Shelley Berman

Years before the emergence of Woody Allen, Garry Shandling, or Janeane Garofalo, there was Shelley Berman, the comic who singlehandedly transformed modern neuroticism into high art. Complete with both a unique, vignette-styled narrative sensibility and a mannered, sophisticated stage presence, Berman introduced a new breed of comedian -- raw, intense, and deeply personal, his material reflected everyday hopes and fears with uncanny precision, and in the process established the comedy record as a viable mainstream commodity. Born February 3, 1926, in Chicago, Berman initially ...