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," and Los Angeles Magazine profiled him as "The King of Comedy Lore." The New York Times has deemed some of his theories "provocative" while Vanity Fair calls his work "essential." He is the consulting producer of the CNN series The History of Comedy, which had its premiere at the Sundance Film Festival. He is the host of the Viceland television series Funny How from executive producerSpike Jonze. He was named by LA Weekly on their Best of LA list in 2016. After eight years as a stand-up comedian, Nesteroff became a frequent contributor to WFMU and a national, on-air contributor for CBC Radio One. For several years he moderated Classic Television Showbiz, a website devoted to classic show business and comedians. The A.V. Club referred to Nesteroff 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 film critic Leonard Maltin.' He has appeared on WTF with Marc Maron three times. Maron is the executive producer of Nesteroff's podcast Classic Showbiz.
The Comedians
released Nesteroff's first book The Comedians: Drunks, Thieves, Scoundrels and the History of American Comedy on November 3, 2015 to uniformly positive reviews. It was selected as a book of the year by several papers including LA Weekly, The Los Angeles Times and the National Post. 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 Onion's AV Club stated, "Nesteroff is intent on giving the beautiful losers of comedy their due. The Comedians an astonishingly assured and compulsively readable exploration of an impossibly vast topic." The New York Times book review said, "The way he traces... 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."
