Mort Sahl (1927–2021), influential stand-up comedian
Mort Sahl was a stand-up comedian who pioneered a conversational style of comedy that influenced generations of comics.When Sahl began doing stand-up in the early 1950s, comedy was still evolving from its vaudeville roots, and nobody was doing quite what he’d do when he first stepped on a stage. Carrying a newspaper under one arm, Sahl offered a rapid-fire, conversational patter that sounded utterly natural and unscripted (and it often was – Sahl frequently improvised).