MIXED NUTS
By Lawrence Epstein
The readers of this magazine may be familiar with Mr. Epstein via his book, “Haunted Smile: The History of Jewish Comedians in America,” which we excerpted on these very pages and which we go back to quite frequently as a reference. Publishers Weekly says that “Mixed Nuts” is “a lively history of entertainment from early vaudeville through radio, film and television.” If you like your comedy mixed with history and sociology, this is your book. Check out the excerpt below, from Chapter 13– Comedy Teams of the 1960’s.
There were other comedy teams that emerged from improvisational comedy. Jack Burns had once teamed up with George Carlin. Burns had been a Texas newscaster when the two began to work together on a Fort Worth radio show. They went to Hollywood where, in 1960, they served as morning disc jockeys at KDAY. Lenny Bruce, among others, admired their talents. Bruce helped them, and they soon appeared on The Tonight Show. After two years as a team, Burns and Carlin decided that they wanted to end the partnership, and Carlin began his own brand of comedy.
Burns made his way to Chicago where, at Second City, he met Avery Schreiber, who, after a stint in the army and work at a theater, had joined the troupe, as he recalled, sometime in 1960 or 1961.
Burns was Catholic and Schreiber Jewish, and they, like an all-male counterpart to Stiller and Meara, took over the comedic exploration of cultural differences. Burns and Schreiber even looked gloriously at odds: Burns was thin and clean-shaven, and Schreiber had heft, loads of curly hair, and an impressive mustache.
Because Burns was generally politically and socially conservative and Schreiber more of a liberal, their personal differences, filtered through an ethnic lens, provided almost dueling stand-ups, unlike Stiller and Meara who had created more accomodating characters. Burns and Schreiber were after something darker. Stiller and Meara’s characters communicated understanding; Burns and Schreiber’s characters remained forever locked in their own individual psyches.
Their most famous sketch, “The Cab Driver and the Conventioneer.” captured their differences perfectly and, in doing so, reflected very early the emerging cultural divide that was to mark American life in the late 1960s and early 1970s.
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Burns: I don’t care about the color of a man’s skin. I was the first guy to scream when they took Amos ‘n’ Andy off the air… By the way, your name on the nameplate there. You’re of the Judeo-Hebraic tradition?
Schreiber: You mean I’m a Jew.
Burns: Hey. I don’t go in for name-calling. But let me tell you, pound for pound Hank Greenberg was one of the greatest ballplayers who ever lived.
Schreiber: What about Sandy Koufax?
Burns: Don’t tell me he’s one of them too?
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