Mort Sahl

Mort Sahl was a Canadian-born American who worked as a comedian, actor, and social satirist. He was born in Montreal and spent his early years in Los Angeles. His professional stage debut came in 1953, at San Francisco's hungry i nightclub, where his improvised monologues about current events, delivered with a newspaper in hand, drew quick notice. After about a year there, he toured nightclubs, theaters, and college campuses. In 1960, Time featured him on its cover, a first for a comedian. He appeared on television and took film roles, and he also performed a one-man show on Broadway. His casual, spontaneous style inspired later comics, including Lenny Bruce, George Carlin, Richard Pryor, and Woody Allen. He was the first comedian to release a record album and the first to win a Grammy. After a decline in the 1960s, he made a partial comeback starting in the 1970s. He died in 2021.