Ted you're right that we leave the comic backup gigs off our bios .But now I'm thinking I should add that I played with Joan Rivers, Dangerfield, Rickles et. al.! The best part was that they were much funnier and raunchier live than they were allowed to be on TV.
And I agree that our comedic culture owes far more to the Vaudeville tradition than is rightly acknowledged. I've always admired the stars of yesteryear who could sing, dance, play instruments and do comedy. I suppose it was easier to keep all those skills sharp when you had a steady gig for 6 months, then it was held over for another two. They worked hard though--several shows per day!
Maybe stand up is the last thing AI will be able to take over from humans. After all, Timing can't be programmed --it can only be felt.
Let’s not forget the incredible work of the great Stan Freberg in his parody of 50s hits. I know the lyrics all of those songs, many of them having specific references to jazz and the foibles of jazz musicians. His versions of “The Banana Boat Song” and “Heartbreak Hotel” are a source of classic jazz lingo. “Like I don’t dig spiders man.”
All good points, Ted. In my childhood my parents had the album Jerry Lewis Sings!, mostly tunes associated with Al Jolson. Eddie Cantor, Fanny Brice, Groucho’s love of ridiculous song, the Smothers Brothers coming out of the ‘60s folk revival, Zappa’s comedy albums like We’re Only In It For the Money and Sheik Yerbouti, Dylan’s hilarious sarcasm, Beefheart’s surreally funny lyrics (“I love you, big dummy”), the sly humor of deep blues players like Sonny Boy Rice Miller Williamson, and today, comic Stephen Colbert’s ex-sidekick Jon Batiste’s “Freedom,” good humor embodying a terrific message.
I offer the counter argument that it was poets who invented standup comedy. Shakespeare is hilarious. Go farther back and you've got the Iliad where Hephaestos “often plays the clown at the banquets of the gods, enlivening their drinking bouts by limping around.” In poetry, there is the caesura, the strategic pause in poetic meter, which is the same thing as comic timing for a standup comedian.
Great essay. Tom Lehrer is the absolute king in my book--and I can often feel the rhythm of his between-song banter in my own writing. "He majored in animal husbandry. Until they caught him at it."
Slim Gaillard is massively underappreciated. He was a fine singer with exceptional musical and comedy timing, and wasn't afraid of putting weird stuff on wax.
TwoSet is contemporary proof this combination lives on! Their world tour just sold out in minutes. Following in the footsteps of Victor Borge, P.D.Q Bach/Peter Schickele, some of my favorite performances from my own childhood.
A friend of mine once had a gig where the comedian and musician Kate Miccuci opened for her. I started getting word from backstage that this was going to be a spectacle. KM comes on stage and debuted some children songs she was working on. NOT only were the songs fantastic but her set included, I kid you not, a puppet troupe. Yes, you heard me, puppets. Picture it: I’m in packed dingy club full of chic rockers who are losing their mind to non-ironic children’s songs as puppets dance on stage. When KM finished and my friend’s group came on the first thing the singer said was “Yeah that was a mistake having her open for us.” Never underestimate the combined force of music, comedy and puppets.
"Somebody should write a book about jazz musicians playing at comedy clubs, strip clubs, circuses, auctions, and other unlikely venues. These gigs were more common than fans today realize."
This summer I was lucky enough to attend a week-long residency in the French Pyrenees with the British composer and one-time jazz bassist Gavin Bryars, who had fantastic anecdotes about playing in house bands in working men's clubs in the north of England in the early 1960s, where he paid his dues - and cut his chops - backing comedians, ventriloquists, magicians... you name it. There wasn't a single British comedian of that era (many later household names) that he hadn't backed. And he insisted it was an essential part of his learning.
Imagine the composer of "Sinking of the Titanic" supporting Stanley Unwin or Les Dawson in a house band that included Derek Bailey and Tony Oxley. (A friend tells me that Gavin's anecdotes are corroborated in Pete Brown's history of the northern working men's club scene "Clubland": https://www.petebrown.net/book/clubland-how-the-working-mens-club-shaped-britain)
We all need more comedy especially in these times. Many comedians now seem to think vulgarity is a necessity. I have listened to a few and have yet to laugh from the belly.
Let's remember to include blues singer Bessie Smith in this list. She was renowned for her comedic stories and jokes as a way to bust through racial barriers during her tours.
This is reminding me of Reggie Watts https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DfkPmbg1ymM. That's when comedians went on their own way and arrived right back where they apparently started, making music
Ted you're right that we leave the comic backup gigs off our bios .But now I'm thinking I should add that I played with Joan Rivers, Dangerfield, Rickles et. al.! The best part was that they were much funnier and raunchier live than they were allowed to be on TV.
And I agree that our comedic culture owes far more to the Vaudeville tradition than is rightly acknowledged. I've always admired the stars of yesteryear who could sing, dance, play instruments and do comedy. I suppose it was easier to keep all those skills sharp when you had a steady gig for 6 months, then it was held over for another two. They worked hard though--several shows per day!
Maybe stand up is the last thing AI will be able to take over from humans. After all, Timing can't be programmed --it can only be felt.
Ted...no doubt you'll find it interesting. https://datacolada.org/2
Let’s not forget the incredible work of the great Stan Freberg in his parody of 50s hits. I know the lyrics all of those songs, many of them having specific references to jazz and the foibles of jazz musicians. His versions of “The Banana Boat Song” and “Heartbreak Hotel” are a source of classic jazz lingo. “Like I don’t dig spiders man.”
All good points, Ted. In my childhood my parents had the album Jerry Lewis Sings!, mostly tunes associated with Al Jolson. Eddie Cantor, Fanny Brice, Groucho’s love of ridiculous song, the Smothers Brothers coming out of the ‘60s folk revival, Zappa’s comedy albums like We’re Only In It For the Money and Sheik Yerbouti, Dylan’s hilarious sarcasm, Beefheart’s surreally funny lyrics (“I love you, big dummy”), the sly humor of deep blues players like Sonny Boy Rice Miller Williamson, and today, comic Stephen Colbert’s ex-sidekick Jon Batiste’s “Freedom,” good humor embodying a terrific message.
I offer the counter argument that it was poets who invented standup comedy. Shakespeare is hilarious. Go farther back and you've got the Iliad where Hephaestos “often plays the clown at the banquets of the gods, enlivening their drinking bouts by limping around.” In poetry, there is the caesura, the strategic pause in poetic meter, which is the same thing as comic timing for a standup comedian.
Great essay. Tom Lehrer is the absolute king in my book--and I can often feel the rhythm of his between-song banter in my own writing. "He majored in animal husbandry. Until they caught him at it."
Slim Gaillard is massively underappreciated. He was a fine singer with exceptional musical and comedy timing, and wasn't afraid of putting weird stuff on wax.
Mort Sahl was the revolution and was still king in his 90s.... RIP
TwoSet is contemporary proof this combination lives on! Their world tour just sold out in minutes. Following in the footsteps of Victor Borge, P.D.Q Bach/Peter Schickele, some of my favorite performances from my own childhood.
A friend of mine once had a gig where the comedian and musician Kate Miccuci opened for her. I started getting word from backstage that this was going to be a spectacle. KM comes on stage and debuted some children songs she was working on. NOT only were the songs fantastic but her set included, I kid you not, a puppet troupe. Yes, you heard me, puppets. Picture it: I’m in packed dingy club full of chic rockers who are losing their mind to non-ironic children’s songs as puppets dance on stage. When KM finished and my friend’s group came on the first thing the singer said was “Yeah that was a mistake having her open for us.” Never underestimate the combined force of music, comedy and puppets.
Spike Jones and The City Slickers were hysterical!
A solo comic performer is not necessarily a “stand up comedian”.
"Somebody should write a book about jazz musicians playing at comedy clubs, strip clubs, circuses, auctions, and other unlikely venues. These gigs were more common than fans today realize."
This summer I was lucky enough to attend a week-long residency in the French Pyrenees with the British composer and one-time jazz bassist Gavin Bryars, who had fantastic anecdotes about playing in house bands in working men's clubs in the north of England in the early 1960s, where he paid his dues - and cut his chops - backing comedians, ventriloquists, magicians... you name it. There wasn't a single British comedian of that era (many later household names) that he hadn't backed. And he insisted it was an essential part of his learning.
Imagine the composer of "Sinking of the Titanic" supporting Stanley Unwin or Les Dawson in a house band that included Derek Bailey and Tony Oxley. (A friend tells me that Gavin's anecdotes are corroborated in Pete Brown's history of the northern working men's club scene "Clubland": https://www.petebrown.net/book/clubland-how-the-working-mens-club-shaped-britain)
We all need more comedy especially in these times. Many comedians now seem to think vulgarity is a necessity. I have listened to a few and have yet to laugh from the belly.
Let's remember to include blues singer Bessie Smith in this list. She was renowned for her comedic stories and jokes as a way to bust through racial barriers during her tours.
This is reminding me of Reggie Watts https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DfkPmbg1ymM. That's when comedians went on their own way and arrived right back where they apparently started, making music