Legendary Jewish stand-up Mort Sahl has died aged 94, leaving behind a legacy that inspired Woody Allen and a host of other comedians to follow in his acerbic path.
The pioneering star was said to “have invented modern American political satire” in the Fifties, when he appeared on stage dressed casually, instead of in the traditional tuxedo, and swapped the tired mother-in-law gags of the day for freewheeling improvisational sets that moved from politics to his dating life.
“Mort Sahl was not only the most influential standup comic in the history of the medium,” said Curb Your Enthusiasm director Robert B. Weide, “he remained, pound-for-pound, the funniest, most innovative comedian of them all, throughout his entire career. He was also a good friend.”
The humourist made his name at the hungry i club in San Francisco, a bohemian hangout where he first began to overturn comedic convention.
Mr Sahl took on American presidents from Dwight D. Eisenhower to Donald Trump, putting into practice a belief in bipartisan humour and mocking liberals and conservatives alike.
“Comedians have to challenge the power. Comedians should be dangerous and devastating – and funny. That’s the hardest part,” was how he put it.
Mr Sahl was born into a Jewish family in Montreal, Canada, in 1927. Completely assimilated, he often denied any significant Jewish influence on his comedy.
In 1961, though, he told an interviewer he felt Jewish in so far as the “role of the Jew is that of the opposition”.
“So if the role of the Jew is to rock the boat and to be inquisitive – intellectually curious,” he said, then he accepted his identity.
At the peak of his fame in the Sixties Mr Sahl was said to be earning up to a million dollars a year, performing nationwide and appearing on television regularly.
In the wake of President Kennedy’s death, however, his support for the theory that the assassination was a CIA plot saw the comic recede from public view and his earnings sink.
During the Seventies Sahl staged a partial comeback, producing a one-man off-Broadway show Mort Sahl’s America and also inspiring a new generation of avant garde stand-ups, including George Carlin.
Actor and comedian Albert Brooks tweeted: “Most young people have no idea who he was but he was one the few comedians who yanked comedy out of vaudeville-type humour into the modern age.
“One of the very first to just talk to the audience. We’ll miss you Mort.”
Curb Your Enthusiasm writer Alan Zweibel said: “Everyone in the comedy world, whether they realize it or not, owes a debt of gratitude to Mort Sahl.”
The Simpsons’ Harry Shearer tweeted: “RIP Mort Sahl. He just invented modern American political satire, is all. And while he was best known for stinging wit, he was always an expert joke writer.”
