Harry W. Hart, known by the stage name Swami X, (November 1925, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania—August 29, 2015, Los Angeles, California) was an American boardwalk performer and stand-up comedian. Active from the 1970s to 1985, he performed in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Berkeley, and New York. He was known for bawdy sexual humor and political invective.^[1][2]

Hart was born in mid-November 1925 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He died at age 89 on August 29, 2015 at the home of former Los Angeles City Councilman Bill Rosendahl.^[3][4]

Swami X's act was a monologue mixing pithy sociopolitical observations with poetry, sarcasm and humor, which typically included blasphemy, profanity, and attacking "sacred cows"—producing "pleased shock and delighted outrage" in observers.^[2] His notable lines include:

• "Sex is not the answer. Sex is the question. 'Yes' is the answer."^[5]
• "How do we know Jesus Christ was Jewish? Because he went into His Father's business."^[2]
• "If I had known I would live this long, I would have taken better care of myself".
• "You are what you eat. If that's true, then I'm a nymphomaniac".

He was known for appearing on the Venice Boardwalk, at the UCLA and U.C. Berkeley campuses, in San Francisco, and at Washington Park in New York City. He retired in 1985.^[1] In 2009 the mayor of Los Angeles, Antonio Villaraigosa, presented him with an official proclamation.^[6]

Swami X appears as a character in Roger L. Simon's mystery novel, The Straight Man^[7] and is referenced in Pat Hartman's volume of Venice vignettes, Call Someplace Paradise.^{[8][self-published source]}

• Busking

• Jeffrey Stanton, Venice California: 'Coney Island of the Pacific' (2005), page 273
• Spirit of Venice, California (contains an audio version of a spoken word performance by Swami X). Priority Records. March 10, 1992. ASIN B00000E7DU.
• Sweet William, 'X Swami X, The Sidewalk Comic', Los Angeles Times, Calendar Section, p. 170 (Dec. 23, 1979).

• Archive of blog postings by Swami X on the Free Venice Beachhead blog
• Video of Los Angeles Mayor Villaraigosa presenting Swami X with official proclamation and recounting his experiences with Swami X at UCLA in the early 1970s
• Excerpts Video of SWAMI X Performing on the Venice Beach Boardwalk 1981, taken from "STREET LIFE" the documentary film by Mark S Shepherd
• Brief article and recent photos of Swami X with quotations