Stand-up Comedians die....then what

As I am starting to see comedians that I go way back with die....I wondered about some things.

Unlike other artists like singer/songwriters.....where others can carry on their legacy and do covers of their songs. Not so for standup comedians.....the material dies with them. Its not "kosher" for another comedian to do someone elses routines...like singers cover songs.

Do you think 50 years from now.....there will be comedians doing other peoples stuff and it would be accepted?

I am not talking about topical stuff which die a pretty quick death.

David Brenner died and he took 40 years worth of material to his grave. Universal funny stuff. Carlin took alot of tuff with him as well.

Gary Shandling as well....although he leaves a legacy of 2 really good sit coms.

There are some hour cable specials.but they cover a tiny portion of their portfolio of material.

As others pass in the future...like David Steinberg, Robert Klein, Eddie Murohy, Jerry Seinfeld.....they will take with them some great material.

Iwonder if 50 years from now, after people who remember are dead....if comedians may adopt old material and have it be accepted by the masses.

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Originally Posted by LarryS

As I am starting to see comedians that I go way back with die....I wondered about some things.

Unlike other artists like singer/songwriters.....where others can carry on their legacy and do covers of their songs. Not so for standup comedians.....the material dies with them. Its not "kosher" for another comedian to do someone elses routines...like singers cover songs.

Do you think 50 years from now.....there will be comedians doing other peoples stuff and it would be accepted?

I am not talking about topical stuff which die a pretty quick death.

David Brenner died and he took 40 years worth of material to his grave. Universal funny stuff. Carlin took alot of tuff with him as well.

Gary Shandling as well....although he leaves a legacy of 2 really good sit coms.

There are some hour cable specials.but they cover a tiny portion of their portfolio of material.

As others pass in the future...like David Steinberg, Robert Klein, Eddie Murohy, Jerry Seinfeld.....they will take with them some great material.

Iwonder if 50 years from now, after people who remember are dead....if comedians may adopt old material and have it be accepted by the masses.

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Not likely....most of the great comedians, it`s the delivery they use, not strictly the content....Richard Pryor and Seinfeld are 2 that come to mind...I mean they said some pretty funny things, but to me it was the delivery and the way they came across, more than the actual verbage itself....another guy could deliver the exact same content, and it could be the drabbest thing ever

I agree, that comedians are amazing at crafting the delivery of a joke, where one word out of place could ruin it. The selection of the right word, the timing, the delivery all are what makes the joke hit or miss.

but there are different ways to sing a song, to approach it, deliver it, emphasize different words. A sinatra rendition could be quite different from a Mel Torme rendition

I realize the character comedians like Pee WEE, or the wild and crazy guy version of steve martin could not be duplicated.

the reason I asked is that expectations change over time. In the late 70;s I saw the Who, and they were killed in the media for having a 30 second canned synthesizer intro to Baba Oreily(they dont have a syntesizer player in the band)......in every review of the madison square garden show they were hammered. Now there are acts that have canned vocals and music for entire songs while the artist dances and lip sinks. Totally accepted.

It is a shame that all that material gets buried with the comedian. Great songs becom standards and get passed down through generation with new blood singing them. Painters great works are memorialized in museums for generations to see.
Not so with comedy.....it dies...its disposable.

Comedy also changes with time.

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Originally Posted by Alan Mendelson

Comedy also changes with time.

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music changes with time..but there are standards that survive generations

the same can be for comedy.

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Originally Posted by LarryS

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Alan Mendelson

Comedy also changes with time.

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music changes with time..but there are standards that survive generations

the same can be for comedy.

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Great songs or music alot of times invokes memories, or brings you back to a time that made you particularly happy or some other emotion...even if a different artist plays it, the melody and words are basically the same, even if butchered...I think that`s why great songs or music will always stand the test of time....not quite sure if a joke or humor can illicit those same emotions

there are jokes that I hear from people that may have been popular 60 years ago, but I hear it for the first time, and the joke teller just hears it....and its funny.
Some jokes have no experation date.

I bet 50 years from now if someone resarched and found non video jokes of david brenner, jerry seinfeld,robert klein.....and there was no video record of it where people could research it and claim it was stolen.....if they have delivery talent....they coould make a career. out ofit

i think there have been comedians that payothers to write jokes for them. So they are doing someone elses material as their own as we speak. Howard stern has Jackie Martlling and Fred Norris to erite for him. I am sure htere are standups that pay for jokes.

the only thing that might hit a false note is material from people like sam kinesin who simply didnt just tell jokes....he embodied the joke with his entire being.

I think as long as the topicality doesnt limit the joke.....I think a good joke can be told by more than one person. Heck its already hapening as we speak.

I mourn the seeming dearth of world-class comedians.

Those days are gone; no top-notch headliners in sin city come to mind.

Same with other entertainers, e.g. singers / musicians.

Not the way it used to be, for sure.

You could not tell the "singing telegram joke" (your sister Rose is dead) to a millenial and get a laugh. They wouldn't know what a singing telegram is.

That's an example of humor changing over time.

Nor would they laugh when Jimmy Durante kicked the bucket in Mad Mad Mad World because they don't use that expression.

so what......do you read that i said as long as topicality doesnt limit the joke

Bruce Vilanch writes jokes for the biggest comic for award shows. they do his material.

so why couldnt a comedian 50 years from now do observational humor that isnt limited by outdatedness...steal from the pros of today....or do it with the consent of the estate for a fee.

so yeah jokes with references to TV guide, nixon, judge wopner, et al would be avoided. But there is still plenty of meat on the bone left .

True story. Henny Youngman was referred to me. So we meet and he says "Regnis--are you married". I say no. He says "so what do you do for aggravation".

They don't have comedians like that anymore.

In my home in reno I dont have cable,so I GET JUST 6-7 channels. One channel i think is called metv..and on weekend it has the old burns and allen show......and when george burns does a short standup routine in the show...its still funny. Nothing topical...just the human condition .(seinfeld wasnt the first to put a short standup as part of the opening or closing of a sitcom).
And then there is the Jack benny show right before it. Again his standup is not "topical". Joke telling at its finest.

I saw youngman, open for Louden Wainwright in 1977. After his set he sold and autographed little pamplets of a bunch of his one liner jokes, he said the money went to some kids charity.
I have been lucky enough to see youngman, klein, brenner, dangeerfield, seinfeld multiple times from the 70's to the present.....and its sad that when they die.....the material dies withthem.....and they serve such an important function in society.

I saw brenner a few months after 9-11.....and he told the story how he did his show in vegas just after the attack because the audience needed to feel a sense of normalcy....needed to escape the horror and he was the escape for those folks. Entertainers serve that function......not usually for big world events like that.....but to take peoples minds off of everyday life for an hour.....a therapeutic function to society.

Youtube is a good repository for old material.

I've been mining Rodney Dangerfield there for awhile: masterful, simply masterful.

Try to find some Buddy hackett too.

As huge as we think entertainers are for us, if you think about it.....their fame is fleeting in the grand scheme of things.

The Marx brothers believe it or not were at their height in the 1930s.........the millenials today dont give a shit about them, have no clue who they are. They were way before my time, but still regular pre-cable tv made sure I knew who they were by playing their movies over and over.

In a few more decades, Frank Sinatra will be in the class of AL Jolson......a distant flicker.....the millenials never heard of jolson, but from what i read....he was huge in his time. And again regular local tv made sure I got to see who he was...over and over.And the grand children of the millenials will not have heard of Sinatra let aloe Jolson.

Elvis will soon enough be a footnote in entertainment history.

The beatles albums today if there were still record stores would be in the discount rack. Yes even the beatles will become the new Jolson.

And so it goes, the billboards on the highways leading into reno, vegas, and AC will have all new artists on them.....

Its funny even today, I drive to reno weekly, and see many billboards for entertainment in reno....and its rare I recognize one or 2 performers on the billboards.

out with the old...in with the new.

On a similar topic...Remember Laurel and Hardey.......well there is a new movie coming out with John C reily as Hardey and it looks amazing. It concentrates on their years together as their careers were going downhill and they made one last tour for live shows together in the early 50's.

It shows their relationship....and might answer some questions that I wondered about as an adult, as I did enjoy themas a kid.

Ther memory will not last forever, but the movie extends the life a little. Just a little...at least for movie student. because I dont thinl the millenials and the Gen xers really give a shot about this topic and they wont go to see it. I dont think there are alot of chase scenes, laser fights and special effects in this film/

anyway, for me its a "must see".

Oliver hardy was dead in 1957.......but stan laurel died 8 years later, and by this time I was 10 and it was the first time i remember learning some "star": died, and i remember Dick Van Dyke hosted a tribute show.....and it really had a memorable effect on me because at 10 years old you think these stars will live forever....and it never crossed my mind that hardy was already dead until they mentioned it on the news regarding laurels death....for me its like they both died on the same day.

It's tough to make a successful movie about classic comedians, at least if "The Three Stooges" are a guide.

The 2012 film "The Three Stooges" blew chunks.

The halcyon days of good, "physicial" comedy are long gone.

The 3 stooges was not a biopic...this is .

Yes, but I assume they will probably try to recreate or re-enact some of the old comedy routines as part of the movie.

Hopefully it will be a good movie, one worth watching.

One of my all time favorite holiday movies as a kid was their "Babes in Toyland," aka "March of the Wooden Soldiers."

early special effects.....a big deal back then.

I dont think the jist of the movie is to show off their routines and make us laugh .....I think its going to be.... moving us to laugh or cry based on the real life interaction of the 2 stars with each other, family, friends, and business reps

I think the on stage material will be secondary to the drama of their off screen lives.

The stooges movie was just 3 dudes acting like the stooges "characters"...but there were never scenes of them out of character and living in the real world. I agree..that movie was crap.

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Originally Posted by LarryS

As I am starting to see comedians that I go way back with die....I wondered about some things.

Unlike other artists like singer/songwriters.....where others can carry on their legacy and do covers of their songs. Not so for standup comedians.....the material dies with them. Its not "kosher" for another comedian to do someone elses routines...like singers cover songs.

Do you think 50 years from now.....there will be comedians doing other peoples stuff and it would be accepted?

I am not talking about topical stuff which die a pretty quick death.

David Brenner died and he took 40 years worth of material to his grave. Universal funny stuff. Carlin took alot of tuff with him as well.

Gary Shandling as well....although he leaves a legacy of 2 really good sit coms.

There are some hour cable specials.but they cover a tiny portion of their portfolio of material.

As others pass in the future...like David Steinberg, Robert Klein, Eddie Murohy, Jerry Seinfeld.....they will take with them some great material.

Iwonder if 50 years from now, after people who remember are dead....if comedians may adopt old material and have it be accepted by the masses.

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Their stuff dies cause it's mostly their personal thoughts on smth, but there are many jokes that outlive comedians