The Other Funny Woody

woodywoodbury01

Kliph Nesteroff is a writer/blogger who appreciates a lot of the same stuff I do…and since you come to this site, you may be of the same odd bent as us. Kliph and I share an interest in old comedians and back in '04, he did (and has now posted) an interview with Woody Woodbury. Mr. Woodbury was a bawdy comedian who went legit…and of course, by "bawdy," I mean he told jokes that you could now feature on Nick Jr. But back in the late fifties and early sixties, what he did was deemed a teensy bit naughty or racy so he played clubs and made "party" records.

There were a lot of comics who did that and Woodbury was one of the few to break out of that ghetto. He got himself into television is what he did, plus he also had a showy role in the legendary beach party movie (which was actually more of an infomercial for Pepsi-Cola), For Those Who Think Young. In TV, he's the guy who replaced Johnny Carson on Who Do You Trust when Johnny left that quiz program to host The Tonight Show. Later, Woodbury had a syndicated talk show of his own for a time.

I have several of his albums and they're pretty funny. Most of those "adult" records weren't that funny…and weren't even that "adult." But Mr. Woodbury, unlike so many of his peers, came across as likeable and rascally. I'm glad Kliph tracked him down and got him to talk and I wanted to link to the interview so you could get a look at it. Woody Woodbury also has his own website which sells CDs of those old albums, offers some online audio clips and tells you more about his history.