Alan King was born Irwin Alan Kniberg in New York City on December 26, 1927, the youngest of eight children. After living for a time on Manhattan's Lower East Side, the family moved to another tough neighborhood, the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn. He grew up in a family environment which fostered his interest in storytelling, but it was the streets of New York that pointed him toward humor. Boys learned to defend themselves early on the mean streets of Brooklyn, and if it was not with their fists, it was with humor, and King had an answer for everything.