Mort Sahl

Canadian-American entertainer, comedian and political satirist. He was an intellectual superstar, shaping modern political satire in the '50s. He developed his biting satirical skills in Canadian clubs before expanding internationally. Sahl gained his fame in the 1950s when he based his comedy routine on the Eisenhower presidency, J. Edgar Hoover and the FBI, and later the Kennedy administration, Vietnam and the Nixon White House. Sahl had no sacred cows and he criticized conservatives, Republicans, Democrats and liberals alike, finding material from the ongoing murkiness of public life. To some, Sahl is the late twentieth century social commentator in the same vein as Will Rogers, a viewpoint he encourages. He wrote his autobiography in 1976, "Heartland."

Sahl's father was an embittered unsuccessful playwright who took a job as a government clerk to feed the family. Sahl was enchanted by the entertainment world and at age two began to imitate news broadcasts from the radio. His father warned his son about the hardships and disappointments in show business, telling him, "They don't want anything good."

Sahl applied and was accepted at West Point but he turned down his appointment, enlisting instead in the Army when he was promptly sent to Alaska. His attitude toward the discipline of the military immediately earned him 83 days of K.P. duty. In 1950, Sahl earned his B.A. in public administration. For the next two years, he hung around the University of California at Berkeley going to the coffeehouses. He moved to San Francisco and was hired by Enrico Banducci, manager of the "hungry i" nightclub, Christmas 1953. Sahl became a hit at the club with his anti-establishment jokes and commentaries. The FBI leaned on Banducci to fire Sahl but the cash register receipts were going through the roof. Down the street from Sahl, Lenny Bruce was packing the crowd in at the Purple Onion.