Guwahati News Desk: The Satirist who helped revolutionize the genre of stand-up comedy, Mort Sahl, died on Tuesday.
As informed by his friend, Lucy Mercer, Sahl died “peacefully” at his home in Mill Valley, California. She added that the cause of his death was “old age”.
During an era when many comedians dressed in tuxedos and told mother-in-law jokes, Sahl faced his audiences wearing slacks, a sweater and an unbuttoned collar and carrying a rolled-up newspaper on which he had pasted notes for his act.
In addition, Sahl took pride in having mocked every president from Dwight Eisenhower to Donald Trump, although he acknowledged he privately admired Democrat John F Kennedy and counted Republican Ronald Reagan among his closest friends.
Regarding the initial stage of Sahl’s career, he became famous in 1953 at San Francisco’s hungry i (the i stood for intellectual), the perfect place for a comedian of his type. The city was a meeting ground for beatniks and college activists, and they crowded into the tiny club to hear someone who spoke to their disdain for the status quo.
Eventually, word spread quickly about the young comedian with the distinctive style, and soon Sahl was earning USD 7,500 a week at nightclubs across the nation and appearing on television with Steve Allen and Jack Paar.
However, the most significant feature of Sahlâs career was that he had successfully revolutionized the genre of stand-up comedy with his running commentary on politicians and current events, that eventually became a favourite of the new, restive generation of Americans.
