When you imagine the Roaring Twenties and the Prohibition era, the images are iconic: flappers dancing the Charleston, dapper gangsters carrying Tommy guns, and illegal underground bars known as speakeasies serving bathtub gin in teacups.
What is often left out of the history books is the profound effect the 18th Amendment had on American comedy.
By forcing the consumption of alcohol underground, Prohibition inadvertently created a brand new, highly lucrative, and utterly lawless environment for entertainers. The speakeasy became the incubator for a new style of comedyâone that was sharper, faster, and significantly dirtier than anything seen on the mainstream Vaudeville stage.
The Vaudeville Constraints
Prior to 1920, the pinnacle of live entertainment in America was Vaudeville. The massive Vaudeville theater circuits (like the Keith-Albee circuit) were family-friendly affairs.
The managers of these circuits were famously dictatorial regarding content. They operated under strict, puritanical guidelines known as "The Blue Envelope" (if an act used inappropriate language or suggestive themes, they received their warnings in a blue envelope). Words like "hell," "damn," and even "slob" or "corset" were strictly forbidden.
The comedy of Vaudeville was heavily reliant on physical slapstick, musical parodies, and very gentle sitcom-style sketches.
Into the Underground
When Prohibition took effect in January 1920, the social landscape of America drastically shifted. Millions of Americansâfrom working-class immigrants to high-society elitesâsuddenly became willing criminals just to get a drink.
Thousands of illegal speakeasies opened in major cities. These establishments ranged from dingy basements to incredibly lavish, high-class nightclubs (like the famous Cotton Club in Harlem or the Stork Club).
To attract and keep patrons, these speakeasies needed entertainment. Because they were illegal enterprises operating outside the law, they certainly didn't care about the family-friendly rules of the Vaudeville "Blue Envelope."
The Birth of the "Blue" Comic
As comedians left the failing Vaudeville stages for the highly lucrative (and mob-run) speakeasy gigs, the rules of comedy evaporated.
- The Audience: The speakeasy audience was composed of adults who were actively breaking the law, drinking heavily (often dangerous, high-proof illicit liquor), and looking for a decadent good time. They had no interest in wholesome family entertainment.
- The Content: Comedians realized they could finally talk about the things adults actually talked about behind closed doors: sex, politics, marital infidelity, and the sheer hypocrisy of the Prohibition laws themselves.
This rapid shift in content gave rise to the term "working blue"âmeaning to use profanity and sexually explicit material in a comedic act. (The origin of the term is debated; some say it comes from the blue lighting used in burlesque theaters, others trace it ironically back to the blue warning envelopes of Vaudeville).
The Rhythm of the Room
The environment of a speakeasy physically changed how comedy was delivered.
A Vaudeville theater was massive and quiet, demanding broad, physical performances. A speakeasy was small, smoky, crowded, and loud. The comedian was no longer separated from the audience by an orchestra pit; they were performing on small stages or directly on the floor, mere feet away from drunk, rowdy patrons.
To survive in this environment, comedians had to adapt: 1. Aggression: They had to be loud and aggressive to command the room over the noise of the band and the clinking of glasses. 2. Speed: They adopted a rapid-fire, rat-a-tat delivery style (heavily influenced by the jazz music playing in the same clubs). You had to hit the audience with jokes constantly before they lost interest. 3. Crowd Work (The Heckler): Dealing with aggressive drunks became a core skill. The ability to ruthlessly insult (or "roast") a heckling patron became a celebrated art form.
The Hangover and the Legacy
When Prohibition was repealed in 1933, the underground speakeasies legitimized and transitioned into the classic American nightclubs and cabarets of the 1940s and 50s.
The comedians who had honed their craft in the lawless speakeasiesâperformers known for their sharp suits, rapid-fire pacing, and adult-oriented materialâbecame the dominant force in American entertainment.
Prohibition failed miserably as a moral crusade to stop America from drinking. But in driving society underground, it shattered the puritanical constraints of Victorian entertainment, birthing the cynical, fast-paced, edge-pushing DNA of the modern stand-up comedian.