The Mothers of All Comics

In On the Joke: the Original Queens of Stand-Up Comedy by Shawn Levy (NY: Doubleday, 2022)

In nearly every book on the history of stand-up comedy, women, at best, get one collective chapter, their existence reduced to a sentence or two or a couple of paragraphs.  (I can only think of one off the top of my head that does more than that: We Killed: the Rise of Women in Stand-up Comedy by Yael Kohen.)  Show business chronicler Shawn Levy, in contrast, selected nine women whom he felt were the pioneers, taking a deeper dive into who they were and how they broke into the "boys' club" of stand-up in his latest book, In On the Joke: the Original Queens of Stand-up Comedy.  They didn't do everything men did "backwards and in high heels" as the saying about Ginger Rogers goes.*   Working harder within the parameters of a testosterone-fueled field and against the mores of their times, they became successes, but not without personal sacrifice or suppressing a vital part of themselves, something their male counterparts did not have to do. The nine Levy chose were Jackie "Moms" Mabley, Jean Carroll, Minnie Pearl, Phyllis Diller, Elaine May, Totie Fields, and Joan Rivers, with Belle Barth and Rusty Warren as the only ones sharing a chapter.

Levy, with his storytelling skills, covers some familiar territory, the parts of the stories we all know (because of those paragraphs or bios).  He also expands on them, allowing us to feel the frustration of his subjects at having to downplay, or hide completely, their looks, their intellect, their sexuality, and more.  His chapter on Phyllis Diller alone ("The Positive Thinker") reads better than her own autobiography (Like a Lampshade in a Whore House).  Do not skip the book's Introduction!

Anyone reading this book will come away with (I hope) a respect and appreciation for these women.  But it will be women who will feel a sense of pride and an urge to suppress a scream of anger on behalf of the founding females of funny.

*While that quote gets attributed to a number of people, Rogers included, the first verifiable appearance of it was in the comic strip, "Frank and Ernest" by Bob Thaves in 1982.

 A Valentine to Comedy's Sweetheart

Love, Gilda: a documentary by Lisa D'Apolito (2018, 87 min.)

A recent news story broke my heart.  As Gilda's Club, a nationwide support community for people with cancer, celebrated its 25th Anniversary, a number of chapters announced a name change.  Many boards of directors felt that the name of the organization should make it clear that its focus is on cancer, but the most devastating reason - and probably the most honest - was given by the Madison,Wisconsin chapter: Their members did not know who she was, particularly the younger ones.

For those of you who have no idea, or a vague one, of who Gilda Radner was, do yourself a favor; scour the streaming services for the early episodes of SNL (called "Saturday Night" when it first started in 1975), and binge watch her brilliance.  (Female co-stars, Jane Curtain and Laraine Newman were no slouches either.)

For the rest of us, Lisa D'Apolito's taut documentary, Love, Gilda, uses Radner's own diaries, home movies, and audio and video recordings to tell the story of an insecure chubby kid from Detroit who grew up to be comedy's sweetheart.  There is no fairy tale here, and that is D'Apolito's focus.  She doesn't gloss over Gilda's eating disorder, drug use, and ovarian cancer.  It is far from a pity party, though.  Gilda's honesty about her life and her bravery in the face of a deadly disease make you miss her all the more.  Even though you know the end, you root for her to overcome it all and you cheer when she finds the love of her life, comic actor Gene Wilder.   

Love, Gilda is currently streaming on Amazon Prime Video.

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