You may not know the name or the face, but you have seen her influence — in Lily Tomlin, Phyllis Diller, Joan Rivers and on up through today’s Sara Silverman.

Jean Carroll was, along with Moms Mabley, a first of her kind. A woman unafraid to take a microphone on a lone stage, hit the spotlight, and make people laugh with her, not at her.

As some of you may know, I flirted with a comedy career in my very early 20s. I decided not to pursue – mostly because I would have to spend my time in seedy joints with other comics – but am still a huge fan of those others who ply their comedic trade wherever there’s a stage and an audience. Thirty years ago, it still wasn’t considered a ‘nice’ business for a woman and I was usually the only girl comic on the bill.

Can you even imagine what it must have been like 60 years ago?

Today there are more women working comedy than ever (woo-hoo!), but someone – some woman – had to be the first. For mainstream audiences of the 40s and 50s, that was Jean Carroll. You can check out her full background here. (Unfortunately, I couldn’t find a video to share.) If you read the full NYT obit you’ll see the excerpt below. Still, it’s worth repeating.

“Ms. Carroll’s comic gifts were perhaps nowhere more evident than they were one night in May 1948 at the old Madison Square Garden, when she performed at a benefit for the United Jewish Appeal. Israel had been declared a state that month, and after hearing impassioned speeches and the playing of “Hatikvah (Israel’s national anthem),” most of the audience was in tears. Then came Ms. Carroll’s turn.

It was a delicate spot for a comic to be in, as Mr. Howe (her husband) recounted in interviews afterward. Unfazed, Ms. Carroll leaned into the microphone. ‘I’ve always been proud of the Jews, but never so proud as tonight,’ she said. ‘Because tonight I wish I had my old nose back.’

It’s just the kind of thing Sara Silverman would say. Jean Carroll made it possible. Jean Carroll said it first.

Thanks Jean for making it possible for smart, funny girls everywhere to confront our audiences ‘boobs front’ and kill ‘em in the aisles.