Laughter is the best medicine. At least that’s what I hear. I’m still alive and I laugh all the time, so I suppose at least you can say that a little laughter never hurt anyone. While comedy can take many forms, from slapstick to satire, one of the purest forms of comedy is stand-up. There is something raw and vulnerable about standing on stage with nothing but a microphone trying to make an entire audience see things from your point of view just so they can be entertained. There is no question that being able to perform stand-up well takes talent and there have been relatively few comics over the decades that have gone down in history as bringing something new to the genre. Here, we’ll remember a few of those names while exploring what stand-up used to be and what it has become.
The phrase “stand-up comedy” brings many names to mind. Modern stand-up actually began with vaudeville in the late 19th century and while Frank Fay is credited with the creation of the genre, Bob Hope, Milton Berle and Jack Benny, all of whom started in vaudeville, are far more well known as fathers of stand-up comedy. In the beginning, routines centered more around personal experiences of the comic than current events or random musings.
It wasn’t long after the fellas started getting noticed for their stand-up routines that a few ladies started to get in on the action. Mostly known for their bawdy humor and aggressive manors, women like Jean Carroll, Betty Walker and Pearl Williams helped pave the way for female stand-up comics for years to come, proving that the girls can be just as funny and riveting as their male counterparts.
The late 50′s and early 60′s saw further changes in stand-up as more progressive comedians like Lenny Bruce began to push the envelope on what topics (sex, politics, religion, stuff we consider average fodder for comedians now) that were discussed in stand-up and even what words were used. Arrested several times for discussing questionable topics and his use of obscene language, Bruce inspired comics such as George Carlin and Richard Pryor with their nothing-is-sacred form of acerbic social satire.
While this style of comedy was popular for several decades, in recent years, audiences seem less interested in shock comedy (probably because just about every topic that could be considered shocking has been covered pretty well) and seem to be more entertained by those that offer their uniquely odd observations, a la Jerry Seinfeld and Brain Regan, and nonsensical comedians like Jim Carrey and Dimitri Martin.
Almost as entertaining as the stand-up routines itself, is watching the evolution of stand-up comedy. Well, okay, so maybe that’s a bit of an exaggeration. Still, understanding stand-up can give you a greater appreciation for the men and women you see now working the stand-up circuit. The style itself is revolutionary and the people involved are waging a war on boredom and ignorance everywhere.
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