Nick
Catalano is a TV writer/producer and Professor of Literature
and Music at Pace University. He reviews books and music
for several journals and is the author of Clifford
Brown: The Life and Art of the Legendary Jazz Trumpeter,
New
York Nights: Performing, Producing and Writing in Gotham
, A
New Yorker at Sea,, Tales
of a Hamptons Sailor and his most recent book,
Scribble
from the Apple. For Nick's reviews, visit his
website: www.nickcatalano.net.
In the early
70s, in addition to teaching at my university, I administered
performing arts events: opera, ballet, jazz, symphonic and
chamber concerts, pop concerts, art shows etc. -- the usual
series kinds of programming presented by universities everywhere
. All went well but I wanted something non-tedious that
would viscerally entertain the students. I chose comedy.
At
that time there were two notable clubs in New York that
featured standup comedy: The Improv and Catch a Rising Star.
Comics such as Freddie Prinze, Robert Klein, Rodney Dangerfield,
Joan Rivers and George Carlin were performing ‘observational
comedy,’ a form that focussed on every day occurrences
as opposed to ‘joke tellers’ of yore such as
Henny Youngman, Joe E. Lewis, Buddy Hackett, Freddie Roman,
Milton Berle and Red Buttons who broke in telling jokes
at the ‘borscht belt’ hotels or ‘bungalow
colonies’ in the nearby Catskill mountains. Satiric
sketches utilizing ‘obervationists’ were also
the bill of fare on a new TV show dubbed “Saturday
Night Live.” I produced six or seven shows during
the academic year at my multi-campus university thus enabling
me to select many of these newer performers. My first show
in 1973 featured newcomers Elayne Boosler, Richard Lewis
and Ed Bluestone. The comedy series lasted 25 years so I
got to know most of the leading comics quite well.
Other ‘unknown’
observationists that I booked included Jerry Seinfeld, Bill
Maher, 
Larry
David, Rita Rudner, Richard Belzer, Andy Kaufman, Jay Leno
and Joe Piscopo. These superstars performed for me as often
as 20 or 30 times in the history of the series. The formula
was simple; I went to the comedy clubs often to audition
performers and had my pick of dozens of comics -- all were
eager to perform in front of college students and receive
a paycheck. The clubs did not pay their performers but I
did. I would pick up the performers usually at Catch a Rising
Star, drive to the gig and then return to Catch and sit
with them at The Green Kitchen -- a 
local
Deli -- for a snack before the Midnight shows at the club.
The car rides
to the gig were wild. Imagine three or four hugely talented
performers all trying to outdo each other in what turned
into a riotous crescendo of hysterical conversation. The
laughter was so intense that on more than one occasion we
were forced to make roadside urination breaks or suffer
the consequences. I can’t imagine ever laughing as
hard ever again as I did during those car rides. As time
went on through the years many comics became friends and
I treasure these friendships. The performers that I just
noted were just the proverbial tip of the iceberg and the
most recognizable for purposes of this essay. (For a comprehensive
list please consult my book New
York Nights). There were some who didn't
become celebrities despite the brilliance of their talent.
One of the funniest was Lenny Schultz whose routines were
so powerfully clownish that big comedy stars refused to
follow him onstage. To this day, when he calls me and just
says my name I burst out laughing.
There are many
narrations of wild comedy evenings that I included in the
New York Nights, a book that devotes three chapters
to their shows and hysterics. In one instance I wrote about
a freezing cold January evening on our Westchester campus
with a large pond next to the Student Center. After Lenny
Schultz had completely overwhelmed the students he shouted
“what shall I do now?” One kid yelled “kill
yourself” and Lenny promptly ran outside and dove
into the freezing pond followed by an audience of at least
two hundred howling students who dove in after him. And
on another show, he brought about a dozen styrofoam airplanes,
distributed them to students and then mounted two tall boxes
imitating King Kong on top of the ill-fated NY World Trade
Center next to our downtown campus. He had told the students
to hurl the planes at King Kong and as they did he reached
out and grabbed a few airplanes tearing off pieces of styrofoam,
gnawing on them as they flew by and snarling at the students
as the great ape had done in the film. The audience went
wild.
Another time
Richard Belzer, who later starred in the TV drama “Law
and Order,” had contracted to do a late night radio
call in show where there was to be a serious discussion
of the art of standup. In addition to a panel of comics,
he asked Rick Newman -- the owner of Catch a Rising Star
-- to serve as the expert on running a comedy club, and
yours truly to serve as the authority on comedy traditions
since the ancient Greeks and Romans.
As soon as
the first caller had phoned in, the intended serious discussion
began to evaporate. Predictably, the comics on the panel
jumped on each other’s responses in attempts to outdo
one another and then they started poking fun at the callers
and each other. Soon the talk exchanges morphed into hysterical
laughter and then other comics from around town began phoning
in, adding to the intensity of laughter. Even if Rick and
I wanted to get serious, it became impossible because we
ourselves were laughing uncontrollably. All through the
next few hours it seemed as if all of New York City was
calling in to inject their own opinions on the art issue.
They soon became victims as the comic panel tore into any
attempt at serious conversation. New York talk radio hasn’t
been the same since that insane night.
One afternoon
I drove to Philadelphia to tape the Mike Douglas show. The
guests included Robert Goulet who would recreate his role
as Sir Lancelot in Camelot and perform his hit
song from the show, “If Ever I Would Leave You.”
It would be a full production performance with dancers,
chorus and extras all in the original Broadway costumes.
Okay, the orchestra vamps the wonderful melody, the dancers
and extras flood the stage and Goulet comes out in shining
armour and begins to sing. His baritone voice is magnificent,
and he cuts a startlingly handsome figure on stage. 
After
the intro and opening eight bars the TV audience hears some
loud laughter from somewhere offstage which completely wrecks
Goulet’s performance. It is live TV and an enraged
Mike Douglas rushes out on stage to see who is ruining the
production with this disruptive and disturbing laughter.
The cameras follow Douglas as he marches out where the cameras
and production staff are situated and begins screaming at
the laughing figure who is seated on a remote camera boom
stand high above the stage. “What the hell are you
doing“ shouts Douglas, “how dare you ruin this
performance.” The TV cameras swing around to reveal
this outrageous interloper for the TV audience. Who indeed
is this idiot? The live audience and TV watchers all over
North America observe comic Andy Kaufman, who by this time
had become a big star as on the hit show “Taxi,”
playing Lautka. Kaufman was laughing uncontrollably. Then
the cameras shift back to an enraged Douglas who incoherently
lets loose a shrieking harangue of “how dare youz“
. . . Kaufman, responds, “I can’t help it he
(Goulet) makes me laugh when he sings” . . . then
all hell breaks loose with security personnel struggling
to get Kaufman down from his perch. This episode of the
Mike Douglas Show has become immortalized.
If you are ever tempted to compete for attention in any
group with great comics you will die a quick death. For
many years I sat at a Green Kitchen table of comics without
uttering a word.
Except once.
One night someone
who knew I taught Greek drama asked me to analyze the comic
weaponry of the classical Greeks. When I launched into commentary
on Aristophanes’ comic plays, I noticed that the table
of comics with whom I was sharing food had suddenly become
strangely silent. I couldn’t believe it. Here I was
carrying on like a typical academic while surrounded by
comic geniuses and there was no interruption. They listened
like posssessed students eager to get a high grade. Any
knowledge of any technique that would help any performance
was important if they were to be successful. Their humility
amazed me.
Soon I began
to intensify my own thinking on the techniques of great
comic traditions of the past: Roman satirists Plautus and
Terrance; French super stars like Moliere, English writers
like Oscar Wilde, Italian performers of Commedia dell’
Arte, and noted American vaudevillians and minstrels. Generalities
were tricky but I quickly saw that my comics deserved attention
as much as any artistic tradition in the past. Great comic
writer Larry Gelbart credits Plautus as the principal source
for his hit Broadway show A Funny Thing Happened on
the Way to the Forum.
The Standup
comedy that we catch at clubs, concerts or on TV often transcends
mere entertainment. It is a legitimate art form and should
receive attention as such. In part II of this appreciation,
we will develop analyses and commentary on Standup through
a close examination of the work of contemporary comics whose
remarkable achievement is no laughing matter.
