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The comedians : drunks, thieves, scoundrels, and the history of American comedy / Kliph Nesteroff.

By: Material type: TextTextPublisher: New York : Grove Press, [2015]Copyright date: ©2015Edition: First editionDescription: xvii, 425 pages, 16 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations (some color), portraits ; 24 cmContent type:
  • text
Media type:
  • unmediated
Carrier type:
  • volume
ISBN:
  • 9780802123985
  • 0802123988
Subject(s):
Contents:
Vaudeville comedians -- Radio -- Nightclubs -- Television -- Late night -- The emergence of Las Vegas -- Stand-up's great change -- Percolation in the mid-1960s -- Hippie madness at decade's end -- The first comedy clubs and the 1970s -- The stand-up comedy boom -- The 1990s -- The new millennium.
Summary: "Jokes change from generation to generation, but the experience of the stand-up comedian transcends the ages: the striving and struggles, the tragedy and triumph. From the Marx Brothers to Milton Berle, George Carlin to Eddie Murphy, Conan O'Brien to Louis C. K.--comedy historian Kliph Nesteroff presents a century of fascinating rebels, forgotten stars, and characters on the precipice of fame in this essential history of American comedy."--Book jacket.
Fiction notes: Click to open in new window
Holdings
Item type Home library Collection Call number Materials specified Status Date due Barcode Item holds
Adult Book Adult Book Dr. James Carlson Library NonFiction 792.7028 N468 Available 33111008128379
Total holds: 0

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

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.

Includes bibliographical references (pages [363]-393) and index.

Vaudeville comedians -- Radio -- Nightclubs -- Television -- Late night -- The emergence of Las Vegas -- Stand-up's great change -- Percolation in the mid-1960s -- Hippie madness at decade's end -- The first comedy clubs and the 1970s -- The stand-up comedy boom -- The 1990s -- The new millennium.

"Jokes change from generation to generation, but the experience of the stand-up comedian transcends the ages: the striving and struggles, the tragedy and triumph. From the Marx Brothers to Milton Berle, George Carlin to Eddie Murphy, Conan O'Brien to Louis C. K.--comedy historian Kliph Nesteroff presents a century of fascinating rebels, forgotten stars, and characters on the precipice of fame in this essential history of American comedy."--Book jacket.

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