ROBERT VENTE
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Two things the comedian is rarely seen without: his trademark V-neck, and the latest edition of the Pacific Sun...
AND JUSTICE FOR
SAHL
T
o the generation that remembers where they were when JFK was shot, Mort Sahl is a living legend. At the peak of his fame, he occupied that nexus of power and glamour where the Kennedy administration met Hollywood, writing jokes for the president while hobnobbing with the likes of Frank Sinatra and Marilyn Monroe. His art was stand-up comedy, his beat was politics. He’d bound onstage in his trademark V-neck sweater with a rolled-up newspaper that he’d unfurl, read off a headline and start riffing, pointing up the absurdities of the day. His face would register gleeful incredulity, as if to say, can you believe what these lunatics are doing? He’d punctuate his observations with an explosive, staccato laugh. He had fun onstage. At age 82—he turns 83 on May 11—Mort Sahl is still having a ball onstage. Lately he’s been teaming up with another elder statesman of political humor, Dick Gregory, whose bailiwick back in the ‘60s was the civil rights struggle. They’ve done several joint appearances around the country in the last two years, packing the house repeatedly at 142 Throckmorton in Mill Valley. Mort Sahl got his start in San Francisco in 1953 at the hungry i and lived for a time on a houseboat in Sausalito. After a few lean
years, he became a familiar presence on the TV talk shows and comedy formats of the day. In 1960, he landed on the cover of Time. His career took a dive in the late ‘60s, when he immersed himself in the investigation of Kennedy’s assassination conducted by New Orleans district attorney Jim Garrison. Convinced of a conspiracy between the CIA and the Pentagon, Sahl’s sense of humor turned sour. When the comedy gigs dried up, he began writing. He published a book, Heartland, in 1976, a free-form collection of musings that range from the funny to the paranoid. He’s worked on a number of screenplays since then. Recently, he taught two courses at Claremont College outside of Los Angeles— one on screenwriting, the other on the Garrison investigation. At the end of last year, he moved back to Marin. He turned up at a screening at the Rafael Film Center of the Marx Brothers movie Animal Crackers that was presented by Harpo’s son Bill Marx and Dick Cavett. Cavett, who had hosted Sahl many times on his old talk show, pointed him out from the stage, saying, “What’s wrong with this picture? We’re up on stage and Mort Sahl, one of America’s greatest comedians, is in the audience!” These days, he’s a regular at Piazza
After decades skewering the powerful and corrupt, the Mill Valley comic has a seat at the legend’s table… by Jill K ram e r
D’Angelo’s, down the street from where he lives in Mill Valley. He sits at a table by the window next to the bar and waves to passersby. I found him there one afternoon in March, nursing an iced cappuccino and wearing one of those trademark red V-necks. He still loves to talk, his pale blue eyes widening. And he still has that instantly recognizable, delighted laugh. ●
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You were always considered a darling of the left. So I was amazed to read that in ‘88 you supported [former Reagan administration Secretary of State] Al Haig’s presidential campaign. Yeah, we were very good friends. Very close. Colin Powell once asked him, what have you got in common with Mort? He said, Mort’s in on the joke. [laughs] I loved him. Great guy. Good sense of humor. I don’t hear any humor from this president. Didn’t hear any humor from the other one. Haven’t heard any since Reagan. I read that you also campaigned for W. No. That’s a mistake. I know him. And the old man asked me to help him. Says he has no humor. And I know the old man very well. But I wasn’t in that campaign.
Are you a Republican these days? Or course not. I’m a radical! I was happy in Berkeley! [laughs] So what did you like about Haig politically? I liked the fact that whatever anybody said about him or whatever they did, he’d just incorporate it as another wound. Because he was a combat officer. He was decisive and funny and vulnerable and he was great to me. He really is an example of leadership. He’s the kind of guy you’d follow through the door of the airplane. But I think a worthy examination would be what happened to the Democrats. Because I had great friends there. I started as a writer for Kennedy. I was very close to Gene McCarthy. Adlai Stevenson. And this guy—he reminds me of a professor, which is what he was. You’re talking about Obama. Yeah, this guy sends 100,000 people to Afghanistan. There was an antiwar motion in Congress [in March] from [Rep. Dennis] Kucinich. They got about 40 or 50 votes. The rest all voted for [the war]. That means that it’s exactly the way it was with [President Lyndon B.] Johnson and Vietnam. 14 > APRIL 30 – MAY 6, 2009 PACIFIC SUN 13