Kliph Nesteroff Quotes

#1. He printed business cards celebrating his shift. They read, 'Ars gratia pecuniae.' Translated, it meant, 'Art for money's sake.

Kliph Nesteroff

#2. Groucho Marx shot back angrily, "The Sandy McPhersons and Yonny Yohnsons were not a minority being subjected to oppression, restriction, segregation or persecution.

Kliph Nesteroff

#3. Mel Brooks was a young fan at the time: 'Eddie Cantor was very important to me. Very influential on my work. The sketches were fast and furious - and Cantor was great at supporting the other guy in the sketch. It was Cantor who was making it all work for me.

Kliph Nesteroff

#4. No small part of the club's audience consisted of would-be comics, as well as the leading comics of the day. In fact, there were so many gagsters around that it was difficult to know who was part of the act and who was just sitting in.

Kliph Nesteroff

#5. You Bet Your Life's sponsor, Chrysler, was convinced only a Commie would dare promote racial equality.

Kliph Nesteroff

#6. Every night was improv.

Kliph Nesteroff

#7. Frank Fay turned into the most consistent stand-up comic of the late 1920s and essentially changed the art form. Crowds and critics eventually came to accept a man standing alone, cracking wise. No longer did Fay bill himself as a 'Nut Monologist.

Kliph Nesteroff

#8. One night while Joan Rivers was bombing at the Duplex in the Village, Lenny Bruce walked in and caught her act. He sent a note backstage: 'You're right and they're wrong.

Kliph Nesteroff

#9. Frank Fay [...] became renowned as the first of the great comic emcees - and in many minds the first stand-up comedian.

Kliph Nesteroff

#10. Movies, vaudeville, burlesque, the local stock companies - all survived together. Then radio came in. For the first time people didn't have to leave their homes to be entertained.

Kliph Nesteroff