Mort Sahl (b. 1927) debuted as a stand-up comedian in 1953, after writing plays for an experimental theater in Los Angeles. “I had a holy grail attitude about satire,” he recalled, “but people who should know better kept saying it would ‘never sell.’” Sahl dressed informally and created sharp impromptu monologues based on items in the newspaper he carried onstage. “He totally reconstructed comedy,” Woody Allen remarked of Sahl.