COMEDIAN ALAN KING DIES. Subtitle: Death of a transitional comic revolutionary: The death of comedian Alan King at 76 due to lung cancer is another sad indication of a rapidly changing of the generational guard, as a noble and classy generation exits the stage.

Modern comedians owe a huge debt to King since he was far more than his often swaggering stage persona revealed — and he played a pivotal role in America's comedians' history.

You can read the full obit/bio of the man born Irwin Alan Kniberg here. And when you read it, you can see how his career included everything from New York's talent-fostering borscht-belt resorts, the era of Jewish-dominated stand-up comedy, television vaudeville (otherwise known as variety) shows, the comedy club era (he was a big role model), films, performances before England's royal family, cable television, Las Vegas and Broadway.

The Moderate Voice remembers King's always smash performances on TV, recounted by the New York Times here:

Mr. King became especially well known through his 56 appearances — only the Italian puppet mouse Topo Gigio and the Canadian comedy team Wayne and Schuster had more — on "The Ed Sullivan Show" during the 1950's and 60's and his frequent guest-host appearances on "The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson."

He'd appear outraged, talk about family or modern day annoyances, be impeccably dressed in suit and tie, often clutching a cigar, and have a look on his face that could only be described as dismay peppered with a dose of nausea at the absurdities and outrages swirling around him. But it wasn't a threatening he's-gonna-punch-me-anger...but a common sensical anger.

Indeed, audiences saw King so much they seemingly took it for granted that his style and schtick had always been that way.

Not true.

In his superb book Seriously Funny Gerald Nachman chronicles King, as well as other "Rebel Comedians of the 1950s and 1960s." He writes:

Alan King was a contemporary of the satirical renaissance comics of the fifties and sixties, but he wasn't one of them. With his bravura style, waggling cigar, and in-your-face jokes, he performed in the slam-bam manner of the traditional Catskill-Vegas-Miami stand-up comedian...When his traditional joke-packed act changed, and he began doing more leisurely personalal material, he became a bridge between the old schools of the forties and fifties and the more incisive comics who followed.

King was a cranky, conversational comic (one of the first "observational" comics), attired in the slick, silk-tupersonana of a cocky Copacabana sharpie....King's act, unlike the acts of many of his peers, changed with the times..

He quotes King: "I did not offend people. I offended institutions. I became not just more topical but more angry....All my personal frustrations were put into my act."

And if you watched the ever-adapting King from the standpoint of performance art, he was on top of the comedy heap until the end. Impeccable timing. Perfect use of face and body language. And he truly had something to say. And we do too:"You pleased every generation that watched you and did an act that was worthy of their attention, time and love."