Del Close and colleague John Brent were a comedy team who recorded the 1959 beatnik parody album How To Speak Hip for Chicago based Mercury Records. Later on Close befriended and worked with Lenny Bruce, Wavy Gravy, the Grateful Dead, and the Merry Pranksters. As director of Chicago's infamous Second City improv troupe, Close mentored and inspired many of the country's greatest comedic talents including John Belushi, Bill Murray and Chris Farley before his death in 1999. His life and work are documented in a biography called "Guru". <a href="https://www.last.fm/music/Del+Close">Read more on Last.fm</a>. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.