Rebels with applause: how stand-up political comedy stopped being subversive.

• Author: Cooper, Matthew
• Position: Book Review

SERIOUSLY FUNNY: The Rebel Comedians of the 1950s and 1960s by Gerald Nachman Pantheon, $29.95

NO ONE, I THINK, PLANS TO BECOME A stand-up comedian the way you choose to become a doctor or a lawyer. Even acting is, to some degree, a chosen profession. But stand-up comedy is the kind of thing that one drifts into. My own foray into comedy has been quite accidental. As a kid, I'd crack up classmates with impersonations of my teachers, like Nino DePinto, my eighth-grade history teacher back in New Jersey who'd turn red talking about Garibaldi. "Il Risorgimento! Remember it."

A few years ago, I gave a toast at the birthday party of a friend, Walter Shapiro, the USA Today columnist and fellow alumnus of this magazine. Walter had begun to do standup at various New York comedy clubs. After my toast, he asked if I wanted to join him sometime. I did, and have been performing with him on stage every couple of months in New York and every now and then in Washington. What's it like to do stand-up? Of course, it's about as close as you can get to that dream you have of walking into class naked. If you're a singer, maybe a band can cover up a missed note. Short of doing a solo interpretive dance or a strip-club act, what else really could leave you more exposed? That's why I'm always a bit nauseous when I go on and have that I-just-survived-a-car-wreck feeling when I walk off. Sure, you come armed with some jokes you're confident will work. I did a Washington fundraiser gig not long ago, and I knew some lines MATTHEW COOPER, a Washington Monthly contributing editor, is Time's Deputy Washington Bureau Chief and a stand-up comic. would probably come off: "Howard Dean is kind of an interesting guy. For gay rights and against gun control--which means he's locked up the gay hunter vote." (For the sake of political correctness I forgo imitating two gay hunters: "Bruce, great shot! What a great throw rug he'll make.") They like the joke about John Kerry calling himself a rebel: "Kerry's idea of rebellion is having red wine with fish." But then you gotta read the crowd. Tom Daschle was in the audience, so I point out that he's there and then ask the audience to give him a round of applause. This softens the blow of the joke to come: "Been kind of a tough year, huh? You get to keep your health insurance?" It goes over pretty well. Then there's the question of what the audience will get. I talk about Bush's State of the Union idea from the night before, Project...