As I mentioned here, the Arclight Cinerama Dome here in Hollywood is showing It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World — the movie that theater was built to show — on September 29. Tickets are still available here. I already bought a bunch of 'em.
One of the many things I love about this film is that it's kind of a "Who's Who" of comedy as it stood in 1963 with guys like Sid Caesar, Milton Berle and Jonathan Winters. At the time, the least-known of the major players was Dick Shawn, who was so wonderful in it. Shawn was then a new comedian and I'll bet a lot of you never saw him perform as a stand-up comic. We can change that now.
Shawn made what he considered his television debut on a Max Liebman Presents special called "Sunday in Town" that aired on October 10, 1954 and which was hosted by Steve Allen. Given that he was a newcomer, they gave him a surprising amount of time — more than ten minutes. This is that spot and I think you can already see the makings of a great comic performer. If you start watching, stick with it until the end…