e.g. Second City, The Committee, etc.) ... They would dress more casually, often sit on stools or lounge rather than stand ... and more importantly their style was more loose—seemingly and often genuinely spontaneous ... and their subject matter ... more 'relevant' social and political satire ... Even the audience is different, with small 'folk music clubs' and college auditoriums
31. Make Em Laugh: The Funny Business of America Maslon, Laurence E. ISBN 978-0-446-50531-4, p.340 – p.341
32. Jim Stingl (June 30, 2007). "Carlin's naughty words still ring in officer's ears". Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Archived from the original on September 29, 2007. Retrieved 2008-03-23.
33. Shifreen, Lawrence J. (1977). "The "New Wave" of Standup Comedians: An Introduction". Department of American Studies. American Humor. 4 (2, 'Special Issue: Standup'). University of Maryland: 1–3. JSTOR 42594580. In the 1960s, the mockery of history and myth becomes the major focus for the humor of Bill Cosby, Dick Gregory, Flip Wilson, and Godfrey Cambridge ... The most important Black comedian of the 1950s and 1960s was Redd Foxx, who gained a reputation for his uncensored racial humor on the night club circuit.
34. Wuster, Tracy (2006). "Comedy Jokes: Steve Martin and the Limits of Stand-Up Comedy". Studies in American Humor (14). American Humor Studies Association: 39. JSTOR 42573700. In a Playboy interview, Martin pointed to this by saying, 'I feel I am the link for the normal audience to understand Andy Kaufman. Andy is where I may have gone if this never worked.'
35. Echeverria, Jr., Steve (26 May 2006). "Paul Mooney on Pryor, Chappelle and the state of black America". Herald-Tribune. Archived from the original on 13 April 2014. Retrieved 4 August 2020. His [Mooney's] first professional comedy gig was working with Pryor on the groundbreaking comedian's albums 'Is It Something I Said?' (1975) and 'Bicentennial N——' (1976) ... Mooney also helped Pryor write for television and movies, working on Pryor's short-lived television show, his 'Saturday Night Live' skits and the 1986 movie 'Jo Jo Dancer, Your Life Is Calling.'
36. Buchalter, Gail (28 February 1988). "Eddie Murphy and the Black Pack". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 4 August 2020. During a 'Beverly Hills Cop II' press conference ... Eddie Murphy, 26, announced the existence of the 'black pack,' a clique of successful black comedians made up of Murphy, Robert Townsend, Arsenio Hall, Paul Mooney and Keenen Ivory Wayans. But the burden ... has fallen heavily on Murphy—he is expected by many to have done more than he has to bring blacks into power positions.
37. Evans, Patrice (4 October 2011). "How to Build the Ultimate Black Comedian". Vulture: Devouring Culture. NEW YORK MEDIA LLC. Retrieved 4 August 2020. Comedy as truth telling — 'it's funny because it's true' — starts here. A society's comedians reveal precisely where the social lines are, and nowhere is this more evident than with the Comedy BlackPack, whose members have actually done a lot of cutting-edge work on black cultural pathology.
38. Zoglin, Richard (10 February 2009). Comedy at the Edge: How Stand-up in the 1970s Changed America. Bloomsbury. p. 49. ISBN 978-1582346250. Pryor also got friendly with Paul Mooney, a black improv comic from the San Francisco Bay area who idolized Lenny Bruce ... and pushed Pryor to do harder-edged racial material ... [and] became a writer for Pryor and one of his closest friends.
39. Lewis, Paul (8 March 1993). "THE FALL OF STANDUP COMEDY". Chicago Tribune. Retrieved 25 August 2020.
40. Lee, Judith Yaross (2006). "Mark Twain as a Stand-up Comedian". The Mark Twain Annual. 4 (4). Penn State University Press: 16. JSTOR 41582220. 'The Aristocrats' remained largely a trade secret until the legal and distribution environment could support a film like Paul Provenza's The Aristocrats, in which some 100 stand-up comedians tell and talk about the world's dirtiest joke.
41. "Winners Hall of Fame". Andy Kaufman. The Andy Kaufman Memorial Trust. 2021. Retrieved 12 January 2021. Suzanne Whang 2004, Kristen Schaal 2005, Reggie Watts 2006, Brent Weinbach 2007, Blaine Kneece 2009, Harrison Greenbaum 2010, Nick Vatterott 2011, Marcus Monroe 2012, Harry Terjanian 2013, Dru Johnston 2014, Brett Davis 2015
42. Reporter, Dale Anderson News Staff. "Herbert R. Falk, 100, decorated World War II vet, civil engineer". Buffalo News. Retrieved 2023-02-13.
43. Michel, Lou. "Amid land mines, pure heroism". Buffalo News. Retrieved 2023-02-13.
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47. Double, Oliver (2005). Getting The Joke: The Art of Stand-up Comedy. A&C Black. pp. 34, 37. ISBN 9780413774767. [C]omedians like Max Miller, Tommy Trinder, Ted Ray, Billy Russell, Suzette Tarri, Beryl Reid and Frankie Howerd performed something which was stand-up comedy in all but name. These performers were known as 'front-cloth comics.' The name derives from the staging of British variety theatre, in which acts which used the full stage—such as sketch comedians who normally used the set—alternated with ones which could be performed in front of the [stage] curtain—the front-cloth comedians ... Front-cloth comedy existed at least as early as the 1920s ... [British] [f]ront-cloth comedians ... [survived] their US equivalents, the monologists, because British variety survived decades longer than American vaudeville ... [F]ront-cloth comics on the variety theatres had used catchphrases, costumes and comic personas, their acts fleshed out with songs and even dances
48. Hunter, I.Q.; Porter, Laraine (2012). British Comedy Cinema. Routledge. ISBN 9781136508370. In 1929, he finally settled on Frank Randle and became a 'front-cloth' comic, performing his character sketch routines.
49. Double, Oliver (19 September 2012). Britain Had Talent: A History of Variety Theatre. Macmillan International Higher Education. ISBN 9781137265623. The line connecting Max Miller to modern comedians such as Michael McIntyre is by no means unbroken, but the fact is that the very form of stand-up evolved from music hall song, and started life as the front cloth comedy of variety.
50. "The last of Vaudeville: Ken Dodd died on March 11th". The Economist. 22 March 2018. Retrieved 17 August 2019. [Ken Dodd] was the last of the front-cloth comedians, meaning they dropped a cloth behind you while they cleared up the stage from the Liberty Horses and got it ready for the man who pulled doves out of his jacket, and there you were, but with an act that had been burnished until it was a jewel. And he knew he was the last, for all the greats, from Max Miller on, had crossed the boards before him.
51. Fisher, J Tommy Cooper: Always Leave Them Laughing ISBN 978-0-00-721511-9
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53. Wilmut, R and Rosengard, P Didn't You Kill My Mother-In-Law: The Story Of Alternative Comedy In Britain. ISBN 978-0-413-17390-4
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