If there hadn’t been a Mort Sahl, there wouldn’t be a Jon Stewart. I’d add an “arguably” in there somewhere, but that statement feels like a thing I’d really feel cozy setting aside the time it would take to etch it in stone.
I won’t pretend that nowadays, Mort Sahl’s topical, frequently political material isn’t nearly impenetrably dated, but I also can’t deny that his attitude, cadence, candor, and wit transcend any specific bits that may possibly be lost in translation. I did not actually commence this blog to talk about political or topical humor (not that anything I do ever persists in the spirit or intention with which I began it), but Sahl’s irreverence and aversion to bullshit appeals to me.
Aaaannnddd… midcentury American (counter?)culture is an inexplicable interest of mine. I’m reading Gerald Nachman’s Seriously Funny: The Rebel Comedians of the 1950s and 1960s (the introduction is available to read in its entirety on Google Books) appropriate now, and the way the hungry i (a San Fransisco comedy/music club) and its resident performers and atmosphere are described can make the spot appear like an estuary of budding cultural trends. Its proprietor, Enrico Banducci, found and nurtured some of the most influential comic talents of the final 6 decades – delivering an atmosphere where no subject was taboo and no censorship (or heckling) was tolerated. Sounds like any mic or room these days, but when you consider that Lenny Bruce’s undoing was his 1950s obscenity trial (he said cocksucker a couple of times on stage! I’m scandalized just typing it), the hungry i’s significance becomes evident.
In attempting to convince him to audition at the hungry i, Mort Sahl’s girlfriend told him that “the audiences are all intellects, which indicates if they realize you, great, and if they do not, they will never ever admit it.”. Pretentious hipsters have often and been and will constantly be. Say what you will about that mentality, when a hipster likes one thing, he or she (androgynously, with feigned disinterest) supports it… and supports it waaaay ahead of and in a a lot cooler way than you do. I know practically nothing of the place personally, but following listening to an interview with Rebecca A. Trent on The Comedy Nerds podcast, I really feel she and her comedy club, The Creek and The Cave in Lengthy Island City appear like the modern incarnations of Enrico Banducci and the hungry i.
Check out this 1960 TIME magazine profile of Mort Sahl and his contemporaries (Nichols and May – favorites of mine, Shelley Berman, Bob Newhart, Jonathan Winters, and much more): http://www.time.com/time/printout/,8816,939769,00.html
Everything’s there. His material is quoted sparingly, but the piece sums up every little thing about why I adore him. When I feel about the comedy of the 1950s and 1960s, I wonder if my perception is romanticized. Everything I know about the era is, I’m positive, component exaggeration, aspect creation myth… but that does not hamper my getting enamored of a location and time I can by no means go to, save through video/audio clips and in books.
Just needed to share that with my two readers.
* I could be writing a more in depth point about Seriously Funny on Splitsider at some point. Will post that link if it ever occurs.
The Depressed Humorist
