From the rear of a dimly lit comedy club, tonight's comedians assess the crowd. The overflow audience is already caught up in the emcee's loud, aggressive, radically oriented, and sexually suggestive lines. "I-i-i-i-t's party night! How you all feel tonight? That's good because I hate it when a bunch of white people look at me all angry. … Everyone here looks happy. Everybody must be single."
Meanwhile, the least experienced performer is revising his script, adding bawdy lines to satisfy the laugh-hungry crowd. But the headliner makes no last-minute fixes: the place is packed with his followers. The crowd craves the sarcastic social commentary of his loony, cavorting persona; no changes are needed.
The packed house is indicative of what has happened to comedy during the eighties: It has exploded; it is big business. More than two thousand stand-up comics work the four hundred clubs that have sprung up in the past half decade. Some of the highest grossing television and theater movies are comedies, and many of today's funny men and women earn millions.
Comedy has exploded in another way: its content. Whatever causes you to double over with laughter can be found somewhere among today's legions of comedians. Some comedy fans enjoy up-and-coming Rick Overton's irreverent commentaries on Vice President Quayle, environmentalists, TV evangelists, and the like. Others flock to watch Bob Zany harass and embarrass people in the front rows.
Still others are loyal to Andrew Dice Clay, who boldly delivers sexist, racist, and bigoted attacks on everyone. No one is safe, not even his mother. "It seems his prurient nature appeals to the younger group," suggests Donna Coe, ex-comedian and now executive for the magazine Comedy U.S.A.
In the forties, Fred Allen's nasal drawl and Jack Benny's penny-pinching sketches kept listeners seated near their radios in stitches. In the fifties, social schedules were planned around television's Milton Berle, Lucille Ball, and Red Skelton. Vaudeville comedians then moved over in amazement as crowds responded to Lenny Bruce's sharp, didactic, dirty, and socially relevant scripts. In the sixties, Cheech and Chong, George Carlin, and Laugh-in offered sex, drugs, and parties as the major content of their goofy, strictly-for-laughs routines.
We love to laugh. Life is serious, and the world's troubles can seem overwhelming; but connecting with a good comedian can help place our problems in perspective--or at least offer an enjoyable respite. And as we cross into the nineties, the public is demanding comedy, comedy, and more comedy.
Politics And Therapy
"A few comics will cash in on the dregs of the Reagan 'don't worry, be happy … and stupid' era," says Rick Overton. "But I dig in real deep and talk about issues." Overton has appeared on Tonight, David Letterman, and Arsenio Hall and recently snagged his first major motion picture role in Blind Fury.
In his routine, Overton works a goofy, cartoony stage character into a frenzied pitch while delivering a lecture on politics, religion, and the environment. "I want to be
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