Got a goodie for you today, folks. One of my favorite comedic performers is a gentleman named Eddie Lawrence. Eddie has had an amazing and varied career. He starred on Broadway (He was in the original Bells Are Ringing). He wrote for Broadway. He's been an actor (He was in The Night They Raided Minsky's, to name one of many credits). He's an acclaimed painter. He did tons of cartoon voices and commercials. And all that pales in comparison to a series of oft-plagiarized comedy records he made in the fifties, many of which featured him as The Old Philosopher.
I first became aware of him when I was a tot watching Soupy Sales. Soupy used to have the lion puppet Pookie mime to Eddie Lawrence records and they were hilarious. I ran out, bought all I could and enjoyed the heck outta them. Years later, I had the pleasure of working briefly with Mr. Lawrence and it was so wonderful to meet him.
Here's a clip of him performing at some sort of Dr. Demento concert in, I'm guessing, the late eighties or early nineties. You may know the bit but you may not know the name of the guy who originated and performed it. It's Eddie Lawrence and here he is…
