Ken features some remarkable comedy routines featuring Richard Pryor, Albert Brooks, Bob & Ray, Steven Wright, Abbott & Costello, and a surprise. NOTE: Some very explicit language (hey, it’s Richard Pryor). End the year with laughter.
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I've been waiting a long time for a podcast like this from you. Brings back memories of hearing comedy like this on radio. (The Richard Pryor piece notwithstanding!)
ReplyDeleteMy Dad absolutely loved Bob & Ray and that love passed down to me! Their album "The Two And Only" is one of my favorites. (After hearing it, I always felt that their radio shows were kinda dry in comparison.) Aside from "Komodo Dragon" my favorite bit is "The Slow Talker.
Another great Albert Brooks story is the one about being the opening act for Richie Havens.
" You Richie?".."No"..."They're gonna kill you".
Have you ever heard the Credibility Gap variation of "Who's On First"? David Lander and Michael McKeon do it in the setting of a rock concert promotion. Very funny!
Some other comedy I used to hear on radio;
Hudson & Landry
The Bickersons
George Carlin (to a point)
Robert Klein
Bill Cosby
Marx Brothers (narrated by Gary Owens)
Chicago radio stations WCFL and WLS had custom versions of the 1974 hit " Life Is A Rock" by Reunion.
As part of my job reporting news in Springfield IL I frequently go to the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum and they are now openly annoyed with me asking them, "You changed fourscore and seven ... to 87?"
ReplyDeletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dcjz7VAljYs
On an unrelated note...Ken, you have written here before about the demoralization of having to write and complete episodes after a show has been canceled. This Guardian piece explores actors' experience of having to go on stage night after night in a play that's obviously a flop: https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2021/dec/16/friends-cancel-tickets-star-flop-richard-eyre-mauled-critics-deserted-audiences
ReplyDeleteI remember William Goldman writing that he couldn't cope with writing plays because the failure is so immediate, but, as this piece comments, the writer and director can at least leave town.
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Hi, Ken. Thanks for including the classic "Who's On First?" routine, though I think the very best version of it is in the "Abbott and Costello Show," a first season episode entitled "The Actor's Home" (broadcast on Me-TV only a couple of week's ago, albeit at something like 4AM) with Costello becoming visibly more and more flustered as the routine goes on (the minimal props adding to the fun). Razor sharp timing from them both. They were terrific.
ReplyDeleteGreat bits, Ken. I remember when I saw the Albert Brooks routine on TV. John Wayne and Elizabeth Taylor did the introduction. Did you know Albert Brooks's real last name is Einstein? Have a great Holiday Season.
ReplyDeleteThanks. I always liked Steven Wright. M. Shayler beat me to it, but radio stations would play "custom versions" of certain hits. Most famous (or infamous) example was Starship's "We Built This City" where stations substituted one of their DJ's for the one heard in the song. I remember hearing a WLS version (I think it was WLS- its been 35 years) and there's a WCBS version on YouTube.
ReplyDeleteKen, Please tell us more about that 3rd story right above Farrah! (kidding)
ReplyDeletehttps://www.instagram.com/p/CXjO0antUO0/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob_and_Ray
ReplyDelete• Slow Talker routine from the Two and Only (1970):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fyI6KjpNrh0
• The Zootopia Slow Talker “homage” (2016):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4aUC1VZQE1E
• 3With a glam Audrey Meadows, pre Kramden:
• Mary Backstayge, Noble Wife
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jOlI-9qNsiQ
• Bob & Ray "Summer Vacation Kit"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jIooxO6cvto
• Totally off-topic:
• Hunter S Thompson on To Tell the Truth
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q2DIMgbM_kw
Thanks for showcasing these routines, all great!
ReplyDeleteHere are two versions of the same act. When Peter Cook performed with Beyond the Fringe, along with Dudley Moore, Alan Bennett and (now Dr.) Jonathan Miller, he would do a monologue about being a coal miner, named E.L. Wisty. He hit certain beats, but he would also deviate into these odd flights of fancy. Here are two examples, both hilarious:
This is the full version of the routine that was edited down when it was released on Capitol:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ed0UgcXZCh8
Here is the version that was released on DVD, which is excerpted from complete Beyond the Fringe show.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ofUZNynYXzM
Here is who I feel is the spiritual father of Steven Wright, Jackie Vernon. The big difference is that Vernon seems like an act and Wright seems to inhabit his world.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TRpov_my2NQ
The radio classic "The Goon Show" has influenced many in its wake. Theodore "Spike" Milligan, Peter Sellers and Harry Secombe performed for 10 years and acted out wonderfully surreal plots such as a man trying to eat a mountain or two characters trying to reach the age of 21 first.
Here are Sellers (Bluebottle) and Milligan (Eccles) in a bit from "The Mysterious Punch-Up-The-Conker" episode.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ctM_Rvgjfpo
The Richard Pryor clip really broke me up. Also, the Abbott and Costello one. I always wondered who played shortstop, oh wait, Who is on first!
ReplyDeleteHappy Hollandaise !!
ReplyDeleteIf you’re taking a holiday vacation from your home as well as your podcast, where do you hide your good liquor?
Thank you for letting me hear the Albert Brooks national anthem routine. It reminded me of the audition scene from the original "Producers" (singing Hitlers only).
ReplyDeleteBTW Spike Milligan's name was actually Terence. I've always wanted the national anthem of Yakabakoo as a ringtone.
Obscure comedy
ReplyDeleteMilt Kamen’s first break was on the Caesar show in the M Brooks W Allen era
“Here’s Milt Kamen”— an album produced and introduced by Mel Brooks
(“Milt Kamen— His Mouth” would’ve made a nice filthy reissue title):
https://playlist.citr.ca/podcasting/audio/2008/20080103-234020-to-20080104-001528.mp3
Ernest Pintoff started off in directing animation and comedy — he made Oscar-nominated shorts with
Carl Reiner (The Violinist;1959):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wlnuyZMRLr4
Mel Brooks (The Critic;1963):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PramR5oxn50
(The Critic won an Oscar — here’s the award clip)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gDl1ALuijlE
A Pintoff feature reportedly co-financed by John Lennon and Yoko Ono
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dynamite_Chicken
Among the Cast
Richard Pryor
Patti Deutsch - Ace Trucking Co.
Michael Mislove - Ace Trucking Co.
Bill Saluga - Ace Trucking Co.
George Memmoli aka George Terry - Ace Trucking Co.
Fred Willard - Ace Trucking Co.
Roy Bond - Ace Trucking Co.
Ron Carey
Marshall Efron
Lisa Ryan
Paul Krassner
Peter Max
La Rocque Bey School of Dance
Jay Garner
Al Goldstein and Jim Buckley
Tony Hendra
Tuli Kupferberg (archive sound)
Lannes Kenfield
Sylvia Topp
Eliza Nimmo
Sha-Na-Na
Joan Baez
Humphrey Bogart (archive footage)
Linda Boyce
Lenny Bruce (archive footage)
Suzzan Landau
John Lennon (archive footage)
Malcolm X (archive footage)
Victor Mature (archive footage)
Robert Mitchum (archive footage)
Joe Namath (archive footage)
Yoko Ono (archive footage)
Andy Warhol (archive footage)
Michael O’Donoghue also shows up in Dynamite Chicken— it’s his first film, Pre-SNL, Savages, and Tarzoon — performing Phoebe Zeit-Geist
ReplyDeleteHere is one version of Tarzoon Shame of the Jungle
https://archive.org/details/Tarzoon1975
The English language voice cast
Shame Johnny Weissmuller, Jr.
June Emily Prager
Queen Bazonga Pat Bright
Chief M'Bulu Christopher Guest
Charles of the Pits #1 Brian Doyle-Murray
Charles of the Pits #2 Andrew Duncan
Short Christopher Guest
Professor Cedric Addlepate Guy Sorel
Nurse Christopher Guest
Brutish Adolph Caesar
Reporter Bill Murray
Stella Starlet Judy Graubart
Narrator Bob Perry
Additional Voices
John Belushi (Craig Baker)
Deya Kent
M. Vernon
Tony Jackson
John Baddeley
On Thursday, a very nice counterman at my local sub shop had to live through the Bob & Ray routine in real life. On the door, by the counter and at the cash register were identical signs giving their holiday hours. It clearly said they were closing at 2 pm on Christmas Day and would be closed on Christmas Day. The woman asked, "Can I get delivery on Christmas Day?" "No, we're closed." "Can I come in on Christmas Day? Will you be open?" "No, we're closed." And she just kept on, basically asking each of the questions he answered to the prior question. I think he finally got her to understand she needed to get there by 2 on Christmas Eve, but the sign actually asked, really politely, that you arrange to pick up anything you ordered by 1:30 on Christmas Eve. Unstated, but obvious to anyone with half a brain and any heart at all, was that the employees wanted to get the place cleaned and closed by 2 so they could go home and spend Christmas Eve with their families.
ReplyDeleteNeedless to say, I tipped them well for my sandwiches. And wasn't sorry my facial expressions during her performance were covered by my mask.