[Comedian Irwin Corey, Village Vanguard, Greenwich Village, New York]

Comedian and actor Irwin Corey was (b. 1914) was born to destitute Jewish parents in Brooklyn, and was raised in the Brooklyn Hebrew Orphan Home. At age thirteen, he rode the rails to California, and later worked for the Civilian Conservation Corps. Fired from his job as a union organizer, he started working as a comedian. Once described by Lenny Bruce as “one of the most brilliant comedians of all time,” Corey is known for his improvisational and unscripted stand-up, as well as his radical left-wing activism (a member of the Communist Party, he eventually suffered the blacklist). Vishniac’s photograph centers on the comedic tilt of Corey’s body, his camera expertly capturing the dynamism of Corey’s performance.