Morton Lyon Sahl (May 11, 1927 – October 26, 2021) was a Canadian-born American comedian, actor, and social satirist, considered the first modern comedian.
Sahl pioneered a style of social satire that 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
The San Francisco Bay Area, often referred to as simply the Bay Area, is a populous region surrounding the San Francisco, San Pablo, and Suisun Bay estuaries in Northern California. The Bay Area is defined by the Association of Bay Area Go ...
where he made his professional stage debut at the
hungry i
The Hungry I (stylized as hungry i) was a nightclub in San Francisco, California, originally located in the North Beach neighborhood. It played a major role in the history of stand-up comedy in the United States. It was launched by Eric "Big ...
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
Time is the continued sequence of existence and events that occurs in an apparently irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequence events, to ...
'' magazine. He appeared on various television shows, played a number of film roles, and performed a one-man show on
Broadway
Broadway may refer to:
Theatre
* Broadway Theatre (disambiguation)
* Broadway theatre, theatrical productions in professional theatres near Broadway, Manhattan, New York City, U.S.
** Broadway (Manhattan), the street
**Broadway Theatre (53rd Stree ...
.
Television host
Steve Allen
Stephen Valentine Patrick William Allen (December 26, 1921 – October 30, 2000) was an American television personality, radio personality, musician, composer, actor, comedian, and writer. In 1954, he achieved national fame as the co-cre ...
said 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
Leonard Alfred Schneider (October 13, 1925 – August 3, 1966), known professionally as Lenny Bruce, was an American stand-up comedian, social critic, and satirist. He was renowned for his open, free-wheeling, and critical style of comedy which ...
,
Jonathan Winters
Jonathan Harshman Winters III (November 11, 1925 – April 11, 2013) was an American comedian, actor, author, television host, and artist. Beginning in 1960, Winters recorded many classic comedy albums for the Verve Records label. He also h ...
,
George Carlin
George Denis Patrick Carlin (May 12, 1937 – June 22, 2008) was an American comedian, actor, author, and social critic. Regarded as one of the most important and influential stand-up comedians of all time, he was dubbed "the dean of countercul ...
,
Richard Pryor
Richard Franklin Lennox Thomas Pryor Sr. (December 1, 1940 – December 10, 2005) was an American stand-up comedian and actor. He reached a broad audience with his trenchant observations and storytelling style, and is widely regarded as on ...
,
Lewis Black
Lewis Niles Black (born August 30, 1948) is an American stand-up comedian and actor. His comedy routines often escalate into angry rants about history, politics, religion, or any other cultural trends.
He hosted the Comedy Central series '' Lewi ...
and
Woody Allen
Heywood "Woody" Allen (born Allan Stewart Konigsberg; November 30, 1935) is an American film director, writer, actor, and comedian whose career spans more than six decades and multiple Academy Award-winning films. He began his career writing ...
. Allen credits Sahl's new style of humor with "opening up vistas for people like me".
Numerous politicians became his fans, with
John F. Kennedy
John Fitzgerald Kennedy (May 29, 1917 – November 22, 1963), often referred to by his initials JFK and the nickname Jack, was an American politician who served as the 35th president of the United States from 1961 until his assassination ...
asking him to write his jokes for campaign speeches, though Sahl later turned his barbs at the president. After
Kennedy's assassination in 1963, Sahl focused on what he said were the
Warren Report
The President's Commission on the Assassination of President Kennedy, known unofficially as the Warren Commission, was established by President Lyndon B. Johnson through on November 29, 1963, to investigate the assassination of United States Pr ...
'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, his shows and popularity staged a partial comeback that continued over the ensuing decades.
["Mort Sahl invented stand-up comedy – so what’s he doing at a community theatre in Northern California?"]
, ''National Post'', May 25, 2015 A biography of Sahl, ''Last Man Standing'', by
James Curtis, was released in 2017.
["Comedian Mort Sahl and biographer James Curtis talk about ‘Last Man Standing,’ the story of Sahl’s fearless, funny life"]
, ''Orange County Register'', June 2, 2017
Early life and education
Sahl was born on May 11, 1927, in
Montreal
Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-most populous city in Canada and List of towns in Quebec, most populous city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian ...
,
Quebec
Quebec ( ; )According to the Canadian government, ''Québec'' (with the acute accent) is the official name in Canadian French and ''Quebec'' (without the accent) is the province's official name in Canadian English is one of the thirtee ...
, Canada,
the only child of Jewish parents.
His father, Harry Sahl, came from an immigrant family on New York City's
Lower East Side
The Lower East Side, sometimes abbreviated as LES, is a historic neighborhood in the southeastern part of Manhattan in New York City. It is located roughly between the Bowery and the East River from Canal to Houston streets.
Traditionally an im ...
, and hoped to become a Broadway playwright. Harry had met his wife, Dorothy (Schwartz), when she responded to an advertisement he placed in a poetry magazine. Unable to break into the writing field, they moved to Canada where he owned a tobacco store in Montreal.
[''Time'' magazine, August 15, 1960, pp. 44–48]
Sahl's family later relocated to Los Angeles, California, where his father, unable to become a Hollywood writer, worked as a clerk and
court reporter
A court reporter, court stenographer, or shorthand reporter is a person whose occupation is to capture the live testimony in proceedings using a stenographic machine, thereby transforming the proceedings into an official certified transcript b ...
for the
FBI
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic Intelligence agency, intelligence and Security agency, security service of the United States and its principal Federal law enforcement in the United States, federal law enforcement age ...
. Sahl notes, "My dad was disappointed in his dreams and he distrusted that world for me."
Sahl went to
Belmont High School in Los Angeles, where he wrote for the school's newspaper. Actor
Richard Crenna
Richard Donald Crenna (November 30, 1926 – January 17, 2003) was an American film, television and radio actor.
Crenna starred in such motion pictures as ''The Sand Pebbles'', ''Wait Until Dark'', ''Un Flic'', ''Body Heat'', the first three ' ...
was a classmate.
When the U.S. entered
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
after the
Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor
The attack on Pearl HarborAlso known as the Battle of Pearl Harbor was a surprise military strike by the Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service upon the United States against the naval base at Pearl Harbor in Honolulu, Territory of Hawaii, ju ...
, Sahl, then aged 14, joined the school's
Reserve Officers' Training Corps
The Reserve Officers' Training Corps (ROTC ( or )) is a group of college- and university-based officer-training programs for training commissioned officers of the United States Armed Forces.
Overview
While ROTC graduate officers serve in all ...
(ROTC). He won a medal for
marksmanship
A marksman is a person who is skilled in precision shooting using projectile weapons (in modern days most commonly an accurized scoped long gun such as designated marksman rifle or a sniper rifle) to shoot at high-value targets at longer-than- ...
and an
American Legion
The American Legion, commonly known as the Legion, is a non-profit organization of U.S. war
War is an intense armed conflict between states, governments, societies, or paramilitary groups such as mercenaries, insurgents, and militi ...
"Americanism award".
Wanting to express his patriotism, he wore his ROTC uniform to school and in public
and, when he turned fifteen, he dropped out of high school to join the
United States Army
The United States Army (USA) is the land service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army of the United States in the U.S. Constitution.Article II, section 2, cla ...
by lying about his age.
His mother tracked him down and brought him back home two weeks later after she had revealed his true age.
Upon graduating from high school, his father tried to get him into
West Point
The United States Military Academy (USMA), also known Metonymy, metonymically as West Point or simply as Army, is a United States service academies, United States service academy in West Point, New York. It was originally established as a f ...
and had received his Congressman's help,
but Sahl had by then already enlisted in the
United States Army Air Forces
The United States Army Air Forces (USAAF or AAF) was the major land-based aerial warfare service component of the United States Army and ''de facto'' aerial warfare service branch of the United States during and immediately after World War II ...
. He was later stationed in
Alaska
Alaska ( ; russian: Аляска, Alyaska; ale, Alax̂sxax̂; ; ems, Alas'kaaq; Yup'ik: ''Alaskaq''; tli, Anáaski) is a state located in the Western United States on the northwest extremity of North America. A semi-exclave of the U.S., ...
with the 93rd Air Depot Group. In the military, however, he resisted the discipline and authoritarian control it exerted over his life. He expressed his nonconformity by growing a beard and refusing to wear a cap as required. He also wrote articles for a small newspaper criticizing the military that resulted in his being penalized with three months of
KP duty
KP duty means "kitchen police" or "kitchen patrol" work under the kitchen staff assigned to junior U.S. enlisted military personnel. "KP" can be either the work or the personnel assigned to perform such work. In the latter sense it can be used ...
.
In an interview, Sahl stated he found his military experience a good one, that he described as "spiritual".
Sahl was discharged in 1947 and enrolled in
Compton College, followed by the
University of Southern California
The University of Southern California (USC, SC, or Southern Cal) is a Private university, private research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Founded in 1880 by Robert M. Widney, it is the oldest private research university in C ...
. He received a B.S. degree in 1950 with majors in
traffic engineering and
city management.
He continued with a masters program, but dropped out to become an actor and playwright.
Career
Breaking into comedy
Between 1950 and 1953 Sahl attempted to get jobs as a stand-up comedian in about 30 nightclubs throughout Los Angeles, but with no success.
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American English-language commercial broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a division of Comcast, its headquarters are l ...
, where he once auditioned, told him he would never succeed as a comedian.
He even offered to perform free during intermissions for the chance to show his talent. He recalled that period: "Despite all the folklore about the faith of friends in the struggling young artist, my friends constantly discouraged me."
He and a friend then rented an old theater, which they called Theater X, for "experimental," and he began writing and staging one-act plays. One of his plays was titled ''Nobody Trusted the Truth''.
Unable to attract a large enough audience, they eventually closed the theater.
For income, Sahl began doing odd jobs and writing. He worked as a used car salesman and a
messenger
''MESSENGER'' was a NASA robotic space probe that orbited the planet Mercury between 2011 and 2015, studying Mercury's chemical composition, geology, and magnetic field. The name is a backronym for "Mercury Surface, Space Environment, Geoche ...
, and wrote a novel, which went unpublished, and short stories. He went to New York hoping to sell his plays, but only managed to earn about eighteen dollars a week. He recalled ... "I couldn't get a thing going. I was working on a novel, I was out of work, and I was out of gas."
As a result, he decided to try something different, by performing his plays as monologues. He felt it would be easier to do his monologue on stage instead of trying to sell it to others.
"I knew that if I was going to get anything done, I'd have to do it myself," he says.
He returned to Los Angeles where he appeared at some clubs, but his new style of monologue comedy received little attention.
In 1953 he began dating a woman named Sue Babior. When she moved to
Berkeley
Berkeley most often refers to:
*Berkeley, California, a city in the United States
**University of California, Berkeley, a public university in Berkeley, California
* George Berkeley (1685–1753), Anglo-Irish philosopher
Berkeley may also refer ...
to study at the
University of California
The University of California (UC) is a public land-grant research university system in the U.S. state of California. The system is composed of the campuses at Berkeley, Davis, Irvine, Los Angeles, Merced, Riverside, San Diego, San Francisco, ...
, Sahl hitchhiked there to be with her. He spent his time auditing classes and hanging out at local coffee houses. For income, he wrote for a few ''avant-garde'' publications. He slept in the back seat of a friend's car, since Babior was living with roommates. "Things were simple then," he said. "... All we had to worry about was the destiny of man."
[''Playboy'' magazine, February 1969] He felt at home in the San Francisco Bay Area, commenting, "I was 'born' in
San Francisco
San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...
." He stated that the three years he lived in Berkeley were a valuable experience.
Sahl sought out any clubs where he could perform as a stand-up, and Babior suggested he audition for the
hungry i
The hungry i was a nightclub in San Francisco, California, originally located in the North Beach neighborhood. It played a major role in the history of stand-up comedy in the United States. It was launched by Eric "Big Daddy" Nord, who sold i ...
, a nightclub in San Francisco.
Its owner,
Enrico Banducci
Enrico Banducci (born Harry Charles Banducci; February 17, 1922 – October 9, 2007) was an American impresario. Banducci operated the hungry i nightclub in San Francisco's North Beach neighborhood, where he launched the careers of The Kingston ...
, took an immediate liking to Sahl's comedy style and offered him a job at $75 a week (about $720 in 2020 money), which became his first steady job as a stand-up comedian.
Word about Sahl's satirical comedy act spread quickly. He received good reviews from influential newspaper columnist
Herb Caen
Herbert Eugene Caen (; April 3, 1916 February 1, 1997) was a San Francisco humorist and journalist whose daily column of local goings-on and insider gossip, social and political happenings, and offbeat puns and anecdotes—"A continuous love let ...
that gave him instant credibility: "I don't know where Mr. Sahl came from but I'm glad he's here," he wrote after watching his show.
Caen began inviting his own friends, such as film comedians
Danny Kaye
Danny Kaye (born David Daniel Kaminsky; yi, דוד־דניאל קאַמינסקי; January 18, 1911 – March 3, 1987) was an American actor, comedian, singer and dancer. His performances featured physical comedy, idiosyncratic pantomimes, and ...
and
Eddie Cantor
Eddie Cantor (born Isidore Itzkowitz; January 31, 1892 – October 10, 1964) was an American comedian, actor, dancer, singer, songwriter, film producer, screenwriter and author. Familiar to Broadway, radio, movie, and early television audiences, ...
, to watch Sahl's performances.
Cantor took him "under his wing" and gave him suggestions.
By the end of his first year at the hungry i, Sahl was earning $3,000 a week (about $29,000 a week in 2020 money) and performing to packed houses. Later in his career, he said, "I'd be washing cars if it weren't for Enrico."
Nightclub shows and national acclaim
After a year at the hungry i, Sahl began appearing at clubs throughout the country, including the
Black Orchid and
Mister Kelly's
Mister Kelly’s was a nightclub on Rush Street in Chicago which existed from 1953 to 1975. From around 1956 until its demise, it was a springboard to fame for many entertainers, especially jazz singers and comedians. As reported in the ''Chicago ...
in Chicago, the Crescendo in Los Angeles, and the
Village Vanguard
The Village Vanguard is a jazz club at Seventh Avenue South in Greenwich Village, New York City. The club was opened on February 22, 1935, by Max Gordon. Originally, the club presented folk music and beat poetry, but it became primarily a jazz ...
and
The Blue Angel
''The Blue Angel'' (german: Der blaue Engel) is a 1930 German musical comedy-drama film directed by Josef von Sternberg, and starring Marlene Dietrich, Emil Jannings and Kurt Gerron. Written by Carl Zuckmayer, Karl Vollmöller and Rober ...
nightclub in New York City. Many of the clubs had never before had a stand-up comedian perform, which required Sahl to break in as a new kind of act. "I had to build up my own network of places to play," he said.
Numerous celebrities dropped by to see his shows after they heard about the "new phenomenon," referring to Sahl's unique style of comedy.
Woody Allen
Heywood "Woody" Allen (born Allan Stewart Konigsberg; November 30, 1935) is an American film director, writer, actor, and comedian whose career spans more than six decades and multiple Academy Award-winning films. He began his career writing ...
, who saw his show at the Blue Angel in 1954, commented that "he was suddenly this great genius that appeared who revolutionized the medium."
British comedy actor
John Cleese
John Marwood Cleese ( ; born 27 October 1939) is an English actor, comedian, screenwriter, and producer. Emerging from the Cambridge Footlights in the 1960s, he first achieved success at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe and as a scriptwriter and ...
became immediately interested in Sahl's radical style of humor, and accorded to him the same level of respect that
The Beatles
The Beatles were an English Rock music, rock band, formed in Liverpool in 1960, that comprised John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr. They are regarded as the Cultural impact of the Beatles, most influential band of al ...
once reserved for
Elvis Presley
Elvis Aaron Presley (January 8, 1935 – August 16, 1977), or simply Elvis, was an American singer and actor. Dubbed the "Honorific nicknames in popular music, King of Rock and Roll", he is regarded as Cultural impact of Elvis Presley, one ...
.
![Mort Sahl Ed Sullivan 1960](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/98/Mort_Sahl_Ed_Sullivan_1960.JPG)
Television host
Steve Allen
Stephen Valentine Patrick William Allen (December 26, 1921 – October 30, 2000) was an American television personality, radio personality, musician, composer, actor, comedian, and writer. In 1954, he achieved national fame as the co-cre ...
, who originated the
''Tonight Show'', said he was "struck by how amateur he seemed," but added that the observation was not meant as a criticism, but as a "compliment". He noted that all the previous successful comics dressed formally, were glib and well-rehearsed, and were always in control of their audiences.
Allen said that Sahl's "very un-show business manner was one of the things I liked when I first saw him work."
Sahl dressed casually, with no tie and usually wearing his trademark V-neck campus-style sweater. His stage presence was seen as being "candid and cool, the antithesis of the slick comic," stated theater critic
Gerald Nachman.
And although Sahl acquired a reputation for being an intellectual comedian, it was an image he disliked and disagreed with: "It was absurd. I was barely a C student," he said.
His naturalness on stage was partly due to his preferring improvisation over carefully rehearsed monologues. Sahl explained:
His casual style of stand-up, where he seemed to be one-on-one with his audience, influenced new comedians, including
Lenny Bruce
Leonard Alfred Schneider (October 13, 1925 – August 3, 1966), known professionally as Lenny Bruce, was an American stand-up comedian, social critic, and satirist. He was renowned for his open, free-wheeling, and critical style of comedy which ...
and
Dick Gregory
Richard Claxton Gregory (October 12, 1932 – August 19, 2017) was an American comedian, civil rights leader, business owner and entrepreneur, and vegetarian activist. His writings were best sellers. Gregory became popular among the Afric ...
. Sahl was the least controversial, however, because he dressed and looked "collegiate" and focused on politics, while Bruce confronted sexual and language conventions and Gregory focused on the
civil rights movement
The civil rights movement was a nonviolent social and political movement and campaign from 1954 to 1968 in the United States to abolish legalized institutional Racial segregation in the United States, racial segregation, Racial discrimination ...
. After seeing Mort Sahl on stage,
Woody Allen
Heywood "Woody" Allen (born Allan Stewart Konigsberg; November 30, 1935) is an American film director, writer, actor, and comedian whose career spans more than six decades and multiple Academy Award-winning films. He began his career writing ...
, whose writings were often about his personal life, decided to give it a try: "I'd never had the nerve to talk about it before. Then Mort Sahl came along with a whole new style of humor, opening up vistas for people like me."
Commenting on Sahl's monologues, Nachman described him as a "gifted narrator, so good at taking you along on his travels that you didn't quite realize until the show was over that you had been on a labyrinthine journey."
The speed with which Sahl gave his monologues was also notable. British film critic
Penelope Gilliatt
Penelope Gilliatt (; born Penelope Ann Douglass Conner; 25 March 1932 – 9 May 1993) was an English novelist, short story writer, screenwriter, and film critic. As one of the main film critics for ''The New Yorker'' magazine in the 1960s an ...
recalled how Sahl's improvisation "goes on a breakneck stammering loop and you think it will never make the circle. It always does." For her it was like watching a circus act: "He freewheels a bike on a high wire tightrope with his brain racing and his hands off the handlebars."
Sahl's popularity "mushroomed like an Atomic cloud during the 50s," says filmmaker
Robert B. Weide
Robert B. Weide (born June 20, 1959) is an American screenwriter, producer, and director. He has directed a number of documentaries and was the principal director and an executive producer of ''Curb Your Enthusiasm'' for the show's first five ye ...
, adding, "Simply put, Mort Sahl reinvented stand-up comedy."
''Time'' magazine in 1960 published a cover story about him and his rise to fame, in which they described him as "the best of the New Comedians
ndthe first notable American political satirist since
Will Rogers
William Penn Adair Rogers (November 4, 1879 – August 15, 1935) was an American vaudeville performer, actor, and humorous social commentator. He was born as a citizen of the Cherokee Nation, in the Indian Territory (now part of Oklahoma ...
."
Along with his nightclub performances, he appeared in some films and on television shows, including his network debut on ''
The NBC Comedy Hour
''The NBC Comedy Hour'' was a comedy show that ran on NBC in the first half of 1956, intended to be a replacement for ''The Colgate Comedy Hour''.
Leo Durocher hosted the show in January, and Gale Storm from February until April 8; from April 22 o ...
'' in May 1956. He was one of the interim hosts on ''
The Tonight Show
''The Tonight Show'' is an American late-night talk show that has aired on NBC since 1954. The show has been hosted by six comedians: Steve Allen (1954–1957), Jack Paar (1957–1962), Johnny Carson (1962–1992), Jay Leno (1992–2009 and 201 ...
'' following
Jack Paar
Jack Harold Paar (May 1, 1918 – January 27, 2004) was an American talk show host, author, radio and television comedian, and film actor. He was the second host of ''The Tonight Show'' from 1957 to 1962. ''Time'' magazine's obituary of Paar repo ...
's departure as the network waited for
Johnny Carson
John William Carson (October 23, 1925 – January 23, 2005) was an American television host, comedian, writer and producer. He is best known as the host of ''The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson'' (1962–1992). Carson received six Pr ...
to become available.
His audience had also widened to include not only students and a "hip" public, but now even noted politicians sought out his shows. Some became friends, such as presidential candidate
John F. Kennedy
John Fitzgerald Kennedy (May 29, 1917 – November 22, 1963), often referred to by his initials JFK and the nickname Jack, was an American politician who served as the 35th president of the United States from 1961 until his assassination ...
, who asked him to prepare a bank of political jokes he could use at public functions.
Kennedy liked his style of political satire and what he described as Sahl's "relentless pursuit of everybody."
Adlai Stevenson and
Hubert Humphrey
Hubert Horatio Humphrey Jr. (May 27, 1911 – January 13, 1978) was an American pharmacist and politician who served as the 38th vice president of the United States from 1965 to 1969. He twice served in the United States Senate, representing Mi ...
were fans, Humphrey stating that "whenever there is a political bloat, Mort sticks a pin in it."
Sahl considered
Ronald Reagan
Ronald Wilson Reagan ( ; February 6, 1911June 5, 2004) was an American politician, actor, and union leader who served as the 40th president of the United States from 1981 to 1989. He also served as the 33rd governor of California from 1967 ...
one of his closest friends.
They valued the fact that he stayed current and took material from major newspapers and magazines. He kept his material fresh, wrote few notes, and entertained his audiences by presenting otherwise serious news with his brand of humor.
He was not fond of television news, however, which he blamed in 1960 for "spoon-feeding" the public, and was therefore responsible for the "corruption and ignorance that may sink this country."
As a result of Sahl's popularity, besides getting on the cover of ''Time'', he also became the first comedian to make a record album, the first to do college concerts, and was the first comedian to win a
Grammy
The Grammy Awards (stylized as GRAMMY), or simply known as the Grammys, are awards presented by the Recording Academy of the United States to recognize "outstanding" achievements in the music industry. They are regarded by many as the most pre ...
.
Declining career in 1960s
Following
Kennedy's assassination in 1963, Sahl's interest in who was responsible was so great that he became a
deputized member of District Attorney of New Orleans
Jim Garrison
James Carothers Garrison (born Earling Carothers Garrison; November 20, 1921 – October 21, 1992) was the District Attorney of Orleans Parish, Louisiana, from 1962 to 1973. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party, he ...
's team to investigate the assassination.
As a result, Sahl's comedy would often reflect his politics and included readings and commentary about the
Warren Commission
The President's Commission on the Assassination of President Kennedy, known unofficially as the Warren Commission, was established by President Lyndon B. Johnson through on November 29, 1963, to investigate the assassination of United States Pr ...
Report, of which he consistently disputed the accuracy. He alienated much of his audience, was effectively
blacklisted, and more of his planned shows were cancelled. His income dropped from $1 million to $13,000 by 1964. According to Nachman, the excessive focus on the Kennedy assassination details was Sahl's undoing and wrecked his career. Sahl later admitted that "there's never been anything that had a stronger impact on my life than this issue," but added that he nonetheless "thought it was a wonderful quest."
Partial comeback
![Mort sahl 2007](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1a/Mort_sahl_2007.jpg)
By the 1970s, the rising tide of
counterculture
A counterculture is a culture whose values and norms of behavior differ substantially from those of mainstream society, sometimes diametrically opposed to mainstream cultural mores.Eric Donald Hirsch. ''The Dictionary of Cultural Literacy''. Hou ...
eventually fueled Sahl's partial comeback as a veteran comedian, and he was included with the new comedians breaking into the field, such as
George Carlin
George Denis Patrick Carlin (May 12, 1937 – June 22, 2008) was an American comedian, actor, author, and social critic. Regarded as one of the most important and influential stand-up comedians of all time, he was dubbed "the dean of countercul ...
,
Lily Tomlin
Mary Jean "Lily" Tomlin (born September 1, 1939) is an American actress, comedian, writer, singer, and producer. She started her career as a stand-up comedian as well as performing off-Broadway during the 1960s. Her breakout role was on the vari ...
, and
Richard Pryor
Richard Franklin Lennox Thomas Pryor Sr. (December 1, 1940 – December 10, 2005) was an American stand-up comedian and actor. He reached a broad audience with his trenchant observations and storytelling style, and is widely regarded as on ...
.
In the 1980s he headlined for Balducci's new clubs in San Francisco. In the late 1980s he was trying to write screenplays, besides doing sporadic shows around the country. In 1987 he had a successful multiweek run in Australia.
In 1988 Sahl was back in New York City and performed a one-man
Off-Broadway
An off-Broadway theatre is any professional theatre venue in New York City with a seating capacity between 100 and 499, inclusive. These theatres are smaller than Broadway theatres, but larger than off-off-Broadway theatres, which seat fewer tha ...
show, ''Mort Sahl's America'', which, despite getting good reviews from critics, was not a box office success. The ''
New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...
'' stated, "History has returned Mort Sahl to the spotlight when he is most needed. His style has an intuitive spontaneity. His presence is tonic."
Robert Weide produced a biographical documentary, ''Mort Sahl: The Loyal Opposition'', which ran on
PBS
The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcasting, public broadcaster and Non-commercial activity, non-commercial, Terrestrial television, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia. PBS is a publicly fu ...
in 1989.
['Mort Sahl: The Loyal Opposition'']
, Whyaduck Productions, March 2, 2012.
Sahl found his previous level of success increasingly difficult to recapture.. One ''
Los Angeles Times
The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the Un ...
'' critic wrote, "Sahl is a man with a country but not a stage."
A number of television specials gave him a venue to perform in front of live audiences. Beginning in November 1991, the
Monitor Channel
WBPX-TV (channel 68) is a television station in Boston, Massachusetts, United States, airing programming from the Ion Television network. It is owned by the Ion Media subsidiary of the E. W. Scripps Company, which also owns Woburn-licensed ...
broadcast a series of eight shows called ''Mort Sahl Live'' .
From the 1990s on he performed, but less often and mostly in theaters and college auditoriums. When
Woody Allen
Heywood "Woody" Allen (born Allan Stewart Konigsberg; November 30, 1935) is an American film director, writer, actor, and comedian whose career spans more than six decades and multiple Academy Award-winning films. He began his career writing ...
saw him perform in 2001 at one of his rare New York club appearances, Allen told him, "this is crazyyou should be working all the time."
Allen then called his manager
Jack Rollins: "Listen, this guy is hilarious. We gotta bring him to New York."
Sahl then did shows at
Joe's Pub
Joe's Pub, one of the six performance spaces within The Public Theater, is a music venue and restaurant that hosts live performances across genres and arts, ranging from cabaret to modern dance to world music. It is located at 425 Lafayette St ...
in
Manhattan
Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...
to standing-room only audiences.
In 2008, Sahl performed at B.B. King's Blues Club & Grill on
42nd Street with Woody Allen,
Elaine May
Elaine Iva May (née Berlin; born April 21, 1932) is an American comedian, filmmaker, playwright, and actress. She has received numerous awards including an Oscar, a BAFTA, a Grammy, and a Tony. She made her initial impact in the 1950s with her ...
, and
Dick Cavett in attendance.
Sahl was ranked #40 on
Comedy Central
Comedy Central is an American basic cable channel owned by Paramount Global through its network division's MTV Entertainment Group unit, based in Manhattan. The channel is geared towards young adults aged 18–34 and carries comedy programming ...
's list of the 100 greatest stand-up comedians of all time, ranked between
Billy Crystal
William Edward Crystal (born March 14, 1948)On page 17 of his book ''700 Sundays'', Crystal displays his birth announcement, which gives his first two names as "William Edward", not "William Jacob" is an American actor, comedian, and filmmaker. ...
and
Jon Stewart
Jon Stewart (born Jonathan Stuart Leibowitz; November 28, 1962) is an American comedian, political commentator, and television host. He hosted ''The Daily Show'', a satirical news program on Comedy Central, from 1999 to 2015 and now hosts ''Th ...
. In 2003 he received the Fifth Annual
Alan King Award in American Jewish Humor from the
National Foundation for Jewish Culture
The Foundation for Jewish Culture (formerly the National Foundation for Jewish Culture) was an advocacy group for Jewish cultural life and creativity in the United States.
Founded in 1960, it supported writers, filmmakers, artists, composers, ch ...
. In 2011, the
Library of Congress
The Library of Congress (LOC) is the research library that officially serves the United States Congress and is the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It is the oldest federal cultural institution in the country. The library is ...
placed his 1955 recording, ''At Sunset'', on the
National Recording Registry
The National Recording Registry is a list of sound recordings that "are culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant, and/or inform or reflect life in the United States." The registry was established by the National Recording Preservati ...
.
Satire comedy style
Sahl's humor was based on current events, especially politics, which led
Milton Berle
Milton Berle (born Mendel Berlinger; ; July 12, 1908 – March 27, 2002) was an American actor and comedian. His career as an entertainer spanned over 80 years, first in silent films and on stage as a child actor, then in radio, movies and tel ...
to describe him as "one of the greatest political satirists of all time."
His trademark persona was to enter the stage with a newspaper in hand, casually dressed in a
V-neck sweater. He would often recite some news stories combined with satire.
He was dubbed "
Will Rogers
William Penn Adair Rogers (November 4, 1879 – August 15, 1935) was an American vaudeville performer, actor, and humorous social commentator. He was born as a citizen of the Cherokee Nation, in the Indian Territory (now part of Oklahoma ...
with fangs" by Time magazine in 1960.
Sahl would discuss people or events almost as if he were reporting them for the first time, and would digress into related stories or his own experiences. TV executive
Roger Ailes
Roger Eugene Ailes (May 15, 1940 – May 18, 2017) was an American television executive and media consultant. He was the chairman and CEO of Fox News, Fox Television Stations and 20th Television. Ailes was a media consultant for Republica ...
said he saw him read the paper one day and after a few hours Sahl got up onstage with an entire evening's worth of new material. "With no writers, he just did what he had seen in the afternoon paper. He was a genius."
Sahl's presentation of news commentary as a form of social satire created a wide assortment of celebrity and political fans, including
Adlai Stevenson,
Marlene Dietrich
Marie Magdalene "Marlene" DietrichBorn as Maria Magdalena, not Marie Magdalene, according to Dietrich's biography by her daughter, Maria Riva ; however Dietrich's biography by Charlotte Chandler cites "Marie Magdalene" as her birth name . (, ; ...
,
S.J. Perelman
Sidney Joseph Perelman (February 1, 1904 – October 17, 1979) was an American humorist and screenwriter. He is best known for his humorous short pieces written over many years for ''The New Yorker''. He also wrote for several other magazines ...
,
Saul Bellow
Saul Bellow (born Solomon Bellows; 10 July 1915 – 5 April 2005) was a Canadian-born American writer. For his literary work, Bellow was awarded the Pulitzer Prize, the Nobel Prize for Literature, and the National Medal of Arts. He is the only wr ...
, and
Leonard Bernstein
Leonard Bernstein ( ; August 25, 1918 – October 14, 1990) was an American conductor, composer, pianist, music educator, author, and humanitarian. Considered to be one of the most important conductors of his time, he was the first America ...
.
Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr.
Arthur Meier Schlesinger Jr. (; born Arthur Bancroft Schlesinger; October 15, 1917 – February 28, 2007) was an American historian, social critic, and public intellectual. The son of the influential historian Arthur M. Schlesinger Sr. and a s ...
said his popularity was due to the public's "yearning for youth, irreverence, trenchancy, satire,
nda clean break with the past."
And
Steve Allen
Stephen Valentine Patrick William Allen (December 26, 1921 – October 30, 2000) was an American television personality, radio personality, musician, composer, actor, comedian, and writer. In 1954, he achieved national fame as the co-cre ...
introduced him on one of his shows as being "the only real
political philosopher
Political philosophy or political theory is the philosophical study of government, addressing questions about the nature, scope, and legitimacy of public agents and institutions and the relationships between them. Its topics include politics, l ...
we have in modern comedy."
![Mort Sahl performing in 2016](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/5c/Mort_Sahl_performing_in_2016.jpg)
Combined with his improvisational skill, Sahl's naturalness was also considered unique for a stage performer.
Woody Allen
Heywood "Woody" Allen (born Allan Stewart Konigsberg; November 30, 1935) is an American film director, writer, actor, and comedian whose career spans more than six decades and multiple Academy Award-winning films. He began his career writing ...
notes that other comics were jealous of Sahl's stage persona and did not understand how he could perform by simply talking to the audience.
Nachman stated that the "mere idea of a stand-up comic talking about the real world was in itself revolutionary ...
ndthe comedians who followed him
Lenny Bruce
Leonard Alfred Schneider (October 13, 1925 – August 3, 1966), known professionally as Lenny Bruce, was an American stand-up comedian, social critic, and satirist. He was renowned for his open, free-wheeling, and critical style of comedy which ...
, Woody Allen,
Dick Gregory
Richard Claxton Gregory (October 12, 1932 – August 19, 2017) was an American comedian, civil rights leader, business owner and entrepreneur, and vegetarian activist. His writings were best sellers. Gregory became popular among the Afric ...
,
Phyllis Diller
Phyllis Ada Diller (née Driver; July 17, 1917 – August 20, 2012) was an American stand-up comedian, actress, author, musician, and visual artist, best known for her eccentric stage persona, self-deprecating humor, wild hair and clothes, and e ...
,
Shelley Berman,
Jonathan Winters
Jonathan Harshman Winters III (November 11, 1925 – April 11, 2013) was an American comedian, actor, author, television host, and artist. Beginning in 1960, Winters recorded many classic comedy albums for the Verve Records label. He also h ...
were cast in a familiar nightclub mold."
In popular culture
In the September 28, 1960 ''
Peanuts
''Peanuts'' is a print syndication, syndicated daily strip, daily and Sunday strip, Sunday American comic strip written and illustrated by Charles M. Schulz. The strip's original run extended from 1950 to 2000, continuing in reruns afterward. ' ...
'' comic strip,
Schroeder __NOTOC__
Schroeder is a North German language, German (from Schröder) occupational name for a cloth cutter or tailor, from an agent derivative of Middle Low German , "to cut". The same term was occasionally used to denote a gristmiller as well as ...
is reading aloud to
Lucy
Lucy is an English feminine given name derived from the Latin masculine given name Lucius with the meaning ''as of light'' (''born at dawn or daylight'', maybe also ''shiny'', or ''of light complexion''). Alternative spellings are Luci, Luce, Lu ...
from a biography on his all-time favorite composer,
Ludwig van Beethoven
Ludwig van Beethoven (baptised 17 December 177026 March 1827) was a German composer and pianist. Beethoven remains one of the most admired composers in the history of Western music; his works rank amongst the most performed of the classical ...
where he describes his idol as someone who "would sometimes startle people in public places," then would at times "flew out in anger against all that was petty, dull, or greedy in men.,
ndOften, however, his scorn would turn to high hilarity and humorous jests." Lucy then asks, "Are you reading about Beethoven or Mort Sahl?"
Personal life
Sahl was married three times. He wedded Sue Babior in 1955; the marriage ended in divorce less than three years later. In the early 1960s his steady girlfriend was
Tippi Hedren
Nathalie Kay "Tippi" Hedren (born January 19, 1930) is an American actress, animal rights activist, and former fashion model.
A successful fashion model who appeared on the front covers of ''Life'' and '' Glamour'' magazines, among others, Hed ...
.
In 1967, he married actress and model
China Lee
China Lee (born Margaret Lee; September 2, 1942) is an American model and actress. She was '' Playboy's'' Playmate of the Month for the August 1964 issue, and the first Asian American Playmate. Her centerfold was photographed by Pompeo Posar. Ac ...
and they divorced in 1991. They had one son, Mort Sahl Jr., who died in 1996, aged 19, from an unknown drug-related reaction.
In 1997, he married Kenslea Ann Motter; they divorced around 2009.
[Nachman, Gerald]
"Comedy's Lion in Winter"
, ''The American Spectator'', April 2011. He regretted the end of their marriage and said "I'm sorry I divorced Kenslea; I'm still in love with my wife. If you love a woman it'll make her a better woman."
In 1976, Sahl wrote an autobiography called ''Heartland''.
In June 2007, a number of star comedians, including George Carlin and Jonathan Winters, gave Sahl an 80th birthday tribute.
In 2008, Sahl moved from Los Angeles to
Mill Valley, California
Mill Valley is a city in Marin County, California, Marin County, California, United States, located about north of San Francisco via the Golden Gate Bridge and from Napa Valley. The population was 14,231 at the 2020 United States Census, 2020 ...
, a suburb of San Francisco, where he became friends with comedian
Robin Williams
Robin McLaurin Williams (July 21, 1951August 11, 2014) was an American actor and comedian. Known for his improvisational skills and the wide variety of characters he created on the spur of the moment and portrayed on film, in dramas and come ...
, who lived nearby.
Until the
COVID-19 pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...
in 2020, Sahl worked every Thursday night taking questions from a live audience and from Periscope/
Twitter
Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...
.
"Inside Robin Williams's Last Days"
, People.com. August 14, 2014.
Sahl died of natural causes at his home in Mill Valley on October 26, 2021, at age 94.
Discography
Performance albums
*''At Sunset'', Fantasy Records
Fantasy Records is an American independent record label company founded by brothers Max and Sol Stanley Weiss in 1949. The early years of the company were dedicated to issuing recordings by jazz pianist Dave Brubeck, who was also one of its inves ...
(recorded 1955, released 1958)
*''The Future Lies Ahead'', Verve Records
Verve Records is an American record label owned by Universal Music Group (UMG). Founded in 1956 by Norman Granz, the label is home to the world's largest jazz catalogue, which includes recordings by artists such as Ella Fitzgerald, Nina Simon ...
(1958)
*''Mort Sahl: 1960 or Look Forward in Anger'', Verve Records MG V-15004 (1959)
*''At the hungry i'', Verve Records (1960)
*''The Next President'', Verve Records (1960)
*''A Way of Life'', Verve Records (1960)
*''The New Frontier'', Reprise Records
Reprise Records is an American record label founded in 1960 by Frank Sinatra. It is owned by Warner Music Group, and operates through Warner Records, one of its flagship labels.
Artists currently signed to Reprise Records include Enya, Michael ...
(1961)
*''On Relationships'', Reprise Records (1961)
*''Anyway... Onward'', Mercury Records
Mercury Records is an American record label owned by Universal Music Group. It had significant success as an independent operation in the 1940s and 1950s. Smash Records and Fontana Records were sub labels of Mercury. In the United States, it is ...
(1967)
*''"Sing a Song of Watergate
The Watergate scandal was a major political scandal in the United States involving the administration of President Richard Nixon from 1972 to 1974 that led to Nixon's resignation. The scandal stemmed from the Nixon administration's continual ...
... Apocryphal of Lie!"'', GNP Crescendo Records
GNP Crescendo Record Co. is an independent record label founded in 1954 by Gene Norman ''(né'' Eugene Abraham Nabatoff; 1922–2015). It started as a producer of jazz, then expanded into many other genres, including comedy, rock, and '' Star Tre ...
(1973)
*''Mort Sahl's America'', Dove Audio (1996)
Compilation album
* ''Great Moments of Comedy with Mort Sahl'' Verve Records (1965)
Selected filmography
*'' In Love and War'' (1958) as Danny Krieger
*''Richard Diamond, Private Detective
''Richard Diamond, Private Detective'' is an American detective drama, created by Blake Edwards, which aired on radio from 1949 to 1953, and on television from 1957 to 1960.
Radio
Dick Powell starred in the ''Richard Diamond, Private Detec ...
'' (CBS-TV 1959) as Himself
*'' All the Young Men'' (1960) as Cpl. Crane
*''Johnny Cool
''Johnny Cool'' is a 1963 American neo-noir crime film directed by William Asher based on the novel ''The Kingdom of Johnny Cool'' by John McPartland which stars Henry Silva and Elizabeth Montgomery. Produced in part by Peter Lawford, ''Johnny ...
'' (1963) as Ben Morrow
*'' Doctor, You've Got to Be Kidding!'' (1967) as Dan Ruskin
*''Don't Make Waves
''Don't Make Waves'' is a 1967 American sex comedy (with elements of the beach party genre) starring Tony Curtis, Claudia Cardinale, Dave Draper and Sharon Tate. Distributed by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, the film was directed by Alexander Mackendric ...
'' (1967) as Sam Lingonberry
*''hungry i
The hungry i was a nightclub in San Francisco, California, originally located in the North Beach neighborhood. It played a major role in the history of stand-up comedy in the United States. It was launched by Eric "Big Daddy" Nord, who sold i ...
reunion'' (1981) as Himself, documentary
*''Inside the Third Reich
''Inside the Third Reich'' (german: Erinnerungen, "Memories") is a memoir written by Albert Speer, the Nazi Minister of Armaments from 1942 to 1945, serving as Adolf Hitler's main architect before this period. It is considered to be one of the m ...
'' (1982) (TV) as Werner Finck
Werner Finck (2 May 1902 – 31 July 1978) was a German ''Kabarett'' comedian, actor and author. Not politically motivated by his own admission but just a "convinced individualist", he became one of Germany's leading cabaret artists under the co ...
*'' Nothing Lasts Forever'' (1984) as Uncle Mort
*''Jonathan Winters
Jonathan Harshman Winters III (November 11, 1925 – April 11, 2013) was an American comedian, actor, author, television host, and artist. Beginning in 1960, Winters recorded many classic comedy albums for the Verve Records label. He also h ...
: On the Ledge'' (1987) as Himself, TV special
*''Mort Sahl: The Loyal Opposition'' (1989) as Himself, American Masters
''American Masters'' is a PBS television series which produces biographies on enduring writers, musicians, visual and performing artists, dramatists, filmmakers, and those who have left an indelible impression on the cultural landscape of the ...
documentary
*'' The World of Jewish Humor'' (1990) as Himself, documentary
*''Looking for Lenny'' (2011) as Himself, documentary
*''When Comedy Went to School'' (2013) as Himself, documentary
*''Max Rose
Max N. Rose (born November 28, 1986) is an American military officer and politician who served as a United States representative from New York for a single term from 2019 to 2021. A moderate Democratic Party (United States), Democrat, he served ...
'' (2016) as Jack
Bibliography
* Curtis, James; ''Last Man Standing: Mort Sahl and the Birth of Modern Comedy'', Univ. Press of Mississippi (2017)
*
Notes
References
*
*
*
External links
*
*
*
Entry at thecanadianencyclopedia.ca
* ttps://www.findagrave.com/memorial/233436185/mort-sahl Mort Sahlat Find a Grave
Find a Grave is a website that allows the public to search and add to an online database of cemetery records. It is owned by Ancestry.com. Its stated mission is "to help people from all over the world work together to find, record and present fin ...
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sahl, Mort
1927 births
2021 deaths
20th-century American comedians
20th-century Canadian comedians
American male comedians
American satirists
American social commentators
American stand-up comedians
Anglophone Quebec people
Belmont High School (Los Angeles) alumni
Burials at Hillside Memorial Park Cemetery
Canadian male comedians
Canadian stand-up comedians
Comedians from Montreal
Fantasy Records artists
Jewish American comedians
Jewish American male actors
Jewish Canadian comedians
Male actors from Montreal
Mercury Records artists
Researchers of the assassination of John F. Kennedy
Reprise Records artists
United States Air Force airmen
University of Southern California alumni
Verve Records artists
Canadian emigrants to the United States