Throwback Thursday Comedy Special: Norm Crosby Roasts Kirk Douglas in 1973

Norm Crosby, a Jewish comedian from Boston, was known mainly as a master of malaprops that he integrated into his comedy routines. 

Crosby became a frequent guest on TV talk and variety shows, including Dean Martin’s, and subsequently was a perfect choice as a regular roaster on the hugely popular Dean Martin Celebrity Roasts of the ‘70s, writing lines like: “Wilt Chamberlain is an insulation to young people all over the world. Wherever he appears, after every game the kids give him a standing ovulation.”

In this video clip from a 1973 roast of Kirk Douglas, Crosby delivers a steady stream of malapropisms while praising Douglas for his achievements as an actor.

Enjoy!

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Throwback Thursday Comedy Showcase: Sid Caesar as a Gypsy Violinist

On this Throwback Thursday we're going back to an old episode of The Dean Martin Show where Sid Caesar played the role of a Gypsy violinist.

The undated video clip, recorded sometime during the 1960s, has Sid distracted by Dean's date to the extent that he loses track of where he's supposed to be and ends up taking his violin to some unexpected places.

Enjoy!

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#Throwback Thursday    #TBT

Throwback Thursday Comedy Special: Dean Martin and Vic Damone Join Allan Sherman in a Medley of His Parodies

Allan Sherman dominated the world of song parody during the 1960s and recorded eight albums.  Listening to or reading his lyrics is a crash course in pop culture of the 1960s, with Sherman taking satiric swipes at summer camp, psychiatry, fad diets, Hadassah ladies, school dropouts, and upward mobility.

He usually performed alone, but in this rare undated video clip, probably on The Dean Martin Show, Sherman joined Martin and Vic Damone in performing a medley of his best parodies. None of the songs are sung in their full versions, but there is enough of each one to make you laugh and search for the old records.

Here is the complete list:
Pop Hates The Beatles (Pop Goes The Weasel) (Allan Sherman, Vic Damone & Dean Martin), That's A Mormon (That's Amore) (Martin), Brenda Lee (Tenderly) (Damone), God Bless You Gerry Mendlebaum (God Bless You Merry Gentlemen) (Sherman), Bela Lugosi (Besame Mucho) (Dean Martin), Aura Lee (Damone), Hello Young Lovers (Sherman), Day In Day Out (all three), You're Getting to Be A Rabbit With Me (You're Getting to Be A Habit With Me) (Damone), Goldman's Earrings (Golden Earrings) (Sherman), Wonton Soup (Wanting You) (Sherman), Egg Foo Young (They Tried To Tell Us We're Too Young) (Damone), Chow Mein (Charmaine) (Martin), Love Is Where You Find It (Sherman), Old Lang's Sign (Auld Lang Syne) (Damone), Comin' Thru the Rye (Comin' Thro the Rye) (Martin), Don't Buy The Liverwurst (Down By The Riverside) (all three)

Enjoy!

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#Throwback Thursday    #TBT

Throwback Thursday Comedy Special: Standup Comic Jackie Mason in His Prime 52 Years Ago

Stand-up comedian Jackie Mason was back in rare form on The Dean Martin show 52 years ago in 1967, three years after the finger-pointing incident on The Ed Sullivan Show that caused Sullivan to ban him from future appearances.

As is evident from this video clip, Mason had fully recovered his timing and comedic talents, putting on a masterful performance, with commentary on government spending, President Johnson, taxation, his psychiatrist, and a brief reference to the Sullivan incident.

Enjoy this nostalgic look back with the original Jackie Mason.

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#Throwback Thursday   #TBT

Comedy Showcase: Woody Allen Standup Comedy 50 Years Ago

Before Woody Allen started writing plays and making a new film every year, he started his career as a comedy writer and standup comic.

From 1960 to 1969, Allen performed as a stand-up comedian to supplement his comedy writing. His contemporaries during those years included Lenny Bruce, Shelley Berman, the team of Mike Nichols and Elaine May, and Mort Sahl, his personal favorite. 

Comedy historian Gerald Nachman notes that Allen, while not the first to do stand-up, would eventually have greater impact than all the others in the 1960s.

Here is Allen doing a standup comedy act on The Dean Martin Show in 1967.

Enjoy! 

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Throwback Thursday Comedy Special: Martin and Lewis Meet Martin and Louis

During a week of tributes to Jerry Lewis we thought our Throwback Thursday comedy special should include a return to one of the funny episodes of the Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis show.

This one goes back 65 years to 1952. Dean and Jerry are reviewing old episodes and come upon one in which their fans are waiting at LaGuardia Airport for their arrival. They are upstaged by another Martin and Louis emerging first from the airplane.

Enjoy!

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Throwback Thursday Comedy Special: Remembering Don Rickles and His Celebrity Roast of Frank Sinatra

We lost one of the great Jewish comedians last week with the passing of Don Rickles at age 90.

Although he became well known as an insult comic, his pudgy, balding appearance and pugnacious style led to few leading roles in film or television.

His prominent film roles included Run Silent, Run Deep (1958) and Kelly's Heroes (1970), and beginning in 1976 he enjoyed a two-year run starring in the sitcom C.P.O. Sharkey.

He received widespread exposure as a popular guest on numerous talk shows, including The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson and Late Show with David Letterman, and later voiced Mr. Potato Head in the Toy Story films. He won a Primetime Emmy Award for the 2007 documentary Mr. Warmth: The Don Rickles Project.

Today we're remembering Don Rickles as a "roaster" of celebrities on The Dean Martin Celebrity Roast, an NBC television special show hosted by entertainer Dean Martin from 1974 to 1984. For a series of 54 specials and shows, Martin would periodically "roast" a celebrity. These roasts were patterned after the roasts held at the New York Friars' Club. 

The format would have the celebrity guest seated on a dais, and one by one the guest of honor was affectionately chided or insulted about his career by his fellow celebrity friends.

In 1978, 39 years ago, Rickles turned in a hilarious performance on the Dean Martin Celebrity Hour roasting Frank Sinatra. The guests included Ronald Reagan, Red Buttons, Flip Wilson, Redd Foxx, George Burns, Milton Berle, Jonathan Winters, Peter Falk, Ruth Buzzi, and Orson Welles.

Those were the days before political correctness set in. As one YouTube commenter said, it was humor from an era when you could rib other cultures and everybody was fine with it, because people had enough self esteem to have fun. 

Enjoy!

A SPECIAL NOTE FOR NEW EMAIL SUBSCRIBERS:  THE VIDEO IS NOT VIEWABLE DIRECTLY FROM THE EMAIL THAT YOU GET EACH DAY.  YOU MUST CLICK ON THE TITLE AT THE TOP OF THE EMAIL TO REACH THE JEWISH HUMOR CENTRAL WEBSITE, FROM WHICH YOU CLICK ON THE PLAY BUTTON IN THE VIDEO IMAGE TO START THE VIDEO. 


  

#Throwback Thursday, #TBT

The Great Jewish Comedians: Marty Allen, Still Funny at 95

Marty Allen, the comedy half of the Allen and Rossi team, is still performing as he gets ready for his 95th birthday tomorrow. Last December he did two comedy shows with his wife at a theater in Boca Raton, Florida.

As  Marvin Glassman wrote in the Florida Jewish Journal,

Allen may be one of the oldest Jewish comedians still on stage to have performed on "The Ed Sullivan Show," a popular television variety show in the 1950s and 60s.

Allen and his late partner Steve Rossi became a comedy duo hit from the "Sullivan" appearances. Known as "Allen & Rossi," the duo appeared 44 times on "Ed Sullivan" and had 700 other television appearances in their heyday from 1957-68, before breaking up as a duo.

Allen was the pudgy, wild-haired short, affable Jewish man who would play funny characters while being asked questions by Rossi. Allen's quick wit made audiences laugh as Rossi would ask him questions after beginning the routines by saying "Hello Dere."

Born as Morton Alpern in Pittsburgh, he went into show business after serving in the U.S. Air Forces in World War II while stationed in Italy. Allen earned a Soldier's Medal for his bravery getting fellow soldiers out of a plane that was caught on fire while being refueled.

"I was shocked when I was in Italy to later learn about the Holocaust and care deeply about being Jewish and being a supporter of Israel. Growing up, our family celebrated all the Jewish holidays and I still celebrate the Jewish holidays," said Allen.

Here are Allen and Rossi in a TV appearance with Dean Martin. Enjoy!

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Throwback Thursday Comedy Special: How Buddy Hackett Found Out His Wife Was Expecting

Today's Throwback Thursday episode goes way back 50 years to 1966, when Buddy Hackett was a regular guest on The Dean Martin Show

In this episode Buddy tells Dean how he found out that his wife Sherry was expecting a baby. In typical Hackett fashion the story includes late night activities, a snowstorm, a police officer, a mackinaw, a pair of boots, a pizza pie, and a balloon. 

You just have to hear him tell the story to put all these elements together, and it's worth it because in the end you'll get a good laugh out of it.

Enjoy!

(A SPECIAL NOTE FOR NEW EMAIL SUBSCRIBERS:  THE VIDEO MAY NOT BE VIEWABLE DIRECTLY FROM THE EMAIL THAT YOU GET EACH DAY ON SOME COMPUTERS AND TABLETS.  YOU MUST CLICK ON THE TITLE AT THE TOP OF THE EMAIL TO REACH THE JEWISH HUMOR CENTRAL WEBSITE, FROM WHICH YOU CLICK ON THE PLAY BUTTON IN THE VIDEO IMAGE TO START THE VIDEO.)

Throwback Thursday Comedy Flashback: Victor Borge Teaches Dean Martin Phonetic Punctuation

Victor Borge was a Danish comedian, conductor and pianist who achieved great popularity in radio and television in the United States and Europe. His blend of music and comedy earned him the nickname "The Clown Prince of Denmark","The Unmelancholy Dane", and "The Great Dane."

We featured him last year in our series The Great Jewish Comedians. Borge had many funny approaches to music. One of his most famous was his invention of phonetic puncuation. His unique approach to inserting commas, periods, question marks and exclamation points made every song hilarious.

In this video from 1968, Borge visits Dean Martin on his TV show and teaches him the basics. Then they try the technique out on a few songs, with hilarious results.

Enjoy!

(A SPECIAL NOTE FOR NEW EMAIL SUBSCRIBERS:  THE VIDEO MAY NOT BE VIEWABLE DIRECTLY FROM THE EMAIL THAT YOU GET EACH DAY ON SOME COMPUTERS AND TABLETS.  YOU MUST CLICK ON THE TITLE AT THE TOP OF THE EMAIL TO REACH THE JEWISH HUMOR CENTRAL WEBSITE, FROM WHICH YOU CLICK ON THE PLAY BUTTON IN THE VIDEO IMAGE TO START THE VIDEO.) 



#Throwback Thursday  #TBT

Comedy Flashback: Rich Little Roasts Jack Benny at Friars Club

The Friars Club has been conducting celebrity roasts since 1950. A typical roast has many entertainment industry greats delivering funny tributes to the annual honoree. We'll be running a series of videos showing some of the funniest roasts at the Friars Club.

Comedian Jack Benny was roasted by the Friars Club in 1963 and 1970. In this video clip, Jack is roasted by Rich Little impersonating Jack, George Burns, and Jimmy Stewart.

Enjoy!

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The Great Jewish Comedians: Buddy Hackett on The Dean Martin Show

Buddy Hackett (1924-2003) was born Leonard Hacker in Brooklyn. His career spanned more than half a century in nightclubs, movies, the stage and television. 

His rubbery face was a familiar one on America's home screens in the 1950's and 1960's when he was a frequent guest on talk shows hosted by Jack Paar and Arthur Godfrey. 

Hackett's irrepressible clowning was so familiar, in fact, that it always seemed to come as a surprise to audiences and critics when he would display solid acting talent in his movie and stage appearances. 

He appeared many times on The Johnny Carson show, and we have shared many video clips of those shows on Jewish Humor Central over the past few years.

He also was a frequent guest on The Dean Martin Show. In this clip, Buddy tells Dean about his days in the legitimate theatre.

Enjoy!

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Comedy Flashback: Jackie Mason Plays Barber to Dean Martin

The Dean Martin Show was a big TV hit from 1965 to 1974. Comedian Jackie Mason was a frequent guest on Martin's show.

In this excerpt from the show, Mason plays Murray the barber who delivers one funny line after another while giving Martin a haircut. 

During the three minute video clip, Mason touches on Martin's singing, music, sex, concerts, and the real reason why Schubert didn't finish his symphony.

Enjoy!

(A SPECIAL NOTE FOR NEW EMAIL SUBSCRIBERS:  THE VIDEO MAY NOT BE VIEWABLE DIRECTLY FROM THE EMAIL THAT YOU GET EACH DAY ON SOME COMPUTERS AND TABLETS.  YOU MUST CLICK ON THE TITLE AT THE TOP OF THE EMAIL TO REACH THE JEWISH HUMOR CENTRAL WEBSITE, FROM WHICH YOU CLICK ON THE PLAY BUTTON IN THE VIDEO IMAGE TO START THE VIDEO.)