I'm Dying Up Here: Heartbreak and High Times in Stand-Up Comedy's Golden Era
In the mid-1970s, Jay Leno, David Letterman, Andy Kaufman, Richard Lewis, Robin Williams, Elayne Boosler, Tom Dreesen, and several hundred other shameless showoffs and incorrigible cutups from all across the country migrated en masse to Los Angeles, the new home of Johnny Carson's Tonight Show. There, in a late-night world of sex, drugs, dreams and laughter, they created an artistic community unlike any before or since. It was Comedy Camelot — but it couldn't last.

William Knoedelseder, then a cub reporter covering the scene for the Los Angeles Times, was there when the comedians — who were not paid for performing — tried to change the system and incidentally tore apart their own close-knit community. In I'm Dying Up Here he tells the whole story of that golden age, of the strike that ended it, and of how those days still resonate in the lives of those who were there.
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I'm Dying Up Here: Heartbreak and High Times in Stand-Up Comedy's Golden Era
In the mid-1970s, Jay Leno, David Letterman, Andy Kaufman, Richard Lewis, Robin Williams, Elayne Boosler, Tom Dreesen, and several hundred other shameless showoffs and incorrigible cutups from all across the country migrated en masse to Los Angeles, the new home of Johnny Carson's Tonight Show. There, in a late-night world of sex, drugs, dreams and laughter, they created an artistic community unlike any before or since. It was Comedy Camelot — but it couldn't last.

William Knoedelseder, then a cub reporter covering the scene for the Los Angeles Times, was there when the comedians — who were not paid for performing — tried to change the system and incidentally tore apart their own close-knit community. In I'm Dying Up Here he tells the whole story of that golden age, of the strike that ended it, and of how those days still resonate in the lives of those who were there.
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I'm Dying Up Here: Heartbreak and High Times in Stand-Up Comedy's Golden Era

I'm Dying Up Here: Heartbreak and High Times in Stand-Up Comedy's Golden Era

by William K Knoedelseder Jr
I'm Dying Up Here: Heartbreak and High Times in Stand-Up Comedy's Golden Era

I'm Dying Up Here: Heartbreak and High Times in Stand-Up Comedy's Golden Era

by William K Knoedelseder Jr

Paperback(Reissue)

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Overview

In the mid-1970s, Jay Leno, David Letterman, Andy Kaufman, Richard Lewis, Robin Williams, Elayne Boosler, Tom Dreesen, and several hundred other shameless showoffs and incorrigible cutups from all across the country migrated en masse to Los Angeles, the new home of Johnny Carson's Tonight Show. There, in a late-night world of sex, drugs, dreams and laughter, they created an artistic community unlike any before or since. It was Comedy Camelot — but it couldn't last.

William Knoedelseder, then a cub reporter covering the scene for the Los Angeles Times, was there when the comedians — who were not paid for performing — tried to change the system and incidentally tore apart their own close-knit community. In I'm Dying Up Here he tells the whole story of that golden age, of the strike that ended it, and of how those days still resonate in the lives of those who were there.

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9781610398664
Publisher: PublicAffairs
Publication date: 05/23/2017
Edition description: Reissue
Pages: 304
Sales rank: 638,644
Product dimensions: 5.40(w) x 8.10(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

William Knoedelseder is a veteran journalist who honed his investigative and narrative skills at the Los Angeles Times, where his reporting on the entertainment industry produced a string of groundbreaking exposes. He is the bestselling author of Stiffed: A True Story of MCA, the Music Business, and the Mafia and Bitter Brew: The Rise and Fall of Anheuser-Busch and America's Kings of Beer.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments ix

Prologue: A True Comic 1

Blood Brothers 9

The Hippest Room 19

Mitzi's Store 31

Tom, Dave, and George 45

All About Budd 59

Six Minutes, Twenty-two Laughs 65

The Boys' Club 71

Guns, Drugs, and Westwood 81

Comedy University 87

Richard's Baroness, Steve's Movie 93

The Funniest Year Ever 101

Roommates 111

The New Year's Resolution 117

Drugs and Theft 125

Order, Please 135

Diary of a Young Comic 141

The Gauntlet 147

Comedians for Compensation 153

Choosing Up Sides 165

Fire! 175

The Vote 181

All on the Line 189

Dave's Big Night 203

The Union Forever? 211

Jay's Big Flop 223

"My Name is Steve Lubetkin" 231

A Standing Ovation 245

Epilogue: The Prisoner of Memory 253

Index 269

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