| Mort Sahl | |
|---|---|
 Sahl in 1960 | |
| Birth name | Morton Lyon Sahl |
| Born | (1927-05-11)May 11, 1927 Montreal, Quebec, Canada |
| Died | October 26, 2021(2021-10-26) (aged 94) Mill Valley, California, U.S. |
| Medium | Stand-up, television |
| Nationality | American |
| Alma mater | University of Southern California |
| Years active | 1950–2020 |
| Genres | Political satire,improvisational comedy |
| Subject(s) | American politics,American culture |
| Spouse | |
Morton Lyon Sahl (May 11, 1927 – October 26, 2021) was a Canadian-born Jewish Americancomedian,actor, and socialsatirist, considered the first modern comedian.[1][2] He 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 theSan Francisco Bay Area where he made his professional stage debut at thehungry i nightclub in 1953.[3] 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 be featured in aTime cover story. He appeared on various television shows, played a number of film roles, and performed a one-man show onBroadway.
Television hostSteve Allen 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, includingLenny Bruce,Jonathan Winters,George Carlin,Richard Pryor,Lewis Black andWoody Allen. Allen credits Sahl's new style of humor with "opening up vistas for people like me".[4]: 545
Numerous politicians became his fans, withJohn F. Kennedy asking him to write his jokes for campaign speeches, though Sahl later turned his barbs at the president. AfterKennedy's assassination in 1963, Sahl focused on what he said were theWarren 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, his shows and popularity staged a partial comeback that continued over the ensuing decades.[5] A biography of Sahl,Last Man Standing, byJames Curtis, was released in 2017.[6]
Sahl was born on May 11, 1927, inMontreal,Quebec, Canada,[7][8] the only child of Jewish parents.[4][9] His father, Harry Sahl, came from an immigrant family on New York City'sLower East Side, and hoped to become a Broadway playwright. Harry had met his wife, Dorothy (Schwartz),[10] 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.[2]
Sahl's family later relocated to Los Angeles, where his father, unable to become a Hollywood writer, worked as a clerk andcourt reporter for theFBI. Sahl notes, "My dad was disappointed in his dreams and he distrusted that world for me." Sahl went toBelmont High School in Los Angeles, where he wrote for the school's newspaper. ActorRichard Crenna was a classmate.[4]: 55
When the U.S. enteredWorld War II after theJapanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Sahl, then aged 14, joined the school'sReserve Officers' Training Corps (ROTC). He won a medal formarksmanship and anAmerican Legion "Americanism award".[4]: 55 Wanting to express his patriotism, he wore his ROTC uniform to school and in public[2] and, when he turned fifteen, he dropped out of high school to join theUnited States Army by lying about his age.[4]: 55 His mother tracked him down and brought him back home two weeks later after she had revealed his true age.[4]: 55
After Sahl graduated from high school, his father tried to get him intoWest Point and had received his Congressman's help, but Sahl had by then already enlisted in theUnited States Army Air Forces. He was later stationed inAlaska 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 ofKP duty.[2] In an interview, Sahl stated he found his military experience a good one, that he described as "spiritual".[11]
Sahl was discharged in 1947 and enrolled inCompton College, followed by theUniversity of Southern California. He received a B.S. degree in 1950 with majors intraffic engineering andcity management.[2][8] He continued with a masters program, but dropped out to become an actor and playwright.[2]
Between 1950 and 1953 Sahl attempted to get jobs as a stand-up comedian in about 30 nightclubs in Los Angeles, but with no success.NBC, where he auditioned, told him he would never succeed as a comedian.[2] He offered to perform free during intermissions for the chance to show his talent. He recalled of that period: "Despite all the folklore about the faith of friends in the struggling young artist, my friends constantly discouraged me."[4]: 56 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 titledNobody Trusted the Truth.[2] Unable to attract a large enough audience, they eventually closed the theater.[citation needed]
For income, Sahl began doing odd jobs and writing. He worked as a used car salesman and amessenger, 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.[4]: 56 He returned to Los Angeles, where he appeared at some clubs, but his new style of monologue comedy received little attention.[citation needed]
In 1953 he began dating Sue Babior. When she moved toBerkeley to study at theUniversity of California, 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 fewavant-garde publications. He slept in the back seat of a friend's car; Babior was living with roommates. "Things were simple then," he said. "... All we had to worry about was the destiny of man."[12] He felt at home in the San Francisco Bay Area, commenting, "I was 'born' inSan Francisco." He stated that the three years he lived in Berkeley were a valuable experience.[4]: 57
Sahl sought clubs where he could perform stand-up, and Babior suggested he audition for thehungry i, a nightclub in San Francisco.[8] Its owner,Enrico Banducci, 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.[2]
Word about Sahl's satirical comedy act spread quickly. He received good reviews from influential newspaper columnistHerb Caen. The reviews gave Sahl instant credibility: "I don't know where Mr. Sahl came from, but I'm glad he's here," Caen wrote after watching the show. Caen began inviting his own friends, such as film comediansDanny Kaye andEddie Cantor, to watch Sahl's performances.[4]: 62 Cantor took him "under his wing" and gave him suggestions.[4]: 71 By the end of Sahl's first year at the hungry i, he was earning $3,000 a week (about $29,000 a week in 2020 money) and performing to full houses. Later in his career, he said, "I'd be washing cars if it weren't for Enrico."[4]: 62
After a year at the hungry i, Sahl began appearing at other clubs, including theBlack Orchid andMister Kelly's in Chicago, the Crescendo in Los Angeles, and theVillage Vanguard andThe Blue Angel nightclub in New York City.[13] Some of the clubs had never had a stand-up comedian; Sahl had to break in as a new kind of act. "I had to build up my own network of places to play," he said.[4]: 68
He was the best thing I ever saw. There was a need for revolution, everybody was ready for revolution, but some guy had to come along who could perform the revolution and be great. Mort was the one. He was the tip of the iceberg. Underneath were all the other people who came along: Lenny Bruce, Nichols & May, all the Second City. Mort was the vanguard of the group.
Celebrities saw his shows after they heard about the "new phenomenon," referring to Sahl's unique style of comedy.Woody Allen, who saw his show at the Blue Angel in 1954, commented that "he was suddenly this great genius that appeared who revolutionized the medium."[4]: 68 British comedy actorJohn Cleese became immediately interested in Sahl's radical style of humor and accorded to Sahl the same level of respect thatThe Beatles reserved forElvis Presley.[5]
Television hostSteve Allen, who originated theTonight 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.[4]: 63 Allen said that Sahl's "very un-show business manner was one of the things I liked when I first saw him work."[4]: 63
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 criticGerald Nachman.[4]: 50 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.[4]: 67 His naturalness on stage was partly due to his preferring improvisation over carefully rehearsed monologues. Sahl explained:
I never found you could write the act. You can't rehearse the audience's responses. You adjust to them every night. I come in with only an outline. You've got to have a spirit of adventure. I follow my instincts and the audience is my jury.[4]: 64
His casual style of stand-up, where he seemed to be one-on-one with his audience, influenced new comedians, includingLenny Bruce andDick Gregory. 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 thecivil rights movement. After seeing Mort Sahl on stage,Woody Allen, 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."[4]: 545
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."[4]: 64 The speed with which Sahl gave his monologues was also notable. British film criticPenelope Gilliatt 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."[4]: 65
Sahl's popularity "mushroomed like an Atomic cloud during the 50s," says filmmakerRobert B. Weide, adding, "Simply put, Mort Sahl reinvented stand-up comedy."[1]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 [and] the first notable American political satirist sinceWill Rogers."[2] Along with his nightclub performances, he appeared in some films and on television shows, including his network debut onThe NBC Comedy Hour in May 1956.[15] He was one of the interim hosts onThe Tonight Show followingJack Paar's departure as the network waited forJohnny Carson to become available.[citation needed]
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 candidateJohn F. Kennedy, who asked him to prepare a bank of political jokes he could use at public functions.[2] Kennedy liked his style of political satire and what he described as Sahl's "relentless pursuit of everybody."[2]Adlai Stevenson andHubert Humphrey were fans, Humphrey stating that "whenever there is a political bloat, Mort sticks a pin in it."[2] Sahl consideredRonald Reagan one of his closest friends.[16]
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.[2] 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."[2]
As a result of Sahl's popularity, besides getting on the cover ofTime, he also became the first comedian to make a record album, the first to do college concerts, and was the first comedian to win aGrammy.[17]
Once Kennedy was in office, Sahl returned to his policy of making jokes about the incumbent with Sahl saying, “If you were the only person left on the planet, I would have to attack you".[18] JFK's fatherJoseph Kennedy made a few calls, Sahl’s club bookings began to dry up. One morning, Banducci went to the Hungry i who were still booking Sahl and found the doors chained and padlocked by the IRS in demand of back taxes[19]“My so-called liberal supporters have all moved in with the establishment,” he said from the stage at one preview. “The same people who like jokes about John Foster Dulles and Goldwater suddenly freeze when they hear satirical humor about Vietnam or the war on poverty. That’s my job”.[18]
In those days Sahl liked to say, “I have only a few months to tell these jokes before they become treason,” but the line would come back to haunt him after Kennedy took office. Sahl went to town on theBay of Pigs invasion; he pilloried Kennedy with no less relish than he had Eisenhower. InHeartland he remembers the president coming to see him at the Crescendo in Hollywood: “Kennedy was in the audience in the back booth. And I said, ‘I have a bulletin. Marilyn Monroe is going to marry Adlai Stevenson. Now, Kennedy can be jealous of him twice.’ And I heard a fist come down on the table and a voice in New England dialect saying, ‘God damn it.'” Sahl began getting reports through his agent, Milt Ebbins, that the Kennedys felt betrayed and wanted him to cool it. “They kept telling me that Utopia was here, that my people were finally in,” he told the Saturday Evening Post in 1964. “I don’t think my people are ever going to be in.” Finally Ebbins andPeter Lawford delivered an ultimatum from Joseph: “The ambassador says if you don’t cooperate, you’ll never work again in the United States.” Before long the offers began to taper off. Sahl remembers Shelley Davis, who’d just bought the Crescendo, warning him, “I’ve been told that the White House would be offended if I hired you and I’d be audited on my income tax.”.[20]
— J.R. Jones,Political Suicide August 6, 1998
FollowingKennedy's assassination in 1963, Sahl's interest in who was responsible was so great that he became adeputized member of District Attorney of New OrleansJim Garrison's team to investigate the assassination[8] and in 1968 used his influence to get Garrison a spot onThe Tonight Show hosted byJohnny Carson.[21] As a result, Sahl's comedy would often reflect his politics and included readings and commentary about theWarren Commission Report, of which he consistently disputed the accuracy.[22] He alienated much of his audience, was effectivelyblacklisted, and more of his planned shows were cancelled. His income dropped from $1 million to $13,000 by 1964.[23][24] According to Nachman, the extensive 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."[12]
Mort Sahl has charted one of the most precipitous courses in American entertainment for last thirty years and has gone from celebrity to internal exile. There was no precedent for what he did. There were no prototypes. He's a genuinely self-created man and a true existential in that sense. Once he passes from the scene, people will begin to lionize him and call him the great American and take to heart all the things he said.
By the 1970s, the rising tide ofcounterculture eventually fueled Sahl's partial comeback as a veteran comedian, and he was included with the new comedians breaking into the field, such asGeorge Carlin,Lily Tomlin, andRichard Pryor.[4]: 89 In the 1980s he headlined for Banducci'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.[25]
In 1988 Sahl was back in New York City and performed a one-manOff-Broadway show,Mort Sahl's America, which, despite getting good reviews from critics, was not a box office success. TheNew York Times stated, "History has returned Mort Sahl to the spotlight when he is most needed. His style has an intuitive spontaneity. His presence is tonic."[4]: 92 Robert Weide produced a biographical documentary,Mort Sahl: The Loyal Opposition, which ran onPBS in 1989.[1]
Sahl found his previous level of success increasingly difficult to recapture.. OneLos Angeles Times critic wrote, "Sahl is a man with a country but not a stage."[4]: 96 A number of television specials gave him a venue to perform in front of live audiences. Beginning in November 1991, theMonitor Channel broadcast a series of eight shows calledMort Sahl Live .[26][27]
From the 1990s on he performed, but less often and mostly in theaters and college auditoriums.[28] WhenWoody Allen saw him perform in 2001 at one of his rare New York club appearances, Allen told him, "this is crazy – you should be working all the time." Allen then called his managerJack Rollins: "Listen, this guy is hilarious. We gotta bring him to New York."[4]: 96 Sahl then did shows atJoe's Pub inManhattan to standing-room only audiences.[4]: 97
In 2008, Sahl performed at B.B. King's Blues Club & Grill on42nd Street with Woody Allen,Elaine May, andDick Cavett in attendance.[29]
Sahl was ranked #40 onComedy Central's list of the 100 greatest stand-up comedians of all time, ranked betweenBilly Crystal andJon Stewart.[30] In 2003 he received the Fifth AnnualAlan King Award in American Jewish Humor from theNational Foundation for Jewish Culture.[31] In 2011, theLibrary of Congress placed his 1955 recording,At Sunset, on theNational Recording Registry.[32]
Sahl's humor was based on current events, especially politics, which ledMilton Berle to describe him as "one of the greatest political satirists of all time."[5] His trademark persona was to enter the stage with a newspaper in hand, casually dressed in aV-neck sweater. He would often recite some news stories combined with satire.[8] He was dubbed "Will Rogers with fangs" by Time magazine in 1960.[33]
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 executiveRoger Ailes 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."[4]: 52
Sahl's presentation of news commentary as a form of social satire created a wide assortment of celebrity and political fans, includingAdlai Stevenson,Marlene Dietrich,S.J. Perelman,Saul Bellow, andLeonard Bernstein.Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr. said his popularity was due to the public's "yearning for youth, irreverence, trenchancy, satire, [and] a clean break with the past."[4]: 71 AndSteve Allen introduced him on one of his shows as being "the only realpolitical philosopher we have in modern comedy."[34]
Combined with his improvisational skill, Sahl's naturalness was also considered unique for a stage performer.Woody Allen 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.[4]: 52 Nachman stated that the "mere idea of a stand-up comic talking about the real world was in itself revolutionary ... [and] the comedians who followed him – Lenny Bruce, Woody Allen,Dick Gregory,Phyllis Diller,Shelley Berman,Jonathan Winters – were cast in a familiar nightclub mold."[4]: 51
In the September 28, 1960Peanuts comic strip,Schroeder is reading aloud toLucy from a biography on his all-time favorite composer,Ludwig van Beethoven where he describes his idol as someone who "would sometimes startle people in public places," then at times "flew out in anger against all that was petty, dull, or greedy in men., [and] Often, however, his scorn would turn to high hilarity and humorous jests." Lucy then asks, "Are you reading about Beethoven or Mort Sahl?"[35]
Sahl was married three times. He wedded Sue Babior in 1955; the marriage ended in divorce less than three years later.[36] In the early 1960s his steady girlfriend wasTippi Hedren.[37] Sahl also datedDyan Cannon[38] andJulie Newmar.[39]
In 1967, he married actress and modelChina Lee and they divorced in 1991.[40] They had one son, Mort Sahl Jr., who died in 1996, aged 19, from an unknown drug-related reaction.[4]: 92 [41][42]
In 1997, he married Kenslea Ann Motter; they divorced around 2009.[43] 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."[43]
In 1976, Sahl wrote an autobiography calledHeartland.[44]
In June 2007, a number of star comedians, including George Carlin and Jonathan Winters, gave Sahl an 80th birthday tribute.[45]
In 2008, Sahl moved from Los Angeles toMill Valley, California, a suburb of San Francisco, where he became friends with comedianRobin Williams, who lived nearby.[46][47]
Until theCOVID-19 pandemic in 2020, Sahl worked every Thursday night at the Throckmorton Theater in Mill Valley, California taking questions from a live audience and from Periscope/Twitter.[48][49][7]
Sahl died of natural causes at his home in Mill Valley on October 26, 2021, at age 94.[7]
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In his trademark V-neck sweater, with the day's newspaper tucked under his arm, Mort Sahl has satirized – and entertained – presidents from Eisenhower to Clinton.
After his girlfriend, Sue Babior, left to attend UC Berkeley, Sahl headed north. He and Babior married in 1955 and divorced two and a half years later
Mort Sahl, "picking up the pieces" since the March 27 death of his son, Mort Jr., returns to the stage, with a four-week stand at the Tiffany, starting July 17.
In the late 2000s, Sahl relocated to the Bay Area town of Mill Valley, where he would befriend neighbor Robin Williams.
Robin Williams was the only person who came backstage to see him when satirist Mort Sahl gave a show 17 years ago, and the 87-year-old comic said it marked the start of a close friendship that ended with the comedian's apparent suicide this week.
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