Just back from a lovely luncheon in honor of the great comedian, Shelley Berman. Well, I need to clarify that: The lunch part was awful: A choice of turkey left over from the first Thanksgiving or fish caught during the Nixon administration. But the event itself — a function of the Pacific Pioneer Broadcasters — was joyous enough to make up for it. The dais included comedians (Mort Sahl, Richard Lewis and Gary Owens), comedy writers (Arnie Kogen, John Rappaport, Hal Kanter, Rocky and Irma Kalish), a nightclub proprietor (Budd Friedman), a former mayor of Los Angeles (Richard Riordan) and Dr. James Ragan, the head of the entertainment department at U.S.C., where Mr. Berman teaches.
A couple things need to be said about Shelley Berman. One is that he's one of the most important figures in the history of stand-up (or in his case, sit-down) comedy. Along with Sahl, Lenny Bruce and just a few others, he was part of the revolution in the late fifties. Before then, it was all about jokes and one-liners and "My mother-in-law is so fat…" The lines were largely interchangeable between comics and you didn't think or care if the guy even had a fat mother-in-law. Once Shelley, Mort and Lenny took over, the comedy was the distinctive viewpoint of the guy with the microphone and, more significantly, it was in his rhythm: No more set-up / joke / set-up / joke…
Berman pioneered in two main areas, one being what some call "observational" comedy. He pointed out little things that annoyed him, which turned out to largely be little things that annoyed us all…or should have annoyed us if we thought about them for two seconds. Every comedian after him who started a sentence with "Did you ever notice –?" should have had to pay royalties to Shelley. The other area in which he led the way was in doing little scenes, usually phone conversations heard from his side. He was such a good actor that he didn't need a partner to play off. He made you "hear" the person at the other end of the phone call.
Both of these areas were well represented on his 1958 album, Inside Shelley Berman, which was probably the second record ever made by recording a comedian's act live in performance. (One of Mort Sahl's had been done the previous year by the same company, Verve Records.) I think Inside… is one of the five best comedy albums ever made, worth the price alone just for the bit where a guy tries to phone a department store and inform them that a woman is dangling from an upper-story window ledge.
It also includes "The Morning After the Night Before," a scene Berman had developed in improvisational comedy workshops in Chicago. I doubt there's a person who got into stand-up comedy before 1980 who wasn't inspired by this LP. (You can order an import CD from Amazon by clicking here.)
And one other thing I should say about Shelley Berman: He's still funny. Not everyone who was then is now…but Berman is still performing and still very funny. I had the honor of being in the audience when he recorded his most recent album, Live Again!, which is sadly not in print at the moment. The place was full of top comedians and, as the saying goes, it was a great night for envy.
So was the event this afternoon, as Shelley was serenaded with the odd mix of roast insults and genuine tributes that seem to define an "honor" these days. He seemed to be laughing himself silly at some of the jokes at his expense, but it may be that he's a good enough actor to fake enjoyment. However, he also seemed genuinely touched by the presence on the dais of Mort Sahl, some genuine words of love from Richard Lewis, a good assessment of his importance to comedy by both, and affection from many other friends, to say nothing of the audience. I hope he really was moved by it all because everyone there sure meant it.