Kliph Nesteroff

Kliph Nesteroff
Kliph Nesteroff with Mel Brooks at the Cinefamily, April 2014

Kliph Nesteroff is a best-selling author regarded for his vast knowledge of show business. Vice Magazine has called Nesteroff "The Human Encyclopedia of Comedy." Los Angeles Magazine calls him "The King of Comedy Lore."

After eight years as a stand-up comedian, Nesteroff became a frequent contributor to CBC Radio One, CBC Radio 2, GQ and Radio WFMU. His work has been praised by The Atlantic Monthly, Boing Boing, The Chicago Tribune, Comedy Central, The Dallas Morning News, Dangerous Minds, Global Television, Flavorwire, The Gist, The Globe and Mail, The Guardian, The Daily Forward, The Huffington Post, Kirkus, Longform, LA Weekly, Los Angeles Magazine, The Los Angeles Times, Metro News, NPR, The National Post, The New York Observer, The New York Times, Roger Ebert, Salon.com, Slate.com, Tom Scharpling, The Toronto Star, The Walrus Magazine,Yahoo!, Vanity Fair, The Village Voice and most major media outlets.

For several years he moderated Classic Television Showbiz, a website devoted to classic show business and comedians, considered invaluable by The Onion's The A.V. Club and a favorite of the band They Might Be Giants. The A.V. Club has included Nesteroff in its "growing ranks of strong TV critics and academics", endorsing him as their "favorite pop culture historian." He is a regular on NPR affiliates in Dallas, Las Vegas, New York, Milwaukee and Los Angeles. NPR San Francisco did a mini-documentary on Nesteroff featuring the praise of comedians Dana Gould, Marc Maron, and historian Leonard Maltin.'

Marc Maron is one of Nesteroff's biggest champions, interviewing him at length on three different episodes of WTF with Marc Maron. His first appearance, episode 314, was described by The AV Club as "nothing short of fascinating." Nesteroff was interviewed again on WTF episodes 490 and 659 where he was paired with Gloria Steinem. Maron has often referred to Nesteroff as a genius.

The Comedians

Grove Press released Nesteroff's first book The Comedians: Drunks, Thieves, Scoundrels and the History of American Comedy (ISBN 0802190863) on November 3, 2015 to uniformly positive reviews. Merrill Markoe wrote in the Wall Street Journal, "I thought I knew a lot about the history of American comedy. But this book located gaps in my knowledge I never knew were there and filled them with jaw-dropping anecdotes that made my eyes spin in different directions. For comedy completists and comedians alike, this book is a real treat." The Washington Post said of Nesteroff, "He writes with insider perception but never seems to be either whitewashing or trashing any of this outrageous cast. Like a biblical epic, The Comedians seems to have a cast of thousands. One act barely somersaults offstage before Nesteroff leads on the next. The anecdotes are memorable and often hilarious ... With his encyclopedic knowledge, talent for vivid anecdotes and tireless gusto, he drives this busload of rowdy clowns into the 21st century." The New York Times wrote, "His sprawling and savvy book should burnish his reputation. It’s a serious history without a trace of self-seriousness ... and the way he traces the influence of advertising and the fear of technology on the evolution of comedy is fascinating ... Through his elegiac attention, these forgotten comedians become almost romantic figures, the stars of a secret history of laughter." The writers of American Crime Story: The People v. O. J. Simpson, Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski, reference the book frequently. Jeopardy champion Ken Jennings has called it "the book on 20th-century American funny business." Notable comedians who've endorsed the book include Judd Apatow, Bill Burr, Anthony Jeselnik, Richard Lewis, Merrill Markoe, Michael McKean, Bob Odenkirk, Andy Richter, and blurb contributors Mel Brooks, John Hodgman, and Norm MacDonald. Steve Martin called the book "an important document" that he "literally could not put down."

Live Shows

Nesteroff is a resident programmer at the Cinefamily theater in Los Angeles. He has hosted a number of live shows with the likes of Mel Brooks, Joel Grey, Buck Henry, Robert Morse, George Schlatter, and Fred Willard. He has presented a number of comic personalities in New York including Lewis Black, Robert Klein, Larry Wilmore, and Robert Smigel with Triumph the Insult Comic Dog. He has also toured North America telling anecdotes about the history of comedy and relaying his experiences with well-known personalities. Canadian publication Exclaim! called a Toronto engagement "like heroin for comedy nerds ... Nesteroff shared dozens of unforgettable stand-up-related tales ... The depth of his knowledge about the history of American comedy combined with his off-the-cuff and funny yet eloquent stage presence made this entire show utterly engrossing."

Trivia

Nesteroff is a frequent guest on Sirius XM, appearing on the All Out Show with Rude Jude, Entertainment Weekly Radio, The Frank Decaro Show, The Kelly Carlin Show, Stand Up! with Pete Dominick, and Tell Me Everything with John Fugelsang & Frank Conniff. He has made appearances on popular podcasts The Best Show with Tom Scharpling, The Gist with Mike Pesca, The Dana Gould Hour, and two episodes of Gilbert Gottfried's Amazing Colossal Podcast.

One of the photos in The Comedians was provided by Larry David.

He thanks actress Illeana Douglas in the acknowledgements of The Comedians. Likewise, Douglas thanks Nesteroff in the acknowledgements of her book I Blame Dennis Hopper.

Kliph Nesteroff got his start in the entertainment business by hosting a late night radio program on CJLY-FM, a community radio station in Nelson, BC in 1996. CBC profiled him in a news story at the time about "the youngest person in the country with his own radio program."

External links

• Archive of essays written for WFMU
• Kliph Nesteroff on WTF with Marc Maron
• Kliph Nesteroff's Old Showbiz Imagery
• Kirkus Reviews interview