From old time radio (1940s) Bergen & McCarthy. Before Jeff Dunham

This always bugged me...

Live audiance so his ventriloquist skills were still needed.

Not really a stretch, though. Look how many parts Mel Brooks played in a single 8 minute cartoon. Likewise June Foray.

Radio was known as the theater of the mind. Many could picture Charlie and Mortimer Snerd as real people.

I was just thinking how many characters Cheech and Chong played on their LPs. Or Firesign Theater. And I think you meant Mel Blank.

Yes. Mel Blanc. Damn Otto Kerr wrecked.

Yes, the voice, with proper sound effects an background music, is very effective. I used to listen to a lot of old radio shows on NPR. Excellent!

I Love anything radio. I'vecworked at radio stations, and I am a HAM radio operator.

Never did Ham, but worked with some DJs as call in when I did Stand Up. They lived my Buford character because they never knew what I/he was going to say.

I wrote jokes on the fly for the on air D.J. It was fun.

Yeah. I got away from performing, and now just write. Mostly political.

He pre-dated me, but my dad thought he was hilarious.

I remember watching him as a kid. He died in 78. Funny. I got my wife a copy of the tape of their final radio show, which was like a decade before we were born. This snippet was on that tape.

I think I saw him once or twice on maybe Merv or something of that order. I know if dad saw him on a commercial or a magazine or something, he was glued to it.

His daughter Candice Bergen is pretty good too.

He had a larger following than Jeff Dunham, coming up through vaudeville and then the clubs. Radio became his big glory.

I loved watching these when I was a kid. I wasn't a kid while they were live on TV, but I was always fascinated with pre 1970's tv, radio and ads.

Bergen and McCarthy were awesome! He moved his lips and you could see it, but he was the original great ventriliquist.

Bergen did so well because, while his act had to be family friendly, he geared it to adults.

He was still performing when I was a kid in the 60s. With a fascination for ventriloquism and puppetry, although they were never a part of my act.

so many people of that era had a great amount of talent. it's too bad talent isn't needed now to get famous

Like I mentioned previously, he honed his craft on vaudeville. Even a mediocre entertainer could get better because you worked each line until you get it right.

Today's comics come up through the comedy club circuit, doing the open mike nights. Good way to hone the craft, but you need a day job cause open mikes don't pay. At least with vaudeville, you got something to perform, usually.

i guess it goes back to if you ask a carpenter all of life's problems can be fixed with a hammer... i'm a musician so i was thinking as a musician. with the advances in technology there is less call to be talented. you can be mediocre, never get any better, and still have a career as long as you have the looks or the technology to back you up.

as for comics the only short cut i can think of is going the robin williams/ dennis leary/ dane cook route and steal most of your material. but i really don't know. i'm not a comic.. one look at my memes will tell you that :)

It's rare for a brand new joke to be told. It's in the telling that makes it good. I'd love to do Steven Wright's style of humor, but I can't pull it off 99% of the time. Instead, I've found what works for me, and it took years to find it, was the over the top exageration of Robin Williams. The problem is that I know most of the jokes posted here. This meme, for example. That routine was on their last show. I didn't get it 100% verbatum. But I did get it close enough that the flavor was there. I laughed my rear off when I first heard it. But it's been years.

I switched over to writing from performing about 20 years ago. I have a flair for it. I'll still adlib in social settings, but I prefer writing. It's funny, but the only book I've written, a parody of the Bible, was funny enough to make me laugh. You have to realize, it's hard to make a comic laugh because we've heard almost every joke there is. You can compose music or do an arrangement, and when it's done right, can enjoy it over and over. Comedy relies on surprise. When I wrote that book, while rereading it, I kept coming across passages I forgot I wrote. And was laughing my ass off.

My cousin is a drummer in Colorado, and he loves playing away his retirement years. Me, I have a passable voice if I need to do a song, but I'm not a professional singer.

this is enlightening. i thought there would be more of a difference between music and comedy but from what you write it's very similar. i do understand there is more to it than what you wrote so no need for correction on that.

you talked about finding your niche. musicians do the same but call it find their voice. when you wrote about knowing most of the jokes you could replace the word joke with song and sound like a working musician..please understand i don't say that arrogantly. many songs just have similar structure.

the only part i disagree with you on is about composing. there are songs that i did enjoy but grew to dislike because you have to play it exactly the same every time. if you don't do it the same way every night you are sure to get an ear full after the show. that gets very old in a hurry. i can't think of any comic that have to do that except maybe henny youngman or dangerfield (i don't mean that in a bad way i enjoy them both)

Like a good musician, comics have to practice their material. We do it in line at the bank, having lunch at a diner, or at our day jobs. It's a passion that we have.

But then, there's also an intensity. When my co-workers found out I was a comic, they couldn't believe it because I was always so serious at work.

If you ever decide to branch out, do like the one guy did: he took an old story about a Scotsman that passed out in the bushes. A couple young lassies stumbled across him and, knowing Scotsmen don't wear drawers under their kilts, took a peek. As a reward to the young Scot, one Ladd tied her blue hair ribbon around his willie. When he comes too, he has to relieve himself, and as he lifts his kily, sees the blue hair ribbon and says, "Lad I dinna know where he been, but I see you won first prize."

It's a good start to produce novelty songs, and can be fun.

Oh, and if you don't know who Bill Daly is, he was on I Dream of Jeanie and The Bob Newhart Show. His comedy timing was dead on, not because he was an accomplished comic actor. It was because he was also a working jazz musician. Woody Allen, likewise.