Laughing in the Dark: A Decade of Subversive Comedy

Stand-up comedy rarely attracts thoughtful criticism, so Stone's ""Laughing in the Dark"" Village Voice column has been a beacon since 1987. Stone, who won the NBCC's Nona Balakian award for her book criticism and who is also a theater critic for the Nation, approaches stand-up and comedic performance art with savvy insights, deft language and interviews with the performers. To her, good comedy has the aim of good art, which is ""to say what is usually suppressed and also [to] speak truthfully."" This book both reprises and updates her columns as she groups together performers such as Phyllis Diller and Mort Sahl, in ""Comedy Veterans""; Steven Wright and Emo Phillips, in ""Lunatic Fringe""; Jon Stewart and Garry Shandling, in her chapter on television. Notably, Stone tempers informed enthusiasm with an ethical sense, scoring Joan Rivers for self-loathing, Richard Belzer for bashing women and gays, and Spalding Gray for squandering a chance at self-revelation. She also haunts out-of-mainstream spaces to report on gay comedy troupes, post-modern clowns and emerging stars like soloist Danny Hoch. Her coverage is broad but not comprehensive; she celebrates some still-obscure performance artists, omits some recent phenomena (like the rise of Bill Maher) and reports from the vital Just for Laughs Montreal comedy festival only from 1988 to 1991, thus missing some changes in the stand-up world. Still, this remains both a good read and a standard for the fickle genre of comedy criticism. (Aug.)