7. His First Joke
Woody Allen started his long spanning career at the young age of 15 writing jokes for newspaper columnists through agent David O. Alber. By the time he was 19, Allen was writing scripts for
The Ed Sullivan Show,
The Tonight Show, specials for Sid Caesar post-
Caesar's Hour (19541957), along with other television shows. He was making more money than his mother and father combined. In the early 60's he began a new chapter in his career as a stand-up comedian. Rather than writing jokes for other people, he made the decision to create a nervous intellectual on-stage persona and performed on the circuit for many years. His routine has become influential and he was recently voted #4 in Comedy Central's 100 Greatest Stand-Up's list. According to Allen, his first published joke was-
"Woody Allen says he ate at a restaurant that had O.P.S. prices over people's salaries."
Woody has also written many short stories, collections of which include Without Feathers, Getting Even, Mere Anarchy and Side Effects. As well as this he is well known for his spoken word albums of his early comic fiction and was nominated for a Grammy in 2011 for Best Spoken Word Album when these were released for download in 2010.