Wherein we make like Marcel Proust and recall our humorous encounters with the trappings of power and authority in my local elementary school.
Click the triangle or mp3 link above to hear our tale, as broadcast today on Arts Express on WBAI FM NY and Pacifica stations across the nation.
Charles Grodin died last month. His mock feud segments with Johnny Carson were some of my favorite bits of impromptu comedy. Here’s a follow up visit by Grodin to Johnny that I posted a few years ago.
Thanks to YouTuber MyInnerEyeInterview2
Chris Elliott drowns his sorrows while lamenting the state of the current culture.
Thanks to YouTuber Team Coco
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Brooklyn, New York
Kendra Allenby in The New Yorker.
You can also see more of Ms. Allenby’s work on Instagram at kendra_allenby
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Avenue U,
Brooklyn, New York
Our favorite Martin Short character, Nathan Thurm, in a manner uncannily anticipating Kellyanne Conway by several decades, defends the tobacco manufacturers.
Monday morning, Lonnie Donegan and his Skiffle group. I was the proud owner of that 45 on Dot Records, back in 1961.
Thanks to YouTuber the45prof
A fun conversation on the stage of London’s Prince Charles Theatre between two great storytellers, dishing about celebrity, fame, and Marlene Dietrich.
Thanks to YouTuber Buzz Stephens
Granted that the glory days of attention-grabbing newspaper headline writing have long passed, still you have to appreciate it when they come out with an effort like yesterday’s New York Daily News headline concerning the events of May 5th.
Sarah Smallwood Parsons in another very funny sketch, where she holds nothing back. Pretty darn gutsy.
More at CharactersWelcome
The very clever Sarah Smallwood Parsons sings a truth universally acknowledged, to hilarious effect.
Click on the image to play.
Thanks to YouTuber CharactersWelcome
Alec Baldwin as Tony Bennett with a very special guest.
Thanks to YouTuber Saturday Night Live
Canadian humorist Stephen Leacock was sometimes called “The Canadian Mark Twain.” Unlike Twain, he was a staunch conservative, but that didn’t stop him from launching humorous attacks on the parasitical millionaires with whom he came into contact. Here’s a short story of his I performed called “How to Make a Million Dollars.”
To listen to the story as broadcast today on Arts Express radio on WBAI-FM and Pacifica stations across the nation, click on the triangle or mp3 link above.
As a self-identified Person of Scalp, I empathize.
Thanks to Viv Shalom for passing this along!
Thanks to YouTuber BBC Scotland – Comedy
Powell and Rich, that is. Two of the greatest percussionists in movie musicals. This number (with Red Skelton and Bert Lahr looking on) is from Ship Ahoy.
Thanks to YouTuber Richard Preston
No one funnier and more versatile than Bob’s son, Chris, as his segments on Letterman attest.
Thanks to YouTuber 13jalopy
Chuck McCann, from his 1960s afternoon local television show, with one of his many characters.
Thanks to YouTuber wowinkorporated
It’s fun to see how out of date the premise is, and yet how hilarious Elaine May and Mike Nichols were, both with impeccable timing.
Thanks to YouTuber pianopappy
Here in NYC we were blessed in the 1960s with at least three incredibly talented daytime television hosts. They masqueraded as children’s program hosts, but they produced thousands of hours of hilarious comedy with no budget to speak of, and whose studio audience was usually only an appreciative camera crew. There was Soupy Sales, Sandy Becker, and perhaps the most talented of them, Chuck McCann. Here’s Chuck as the failed escape artist, The Great Bombo. I believe his sidekick here, Sid Slick, is played by Jim MacGeorge.
Thanks to YouTuber sandysoup
