The Purple Onion features a weathered, circular sign hanging above a modest entrance on Columbus Avenue. This basement club opened in nineteen fifty-two as a beatnik cellar for poetry and folk music. It became a launchpad for voices like Phyllis Diller, Richard Pryor, and Bob Newhart, who tested their unconventional comedy routines on the small, low-lit stage. Mort Sahl famously performed here for months on end, turning the venue into a laboratory for the biting, topical satire that defined his career.
The Purple Onion
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