Book contents
- The Cambridge Companion to Stand-Up Comedy
- Cambridge Companions to Theatre and Performance
- The Cambridge Companion to Stand-Up Comedy
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures
- Contributors
- Introduction
- Comedians’ Insights What Do You Do to Prepare to Go Onstage?
- Part I Time and Place
- Part II Interpretation and Meaning
- Chapter 5 Stand-Up Comedy and Gender
- Chapter 6 Stand-Up Comedy and Sexuality
- Chapter 7 Laugh No Limit
- Chapter 8 Jewish American Stand-Up Comedy
- Chapter 9 Stand-Up Comedy, Disability, and Social Justice
- Chapter 10 Stand-Up Comedy and Offence
- Chapter 11 Stand-Up and Politics
- Comedians’ Insights Your Writing Process
- Part III Performance Dynamics
- Select Bibliography
- Index
- References
Chapter 8 - Jewish American Stand-Up Comedy
from Part II - Interpretation and Meaning
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 21 August 2025
Edited by
Book contents
- The Cambridge Companion to Stand-Up Comedy
- Cambridge Companions to Theatre and Performance
- The Cambridge Companion to Stand-Up Comedy
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures
- Contributors
- Introduction
- Comedians’ Insights What Do You Do to Prepare to Go Onstage?
- Part I Time and Place
- Part II Interpretation and Meaning
- Chapter 5 Stand-Up Comedy and Gender
- Chapter 6 Stand-Up Comedy and Sexuality
- Chapter 7 Laugh No Limit
- Chapter 8 Jewish American Stand-Up Comedy
- Chapter 9 Stand-Up Comedy, Disability, and Social Justice
- Chapter 10 Stand-Up Comedy and Offence
- Chapter 11 Stand-Up and Politics
- Comedians’ Insights Your Writing Process
- Part III Performance Dynamics
- Select Bibliography
- Index
- References
Summary
This chapter tells the story of Jewish stand-up in America. It charts the importance of Jewish performers to the emergence of modern stand-up by focusing on the idea of schtick and its shift in definition. Where the concept once defined the humorous patter of vaudeville and Borscht Belt comedians, in the routines of Mort Sahl and Lenny Bruce there emerged a particularly personalised schtick – a deeply ingrained and disproportionately Jewish phenomenon. This schtick formed the basis for their comic personae and laid the foundation for the wide-reaching, socially critical comedy of today. Analysing the performances of Bruce and Sahl alongside their inheritors, Joan Rivers, Sarah Silverman, Marc Maron, and others, this chapter brings to light some essential issues that have continued to shape the development of stand-up – what can be said, who can say it, under what circumstances, and why?
Keywords
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- The Cambridge Companion to Stand-Up Comedy , pp. 158 - 174Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2025
References
Further Reading
Aarons, Debra and Mierowsky, Marc, ‘Obscenity, Dirtiness and Licence in Jewish comedy’, Comedy Studies, Vol. 5, No. 2, 2014: pp. 165–177.10.1080/2040610X.2014.967017CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Freud, Sigmund, Jokes and Their Relation to the Unconscious (Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1976).Google Scholar
Albert, Goldman and Lawrence, Schiller, Ladies and Gentlemen – Lenny Bruce!! (New York: Penguin Books, 1991).Google Scholar
Kanfer, Stefan, A Summer World: The Astonishing History of the Jews in the Catskills (New York: Farrar Straus Giroux, 1990).Google Scholar
Nachman, Gerald, Seriously Funny: The Rebel Comedians of the 50s and 60s (New York: Pantheon Books, 2003).Google Scholar
Oring, Elliott, The Jokes of Sigmund Freud: A Study in Humor and Jewish Identity, 3rd ed. (Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield, 2007).Google Scholar
Richler, Mordecai, ‘The Catskills: Land of Milk and Money’, Holiday Magazine, July 1965.Google Scholar
Wisse, Ruth R., The Schlemiel as Modern Hero (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1971).Google Scholar
Wisse, Ruth R., No Joke: Making Jewish Humor (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2013).10.1515/9781400846344CrossRefGoogle Scholar
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