Today's Video Link

I have no date on this but I'll guess late seventies/early eighties. It's my pal Jimmy Brogan doing a set at the Improv comedy club for the TV series, Evening at the Improv. When comedians start chatting from the stage with the audience, it's called Crowd Work and a lot of comics do way too much of it and often not all that well.

But Jimmy's a master of the form and often, he gets through a whole routine at a club without doing a single pre-written line. I think you can see him these days at the Comedy and Magic Club in Hermosa Beach where he opens for Jay Leno. Jimmy was one of the main writers on Jay's Tonight Show for much of its run and was often in sketches and bits.

What caught my eye in this video was one particular member of the audience. There's a gentleman who, when asked his occupation by Jimmy, points to the woman he's with and says, "I'm her husband." And by so doing — by not telling Jimmy what he does for a living — he avoids engaging in banter with the man on the stage. "Her husband" is Lorne Frohman, a very fine comedy writer who I worked with on most of the shows I did for Sid and Marty Krofft. Smart guy, that Lorne.