by Doug Holder

Mort Sahl. He was always an enigma to me. When I was a kid, Borscht-Belt style comedians like Joey Bishop, Myron Cohen, and Don Rickles ruled the day. Sahl was a totally different kind of cat. Here was this guy, dressed in a casual crewneck sweater, with the daily rag tucked under his arm, cracking jokes not about his wife, or his nagging mother-in-law, but about politics and current affairs. So I was tickled to find out that Sahl was performing at Jimmy Tingle’s Off Broadway in Davis Square as part of the Jimmy Tingle Un-conventional Comedy Convention: A Celebration of Political Humor.

Sahl, who has mined laughter at the expense of many an administration, told me that Bush provides good fodder for levity: “This guy [President Bush] is well-defined, with the war, the Christian Right, and the Dick Cheney thing.” Sahl said he wished only that the current crop of comedians would explore the rich vein of Bush administration follies, and stop concentrating on the fact that they find him dumb. And, he has serious reservations about the current crop of political humorists like Bill Maher, Jon Stewart, Dennis Miller, and other comedians of their ilk. “What’s lacking in their comedy is humanity. They seem to be all about show business,” Sahl opined. He spoke highly of Jimmy Tingle’s brand of humor. “Jimmy brings a timeless, working-class humor to the stage.”

The audience for the Sunday matinee was decidedly older, with a smattering of younger folks. There seemed to be more than a few old lefties and card-carrying liberals in the audience, as the theater was filled with animated, politically-laced conversation. Two video cameras on either side of the stage displayed Sahl at various stages of his long career. The set was simple with only a chair, bulletin board, bench, and table. Jimmy Tingle warmed the crowd up, slinging slung humorous barbs at President Bush (wisecracking that Bush said Europe was a nice country); national health insurance—or lack of; the war in Iraq; and our northern neighbor, Canada.

After Tingle, Mort Sahl appeared on stage in a trademark V-neck sweater and requisite newspaper under his arm. Sadly, he was carrying the old gray lady herself, The New York Times, not the Somerville News. Sahl regaled the audience with fascinating anecdotes of his stint at West Point, and his classmate Alexander Haig. Haig, a former secretary of state, was an upperclassman and Sahl’s superior. “He’d give you demerits for smiling,” Sahl said. He recalled the years that he wrote for the Kennedy and Reagan administrations, and the time he spent as a friend and mentor to Woody Allen, when Allen was cutting his baby teeth in San Francisco.

Sahl had wonderful quips about seemingly every major political or popular personality of the last forty years. Of Mel Gibson, he said, “He is a new Christian cleric.” On the subject of Bush, he joked, “The president served turkey to the troops, and the gravy to Halliburton” He described social Democrats as people who “speak to the maid while she’s sweeping.”

Sahl recalled an angry feminist telling him that the only thing he believed in was his penis, after he told her he had been married three times. “It’s the only thing that’s never lied to me,” he replied.

The last part of Sahl’s performance was a Q&A session with the audience. His wife, an attractive woman, fielded questions from a number of people. This gave Sahl another chance to riff on the political scene and personalities. One person asked the comedian what he thought of Ed Sullivan, the TV show host of the 1950’s and 60’s. Sahl, with a deadpan face, called him a fascist. Sahl recalled that Sullivan was a very traditional man, and he blacklisted a lot of folks if they didn’t fit his mold.

For a man of 77, Sahl, who said he played in Boston as far back as 1956, when he opened for Dave Brubeck at the famous jazz club Storyville, seemed to be on top his game and, for the most part, had the crowd in stitches. This is all the more reason you should get yourself down to Jimmy Tingle’s to see the other great comedic talent performing in the Un-conventional Comedy Convention through July 31.

(For more information visit http://www.jimmytingle.com or call 617-591-4111.)