American comedians (old-timey historical thread)

I suspect some of you might read this new tome by Kliph Nesteroff? even Old Lunch!

http://www.groveatlantic.com/?title=The+Comedians

L.A. Review of Books interview with Nesteroff.

happy 93rd birthday to Larry "Agarn" Storch!

https://ethicsalarms.files.wordpress.com/2012/07/larry-f-troop.jpg

A friend who saw Don Rickles in LA recently says the act is still fun, even tho his mobility isn't great -- and he still sings a lot... "figured that'd be the first thing to go at 89." Now i'm toying with going to see him in June...

http://www.donrickles.com/?page_id=16

the Mob - nightclub stuff in the Nesteroff book is pretty choice. I didn't realize Miami Beach was the Vegas of the late '40s.

also Groucho's quote on being bowled over by Chaplin on the vaudeville circuit: "He had one shirt! ... I went to Hollywood five years later and he had a big mansion and was fucking all the leading ladies."

disappointed to learn that Lou Costello was a big McCarthyite who wanted his writers to sign loyalty oaths, tho.

also Harry Einstein (Albert Brooks' dad) dying at that roast, oy

i mean first he KILLED, then he died.

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/thedailymirror/files/1958_1124_cover.jpg

happy 93rd birthday to Larry "Agarn" Storch!

🗻

was that an F Troop catchphrase? no idea

Jean Carroll, one of the first women who did standup monologues

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PJv0mZG8Wws

was that an F Troop catchphrase? no idea

Book is great, btw. Thanks for the rec.

I'm really glad some of the routines described haven't been preserved for posterity, like young Art Carney's impression of FDR taking a crap.

Also I guess Milton Berle really did earn all that hatred in the profession. (Fred Allen on a proposed Berle statue: "It'll be the first statue that people shit on.")

Definitely want to read this book. Does it have much on '30s/'40s radio comics? I have a big soft spot for Burns/Allen, Fibber McGee, Eve Arden, Jack Benny etc.

There's a chapter on each phase of comedy from 1900 on, pretty much, including one on radio. I didn't realize how much Jack Benny stole from other comics (like Ben Bernie) to start his career; everybody stole, apparently.

He has spave mostly for the biggies; in radio it's mostly Benny, Eddie Cantor, Fred Allen, a little George & Gracie and Bob Hope, and the oft forgotten Henry Morgan (who was still doing TV panel shows when I weas a kid). And then he describes the brief career of a piker who got lucky (Joe Penner, who rode to 3 years of fame on "Wanna buy a duck?").

Also, Burns & Benny almost got convicted of jewel smuggling at the peak of their stardom!

*He has space

Cool. Will read.

I love the part about Buster Keaton's first big success coming as a child performer in a vaudeville act in which his dad beat the shit out of him on stage every night. The routine was so convincing that the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children tried to shut down the show.

well that i knew bcz it's been in all the Keaton bios

i'm curious to discover what the people i know who are expert in 1900-1965 comedy think of the book, ie how much they found new to them. I mean, they know damn near everything.

Right.

the story of the comedy duo of (Fred) Willard & Grecco in the '60s is really incredible.

holy crow, some of this crash is on YT

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9bs4bbNHmO0

Looking forward to watching

watch the turkey dinner sketch on the Jerry thread first

Joe Morton is starring in a sort-of-one-man play about Dick Gregory off-Broadway... I was superficially not interested given the format, but the reviews have been pretty great.

http://deadline.com/2016/05/turn-me-loose-joe-morton-scandal-review-1201761103/

http://www.turnmelooseplay.com/

happy birthday Gracie Allen

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6jUplYQo9Xg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AmKRoNPJOFU

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SjTDZrn_bLQ

http://images.popmatters.com/misc_art/g/gracie-allen-president-splsh650.jpg

live event of the winter in NYC

http://metropolitanroom.com/event.cfm?id=250956&cart

Storch made it to 94 yesterday, but i was unable to attend! take a listen (this record is 60yo):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2XV5HTWO-gM

His career reached its peak of absurdity in 1974 when he was called upon to accept the National Book Award on behalf of the reclusive author Thomas Pynchon for the novel “Gravity’s Rainbow.”

Mr. Corey gave a wandering acceptance speech on behalf of Pynchon, offering thanks to Communist Party leader Leonid Brezhnev, Secretary of State Henry Kissinger — whom Mr. Corey called the “acting president of the United States” — and author Truman Capote.

Since Pynchon had never made a public appearance, many in the audience assumed the prattling Mr. Corey to be the mysterious author. (Mr. Corey did not, in fact, know Pynchon, but they had mutual friends who arranged the comedian’s book award talk.)

https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/irwin-corey-comic-who-styled-himself-the-worlds-foremost-authority-dies-at-102/2017/02/07/b39560ae-ed36-11e6-b4ff-ac2cf509efe5_story.html

aw RIP

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RHlLmYVCzKY

good night, funny man

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/don-rickles-dead-legendary-comic-was-90-720153

I think we're down to Jerry Lewis, Larry Storch and Shecky Greene.

i hate the 21st century.

i tried to revive my beloved old jews thread, but what's the point anyway. everything sucks.

i think i'll just retreat into the past until i croak.

awww scott

Shelley Berman is still upright too

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u_87ZoEaUs4

Dont forget Rickles best friend Bob Newhart is also still kicking

And best pals Brooks & Reiner.

yeah, I was thinking Jewish comics who first made their name in clubs.

(pref Catskills; Mel performed there but didn't become a star there a la Jerry)

posting this blind just cuz...

Kliph Nesteroff‏
@ClassicShowbiz
the greatest thing Don Rickles ever did. the greatest thing Don Adams ever did.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-kEQ3ndLhq8

https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/564x/f1/6a/70/f16a70bc04413979f12d6aef50d3fa2e.jpg

never seen that photo of boyd rice and genesis p-orridge before

lol

Last month it was announced that Don Rickles had teamed up with AARP for their first TV project, Dinner with Don. The 10-episode series features Rickles “dining with friends and fellow comedians at some of his favorite LA-area restaurants.” A premiere date for the series hasn’t been announced yet, but AARP released a sneak peek from the series, which was completed prior to Rickles’ death.

clip:

http://splitsider.com/2017/04/watch-a-clip-from-dinner-with-don-featuring-paul-rudd-amy-poehler-zach-galifianakis-and-more/

In tribute to the 100th anniversary of Hans Conried's birth

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P8mBePCovlU

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EkomzcVzIIU

Saw a few minutes of some dreary Borgnine B-movie yesterday called The Rabbit Trap, and watched Rickles steal a scene just by mugging, miming eating and swigging a beer during a backyard BBQ interlude.

(Shawn) Levy’s posted a note on Facebook, which Ray Pride passes along at Movie City News: “Jerry and I met twice while I was working on the book and spoke/wrote to each other perhaps a dozen times. Like many of his relationships with the press and his partners/subordinates, it ended badly, with Jerry hollering profanities at me in the cabin of his yacht in San Diego. I wrote about it in the epilogue to my book, and over the years I’ve had the scene quoted back to me by Steve Martin, Harry Shearer, Paul Provenza, and Penn Jillette. Tom Hanks once told me that he had a dinner with Paul Reiser and Martin Short at which Short spent the night imitating Jerry throwing me off the boat. Jerry was a lot of things: father, husband, chum, businessman, philanthropist, artist, innovator, clown, tyrant.”

Levy's bio of Lewis is def the one to read.

http://moviecitynews.com/quotes/biographer-shawn-levy-on-jerry-lewis-on-facebook/

Dick & Jerry

http://www.openculture.com/2017/08/the-comedic-legacies-of-dick-gregory-and-jerry-lewis-rip-a-study-in-contrasts.html

RIP Marty Allen, who I would have a tough time explaining to anyone under 50

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/marty-allen-dead-zany-comedian-was-95-925520

https://www.boomermagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/Marty_Allen-_Rossi-with-the-Beatles-_1964_courtesy-Marty-Allen.jpg

RIP Chuck McCann

http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/chuck-mccann-new-york-comic-dead-83-article-1.3922794

RIP Will Jordan, who did his Ed Sullivan impression everywhere from Bye Bye Birdie on Broadway to a Billy Joel video

https://www.newsweek.com/will-jordan-dead-ed-sullivan-impression-billy-joel-1110525

As this thread could easily double as one for Gilbert Gottfried's podcast, I'll link this 2016 appearance from a then-80-year-old Jordan:

https://www.gilbertpodcast.com/will-jordan/

*89-year-old

I saw Jordan talk/perform briefly in a comedy club six (?) years ago for a Larry Storch birthday tribute. (Jake LaMotta and Marni Nixon, who have also shuffled off since, were also there.)

My comedian friend who is quoted in the Newsweek obit also knows Gilbert in the Friars Club.

happy 96th (tomorrow) to Mr Storch

https://www.facebook.com/andrewporetz/videos/10155713015951249/

https://travsd.wordpress.com/2018/01/08/95-years-of-larry-storch-only-2-of-agarn/

RIP Kaye Ballard

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=12uxvrPAg-s&fbclid=IwAR3B8eOgLKOPf2fqiayVWl76ov7dhDdlVXgkJriTOkvvDfuoLJVH1Cs3NpI

let's try again

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=12uxvrPAg-s

RIP Jack Burns

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/jack-burns-dead-muppet-movie-muppet-show-writer-was-86-1274178

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oBpjgEB1dmg

Aw man, I totally missed this, just read it elsewhere today. RIP, huh? Yeah. Huh? Yeah. Huh? Yeah, RIP.

Referring to Jack Burns passing, obviously.

It's strange that he hosted SNL (solo) in the second season.

Didn't know that. My parents watched lots of variety shows when I was a kid, but I mostly remember him from his stint replacing Don Knotts on Andy Griffith (where he wasn't too popular.)

a thankless job

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xknBQvt5jSI