A gem of classic comedy — that’s both entertaining and of comedic historical value — via You Tube: the great Jack Benny and the great Mel Blanc.
To younger readers, Benny was a vaudeville star who later made the jump to radio — and invented the situation comedy in the process. Before Benny, most comedy radio shows were collections of jokes, but he preferred attitude and situations. The character he developed was that of a millionaire cheapskate comedian named Jack Benny (he was actually extremely generous and one of the most beloved people in show biz). He successfully moved to TV and performed up until his death in 1974 at the age of 85.
Mel Blanc is KNOWN to many younger readers…but perhaps not on sight. He was the master of 1,000 voices who voiced Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck (his natural voice sped up), Sylvester (his natural voice), Yosemite Sam and countless other Warner Brothers cartoon characters (including Tweety Bird). In later years he did Barney Rubble and Dino on Hanna Barbera’s The Flintstones. Benny often used Blanc as a foil (or sound-effects voice) on his radio and TV shows.
One of Benny’s favorite routines was his famous Si Cy routine (a bit politically-incorrect these days, perhaps) which he performed with Blanc (who also did the voice of Speedy Gonzales for Warner). Blanc was a superb stage character comedian as well.
For comedy students, when you watch this video note:
–How Benny scans the audience with a befuddled look. He could get laughs without saying a word. Comedy coaches now teach this technique as a way to prolong a laugh (it works) and the late Johnny Carson and others emulated Benny for years.
–His ability with a violin. It was a running joke on his show about how awful he played but he was actually excellent and played many concerts.
–How Blanc stays totally in character. His visual performance is as good as his voicing.
To those of us who study and perform comedy, there’s a lot of good stuff here. And to those who don’t and who haven’t seen Benny and Blanc, it’ll be an enjoyable experience.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vIa7GYstYOQYou can watch more of Jack Benny’s work by buying his DVDs here.
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.