Day: November 16, 2009

The Internet has proven to be both the quickest and cruelest way to disseminate sad news, and such was the case early this morning with the untimely death of comedian and game-show host Ken Ober, who died reportedly from a heart attack Sunday at the age of 52. An official cause of death has not been released formally. Ober was a comedy champion on the 1980s variety show, Star Search, but many more people knew and grew up with him as the host in the late 1980s of MTV's game show, Remote Control — which in turn helped break the careers of comedians Adam Sandler, Colin Quinn and Denis Leary. Quinn posted this nostalgic photo on Twitter today of him and Ober with Kari Wuhrer on the set of Remote Control. Friends had become concerned when Ober didn't make it to a show this weekend, and called 911. Authorities found Ober at his home. Ober also worked as a producer and/or writer for New Adventures of Old Christine, Tough Crowd with Colin Quinn, and Mind of Mencia. News circulated about Ober via Facebook and Twitter, only to be accused of being a hoax, only to find out that the hoax allegations were a hoax. Sad and confusing. All in real-time. I'll have more news on Ober as it comes in. My condolences to his friends and family. UPDATED: Ober's...

The Boston comedy scene is mourning the death today of Kevin Knox, who performed as "the Wild Man of comedy" and had battled cancer for the past six years, and stage four melanoma and pneumonia more recently. Knox was in his 50s. Comedians Don Gavin, Steve Sweeney, Kenny Rogerson and Jimmy Dunn had just performed in a benefit for Knoxie two Sundays ago. It was one in many fund-raisers for Knox recently; there was another featuring Lenny Clarke, Tony V, Bill Burr and Johnny Pizzi this fall at Giggles, wherein Clarke told The Daily Item about Knox: "Kevin Knox is the most courageous guy I have ever met. He is one of the kindest, sweetest men in the world. All we want to do is help Kevin any way we can." I remember hearing about Knox as soon as my newspaper career brought me to Boston in January 2005 — people told me I had to meet this guy because everyone loved him and was supporting him through his battle with cancer. He was always nice and gracious to me. I know that after I left Boston, in recent years, Knox was hosting the Monday night show at Dick Doherty's Beantown Comedy Vault — with proceeds from the door helping him in his fight. Doherty's home page now is dedicated to Knox, reading: "Thank you Kevin Knox -for all the...