The Great Jewish Comedians - Menashe Skulnik on the Ed Sullivan Show

Menashe Skulnik (Yiddish: מנשה סקולניק, May 15, 1890 – June 4, 1970) was an American actor, primarily known for his roles in Yiddish theater in New York City.

Skulnik was also popular on radio, playing Uncle David on The Goldbergs for 19 years. He made many television and Broadway appearances as well, including successful runs in Clifford Odets's The Flowering Peach and Harold Rome's The Zulu and the Zayda. 

Skulnik knew exactly what he was in comedy: "I play a schlemiel, a dope. Sometimes they call me the Yiddish Charlie Chaplin, and I don't like this. Chaplin's dope is a little bit of a wiseguy. He's got a little larceny in him. I am a pure schlemiel, with no string attached." Skulnik was dubbed the "East Side's Chaplin" by the New York Evening Journal in 1935.

Here is Skulnik in a rare TV appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show in 1966. Enjoy!

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The Great Jewish Comedians: Jan Murray on The Ed Sullivan Show in 1960

Jan Murray (born Murray Janofsky) was an American stand-up comedian, actor, and game show host who originally made his name on the Borscht Belt and later was known for his frequent television appearances over several decades. 

Murray began performing on the vaudeville stage at the age of 18. During the 1930s, he entertained at the "Borscht Belt" Catskills resorts popular with Jewish vacationers. In the 1940s and early 1950s, he became a Las Vegas marquee performer, including headlining at the Flamingo Hotel during its first year of operation.

Murray also helped launch the Chabad telethon in 1980 and hosted the fundraiser through 1996. 

Here's a video clip from 1960 of Jan Murray in one of his frequent appearances on The Ed Sullivan Show. In this routine, he jokes about comedians, westerns, the right girl, wife and marriage.

Enjoy!

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Remembering Mort Sahl: Legendary Stand-Up Comedian and Political Satirist

The world of Jewish comedy lost one of its shining stars yesterday with the death of Mort Sahl at the age of 94. Sahl was a pioneer in the art of political comedy.

As Elizabeth Blair wrote on the NPR website yesterday,

Sahl was a forerunner of topical, stand-up comedy. His fans included Lenny Bruce and George Carlin. A 1960 Time magazine cover showed Sahl surrounded by balloons — each showing a caricature of a U.S. president. Sahl holds a long, sharp pin between two fingers, ready to start popping.

As Rick Schultz wrote in Variety,

In 1953, when Sahl first appeared at the Hungry i, a San Francisco folk singer’s hangout, he was an unknown with little stage experience. But his rapid-fire monologues about politics, social trends and fads quickly earned him the nickname “Rebel Without a Pause.”

“The three great geniuses of the period were Nichols and May, Jonathan Winters and Mort Sahl,” Woody Allen told New York magazine in 2008. Allen credited Sahl’s intellectual brand of humor for getting him into comedy. “He was the best thing I ever saw,” Allen said in another interview. “He totally restructured comedy. He changed the rhythm of the jokes.”

In this 1967 video, Sahl explains politics of the left, right, and center, and the left, right, and center of each of the divisions. And then he goes on to apply his logic to romantic relationships. Enjoy!

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The Great Jewish Comedians: The Canadian Comedy Team of Wayne and Shuster

In the twelve years of Jewish Humor Central we've profiled and shared video clips of 56 great Jewish comedians. But in reviewing the list, we realized that until now we focused only on comedians from the United States. 

Wayne and Shuster, one of the funniest and most creative comedy teams of the last century came to us from Toronto, Canada. Johnny Wayne (born Louis Weingarten) and Frank Shuster were active professionally from the early 1940s until the late 1980s, first as a live act, then on radio, then as part of The Army Show that entertained troops in Europe during World War II, and then on both Canadian and American television. 

Wayne and Shuster appeared 67 times on The Ed Sullivan Show from 1958 to 1969. Their sketches ran for about 12 minutes and were elaborate in their use of costumes and had large casts of characters.

In the first five minutes of today's video, Wayne and Shuster present spoofs of TV commercials. Then they introduce the first part of a sketch called The Matzo Bowl, a football game version of the battle between David and Goliath. We'll show part 2 next week.

Enjoy!

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The Great Jewish Comedians: Phil Silvers (with Jerome Kern on The Ed Sullivan Show)

Our series on The Great Jewish Comedians has blossomed into a lecture on 15 of the greatest comedians that's now one of the most popular on our lecture circuit. It sold out the 575 seat auditorium at Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton last winter. 

We've created a follow-up 90-minute lecture with 15 more comedians and it's scheduled for February 10 at FAU. One of the comedians we're featuring in the lecture is Phil Silvers.

Silvers (1911-1985) was an American entertainer and comedic actor, known as "The King of Chutzpah". He starred in The Phil Silvers Show, a 1950s sitcom set on a U.S. Army post in which he played Master Sergeant Ernest (Ernie) Bilko.

He began entertaining aged 11, when he would sing in theaters when the film projector broke down (a common occurrence in those days), to the point where he was allowed to keep attending the same movie theater free of charge, to sing through any future breakdowns.

Silvers wrote the lyrics for Frank Sinatra's "Nancy (With the Laughing Face)". Although he was not a songwriter, he wrote the lyrics while visiting composer Jimmy Van Heusen. The two composed the song for Van Heusen's writing partner Johnny Burke, for his wife Bessie's birthday. Substituting Sinatra's little daughter's name Nancy at her birthday party, the trio pressed the singer to record it himself. The song became a popular hit in 1945 and was a staple in Sinatra's live performances.

He was a guest on The Ed Sullivan Show, where he appeared in a skit with composer Jerome Kern about Kern's famous song Old Man River from the musical Show Boat. 

Enjoy!

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The Great Jewish Comedians: Larry David in a Stand-up Routine

We don't usually think of Larry David as a stand-up comedian. He's mostly known as the co-creator of the Seinfeld show and creator and performer in his Curb Your Enthusiasm HBO comedy series. But before these successes he made the rounds of stand-up comedy clubs. 

In 1989 David teamed up with comedian Jerry Seinfeld to create a pilot for NBC called The Seinfeld Chronicles, which became the basis for Seinfeld, one of the most successful shows in history, reaching the top of TV Guide's list of the 50 greatest TV shows of all time. Entertainment Weekly ranked it the third-best TV show of all time. 

David made occasional uncredited appearances on the show, playing such roles as Frank Costanza's cape-wearing lawyer and the voice of George Steinbrenner. He was also the primary inspiration for the show's character George Costanza. David left Seinfeld on friendly terms after the seventh season but returned to write the series finale in 1998, two years later. He also continued to provide the voice for the Steinbrenner character.

From time to time he returned to do a stand-up routine. In this clip from Caesar's Palace in Las Vegas in 2005 he sets out to explain his conversion to environmentalism, but brings down the house with his hilarious observations and his description of his lifelong love affair with tuna fish sandwiches.

(ADULT HUMOR WARNING: Larry uses some pejorative anatomical language that some of our readers may find mildly offensive, but we judge it to be acceptable for Jewish Humor Central. The audience at this show found it highly entertaining.)

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The Great Jewish Comedians: Al Shaw and Sam Lee

Do you remember going to a vaudeville show? Neither do we. But it was especially popular in the United States and Canada from the early 1880s until the early 1930s, when radio, and later television made vaudeville obsolete.

But during the 50 years of its existence, people flocked to the more than 5,000 vaudeville theaters all over the USA.What they saw was a series of separate, unrelated acts grouped together on a common bill. Typical shows included popular and classical musicians, singers, dancers, comedians, trained animals, magicians, strongmen, female and male impersonators, acrobats, and jugglers. Vaudeville served as the model for TV variety shows, like The Ed Sullivan Show.

Comedians were central to vaudeville and TV variety shows. And many, if not most of them, were Jewish. In our series on the great Jewish comedians, we previously profiled Al Shean of the team of Gallagher and Shean, and Smith and Dale as popular comedy duos in the 1920s. 

Another example of this genre were Al Shaw and Sam Lee (born Albert Schultzman and Samuel Levy). Here's a video of Shaw and Lee doing their vaudeville shtick in the fading days of vaudeville as TV variety shows were just getting started. The singer introducing them is Robert Alda, father of Alan Alda.

Enjoy!

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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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The Great Jewish Comedians: Issy Bonn - The Famous British Comedian

Not all of the Jewish comedians were born in the USA. 

Issy Bonn (1903-1977) was a British Jewish actor, singer and comedian, most famous for his recording of My Yiddishe Momme. He appeared in two films, I Thank You in 1941 and Discoveries in 1939, where he played Mr. Schwitzer.

Bonn played on BBC Radio music shows, and in music halls before retiring to become a theatrical agent. His image appears on the cover of The Beatles album Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band.

Here's a video from 1939 with Issy doing some standup comedy and singing one of his ballads.

Enjoy!

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The Great Jewish Comedians: Shecky Greene's Impressions of Ed Sullivan, a Chinese Waiter, and Al Jolson

Shecky Greene (born Fred Sheldon Greenfield on April 8, 1926) is known for his nightclub performances in Las Vegas, where he has been a headliner for more than thirty years. 

He has appeared in several films, including Tony Rome, History of the World, Part I and Splash, and has guest starred on such television shows as Mad About You, Laverne & Shirley, Love, American Style, and Combat!

In April 1965 Greene appeared on The Hollywood Palace with an introduction by Groucho Marx. He launched into a nine minute standup comedy routine in which he did impressions of Ed Sullivan, a Chinese waiter, and Al Jolson.

Enjoy!


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The Great Jewish Comedians: Jan Murray at Milton Berle's 93rd Birthday Party

Jan Murray, born Murray Janofsky (1916-2006) was an American stand-up comedian, actor, and game show host who originally made his name in the Borscht Belt and later was known for his frequent television appearances over several decades.

Murray began performing on the vaudeville stage at the age of 18. During the 1930s, he entertained at the "Borscht Belt" Catskills resorts popular with Jewish vacationers. In the 1940s and early 1950s, he became a Las Vegas marquee performer, including headlining at the Flamingo Hotel during its first year of operation.

He was the host of many Chabad telethons, and we've shared a few with you in years past.

In 2002, he made an appearance at Milton Berle's 93rd birthday party, and entertained a roomful of comedians and entertainers including Sid Caesar and Carl Reiner, and told some of his and Berle's old jokes.

Enjoy!

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The Great Jewish Comedians: Stanley Myron Handleman on Writing Books and Getting Girls

Stanley Myron Handelman (1929 – 2007) was an American stand-up comedian who, during a ten-year period between 1965 and 1975, appeared on numerous television variety shows.

The Brooklyn-born Handelman was a late 1960s fixture on programs such as The Merv Griffin Show, Dean Martin Presents the Golddiggers, The Barbara McNair Show, The Flip Wilson Show, The Ed Sullivan Show and The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson.

His stooped, resigned appearance and surreal sense of humor ("I just got up from a sick bed. I don't know what's wrong with it—it just lies there") made him a highly-recognizable celebrity on the talk show circuit and resulted in about ten appearances on Johnny Carson. After the demise of the TV variety shows, he accepted a handful of acting roles and subsequently taught in Los Angeles the art of stand-up comedy.

Here's a sample of Handleman performing on The Flip Wilson show. Enjoy!

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The Great Jewish Comedians: Dick Shawn Performs Standup Comedy on the Johnny Carson Show

Dick Shawn was born Richard Schulefand in Buffalo, New York and raised in adjacent Lackawanna. 

The best remembered roles of his career are the hot-headed Sylvester Marcus, son of Mrs. Marcus (Ethel Merman), in Stanley Kramer's It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (1963) and easygoing Lorenzo St. DuBois/Adolf Hitler in the musical Springtime for Hitler, the play within Mel Brooks's movie The Producers (1968).

He had continued success with his stand-up comedy act that he successfully performed for over 35 years in nightclubs around the world. His award-winning one-man stage show, The Second Greatest Entertainer in the Whole Wide World, was sometimes performed with a unique opening. When the audience entered the theater, they saw a bare stage with a pile of bricks in stage center. When the play began, Shawn emerged from the pile of bricks. The startling effect of this required complete concentration and breath control because the slightest movement of the bricks could ruin the surprise appearance.

In addition to roles in more than 30 movies and seven Broadway productions, Shawn made numerous television appearances, toured often, and periodically performed a one-man show that mixed songs, sketches, and pantomime. 

In this video clip of his appearance on The Johnny Carson Show (hosted by Joan Rivers), Shawn does a monologue on Jews in athletics, announcing, and religion followed by a session on the interview couch with Rivers.

Enjoy!
 
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Happy 92nd Birthday to Bill Dana (Jose Jimenez) - One of Our Favorite Jewish Comedians

Our best wishes go out this week to William Szathmary on his 92nd birthday. Who is William Szathmary? None other than Bill Dana, one of our favorite and funniest Jewish comedians.

Bill's main claim to fame is in assuming the character of Bolivian astronaut, karate expert, and Santa Claus instructor Jose Jimenez. As we reported last month, he also wrote the Sammy Davis Jr. script for All in the Family.

Last year we profiled Bill as part of our series on The Great Jewish Comedians. Because you liked them so much, we're repeating the videos of Bill explaining how he came up with the character and his distinctive accent in 1959.

Bill's birthday is prominent on his Facebook page this week. That's where we found the Jose Jimenez for President button. Considering the election shenanigans this year, we're thinking he might not be a bad choice.

Enjoy!

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The Great Jewish Comedians: Al Shean (Mr. Gallagher and Mr. Shean)

Al Shean (born Abraham Elieser Adolph Schonberg) was half of the vaudeville comedy team Gallagher and Shean with Edward Gallagher. Both comedians were relatively obscure vaudeville performers before they teamed up. 

Gallagher and Shean first joined forces during the tour of The Rose Maid in 1912, but they quarreled and split up two years later. They next appeared together in 1920, through the efforts of Shean's sister, Minnie Marx (mother of the Marx Brothers). This pairing lasted until 1925 and led to their fame.

Gallagher and Shean remain best known for their theme song Mister Gallagher and Mister Shean, which was a hit in the 1922 Ziegfeld Follies. In 1941 the song was featured in the movie Ziegfeld Girl starring James Stewart, Judy Garland, and Hedy Lamarr. Since Gallagher died in 1929, his role was played by Charles Winninger.

Enjoy!

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The Great Jewish Comedians: Smith and Dale - "Doctor Kronkheit"

Joe Smith (originally Joseph Seltzer) and Charlie Dale (originally Charles Marks) grew up in the Jewish ghettos of New York City. Many of the famous comic performers of vaudeville, radio and movies came from the same place and the same era, including Gallagher and Shean, George Burns, Eddie Cantor, George Jessel and The Marx Brothers. 

Seltzer and Marks met as teenagers in 1898 and formed a partnership. They named their act "Smith and Dale" because a local printer gave them a good deal on business cards reading "Smith and Dale" (intended for a vaudeville team that had dissolved). Joe Seltzer became Joe Smith, and Charlie Marks became Charlie Dale.

By 1902 they joined two singing comedians, Irving Kaufman (later a popular singer) and Harry Godwin in a team known as The Avon Comedy Four. 

By 1919, the act had run its course, and the Avon Comedy Four broke up. Smith and Dale took up where the foursome left off, playing Broadway and vaudeville (including the Palace Theatre, considered the pinnacle of stage venues). Both used a heavy Jewish dialect, with Smith speaking in a deep, pessimistic voice and Dale in a high, wheedling tenor.

During the 1920s, they became famous for their signature sketch "Doctor Kronkheit and His Only Living Patient," which like "Who's on First?" for Abbott and Costello, became one of the famous comedy sketches of the 20th century. The name of the doctor is an inside joke: Smith and Dale, both being Jewish, named the physician Kronkheit, which is Yiddish and German for "sickness". Thus we have a doctor named "Dr. Sickness". Indeed a hospital in German is called a Krankenhaus, or literally "sick house".

Enjoy!

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