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Stand-up existed before the term stand-up did.
you could read an excerpt from the transcript or listen to the full episode below.
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Lectures became all the rage.It was called the lyceum movement.
It was like TED Talks.
And there was a guy named Artemus Ward, who was already famous from writing funny things in newspapers.
His real name, believe it or not, was Charles Brown.
Guess what happens in the middle of the minstrel show?
The emcee or one of the guys starts quoting his bits that he wrote.
Hes like,Oh, thats crazy.
But whats weird, too, is its working.My stuff can work onstage.
So Artemus re-created himself and decided to make fun of these lectures.
Thats how that started.
Theres more to the story, but thats basically it.
Which is why Twain gets the prize named after him.Yes, exactly.
Theres no Artemus Ward Prize given to Tina Fey.
