Comedy

The British performer is an accomplished film, TV and stage actor who also had a number of hits on the British pop charts. Her Emmy-nominated variety show on the Fox Network, The Tracey Ullman Show, was just renewed for a second season.

Many viewers think Dennis Franz stole the show with his portrayal of Norman Buntz in Hill Street Blues. He stars in an upcoming comedy spinoff called Beverly Hills Buntz. Franz got his start early on in theater; small film parts later raised his profile as an actor.

Howard Mohr wrote for the popular radio show A Prairie Home Companion. Steeped in the world of Midwestern humor, he has written a new book called "How to Talk Minnesotan."

Merrill Markoe is one of the few prominent women television writers. She specializes in comedy, and helped launched Late Night with David Letterman. She is currently developing an HBO special show with Harry Shearer.

Book critic John Leonard says that the collected letters of humorist S.J. Perelman reveal a surprising amount of vitriol directed toward a number of notable film and literary figures. But it's not all doom and gloom.

Writer P.J. O'Rourke doesn't think comedy and conservatism are incompatible. He edited the National Lampoon and serves as the "investigative humorist" for Rolling Stone. His new book, Republican Party Reptile, collects his recent writing.

Comedian Emo Phillips revels in awkwardness. He's known for his appearances on Letterman and HBO and bizarre fashion sense.

Harry Shearer got his start in show business at the age of seven. He now writes comedy for television and radio. Shearer joins Fresh Air's Terry Gross to discuss his experiences onstage, finding an outlet for his political humor, and his love of bad TV.

Graham Chapman came out while working on the sketch comedy show Monty Python's Flying Circus. He discusses his activism to support gay rights, as well as the many times the television program lampooned conventional masculinity.

The writer has columns in Playboy and the Village Voice. Her new book -- a satirical take on dating, sex, and fashion -- is called But Enough About You.

Spalding Gray's career performing humorous, autobiographical monologues has sometimes been a detriment to his attempts to break into film and television acting; no casting director wants to be mentioned in one of Gray's stage shows.

Phyllis Diller became a comedian at the age 37; she and her husband, who had five children together, believed it would be the best way for her to support the family financially. She is known for her frazzled onstage persona, jokes about her imagined husband Fang, and her many plastic surgeries.

Writer Paul Rudnick's new novel lampoons Manhattan's exclusive, fashion-obsessed nightclub scene --with which Rudnick has first-hand experience.

Avner Eisenberg, known as "Avner the Eccentric," is a "new vaudevillian"; he uses juggling, magic, acrobatics, and clowning in his act. Eisenberg also performs as a theater actor. He also appeared in the film "Jewel of the Nile."

Comedienne Phyllis Diller joins the show to describe how she got into comedy at the age of 37, after working as a housewife, reporter, copywriter, and in press relations.

Gahan Wilson discusses his macabre cartoons, the werewolves, vampires, and monsters he and the irrational childhood fears he parodies. His latest work is "Gahan Wilson's America."

Doug Hill and Jeff Weingrad are the authors of the new book "Saturday Night: A Backstage History of Saturday Night Live." The book chronicles the eleven year history of the show produced by Lorne Michaels. Hill has written for the New York Times and is a staff writer for T.V. Guide, and Weingrad has written for SoHo Weekly News, the New York Post, and edits the celebrity page of Women's World magazine.

Tom and Dick Smothers are known as the "Smothers Brothers," a musical comedy duo that began by satirizing the folk acts of their day. Their popularity in the 1960s led to a Sunday night variety show. The show, with its topical content, often clashed with censors, and in 1969, the brothers were fired. The Smothers Brothers reunited in 1980.

Humorist, writer, and storyteller Garrison Keillor is the host of the radio show "A Prairie Home Companion," which is inspired by the Grand Ol' Opry and takes place in the fictional place of Lake Woebegone, Minnesota. His latest book is "Lake Woebegone Days."

Humorist and reporter Calvin Trillin is known for his food columns for The New Yorker, which have been collected in three books. Trillin also writes a humor column, "Uncivil Liberties," for The Nation. His second collection of these columns, "With All Disrespect," has recently been published.