Modern audiences may not be familiar with Jean Carroll, America’s first Jewish female stand-up comedian. Thankfully, Grace Overbeke’s new biography traces the arc of Carroll’s career, offering insight into the distinctive character of her humor.
Born Celine (Sadie) Zeigman in 1911, Carroll was barely a teenager when she started performing in musical/comedy acts on Brooklyn stages. She managed to finish high school even though she was basically the breadwinner of her household, having pushed out her abusive father. From vaudeville, she moved on to USO work during World War II and then to the Borscht Belt, radio comedy, “presentation houses” (pre-movie entertainment at big movie houses), and, finally, television. When TV comedy segued from variety shows (she was big on Ed Sullivan) to the sitcom, Carroll had too many family obligations to handle her own show and bowed out.
Carroll’s decisions about her stage persona and material were truly unprecedented. Traditionally, female comics presented themselves as unattractive or goofy; for women, “funny or pretty” was the rule (think Carol Burnett and Moms Mabley). Carroll spent a small fortune on gowns and accessories in order curate a sleek, sophisticated stage look. Her material was never buffoonish or vulgar. When she’d tell a story, the other character would be the butt of the joke, not her. Her stage style was well served by the invention of the microphone, which allowed her to develop conversational monologues rather than the shouty, rapid-fire jokes that were common to traditional vaudeville. She presented her Jewish identity with nuance — she “play[ed] Jewish without saying Jewish,” as Ovebeke puts it. She coded her Jewish references (the overfeeding mother, the mama’s boy, the meek husband) so that her Jewish audience knew exactly what she was talking about, while everyone else just thought she was being funny. Likewise, when it came time to do the obligatory Christmas routine, she — like other Jewish artists — made her set about Santa and gifts rather than the Nativity.
After learning about Jean Carroll’s career, readers may wonder if TV’s Mrs. Maisel (who is also a Jewish female stand-up comic) is based on her. According to Overbeke, Mrs. Maisel is more a millennial’s idea of a fifties comic. But the anachronisms are instructive: when Mrs. Maisel’s career takes off, she doesn’t let her family stand in her way; she leaves her kids and husband to get the next gig. Jean Carroll, on the other hand, struggled her whole career to balance her performance schedule with her domestic duties, and she eventually left show business for her family. Another difference is that when Mrs. Maisel performs, she’s obviously Jewish; she’s not hiding or coding anything. But actual Jewish entertainers, both yesterday’s and today’s, know that a reputation for being “too Jewish” can kill a career.
While anyone interested in women’s history will find this biography eye-opening, it also has a lot to say about how comedy — especially ethnic comedy — works.
Bettina Berch, author of the recent biography, From Hester Street to Hollywood: The Life and Work of Anzia Yezierska, teaches part-time at the Borough of Manhattan Community College.