Via Matt Ruby’s excellent stand-up blog, a 1995 article from New York Magazine on the end of the stand-up boom:
Sophisticates, urbanites, intellectuals, whatever it is we’re calling people from Manhattan these days, are about as likely to go see stand-up comedy as they are to — I was going to say go bowling, but they’re far more likely to do that. Stand-up comedy can’t even be enjoyed on an ironic level anymore.
We did comedy. Before it sucked.
Most interestingly though, it also profiles up-and-comers Louis C.K., Sarah Silverman, Dave Attel, and Marc Maron, pictured above. Michael Ian Black gets a mention as well, as “Michael Black,” along with a description of a bit he did at Rebar, an early “alt” room. An interesting postcard from another era. Fifteen years later, it sometimes seems like we’re in the middle of another boom, except in this one, no one’s making money and everyone’s funny — a state of affairs I’m perfectly happy with.
