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.
Being a drummer working behind comedians was a challenge. You had to be alert and catch their moves and punchlines. Professor Irwin Corey, The Worlds Foremost Authority was especially difficult as he didn't do the same lines or moves twice in a row. Vaudville (strip clubs) were another challenge. You had to catch the comedians punch lines and there was no rehearsal. You also had to accent the bumps and grinds of the strippers. The circus was another challenge. I played for the Moscow Circus during their 60s Ausrtralian tour and again, had to catch and accent all the clowns moves.
Yes the circus gig was tough. I played for Ringling Bros and Big Apple Circus as a sub many times. Strip club gigs were before my time but I've heard tell!
The circus came to Mason City way back in the 1900's. G-Father just got in from Saratov in 1904, and they had elephant's going down Federal. Many years later we had the notorious, "Nudie Rudy" terrorizing the city while Ray Stevens, "The Streak" was hotter than a pistol.
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.
Of course! Good memory. I was a little kid when Steve Martin did “Wild and Crazy Guy”. His backing band for King Tut was the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band. I played that record till the grooves went flat.
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.
Or, poetry and music are roughly of the same and both are responsible. I feel like poets are musicians, musicians want to be writers, writers want to be musicians, and everybody's a 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.
Heard tell Slim G. not only put weird stuff on wax, he also put wax on weird stuff! Ba-ding...Works as well in Greek, Arabic, Aramaic, Hebrew and Armenian...Hope Ted G. does an essay on the 3-segments of the BBC TV Film documentary on Slim G. from their old ARENA series of doc films under title CIVILIZATION. My eyes hurt from so much alternation between crying and laughing hysterically. Not to mention singing in so many languages with such GONE NATIVE spirit. Slim G.'s childhood in Cuba then losing his Dad who was a shipping worker at a port of call, apparently never to connect with his folks again at such a formative age.... Yet it is the charm of the presentation and of Slim G.'s learning to live and thrive with such DISLOCATION in his childhood. Eventually being taken in by an Armenian family in Detroit after fleeing the genocide of their people in late Ottoman Empire Turkey with western WW I complicity. Yet, like the leitmotif of Milan Kundera's memoir of his own Traumatic youth in WW II, now a classic book in translation from Kundera's Czech: THE UNBEARABLE LIGHTNESS OF BEING....
All 3 segments of that BBC early TV arts before the cookie cutter mentality set in are now posted free to view by the world (for educational purposes, hee-hee, on U. of Tube:
Television Archive: Arena - Slim Gaillard's Civilisation
palimpsest2011
4.64K subscribers
9,773 views Jun 27, 2013
This is Part 1 of a 2-part profile directed by Anthony Wall; I do not have the second part. Apologies for the dodgy video quality. (c) BBC 1989. This does not appear to be accessibly archived elsewhere. Will rapidly comply with any takedown request. Revenue from the ads goes to Google and the rights holders of the music, not me.
Arena - Slim Gaillard's Civilisation: My Dinner With Dizzy
pdebee
267 subscribers
10,473 views Apr 6, 2016
"My Dinner With Dizzy" is episode 3 of 'Slim Gaillard's Civilisation', the 4-part documentary directed by Anthony Wall. This episode was aired on 5 November 1989. (c) BBC 1989. [Press SHOW MORE]
The four episodes were:
Episode 1: "A Traveller's Tale" (22 October 1989)
Episode 2: "How High The Moon" (29 October 1989)
Episode 3: "My Dinner With Dizzy" (5 November 1989)
Episode 4: "Everything's OK In The UK" (12 November 1989)
Arena - Slim Gaillard's Civilisation: How High The Moon
pdebee
267 subscribers
13,078 views Apr 2, 2016
"How High The Moon" is episode 2 of 'Slim Gaillard's Civilisation', the 4-part documentary directed by Anthony Wall. This episode was aired on 29 October 1989. (c) BBC 1989. [Press SHOW MORE]
The four episodes were:
Episode 1: "A Traveller's Tale" (22 October 1989)
Episode 2: "How High The Moon" (29 October 1989)
Episode 3: "My Dinner With Dizzy" (5 November 1989)
Episode 4: "Everything's OK In The UK" (12 November 1989)
I hope you will all enjoy it.
With kind regards;
Patrick. ;-))
"This video is for educational/research purposes only. I do not derive any financial gain from this video, of any kind, but will comply promptly with requests to remove it from my channel. Any revenue derived from the ads goes to Google and the rights holders of the music."
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.
In the 70s, I played with Spike Jrs. band that attempted to revive his father's music, but we were just musicians reading the charts and not comedians, so it didn't go anywhere, but it was fun & difficult playing those charts.
Mr. Forkenspoon - I have been reading your comments here now for a time & they are always informative. You seem to have really gotten round this big old world of ours.
"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.
Being a drummer working behind comedians was a challenge. You had to be alert and catch their moves and punchlines. Professor Irwin Corey, The Worlds Foremost Authority was especially difficult as he didn't do the same lines or moves twice in a row. Vaudville (strip clubs) were another challenge. You had to catch the comedians punch lines and there was no rehearsal. You also had to accent the bumps and grinds of the strippers. The circus was another challenge. I played for the Moscow Circus during their 60s Ausrtralian tour and again, had to catch and accent all the clowns moves.
Yes the circus gig was tough. I played for Ringling Bros and Big Apple Circus as a sub many times. Strip club gigs were before my time but I've heard tell!
You could come to Thailand, plenty of strip clubs here. The whole country is like the 1950s, except for the parts that are like the 1850s.
LOL!!
The circus came to Mason City way back in the 1900's. G-Father just got in from Saratov in 1904, and they had elephant's going down Federal. Many years later we had the notorious, "Nudie Rudy" terrorizing the city while Ray Stevens, "The Streak" was hotter than a pistol.
Nice gigs! Wow
Thanks, I've been very fortunate.
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.
Of course! Good memory. I was a little kid when Steve Martin did “Wild and Crazy Guy”. His backing band for King Tut was the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band. I played that record till the grooves went flat.
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.
Or, poetry and music are roughly of the same and both are responsible. I feel like poets are musicians, musicians want to be writers, writers want to be musicians, and everybody's a comedian!
Hahhahahaha! So true!
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.
Heard tell Slim G. not only put weird stuff on wax, he also put wax on weird stuff! Ba-ding...Works as well in Greek, Arabic, Aramaic, Hebrew and Armenian...Hope Ted G. does an essay on the 3-segments of the BBC TV Film documentary on Slim G. from their old ARENA series of doc films under title CIVILIZATION. My eyes hurt from so much alternation between crying and laughing hysterically. Not to mention singing in so many languages with such GONE NATIVE spirit. Slim G.'s childhood in Cuba then losing his Dad who was a shipping worker at a port of call, apparently never to connect with his folks again at such a formative age.... Yet it is the charm of the presentation and of Slim G.'s learning to live and thrive with such DISLOCATION in his childhood. Eventually being taken in by an Armenian family in Detroit after fleeing the genocide of their people in late Ottoman Empire Turkey with western WW I complicity. Yet, like the leitmotif of Milan Kundera's memoir of his own Traumatic youth in WW II, now a classic book in translation from Kundera's Czech: THE UNBEARABLE LIGHTNESS OF BEING....
All 3 segments of that BBC early TV arts before the cookie cutter mentality set in are now posted free to view by the world (for educational purposes, hee-hee, on U. of Tube:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z3MR4rWovro
Television Archive: Arena - Slim Gaillard's Civilisation
palimpsest2011
4.64K subscribers
9,773 views Jun 27, 2013
This is Part 1 of a 2-part profile directed by Anthony Wall; I do not have the second part. Apologies for the dodgy video quality. (c) BBC 1989. This does not appear to be accessibly archived elsewhere. Will rapidly comply with any takedown request. Revenue from the ads goes to Google and the rights holders of the music, not me.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_hr6q0GGNh8
Arena - Slim Gaillard's Civilisation: My Dinner With Dizzy
pdebee
267 subscribers
10,473 views Apr 6, 2016
"My Dinner With Dizzy" is episode 3 of 'Slim Gaillard's Civilisation', the 4-part documentary directed by Anthony Wall. This episode was aired on 5 November 1989. (c) BBC 1989. [Press SHOW MORE]
The four episodes were:
Episode 1: "A Traveller's Tale" (22 October 1989)
Episode 2: "How High The Moon" (29 October 1989)
Episode 3: "My Dinner With Dizzy" (5 November 1989)
Episode 4: "Everything's OK In The UK" (12 November 1989)
I hope you will all enjoy it.
With kind regards;
Patrick. ;-))
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rKwlETAQMLI
Arena - Slim Gaillard's Civilisation: How High The Moon
pdebee
267 subscribers
13,078 views Apr 2, 2016
"How High The Moon" is episode 2 of 'Slim Gaillard's Civilisation', the 4-part documentary directed by Anthony Wall. This episode was aired on 29 October 1989. (c) BBC 1989. [Press SHOW MORE]
The four episodes were:
Episode 1: "A Traveller's Tale" (22 October 1989)
Episode 2: "How High The Moon" (29 October 1989)
Episode 3: "My Dinner With Dizzy" (5 November 1989)
Episode 4: "Everything's OK In The UK" (12 November 1989)
I hope you will all enjoy it.
With kind regards;
Patrick. ;-))
"This video is for educational/research purposes only. I do not derive any financial gain from this video, of any kind, but will comply promptly with requests to remove it from my channel. Any revenue derived from the ads goes to Google and the rights holders of the music."
Health and balance
Love Radiates Around
Mitch Ritter\Paradigm Sifters, Code Shifters, PsalmSong Chasers
Lay-Low Studios, Ore-Wa (Refuge of Atonement Seekers)
Media Discussion List\LookseeInnerEarsHearHere
The Groove Juice Special!
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!
In the 70s, I played with Spike Jrs. band that attempted to revive his father's music, but we were just musicians reading the charts and not comedians, so it didn't go anywhere, but it was fun & difficult playing those charts.
Mr. Forkenspoon - I have been reading your comments here now for a time & they are always informative. You seem to have really gotten round this big old world of ours.
Thank you. When you've lived a long time, and 84 years is a long time, you can get around quite a bit.
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