Stand-up Comedy

Will Ferrell has described stand-up as "hard, lonely and vicious."  A popular quote is "Dying is easy.  Comedy is hard."  That's been attributed to Edmund Gwenn, George Bernard Shaw and Oscar Wilde, among others.  Nobody knows for sure.

 Let's start with the 2000's, for the benefit of those who've never heard of early stand-up comics.  Today we can find comedy on the Internet, improv stage groups, comedy clubs, HBO and Comedy Central.   

In the 1990's, comedy clubs appeared everywhere.  Famous comics demanded high ticket prices with big shows, but struggling newcomers had trouble finding an audience.  The revival of comedy in the late 1990's is often attributed to Chris Rock…in the opinion of many, the funniest man in the world.

The 1980's brought us a big boom in comedy venues.  They had often been refurbished from disco clubs.  The big stand-up comics were Robin Williams, Eddie Murphy, Jerry Seinfeld and Billy Crystal.  The 1970's brought us stars like Richard Pryor, Steve Martin, Rodney Dangerfield and George Carlin.  Their stages were often in coffee shops, resorts and, for the big stars, sports arenas.  Jay Leno has often described his early career in strip clubs.  You can imagine how tough it was for the comic -- the audience wasn’t there to hear his comedy.

It would be impossible to discuss stand-up comedy without remembering Lenny Bruce.  He was seen as a "sick" comedian.  Bruce was repeatedly arrested for shocking and profane language that is seen as tame today.  There would not have been a Richard Pryor, Eddie Murphy, George Carlin or Chris Rock without Lenny Bruce.