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Recalling The Rebels
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PARTS
Patti's Parties
7/ 4
2003
58
www.pattisparties.invitations.com
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BILL CARROLL
Special to the Jewish News
here are enough jokes, one-liners and
amusing anecdotes in a new book
about a group of revolutionary and
groundbreaking American comedians
to keep readers chuckling throughout the
summer.
Seriously Funny: The Rebel Comedians of the
1950s and 1960s (Pantheon Books; $29.95) by
Jewish author Gerald Nachrnan is an interest-
ing cultural history and commemoration of an
extraordinary era in American comedy.
It features in-depth coverage of 27 comedi-
ans whose humor was socially aware, satiric,
topical and very funny. Almost half of them are
Jewish, and Jewish humor permeates the
author's work.
Nachman includes 21 chapters on individual
or pairs of comics, which read like mini-biog-
raphies. Along the way, he relates tidbits on
about 100 additional comedians of all eras.
"The comedians of the '50s and '60s were a
totally different breed of performer from any
T
who came before or after
a big departure
from their vaudevillian predecessors," explained
Nachman from his San Francisco home.
"Many had chaotic and troubled lives that
reflected in their comedy commentary and
observational humor, and some were geniuses,
but together, they made up a vibrant group of
voices with a desperate drive to succeed."
The rebels in Seriously Funny include Mort
Sahl, Sid Caesar, Tom Lehrer, Ernie Kovacs,
Steve Allen, Stan Freberg, Phyllis Diller,
Jonathan Winters, Jean Shepherd, Bob Elliott
and Ray Goulding, Shelley Berman, Mike
Nichols and Elaine May, Bob Newhart, Lenny
Bruce, Godfrey Cambridge, the Smothers
Brothers, Mel Brooks, Dick Gregory, David
Frye, Vaughn Meader, Will Jordan, Woody
Allen, Bill Cosby and Joan Rivers.
The Jews among them are Sahl, "the titular
head of the comic new wave" whose comedy
bordered on anarchy; Caesar, the sketch mas-
ter of early television; Lehrer, the satirical
songster who wrote "Chanukah in Santa
Monica"; Berman (born Sheldon
REBELS OF COMEDY on page 64
Opposite page
top to bottom:
Author Gerald Nachman:
"Many [of the comedians
profiledJ had chaotic
and troubled lives that
reflected in their comedy
commentary and
observational humor"
Shelly Berman:
`A comedian whose
neuroses helped define
the revolutionary comedy
of the '50s and '60s,"
writes Nachman.
Lenny Bruce:
"The Elvis of
Stand-up."
Heroes Of Jewish Comedy
Comedy Central documentary pays tribute
in a six-part series.
GERRI MILLER
Special to the Jewish News
egends like Mel Brooks,
Milton Berle and the Marx
Brothers are MIA, and there's
no mention of Jackie Mason,
Woody Allen, Robert Klein, Garry
Shandling or the Davids Steinberg and
Brenner. No strains of "Hello Muddah,
Hello Fadduh" from balladeer Allan
Sherman nor Adam Sandler's
"Chanukah Song," either.
But there's still a lot to like about
Comedy Central's weeklong tribute
Heroes offewish Comedy, airing July 7 -
L
I i .
Narrated by Judd Hirsch, the series
features interviews and clips to tackle
subjects like "Love & Dating," 'On the
Road," and "Angst," in which we're
told, "Jewish comedy has its roots in
hundreds of years of persecution."
The entertaining "Insult" segment
includes everyone from Don Rickles to
Triumph the Insult Comic Dog (and
his alter ego Robert Smigel) to Comedy
Central's Daily Show contributor Lewis
Black, a self-described "big barking
dog" who credits his loud family for his
ranting style: "We'd watch Walter
Cronkite on the news and my mother
would just start yelling."
The episode traces the roast tradition
to the "bodkins," who rhymed insults
at 1 i th-century Jewish weddings.
Joan Rivers, Fran Drescher, Judy
Gold, Susie .Essman and Sandra
Bernhard sound off on Jewish female
stereotypes — mothers and princesses
included — in the "Women" segment,
and successors to Seinfeld are show-
cased in "New Faces," among them
Eon Gold, Mark Maron and identical
twins Jason and Randy Sklar.
Accustomed to twin attention, the St.