In On the Joke

January 24, 2022
“The women in these pages are heroes,” writes film critic Levy (King of Comedy) in this riveting cultural history of women’s stand-up comedy between WWII and the 1970s. Revisiting a dispiriting time when “a funny woman who wanted to tell jokes was faced with a brick wall,” Levy spotlights the women who made it their mission to dismantle those barriers. He covers the era’s trailblazers, including Jackie “Moms” Mabley, a Black vaudeville entertainer who, in the face of “racism, misogyny... and doubt,” broke nearly every comedic convention, using humor on stage as a way to discuss social and race relations. In the 1960s, Elaine May, alongside her costar Mike Nichols, introduced sketch comedy to mainstream audiences, and Phyllis Diller “became a household name across America” by embracing “garish stagewear” and a manic demeanor to parody femininity and critique the cultural limitations around it. While in the 1970s, Joan Rivers’s choice to play “a thinly disguised version of herself—a neurotic who could never get the man, the job, the spotlight” cemented her worldwide fame. Written with a vibrance that excellently captures the larger-than-life personalities of Levy’s subjects, these stories coalesce to reveal the resilience and chutzpah that went into shaping stand-up as it’s known today. Comedy fans would do well to snatch this one up.

February 1, 2022

Film critic and biographer Levy (Paul Newman: A Life) deftly describes the evolving culture that has come to accept that women can be funny without denying their very womanhood. Levy focuses on the success of brash women characters developed by early comedians: Jackie Mabley's "Moms" persona, an older, cantankerous Black woman unafraid to discuss race relations and politics; Jean Carroll's "Dumb Dora" shtick; and Sarah Colley's beloved chipper, folksy Minnie Pearl. He also discusses the "bawdy" entertainers (Sophie Tucker, Pearl Williams, Rusty Warren) who waged fights against censorship. Levy directly addresses the uncomfortable reality of his book--that a man is writing about women who struggled to make it in male-dominated stand-up comedy; he stresses his overwhelming respect for the women in question and his desire to see a more equitable future for comedians working today. Levy notes that these women paved the way for the remarkable success of the likes of self-deprecating Phyllis Diller, Totie Fields, Elaine May, and Joan Rivers. The book is insightful, moving, and well researched, with humorous anecdotes and fond memories of a group of women Levy clearly admires. VERDICT Levy gives these trailblazers their due, and fans of comedy will adore the snippets of classic banter and long-lost one-liners.--Lisa Henry

Copyright 2022 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

February 15, 2022
A film critic and bestselling author examines the foundational history of women stand-up comedians in American show business. Women comics faced an uphill battle throughout most of the 20th century. Levy, author of biographies of Jerry Lewis, Paul Newman, Robert De Niro, and others, observes that prior to the feminist movement of the 1960s, women who dared take the stage alone were "expected to be pretty and to sing, maybe dance. If she did comedy at all, it was with a man or as part of an ensemble." Yet so many of the women he profiles shattered those notions through grit, persistence, and brilliance that could not be denied. Moms Mabley, who began her storied career in the all-Black vaudeville circuit during the years after World War I, broke ground not only by talking frankly about sex and politics, but also for her offstage life as a lesbian. Like Mabley, Jewish comedian Belle Barth also began in vaudeville and built a career around comedic raunchiness. Her unapologetically profane act got her "arrested and fined for public indecency" years before Lenny Bruce became a "First Amendment martyr." The struggles and triumphs of these early female comedians helped pave the way for later female comedians like Phyllis Diller. The long-suffering wife of a feckless husband, Diller stumbled into stand-up in the 1950s and gradually made a name for herself doing comic takedowns of her own, often troubled, domestic life. Later, she would become the first woman daring enough to breach the male-only precincts of the Friars Club in 1983, dressed as a man, and the first woman to be offered membership in the club three years later. Both thorough and sympathetic, Levy's work is notable for how it fills gaps in entertainment history, and the author also ably explores social and attitudinal changes that helped women finally be recognized for their contributions to comedy. A readably informative, well-researched comedic history.

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