A Bestselling Author
In On the Joke is the story of women who knocked down the doors of stand-up comedy so other women could get a shot. It spans Moms Mableya�TMs rise in Black vaudeville to the roadhouse ribaldry of Belle Barth and Rusty Warren in the 1950s and a�TM60s to Elaine Maya�TMs co-invention of improv comedy to Joan Riversa�TM and Phyllis Dillera�TMs ascent to mainstream stardom. These women persevered, making space not only for themselves but for the women who followed. Shawn Levya�TMs group portrait shows how women broke into the boysa�TM club, offered new ideas of womanhood, and had some laughs along the way.