Remembering Shelley Berman: "I'm Not a Standup Comedian - I Work on a Stool"

Comedian Shelley Berman, who died Friday in California at the age of 92, brought a new and unique form of comedy to television in the 1950s and 1960s. Sitting on a stool and holding an imaginary telephone, he let his audiences listen in to one side of conversations he was having with hotel clerks, department store operators, and answering multiple phone calls in his office.

As Frazier Moore wrote for the Associated Press yesterday,

Berman was a pioneer of a new brand of comedy that could evoke laughter from such matters as air travel discomforts and small children who answer the telephone. He helped pave the way for Bob Newhart, Woody Allen, Jerry Seinfeld and other standup comedians who fashioned their routines around the follies and frustrations of modern living.

Late in his career, he played Nat David, father of Larry David, on HBO's "Curb Your Enthusiasm." With dialogue improvised by its cast, the comedy series gave Berman the opportunity to return to his improv roots and introduced him to a new generation of TV viewers.

"I'm not a standup comedian," Berman often insisted. "I work on a stool."

Here is a classic example of Berman's telephone humor, his phone call to a department store. Enjoy!

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