Shelley Berman

Years before the emergence of Woody Allen, Garry Shandling or Janeane Garofalo, there was Shelley Berman, the comic who singlehandedly transformed modern neuroticism into high art. Complete with both a unique, vignette-styled narrative sensibility and a mannered, sophisticated stage presence, Berman introduced a new breed of comedian -- raw, intense and deeply personal, his material reflected everyday hopes and fears with uncanny precision, and in the process established the comedy record as a viable mainstream commodity. Born February 3, 1926 in Chicago, Berman initially set out to become a dramatic actor, but after finding little success in the theater he joined the Compass Players, the same improvisational troupe which later gave rise to Mike Nichols & Elaine May, Jerry Stiller & Anne Meara, and Alan Arkin. In 1957 Berman struck out on his own, creating a singular style steeped heavily in his theatrical background; unlike the free-form riffing favored by popular comedians like Mort Sahl, Berman's routines were finely orchestrated, well-oiled comic mechanisms, performed with rigid decorum while seated on a stool. However, the polished perfectionism of Berman's work belied the tortured neuroses at the core of his comic vision -- at their best, his monologues pulsed with fear and loathing, his jokes raw, exposed nerves. The success of his Grammy-winning 1959 debut classic Inside Shelley Berman revealed to just what extent his work connected with the American psyche; the first comedy record ever to be certified gold, it cut to the core of the jittery suburban mindset gradually gaining dominance as the reassuring safe haven of the 1950s gave way to the dark, foreboding changes of the 1960s. In addition to his famed "The Morning After the Night Before," an essay on...