Shawn Levy

Shawn Levy is a film critic, biographer, and cultural historian whose books frequently examine entertainers and the worlds that shaped them. In On the Joke studies pioneering women in stand-up comedy, including Moms Mabley, Jean Carroll, Phyllis Diller, Elaine May, Joan Rivers, and Marsha Warfield. The 2022 Doubleday edition carries the fuller title In on the Joke: The Original Queens of Stand-Up Comedy. Levy traces how these performers built distinctive stage voices while working through clubs, radio, television, recorded albums, and touring circuits that often limited women’s opportunities. He treats stand-up as both a craft and a business, connecting individual routines to changes in American entertainment. Levy’s earlier biographies of figures such as Paul Newman, Robert De Niro, and Jerry Lewis established his interest in public personas and creative careers. In On the Joke redirects that attention toward a group history, showing how different generations of comedians expanded what a woman could say onstage and how an audience might hear her.