[78-L] Live comedy

[David Lennick]

On 4/10/2011 2:16 AM, Michael Biel wrote:
> Ah, now I see what their point is -- MODERN stand-up comedy.   Does it
> have to be about contemporary politics and society?  Will Rodgers would
> qualify.

I would definitely include Rogers, and his 78s have the "top of my head" 
atmosphere even if there was no audience. By the way, just this morning I read 
a great line about him in a letter from James Thurber to Fred Allen.."Actually, 
this bosom friend of senators and congressmen was about as daring as an early 
Shirley Temple movie."

>> I have a Victor Borge -- actually Borge Rosenbaum -- HMV in Danish arom
>> the 1930s.  It is a two sided routine about a restaurant.  Like his
>> Columbia 78s, this has no audience.  Like some other British records in
>> the late 30s, there are Gracie Fields records recorded with audiences of
>> the troops but that probably doesn't count.  But Bob Hope's "I Never
>> Left Home" on Capitol DOES because it consists of four monologues with
>> troop audiences.  Do the W.C. Fields records have an audience?    The
>> Borge Columbia LPs should also count.  He stood much of the time.  They
>> contrast greatly from the 78s because of the audience, and the Sam
>> Levenson records are notable because although the audience seems coached
>> in the first two sessions, the last record Baby and My Landlady do not
>> have an audience and have a different feel about them.
>>
Myron Cohen's 4 discs for Banner might also qualify. The W. C. Fields discs are 
in no way standup, they're scripted by Bill Morrow and "Glass of Water" is 
sketch comedy. Wally Cox's "What a Crazy Guy" is borderline..scripted on the 
Victor disc but he did it as standup on Arthur Godfrey's Talent Scouts, which 
version has been on a Radiola LP.

No audience on Lord Buckley's "Euphoria" lps (1951).

My original point was whether Mort Sahl's "At Sunset" album can be the first 
recording of modern standup comedy since it wasn't issued till December 1958, 
and Verve had already put out V15002 by this time, but that's splitting hairs. 
(The Fantasy album was still in Schwann in mid 1961..how "immediately" was it 
withdrawn?)

http://www.loc.gov/today/pr/2011/11-073.html
13. "At Sunset," Mort Sahl (1955)
"At Sunset" is an early live recording of the influential satirist and stand-up 
comedian Mort Sahl. Sahl’s comedy is typified by a conversational style, 
thoroughly grounded in up-to-the-minute topics and events, and is replete with 
satiric asides and smart, subtle punch lines. Woody Allen and Lenny Bruce are 
among the many comics who were influenced by Sahl. His approach to comedy 
became a staple on television and at comedy clubs for decades. This album, 
Sahl’s second release but earliest recording, had not been authorized and was 
later withdrawn. "At Sunset" nevertheless retains the distinction of being the 
first recording of modern stand-up comedy.


dl