Mort Sahl, revolutionary comic who influenced comedians from Lenny Bruce to Dave Chappelle, dies at 94
Mort Sahl, who revolutionized stand-up comedy in the mid-1950s with his insightful political and social satire, has died at his home in Mill Valley, California, at 94.
Sahl, whose on- and off-stage preoccupation with a conspiracy theory on the assassination of President John F. Kennedy slowed his career in the late 1960s, died Tuesday, a family friend overseeing his affairs told The New York Times.
At a time when brash comics in suits and tuxedos typically were telling jokes about their wives and mothers-in-law, Sahl shattered the stand-up stereotype, beginning at the hungry i, a small, brick-walled basement club in San Francisco’s North Beach district.
Wearing a V-neck sweater and an open-collared shirt — and clutching a rolled-up newspaper — the dark-haired University of Southern California graduate with hooded eyes and a wolfish grin fearlessly zeroed in on Cold War-era targets such as President Dwight Eisenhower, Sen. Joseph McCarthy and the notorious House Un-American Activities Committee.
His casual, conversational style would influence a generation of comedians, from Lenny Bruce to Dave Chappelle.
