Jack Benny was a great many things to many people. To millions of radio listeners, his character was simply the cheapest man in America, an image so ingrained into the national consciousness that on opening day of baseball season-instead of throwing out the first ball-he merely glanced at it and put it in his pocket, bringing the house down. To... [+] Read More

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Mort Sahl was arguably the most influential comedian of the postwar era; a provocative political satirist, he singlehandedly revolutionized the comedy medium to create an art form with a scope and impact far beyond mere slapstick and gags. Sahl's conversational, free-associative style -- an amalgam of anecdotes, one-liners and pithy asides --... [+] Read More

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Musical humorist Victor Borge was born Børge Rosenbaum in Copenhagen, Denmark on January 3, 1909; the son of a violinist with the violin in the Danish Symphony Orchestra, he began playing piano at age three, and was quickly hailed as a child prodigy. On scholarship at the Royal Danish Music Conservatory, he studied under Olivo Krause and Victor... [+] Read More

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Before he emerged as one of the foremost American filmmakers of the 20th century, Woody Allen was a stand-up comic. Although his tenure as a performing comedian was relatively short-lived, its importance to the development of his later work was pivotal; on stage and on record, Allen honed to perfection the uniquely neurotic and uniquely New York... [+] Read More

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