I'm Dying Up Here: Heartbreak and High Times in Stand-Up Comedy's Golden Era

By: William Knoedelseder

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Synopsis: In the mid-1970s, Jay Leno, David Letterman, Andy Kaufman, Richard Lewis, Robin Williams, Elayne Boosler, Tom Dreesen, and several hundred other shameless showoffs and incorrigible cutups from all across the country migrated en masse to Los Angeles, the new home of Johnny CarsonOCOs "Tonight Show. " There, in a late-night world of sex, drugs, dreams and laughter, they created an artistic community unlike any before or since. It was Comedy Camelot?but it couldnOCOt last. William Knoedelseder, then a cub reporter covering the scene for the "Los Angeles Times," was there when the comedians?who were not paid for performing?tried to change the system and incidentally tore apart their own close-knit community. In "IOCOm Dying Up Here" he tells the whole story of that golden age, of the strike that ended it, and of how those days still resonate in the lives of those who were there.