Answer:
Stand-up comedy, comedy that generally is delivered by a solo performer speaking directly to the audience in some semblance of a spontaneous manner. In the United States, where it developed first and reached its greatest popularity, it had its origins in the comic lecturers, such as Mark Twain, who toured the country in the 19th century. But in the 1950s a new wave of stand-up comics emerged who rejected the detached mechanical style of the old joke tellers.