Tuesday: A day to: celebrate a comedy legend.
As you can see by Itzl's concerned look, this group gives Kossacks a safe place to check in, a daily diary where we
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IAN is a great group to join, and a good place to learn to write diaries. Drop one of us a Kosmail and ask to be added to the Itzl Alert Network anytime! We all share the publishing duties, and we welcome everyone who reads IAN to write diaries for the group! Every member is an editor, so anyone can take a turn when they have something to say, photos and music to share, a cause to promote or news!
We do have a diary schedule. But, when you are ready to write that diary, either post in thread or send FloridaSNMOM a Kosmail with the date. If you need someone to fill in, ditto. FloridaSNMOM is here on and off through the day usually from around 9:30 or 10 am eastern to around 11 pm eastern.
Monday: Youffraita
Tuesday: ejoanna
Wednesday: Pam from Calif
Thursday: art ah zen
Friday: FloridaSNMOM
Saturday: FloridaSNDad
Sunday: loggersbrat
My first diary ever here at Daily Kos was in 2008. The subject? Two terrific and iconic comedians: Mort Sahl and Dick Gregory. In 2017 I wrote a DKos tribute to Dick Gregory when he died. Last week I was very sad to read of Mort Sahl’s death, at age 94.
Sigh. Most media (at least that I’ve seen) have made mo mention of Mr. Sahl at all. Old man; old news, right?
Bah!
Mort Sahl was there at the start of subversive, political standup. And he reinvented his career over and over. He was still doing standup (in my county here in Northern CA!) until Covid started. In other words, into his 90s.
Besides Dick Gregory, Mort Sahl worked with some other locally-based comics, like the guy on the couch with him backstage. Maybe you recognize the younger guy in the photo below.
Here’s a quote from a NYT retrospective on Sahl’s place in Comedy History. Says it all:
Like so many comics “canceled” today, Sahl kept working, and while he never regained his old stature, he also didn’t retire. I didn’t realize he was still active until a few years ago when someone told me not only was he performing every week at a theater in Mill Valley, Calif., but it was also livestreamed. And sure enough, I looked him up and there he was in his 90s, still bemused, flashing that wolfish grin. It was inspiring and not a little bizarre, like discovering that Fatty Arbuckle was still alive and acting.
In the popular narratives of the history of stand-up, Lenny Bruce is often positioned as the founding father, and his fight for free speech is a great romantic story to build on. A biopic called “Mort” just doesn’t have the same ring to it. But look around the comedy scene today, the good, bad and ugly, and this saloon talker seems more relevant than ever.
NYT Oct. 28, 2021
Now, a few years after I saw the Sahl and Gregory comedy tag team in Marin Co., in 2008, I went into a favorite local coffee shop. . .and nearby was. . .Mort Sahl and a friend! After our meal, Mr. ej and I went over to say hello to Mr. Sahl and tell him how much we admired him and his work. Then I alluded to the time he had appeared on stage with Dick Gregory—and asked, as dead-pan as I could, “That kid has a bright future in comedy! Where is he now?” And Mort Sahl laughed, a lot. Quitting while I was ahead, the Mister and I made a graceful exit.
The comedy glow has lingered on all these years.
Rest in peace funny guy!