Richard Zoglin's new book, "Comedy at the Edge: How Stand-Up in the 1970s Changed America," pretty much confirms Steve Martin's famous declaration: "Comedy is not pretty."

Zoglin, a Time magazine entertainment reporter, interviewed the surviving members of the anarchic comedy movement during the Vietnam and Watergate years. He shaped them into a narrative that explores both the lives of the most iconic comics of the day and how their material shaped the era, and vice versa.

"They reflected the counterculture of the years and helped shape the changes in the culture," Zoglin says. "They explored the litany of issues of that young generation - the anti-war movement, freedom of speech, sex and drugs and the suspicion of authority. They articulated all of that and legitimized it for the rest of the culture."

Improv club owner Budd Friedman recently hosted a book-release party for "Comedy at the Edge," attended by, among others, Albert Brooks, Richard Lewis, David Steinberg and Tom Dreeson. Friedman began his tribute to Zoglin by noting some of the book's descriptions of him: "pudgy," "bastard," "dictator" (that last one, Friedman conceded, he provided himself).

After Zoglin took the stage and admitted he had never tried stand-up himself, then proved it by offering heartfelt thanks to the comics for their cooperation in helping him write the book.

Brooks - who Zoglin's book notes performed live for a very short period in his career - then took the stage and joked, "You can't let someone die like that."

Brooks added, "I have some thoughts on your book, but I won't share them here. You'll see them in my lawsuit."

Lewis followed Brooks and declared, "I liked all 712 words written about me."

Zoglin's book explores how comics such as Richard Pryor, George Carlin and Robert Klein took Lenny Bruce's baton and made political commentary the stuff of hilarity. He follows Brooks and Lewis as they transform their personal neuroses into universal laughs, and relates how Steve Martin, Andy Kaufman and Robin Williams turned comedy on its head, twisting it into a form of surreal performance art.

He contrasts the introspective, angst-ridden East Coast style with the West Coast's sunnier shtick that didn't betray personal weaknesses. And he charts how a comics' strike against Comedy Store owner Mitzi Shore begat a new era in which stand-up wasn't just an expression of individuality but an industry.

Zoglin says that convincing comics to be a part of his book ranged from very easy to pretty tricky.

"Most of them were very cooperative," he says. "Carlin was great. He was an ideal interview - he has a great story, he remembers everything and he tells it articulately.

"Steve Martin was a little tough - he was working on his own biography at the same time. But eventually, he was very helpful.

"The toughest was (David) Letterman," Zoglin continues. "He's famous for doing practically no interviews. Finally, he did speak to me, explaining to me, `Those days did mean a lot to me, and I wanted to go on the record.' "

In the late '80s and early '90s, comedy became a big business - stand-ups were signing lucrative TV deals and starring in hit sitcoms. Ironically, this led to comedy cannibalizing itself.

"Before, there was this spirit of camaraderie, but when it became all about the money, it spoiled it a little," Zoglin says. "When sitcoms came along grabbing up comics, the focus became getting that sitcom and not so much the idea of, `Let's work alongside one another to develop this art form. Comics of that era were not so committed to their work when someone with only 20 minutes of strong material could get a TV deal."

Today, Zoglin says, the best comedy isn't necessarily found in stand-up but either at ensemble improv theaters or online - onion.com, YouTube, funnyordie.com.

"Stand-ups today are more routine," he laments. "Jerry Seinfeld was definitely a huge influence, and guys in clubs these days try to push the edges by being dirty versions of Seinfeld.

"There's a lot of scatological and sex stuff. It seems like they're desperately looking for ways to be edgy, albeit a little in the style of Seinfeld.

"They're going to be as outrageous as they can, but not in ways that are usually funny."

David Kronke, (818) 713-3638 david.kronke@dailynews.com www.insidesocal.com/tv/

COMEDY AT THE EDGE: HOW STAND-UP IN THE 1970s CHANGED AMERICA

Info: 256 pages, Bloomsbury, $24.95.