"The World According to Me" - Jackie Mason (1988)

Hang on to your seat for this rollicking one hour ride with America's favorite former Rabbi, Jackie Mason as he takes you on a trip throughout his lucid mind. In his skillful way he tackles everything from religion to politics, and even Sweet and Low in this film of his one man show which ran for several years on Broadway before touring some of the major cities across the country.

Everybody knows the story of how he was blacklisted by Ed Sullivan over that mistaken thumb gesture in March 1968. "Here's big one for you" was the line that got him in such hot water. That line was the result of the show's director signaling to him with fingers, how many seconds he had left before they cut away to a news bulletin. I believe it was the night that President Johnson announced he would not seek re-election as President that year.

But there was life for Mr. Mason after Ed Sullivan. He did a bit of time in purgatory, playing all the comedy clubs in Los Angeles before landing a role in the Film "Car Wash". From there he got a big break with Jay Leno and then more film cameos came his way. Before long he was back on top; doing his thing on Broadway; where he even did a follow up to this show in the early 1990's.

If you have never seen this gifted performer before, take special note of the psychiatrist routine. It rivals any of the double talk ever done by Abbott and Costello, or even the Marx brothers. It also is very logical as well as comedic, questioning just who we really are.

Sue and I saw him in an impromptu performance at the Lyric in Baltimore one time. He did a bit of old stuff; realized there were Jews in the audience; his words, not mine; and then proceeded to slay us with another 2 hours of new material which had part of the audience leaving, and the other part laughing. He even warned them beforehand. This is one of my favorite comedians; enjoy the show!

A Sunday Sermon - "The Bishop's Ass"

I thought I’d skip the usual Sunday post this week in exchange for an old joke and an even older lesson. Humor can convey the most important of the things we learn in life. All you have to do is listen, and maybe laugh a bit at yourself. The illustration above is by Norman Rockwell and is titled "Walking to Church." It was done in 1953.

A pastor entered his donkey in a race and it won. The pastor was so pleased with the donkey that he entered it in the race again, and it won again. The local newspaper read:

“PASTOR'S ASS OUT FRONT”

The Bishop was so upset with this kind of publicity that he ordered the pastor not to enter the donkey in another race. The next day, the local newspaper headline read:

“BISHOP SCRATCHES PASTOR'S ASS”

This was too much for the bishop so he ordered the pastor to get rid of the donkey. The pastor decided to give it to a nun in a nearby convent. The local paper, hearing of the news, posted the following headline the next day:

“NUN HAS BEST ASS IN TOWN”

The bishop fainted. He informed the nun that she would have to get rid of the donkey, so she sold it to a farmer for $10. The next day the paper read:

“NUN SELLS HER ASS FOR $10”

This was too much for the bishop. So, he ordered the nun to buy back the donkey and lead it to the plains where it could run wild. The next day the headlines read:

“NUN ANNOUNCES -  ASS IS WILD AND FREE”

The bishop was buried the next day. And, the moral of the story is; being concerned about public opinion can bring you much grief and misery, and even shorten your life.

So be yourself and enjoy life. Only worry about your own ass, not someone else's. You'll be a lot happier and live longer.

Jackie "Moms" Mabley - "Killer Diller" (1948)

I was originally intending to do a short piece about Jackie "Moms" Mabley, the iconic African-American comedienne. I thought that I was going to post a short bio about her along with some memories of watching her on The Merv Griffin Show when I was about 11. She was frequent guest on the show, which aired on WNEW-TV in New York City. That was Channel 5, a part of the Metromedia network, which eventually became Fox.

But I was surprised at the lack of You Tube videos from the Merv Griffin Show with Jackie "Moms" Mabley, who often performed with Redd Fox. She was, after all is said and done, the African-American version of Minnie Pearl, the disheveled comedienne of the Grand Ol' Opry. But good news often follows bad, and I ran across this full length movie with "Moms" Mabley, as well as the King Cole Trio, Butterfly McQueen and a host of African-American acts from the late 1940's. It runs about an hour and a quarter, and it's a fun movie to watch.

Here's a brief recap of "Moms" life story as outlined in Wikipedia. She was born in Brevard, North Carolina in 1894. This was a big surprise to me, as I had always thought she was from the Deep South, somewhere like Mississippi, and also much older.

Her father was a mulatto who ran a General Store, and her mother, who ran a boardinghouse, was recorded as being able to read and write in the 1870 Census. This was only 5 years after the end of the Civil War, so it is surmised that she was either a house servant, or a free woman of color. Again, this was a surprise to me. I had always assumed that her parents were slaves.

By the age of fifteen years old, Jackie, her given name, had been raped twice, giving birth to 2 children who were both given up for adoption. Against her father's wishes, she took off for Cleveland, Ohio where she secured work in a traveling minstrel show as a singer and dancer.

Her stage name, Jackie Mabley, was apparently taken from an early boyfriend, and she was quoted in an Ebony Magazine interview, 5 years before her death in 1975 "that he'd taken so much from me, it was the least I could do to take his name." She became known as "Moms" because she was like a mother to many of the younger comedians playing the "Chitlin' Circuit" during the late 1940's through the early 60's. I knew that.

At 27 years old she declared herself to be a Lesbian, becoming one of the first female entertainers to do so, black or white. In short, she was quite ahead of her time. Since comedy, especially "Mom's", is often rooted in the changes to society at the time in which it is performed, it can be interesting to listen to her acts now, if only to see how little has changed over the years. Minor improvements aside, we are much the same in 2012, as we were back then. I think it’s called human nature.

Here's a link to some of her unique comedy, which influenced performers such as Bill Cosby, as well as Richard Pryor. As a matter of fact, if you listen to some of their old records you will hear them doing some of her jokes. The only difference is the addition of some cursing on the part of Richard Pryor, which may add a bit of spice to the performance, but adds nothing to the jokes themselves.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UaStMww636A&feature=related