For five years now, since the passing of Anne Meara, anyone meeting up with Ben would say "How's Jerry doing," and anyone hanging out with Jerry, might casually ask, "So what's Ben up to these days?"
You know that Jerry died the other day, at age 92. Ben's post on Twitter:
Most of the news reports are centering on Jerry's solo sitcom work. Some under 40 probably haven't a clue that one of the biggest stand-up comedy teams of all time was "Stiller and Meara," darlings of "The Ed Sullivan Show," and creators of the most enduring ethnic humor since "Abie's Irish Rose" (what, what's that...)
Sullivan, and his audience, couldn't get enough of the routines that featured the budding romance of Mr. Horowitz and Ms. Doyle. Of course their comedy albums included a lot of other comedy material as well. Their second comedy album, though, traded heavily on their success on the Sunday night show, and was even titled "ED SULLIVAN PRESENTS..."
For the record (weak pun intended), their first album was on Verve, and their third, on Atlantic, was something pretty unusual: "Laugh When You Like." It was recorded "naturally," without an audience. Both have been issued on CD.
Stiller & Meara. Such nice people. They were down to earth. Acted like they were just "from the neighborhood," which of course wasn't acting. In fact they remained "neighborhood" people in New York City, living in an apartment on the West Side, and hardly hiding from the strollers heading to Lincoln Center or up to Zabar's.
Or to Broadway. I remember seeing them during intermission of a play I don't remember. Julie Newmar was in town, and we would always go to a few plays. Julie was the one who spotted Jerry and Anne first. I said, "Would you like me to introduce you?" And off we went. The little chat ended as people began to head back to their seats and out of the cold. How...cold...was it? A little breezy. Helpful Anne said, "Come on Julie, it's time we get back inside. You'll freeze your little behind off. (Envious pause) And I do mean little!"
Another time, and it was a fun remark from Jerry. Mort Sahl was in town, playing three or four evenings at a venue in Greenwich Village. To the surprise of quite a few Sahl-watchers, Mort had physically changed thanks to a nose job. The lack of prominence was just prominent enough for the New York Times reviewer to casually remark that for some reason, Mort was looking like Jerry Stiller.
Another surprise was that Mort actually had a brief Q&A session with the audience. Stiller and Meara were in the audience, and Jerry raised his hand. He stood up, and he said, "I don't have a question, I just have a comment. I read the New York Times piece. I just want to say that you're a very good looking guy!"
Enough people had read the Times piece for this to get a very good laugh, and a barking chuckle from Mort. And...oh yes, Jerry and Anne asked if I'd take a photo of them with him...
The obits can provide a lot of detail on Jerry's long and varied career as an actor. My books "Stars of Stand-Up" and "Who's Who in Comedy" can give you some bio material and detail on Stiller and Meara, and "Comedy on Record" and "Goldmine Comedy Record Price Guide" have the details on their albums, including their guest appearance on Shelley Berman's wonderful studio album of sketches, "Sex Life of the Primate." The highlight is Anne as a sex education teacher, and Jerry (and Shelley) as the very young pupils with embarrassing questions.
When my first book was published, the food poem collection "Let Peas Be With You," I figured it was just comical and silly enough that Jerry and Anne might find it amusing. I was so delighted and gratified when they offered what we call a "pull quote," that could be used for promotion. Modesty forbids me from quoting it here, as this piece is about Stiller and Meara, not me, but in the last paragraph, they mentioned that they enjoyed all the poems and...were very glad that I hadn't written about the one thing they would NOT find palatable...SUSHI!
OK, over some creamed herring, or lox and cream cheese on a bagel...I'll be listening to the enduring humor of Stiller & Meara on record. And you can find some Stiller & Meara via the usual suspects, including YouTube...and solo Anne and Jerry as well. They are forever.
No comments:
Post a Comment