Comedic monologues for women from published plays

He played nightclubs and college campuses around the country, appeared regularly on television, recorded a number of albums, and even became the first comedian to appear on the cover of Time. Kennedy was running for president in1960, he was an especially vocal supporter, even supplying jokes for his campaign speeches, but after he was elected, Sahl took him on as a comedic target as well.Д«y this time, SahlвЂ™s popularity had grown to enormous proportions. Even when a politician found favor with him, that didnвЂ™t make him off-limits for his commentary-when John F. He delivered barbed and pointed commentary against people from all areas of the political spectrum if he suspected them of hypocrisy. His favorite focus was politics but what he did was the complete opposite of the pseudo-populist banter of someone like Will Rogers (of whom he once commented вЂњI never met a man I didnвЂ™t like until I met Will RogersвЂќ). He had many targets for his sardonic wit, but he was most effective as a commentator on contemporary social trends, especially when he could take down especially egregious examples of conformity in post-war America. He also demonstrated a flair for improvisation that saw him going off on comedic riffs, often prompted by the newspaper that he carried on stage with him, and which ensured that audiences could go back to see him without running the risk of hearing the same bits over and over. He spoke in a loose, slangy style that was the comedic equivalent of jazz and which was the epitome of hip. He employed a more personal and conversational style in his interactions with the audiences that made you feel like you were part of a conversation as opposed to someone reciting the contents of their joke file. With that seal of approval, audiences began to come out in droves to see what all the fuss was about.ДЇor those used to the likes of Henny Youngman or Milton Berle reeling off one-liners, what Sahl did up on stage had to be a profound shock to the system.

After a few weeks, lines from his act began appearing in the work of influential San Francisco Chronicle columnist Herb Caen. Eventually, he convinced the owner of a San Francisco nightclub to let him audition and he earned a regular performing spot. He then hit upon the idea of performing his plays as comedic monologues, but this approach attracted little attention at first. After his discharge in 1947, he attended USC, majoring in traffic engineering and city management, but after receiving his degree in 1950, he decided to drop out of the masters program to try to make it as an actor, playwright and comedian.ДЄt first, he had little success-at one point, he and a friend rented their own theater to put on experimental one-act plays but struggled to find an audience-and did odd jobs while continuing to write. After high school, he joined the Air Force but soon grew disenchanted with the conformity of service, rebelling by growing a beard and writing articles critical of the military for a local newspaper. When America entered World War II in 1941, the 14-year-old Sahl joined his schoolвЂ™s ROTC program, earning awards for marksmanship and вЂњAmericanism,вЂќ and dropped out the next year to enlist in the Army, lying about his age to get in-a ruse that fell apart two weeks later when his mother found out and revealed his true age. He was born Morton Lyon Sahl in Montreal on May 11, 1927, and later relocated with his family to Los Angeles, where his father tried to break into show business as a writer before taking a job as a court reporter for the FBI. There is perhaps not a single notable comedian to emerge in his wake who has not been influenced by his efforts in one way or another. The man was Mort Sahl, who passed away yesterday at the age of 94, and what he did would single-handedly revolutionize American comedy forever.

After December of 1953, all of that would change forever, almost entirely due to the efforts of a seemingly unassuming man who hit the stage armed with nothing more than a proto-preppy wardrobe, a rolled-up newspaper, and a willingness to challenge the social conventions of the time and the joke-joke-joke nature of comedy.

Comedic monologues for women from published plays