The Definitive Guide to Comedy
When the National Comedy Center officially opens its doors next month in Jamestown, NY, it’ll not only include a discussion on comedy and the First Amendment, but also kick off a fundraising partnership with the Lenny Bruce Memorial Foundation with a special Lenny Bruce exhibit. The exhibit, highlighted by rare …
At 100 years old, Jack Rollins survived and thrived through all of the comedy booms, and rightly could take at least partial credit for the great talents of at least two peak periods in the funny business as a manager and producer. Starting in the 1950s, Rollins represented and fostered …
This May, in celebrating Don Rickles on his 88th birthday, Jerry Seinfeld said of his elder hero: “”On the Mount Rushmore of stand-up comedy, there are four faces, in my opinion: Richard Pryor, George Carlin, Bill Cosby and Don Rickles.” This weekend, following the death of Joan Rivers at 81, Chris …
On Dec. 5, 1962, Lenny Bruce was both comedy icon and outlaw at the age of 37. He had played Carnegie Hall and released the recording as a triple-album, and was just beginning to amass a lengthy arrest record, too. On that night, Bruce was performing at the Gate of …
Fans of the late George Carlin may know that Carlin’s comedy career actually began first as a radio disc jockey, and then as a duo with Jack Burns. But few who think of the legendary stand-up comedian remember or are quick to recall it was Carlin’s knack for impersonations — …
Here’s something for your (TBT) Throwback Thursday files. Within the opening minute of Milton Berle’s Mad Mad Mad World of Comedy (made and aired in 1974-1975), we see Laurel & Hardy in their later years do a classic joke in public, followed immediately by Milton Berle doing the same joke on …
Earlier this year, Robin Williams received the Comedy Icon Award from the second annual reboot of The Comedy Awards. Afterward, Williams met the press assembled backstage (actually, beneath stage level) to answer all sorts of questions. What’s his favorite movie he has done? Blah, blah, blah. You should hear some …
