Comedian, social commentator, and political gadfly Mort Sahl cracks wise during an engagement at a noontime speakers series at Bovard Auditorium on the campus of his alma mater, the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, in April, 1974. He was one of the original stand-up comics, but one whose non-conformist pathway brought social and controversial political commentary to his performances. He gained recognition in the 1950s for his routines at `the hungry i` nightclub in San Francisco, receiving much praise from influential Bay Area entertainment columnist, Herb Cain. Although he wrote jokes for JFK during the 1960 presidential campaign, he soon soured on Kennedy. His attacks on the Warren Commission`s analysis of the assassination of the 35th president hurt his career, but he made a comeback on college tours during the Watergate scandal. In this image, he was 47, at the midpoint of his life. In recent years he performed regular gigs, streamed, from the Throckmorton Theater near his home in Mill Valley, California. Sahl died at his home in on October 26, 2021, at the age of 94.
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