The Comedians

Great read on the history of American comedy.By Kliph NesteroffRating: 4 / 5.I was reading two books at once and got sucked entirely into this one eager to see where it would go next. There were way too many names to keep up with, but I don’t consider myself well-educated in comedy so Nesteroff’s book was a welcome primer. I particularly like that it moved quickly enough convey a sense of shifts in the comedic landscape. Things I did not know: Vaudeville was not a specific place. (Be cool, I’m owning it.) Early comics would buy joke books and steal liberally from others; few wrote their own material. Many comics, even famous still-living ones you know of, performed other peoples’ jokes when they were starting out. At one point massive “presentation houses” gave way to night clubs, which were pretty much all run by the mob. A “stand-up” guy was tough and dependable—fighters and comics were managed by the same people and got the same label. It used to be extremely dangerous and legally…