How I Became a Comic: When I was in my early 20s in San Francisco in the 1960s, I was blessed to see some of the greatest comics ever at Enrico Banducci's legendary hungry i -- Woody Allen, Bill Cosby, Lenny Bruce, Ronnie Schell, Mort Sahl, Godfrey Cambridge, Professor Irwin Corey.
I always loved comedy, and when I became editor of the San Francisco Chronicle's Sunday Datebook in 1980, I made sure comedy got the coverage it deserved during the 14 years I held that job.
And when I left the paper, whoa!, I decided to become a comic! Comedy is unequivocally the riskiest of all the arts. When you succeed, you "kill the audience" and when you don't, you "die on stage." Kill or be killed, as my old drill sergeant used to say.
Yet after 10 years of stand-up, I drifted into the solo theater world in 2008 to tell some of my life stories. Now after a 15-year journey on a different kind of stage, comedy beckons again . . . rooted, I'd like to believe, in new skills from the rich world of theater. The fun, creative journey continues. Whoa! Am I happy, and so blessed! (Photo, top, by John Carman)
I always loved comedy, and when I became editor of the San Francisco Chronicle's Sunday Datebook in 1980, I made sure comedy got the coverage it deserved during the 14 years I held that job.
And when I left the paper, whoa!, I decided to become a comic! Comedy is unequivocally the riskiest of all the arts. When you succeed, you "kill the audience" and when you don't, you "die on stage." Kill or be killed, as my old drill sergeant used to say.
Yet after 10 years of stand-up, I drifted into the solo theater world in 2008 to tell some of my life stories. Now after a 15-year journey on a different kind of stage, comedy beckons again . . . rooted, I'd like to believe, in new skills from the rich world of theater. The fun, creative journey continues. Whoa! Am I happy, and so blessed! (Photo, top, by John Carman)
My early heroes from the hungry i during the 1960s: Mort Sahl, Lenny Bruce and Bill Cosby