Hey, you'll like this. I was and still am a great fan of the late Dave Barry, a great stand-up comic who isn't as well-remembered as he oughta be. He was one of those guys who worked all the time, often in hotels in Miami or casinos in Vegas. In the latter venue, he could often be found opening for Wayne Newton or other musical superstars…and when he was in or around New York, he would appear on The Ed Sullivan Show. He was on many times, including the episode on which The Beatles made their third appearance.
Today, we have a clip from an earlier appearance with Ed on November 29, 1959. A few of the jokes about then-current commercials are a bit dated but the rest of it stands up pretty well.
I was privileged to meet Dave on two occasions and to pepper him with questions about his work as a cartoon voice guy. When he was playing Miami and Max Fleischer had his cartoon studio down there, Dave Barry was the voice of Bluto in a number of Popeye cartoons. Later when he was in Los Angeles, he worked for most of the studios in town, especially Warner Brothers. He was kind of a utility player for them in cartoons and kids' records and he did a lot of impressions. He was, for example. usually the fellow who did Humphrey Bogart when they needed someone to do Humphrey Bogart.
The second time I met him was when he was playing at The Mint, a downtown Las Vegas hotel that closed in 1988. (Dave himself left us in 2001.) It was, I believe, the last time he performed in that city where he'd logged countless appearances. Despite his age, he was sharp and his material was fresh and topical. Here's that clip I promised you from 1959…
