\”It\’s an attempt at a bit of nostalgia,\” said Abe Glazer (Haaren High School, \’49) as he shuffled into a courtyard ringed with banners identifying high schools — DeWitt Clinton, Erasmus Hall High, New Dorp — where former bobby-soxers sat with Shofar hot dogs or lined up at a vintage Carvel Ice Cream cart as a sextet of alumni/musicians whomped out big band sounds.
\”Mort Sahl changed the face of comedy. Before his, that face was Marty Allen\’s.\”
— Jack Riley
Who doesn\’t love old Jewish comedians? Those mamzers of mirth and halutzim of humor who paved the road from the Catskills to Vegas as first-generation entertainers.
\”Herb is this wonderful combination of New York savvy, old school wisdom and outrageous life experiences,\” Kaminoff says. \”Imagine Garrison Keillor, only if he was a handsome Jewish guy from Brooklyn.\”
\”I Killed\” features headliners like Jerry Seinfeld, Larry David, Jonathan Winters and Shelley Berman for the first time telling tales away from the \”comedy caravans\” and \”yuk-yuks\” and even yuckier joints they endured while perfecting their craft.
Annabelle Gurwitch and her book, \”Fired!: Tales of the Canned, Canceled, Downsized, and Dismissed,\” which includes the pink-slipped memories of folks like Robert Reich, Felicity Huffman and Bill Maher.
Some of my best friends are clowns. I know that sounds like a line, but it\’s true. Jewish clowns, too. Back East, there\’s Dr. Meatloaf and Dr. Noodle (aka Stephen Ringold and Ilene Weiss). They\’re in the CCU, the \”Clown Care Unit\” of the Big Apple Circus. Like badchens (Yiddish for clown) for the broken up, they play hospitals instead of weddings.
Like many baby-boomers today, I sometimes feel older than Keith Richards up a palm tree. So when Irv and Eddie, my better elders, invite me to go out with them, I tag along, if only to combat creepy self-pity.
When sexy authors like Erica Jong and Jerry Stahl get together onstage, you expect fireworks. But when I drag my friend Kay up to Skirball for the Writers Bloc conversation, the room is too bright, and Kay tells me Jong\’s blue-framed eyeglasses and gold necklace make her come off more Carol Channing than \”sex goddess.\”
A voice expert known for coaching singers and nonsingers, and working with deaf and autistic students and contestants for TV shows like \”Extreme Makeover\” and \”American Idol,\” Coury is unique and considered \”revolutionary.\”
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