Modified On June 29, 2007
As promised, a rundown of the activities at last night’s Mort Sahl 80th birthday bash at the Wadsworth Theater in Brentwood, from FOS Steve Ochs.
Last night at the Wadsworth Theater in Brentwood California, there was an all-star tribute to Mort Sahl for the Benefit for the Heartland Comedy Foundation. My graphic artist at HERO and I designed the promotional materials, so I was gifted with a few tickets. It was a pretty amazing night!
The host for the evening was Jack Riley, whom many of you will remember as Elliot Carlin from the Bob Newhart Show. I also had the pleasure of putting words in his mouth while writing for Rugrats on which he voiced Stu Pickles. Not a young man, and a little shaky-legged, he brought a great sardonic presence to the evening.
His first task was interviewing Jonathan Winters, who came out in the character of an old major league relief pitcher with a penchant for physically harming other players. If this were Japan, Winters would be declared a National Treasure.
The other old timers of the night were Shelley Berman and Norm Crosby (Woody Allen and Don Rickles both made more maudlin than funny appearances on video). Berman took some odd directions with his set, but he’s Shelley Berman for Christ’s sake! Yes, he did a phone bit. Crosby is clearly keeping himself sharp on the condo circuit. He brought the old-school, Catskill shtick and delivered like the veteran he is. When was the last time you saw a comic deliver a joke with a perfect Yiddish accent? A total treat.
My wife never quite understood why we comedy types all love Albert Brooks so much. She gets it now! He came out complaining about the event publicist’s poor communication skills. Apparently, he was led to believe he was attending a memorial. Prepared for only that, he went on to eulogize the still very much alive and present Sahl. My God, he’s funny!
George Carlin was the evening’s surprise guest. His appearance amounted to the expert recitation of a lengthy, well, kind of “rap” about himself and his connection to various things. I’m guessing he’s done this a time or two, so his fans probably know what I’m talking about. He then showed a clip of himself doing a Mort Sahl impression on a 1962 appearance he made on the Tonight show when Sahl was acting as temporary host.
Kevin Nealon, introduced by a spectacularly mutton-chopped Harry Shearer, provided a steady set about his too-normal existence. Paula Poundstone did a silky smooth job as the only comic of the night to work a guy in the audience. The perfect capper landed in her lap when he turned out to be the founder of the first Mort Sahl fan club formed in 1956! Bill Maher came prepared with fresh jokes about the news of the day. My favorite bit of his addressed how slutty many women dress these days, “I feel sorry for the whores! How do you know they’re selling the ass?!”
Drew Carey and Jay Leno each came out dressed in suits and delivered tight, short sets of audience tested material. If you loved Leno back when but don’t really adore what he does on the Tonight show, you probably forgot how perfect a standup he is. I know I did.
The evening was closed out, appropriately, by a set from Mort himself. Older (as in 80), but as spry as any of us could hope to be at that age, he delivered some heartfelt thanks and perfectly Sahl-esque observations. When a heckler in the balcony had the balls to confront him, Sahl blew it off. When the douchebag yelled again, it was Budd Freidman who turned around from the fifth row to yell, “Shut Up!” How can you not love that?
But, though I don’t recall precisely where he fell in the line-up, it was Richard Lewis that took the room by storm, delivering a set a set that could have been constructed specifically to take the fuck-saying record back from Louis CK! Holy shit, was he funny! For those of you who don’t remember how eighties comedy was done by guys like Lewis, Rich Jeni, Paul Provenza, etc. this was more than just nostalgic; it was a persuasive argument to return to those days. Capper after capper, non sequitur stacked on non sequitur; I literally missed tags that were drowned out by my own laughter. To be honest, I didn’t show up with him on my “can’t wait” list, but he really delivered. If he comes to your town and you don’t mind hearing about his ever-growing balls (ball?), Shaq’s unbelievable dick and how his bad back forces him to fuck in limited positions, GO SEE HIM!!!
Okay, that was just on stage. In the audience you could find a couple of different categories of comedy pros. I expect to lose some younger readers here. The late seventies and early eighties were sort of a stand up renaissance in the NY, NJ and PA area. Many of the guys who were doing the precious few weekend rooms and hell gig one-nighters in those days have gone on to appear on TV, film or as writers, or both. A rare group of them turned out for Mort. But cross-generationally, comedy and comedy adjacent were both well represented.
I spotted Mark Schiff, Wayne Federman, Max Alexander, Steve Mittleman, Jonathon Solomon, Hiram Kasten, Don McEnery, Mike Rowe, Steve O. (not him, me), Carrie Snow, Rick Overton, Kira Soltanovich, Rick Segal, Greg Lewis, Dick Van Patten, Gary Owens, Rob Reiner, George Schlatter, Fred Willard, Tommy Chong, Hef (and some beautiful young woman, I assume a niece or something), Kent Emmons, Ed Krasnick, Pat Buckles, Ross Shafer, Howard Storm and Marc Price.
I’m sure I missed dozens of people. Apologies to them, but really, who cares if they’re not mentioned here; they caught the show of a lifetime.
We’ll have more, maybe! We wish we coulda been there!