Groucho Marx: The Comedy of Existence by Lee Siegel (Yale University Press, $35)

I have been a fan of the Marx Brothers since the age of seven. I have seen all of their 13 movies on the big screen, on TV and on DVD countless times (my favorite is still “Duck Soup”).

But I have always been a fan of Groucho … his distinctive nasal voice, his rapid-fire delivery, his trademark moustache, eyebrows and glasses combination, his use of a cigar as a comedy device, and especially his brand of insult humour that he used to deflate and tear down the stuffy establishment that he always looked at with a great deal of disdain (which was usually in the form of his perfect foil Margaret Dumont).

And one of the trickle down effects of being a devoted fan of Groucho, Harpo, Chico (and sometimes Zeppo) was that I read practically every book that was written about them or by them (on that note, I highly recommend Groucho’s 1959 memoir Groucho and Me, Harpo’s 1961 memoir Harpo Speaks! and Simon Louvish’s 1999 collective bio Monkey Business). I thought I knew everything about the Marx Brothers – especially Groucho – and their six decades in show business.

And then Lee Siegel’s newly-released biography Groucho Marx: The Comedy of Existence was added to my expansive Marx Brothers library, and it gave me a whole new perspective on one of my favorite comedians.

Published as part of Yale University Press’ Jewish Lives series, Groucho Marx: The Comedy of Existence delves into Groucho’s background and gives an intelligent, absorbing, analytical look at the factors and aspects of his life that shaped the comic persona that was forever associated with the former Julius Henry Marx.

We find out why Groucho’s film characters were establishment figures who mercilessly mocked that establishment scene he was a part of; we find out why his sardonic approach was almost a statement on the sense of disappointment he had about his father Sam Marx, an Alsatian immigrant who failed in his profession as a tailor; we find out how Groucho blurred the line between his on-screen and off-screen personas (which is exemplified with Groucho’s rather shocking, unabashed approach when he and Richard J. Anobile compiled his 1973 book The Marx Bros. Scarpbook, which Siegel wonderfully dissects); we find out how Groucho, Chico and Harpo developed their separate characters from vaudeville through the movies based on their personal (and sometimes traumatic) experiences while growing up on the Lower East Side of New York City; and we even get an interesting analysis on why Groucho was the ideal nonconformist as seen through his most associated quote “I don’t want to belong to a club that would have me as a member”.

As well, one of the most interesting aspects of this study comes in the book’s final chapter, which deals with how Groucho divested himself of the greasepaint moustache and eyebrows during the 1950s and kept his cigar-smoking, brutally frank wisecracking persona as host of his long-running game/chat show “You Bet Your Life”, which not only prolonged his career, but also made him a major influential figure in comedy that inspired several generations of comics from Lenny Bruce to Woody Allen to George Carlin to Louis C.K. to be directly honest and straightforward with their material, and not be afraid to say what they want to say with that material.

“Comedians from Sacha Baron Cohen … Larry David, Jon Stewart, Stephen Colbert, and Bill Maher have reclaimed Groucho’s harsh candor and fused his confrontational and his controversial styles,” writes Siegel towards the end of the book. “You can almost feel Groucho’s influence like a brisk wind, both chilling and invigorating, as the general style of confrontation, exposure, and insult alternates between the humorous and the plain, unadulterated expression of spleen.”

Groucho Marx: The Comedy of Existence is a fascinating new appreciation of Groucho Marx, the man and the comedian, and what really lurked behind the moustache, eyebrows, glasses and cigar. His witty, sardonic brand of anarchistic brutally frank verbal comedy was the perfect antidote to what ailed the world throughout his and his brothers’ heyday during the 1930s. And what’s going on these days in the world, which is just as crazy as it was 80 years ago, we are certainly glad that comics like Amy Schumer, Lewis Black, Louis C.K. and Larry David are proudly inheriting Groucho Marx’s comedy legacy for the sake of our sanity.

(This review originally appeared in the March 19, 2016 edition of the Montreal Times)