Death has claimed Pasquale Vito Caputo, better known as Pat Cooper, better known as "that angry comedian who was always complaining about how badly the business treated him." He made it to 93 and I guess that proves something about how constant fury may not be bad for the heart. There was a period I remember when you never saw him on television actually being funny. When you did see him, it was because some talk show — especially, Tom Snyder's — thought it was good TV to have him on and let him vent and bash folks who'd hired him, folks who'd never hired him, stars for whom he'd opened, stars for whom he'd never opened, etc.
Personally, I never thought letting someone come on your show and destroy their own careers was good TV but what do I know?
I think I first became aware of him in 1966 when, haunting the Comedy bins at record stores as I did, I spotted the above album with him covered in spaghetti. It was, of course, a parody of the cover of Herb Alpert's Whipped Cream & Other Delights, an album that sold three-quarters of a zillion copies, in no small part due to its cover with model Dolores Erickson covered in whipped cream and (obviously) other materials that were supposed to look like whipped cream. It came out in 1965 when I was 13…the perfect age to have a crush on a record cover like that.
I have Cooper's record, though I waited until I found it in the "three for a dollar" bin at a used record shop. I actually listened to it, which is more than everyone who bought the Herb Alpert record did. Mr. Cooper's was worth about what I paid for it…pretty standard Opening Act stuff. If you'd paid to see Frank or Dino or Sammy and you had to sit through 20 minutes of Pat Cooper first, you wouldn't have been too unhappy. You might have been happier with 20 more minutes with Frank, Dino or Sammy but Mr. Cooper was good in a Vegas showroom.
The problem with being an Opening Act, back when there were a lot of Opening Acts, was that it was tough to break out of that classification. A comic could do it for years and never have any proof that anybody was willing to pay to see him. It seemed to me that Pat Cooper had more or less the career his on-stage skill set deserved. I saw him once in Vegas playing a little dive, not as an Opening Act (but not as a Headliner) and it was a solid 30 minutes of funny…but that was all it was. The next day, I couldn't repeat or even steal one funny thing he said…and I usually have a real good memory for comedians' acts. I can quote you large hunks of George Carlin.
And Cooper was reportedly not the easiest guy to work with. Headliners would hire him or not hire him. Either way, he'd soon be on with Tom Snyder or Mike Douglas bitching about being hired or not hired or billed properly or not being billed properly…or something. Always something.
Here's a video of him on with Snyder in 1981. His rant doesn't make a lot of sense, especially when he's insisting that certain Vegas headliners aren't "bringing in the business." If you don't "bring in the business" in Vegas, they don't book you again…and the folks Cooper tears into got hired again and again. He didn't…which was probably the real cause of a lot of his complaints. I doubt he got a lot more bookings after taking to the talk show circuit to air his grievances.
Study this video carefully in case you ever have a career you want to sabotage…