The Definitive Guide to Comedy
Eddie Large, the bigger, brasher half of the British comedy duo Little and Large, died on April 2 from coronavirus. He had been in the hospital in Bristol, England, receiving treatment due to heart failure. He was 78. Born Edward Hugh McGinnis in Glasgow on June 25, 1941, his family moved …
Ken Shimura, Japan’s most famous comedian, died on March 29 from a pneumonia brought upon by coronavirus. He had tested positive for COVID-19 on March 24. Shimura was 70. Born Feb. 20, 1950, Shimura was a fixture on Japanese television for decades, known for his mugging and facial expressions. He …
Clint Nohr’s website bio describes stand-up comedy as coming from a “warped and twisted, yet somehow always relatable point of view.” Nohr proved that once more last month. He worked a two-week gig at Jokers Wild, the comedy club inside the Atlantis Bahamas resort, from March 3-15, just as the …
Brian Baron might not have started his comedy career until middle age, but he managed to touch the hearts of many stand-up comedians in New York City over the past decade. The city’s young and up-and-coming comics all knew of Baron, as he hosted open mics, and he also made …
Jimmy Smith, a comedian and musician who hosted the Comedy Connection open mic during the Boston comedy boom of the early 1980s and who himself opened for some of the biggest names in music for 30 years, died on March 11. Smith was 66. In June 2017, when Smith’s diabetes …
In the 1980s, they may have called him Bruce, but comedians still lovingly called him Johnny. Johnny Yune, born Jong-seung in 1936 in the southern half of Korea when it had fallen under Japanese rule, who broke barriers in America as a stand-up comedian in the 1970s and starred in …
Just last week, Vic Henley was joking with Larry the Cable Guy on Twitter and poking fun at himself for being allowed back in the SiriusXM building after getting fired not once, but twice. Today, Henley is no longer with us. The comedian died unexpectedly after suffering a pulmonary embolism …
New York City comedian Steve Whalen has died unexpectedly, just days after his 33rd birthday. Whalen was a fixture as “Mr. Jokes” on The Chris Gethard Show, and even more so on the show that followed in Gethard’s public access slot, The Special Without Brett Davis. The show has put …
Orson Bean, a frequently popular guest of game shows and talk shows alike from the 1960s to the 1970s, and who still regularly acted in sitcoms and commercials into his 90s, died suddenly Friday night after being hit by cars in Venice, Calif. Bean was 91. Born Dallas Frederick Burrows …
Jack Burns, an early comedy partner of George Carlin who went on to tag-team another popular TV comedy duo with Avery Schreiber, host the first Saturday Night Live to be properly called SNL, then become the head writer for The Muppet Show and co-write The Muppet Movie, has died. He …
