Morton Lyon Sahl (born May 11, 1927) is an American comedian, actor,
and social satirist, considered the first modern stand-up comedian
since Will Rogers. Sahl pioneered a style of social satire which pokes
fun at political and current event topics using improvised monologues
and only a newspaper as a prop.Sahl spent his early years in Los
Angeles and moved to the San Francisco Bay Area where he made his
professional stage debut at the hungry i nightclub in 1953. His
popularity grew quickly, and after a year at the club he traveled the
country doing shows at established nightclubs, theaters and college
campuses. In 1960 he became the first comedian to have a cover story
written about him by Time magazine. He appeared on various television
shows, played a number of film roles, and performed a one-man show on
Broadway.Television host Steve Allen claimed that Sahl was "the only
real political philosopher we have in modern comedy." His social
satire performances broke new ground in live entertainment, as a
stand-up comic talking about the real world of politics at that time
was considered "revolutionary." It inspired many later comics to
become stage comedians, including Lenny Bruce, Jonathan Winters,
George Carlin and Woody Allen. Allen credits Sahl's new style of humor
with "opening up vistas for people like me.":545Numerous politicians
became his fans, with John F. Kennedy asking him to write his jokes
for campaign speeches. After Kennedy's assassination in 1963, however,
Sahl became obsessed with the Warren Report's inaccuracies and
conclusions, and spoke about it often during his shows. This alienated
much of his audience and led to a decline in his popularity for the
remainder of the 1960s. By the 1970s, however, his shows and
popularity staged a partial comeback which continues to the present. A
biography of Sahl, Last Man Standing, by James Curtis, was released in
2017.
and social satirist, considered the first modern stand-up comedian
since Will Rogers. Sahl pioneered a style of social satire which pokes
fun at political and current event topics using improvised monologues
and only a newspaper as a prop.Sahl spent his early years in Los
Angeles and moved to the San Francisco Bay Area where he made his
professional stage debut at the hungry i nightclub in 1953. His
popularity grew quickly, and after a year at the club he traveled the
country doing shows at established nightclubs, theaters and college
campuses. In 1960 he became the first comedian to have a cover story
written about him by Time magazine. He appeared on various television
shows, played a number of film roles, and performed a one-man show on
Broadway.Television host Steve Allen claimed that Sahl was "the only
real political philosopher we have in modern comedy." His social
satire performances broke new ground in live entertainment, as a
stand-up comic talking about the real world of politics at that time
was considered "revolutionary." It inspired many later comics to
become stage comedians, including Lenny Bruce, Jonathan Winters,
George Carlin and Woody Allen. Allen credits Sahl's new style of humor
with "opening up vistas for people like me.":545Numerous politicians
became his fans, with John F. Kennedy asking him to write his jokes
for campaign speeches. After Kennedy's assassination in 1963, however,
Sahl became obsessed with the Warren Report's inaccuracies and
conclusions, and spoke about it often during his shows. This alienated
much of his audience and led to a decline in his popularity for the
remainder of the 1960s. By the 1970s, however, his shows and
popularity staged a partial comeback which continues to the present. A
biography of Sahl, Last Man Standing, by James Curtis, was released in
2017.
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