Today we pay homage to one of the great comic actors and Broadway legends, Zero Mostel, the gifted, versatile character actor, comedian and star of stage and screen, born on this day in 1915. Just in case one has not seen the larger-than-life actor in awhile, here's a reminder. . .
Zero is still celebrated for his musical comedy mojo on Broadway in Fiddler On The Roof.
As well as his stage and screen heroics in A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum.
And his role as the wonderfully conniving Max Bialystock in Mel Brooks' 1967 film of The Producers.
Zero's co-star Gene Wilder elaborates:
Found a couple of clips of Zero on TV from the late 1940's (on Ed Sullivan's Toast Of The Town) to the early 1960's.
Yes, it's true - Zero recorded an album. Like the review of it by The Comedy on Vinyl Podcast.
The comedy-crazed gang at Way Too Damn Lazy To Write A Blog has watched Ten From Your Show Of Shows, an amazing document of early 1950's sketch comedy, numerous times.
The THIS IS YOUR STORY sketch from 10 From Your Show Of Shows, spoofing This Is Your Life, featuring Howard Morris as the affectionate Uncle Goopy, destroys me every time I see it.
Nobody, not even Victor Borge and P.D.Q. Bach, has taken on classical music quite like the ridiculously talented casts of Your Show Of Shows and Caesar's Hour.
The Caesar's Hour episode with guest star Benny Goodman (which aired on 11-1-1954) is particularly memorable.
After powering through an unrelenting decade-long torrent of comedy, Sid Caesar would be less visible in showbiz for a few years. Post Caesar's Hour, he appeared in this BBC Broadcast which aired on September 9, 1958.
Sid co-starred with 1000 other comedians in Stanley Kramer's It's A Mad Mad Mad Mad World and appeared a slew of commercials, then dropped out of sight through the latter 1960's and the 1970's. He re-emerged in the early 1980's and was interviewed by David Letterman.
While Sid dropped out of sight, his writers, especially Carl Reiner and Mel Brooks would bring the world The Dick Van Dyke Show, Alan Brady and the 2000 year old man.
When it became apparent to comedy geeks just how truly exceptional and extraordinary such performer/writers as Sid Caesar and Ernie Kovacs were, numerous events and interviews followed.
In particular, a 2014 tribute to Sid by Carl and Mel is very enjoyable.
The Writers Guild Foundation interview with Carl Reiner is a must-listen.
Larry Gelbart recalls his stretch working with Sid.
While individuals in my age group generally went ga-ga for Star Trek and Star Wars, as much as I enjoy both sci-fi series, obsession was reserved for the silent era comedy greats (all of them), Your Show Of Shows, the Marx Brothers, W.C. Fields, Hal Roach Studios, Mel Brooks movies, SCTV (Second City Television) and visionary animators Tex Avery and Bob Clampett.
Have celebrated Valentine's Day either with cartoons or the classic comedy of Jack Benny (who was born on February 14, 1894). This year, it will be cartoons!
The most wonderfully caustic and cynical Valentine's Day cartoon is PORKY'S ROMANCE (1937), directed by Frank Tashlin. Did Tash have a romance that went terribly wrong while making this? Who knows - here's a detailed review of the Tashlin classic from Anthony's Animation Talk.
In HONEY’S MONEY (1962), the second most caustic and cynical of all Valentine's Day cartoons, ever-unscrupulous Yosemite Sam, only romantic about blowing things up, brazenly marries for riches. It doesn't work out well for Sam.
Pettin' In The Park (1934) is the seventh Warner Brothers cartoon produced by the new Leon Schlesinger studio. Sound engineer supreme Bernard Brown is the credited director. After Warner Brothers parted ways with the Hugh Harman and Rudolf Ising studio, which produced Merrie Melodies and Looney Tunes as independent contractors from 1930-1933, Leon Schlesinger opted to start an in-house cartoon production house.
This musical tale of Sunday afternoon romance, featuring a few enjoyable sight gags and pre-Code moments, looks good in comparison to Buddy's Day Out and I've Got To Sing A Torch Song, the dreadful debut films by the new Schlesinger crew. The most interesting thing about this goofy musical opus, besides the song from Gold Diggers Of 1933, is the swim race sequence. Bob Clampett, one of the very young guys who worked on this cartoon remembered this and liked it enough to bring it back a few years later in Porky's Naughty Nephew (1938).
What character gets black cats painted with white stripes into the mood for Valentine's Day? That would be what Chuck Jones called "the Charles Boyer skunk," he hopelessly romantic yet seriously delusional Pepe LePew.
High atop the list of reasons we're here writing a blog on a bordering on frigid winter day is . . . comedy. Used to see lots of San Francisco stand-up comedy way back when, many moons ago (1970's and 1980's), in the olden days of the Holy City Zoo on Clement Street and the Other Cafe in the inner Sunset. Got lucky and saw a 1:00 a.m. set by Robin Williams!
Definitely prefer stand-up comedians who are off the beaten path. Two favorites: Gilbert Gottfried and Stephen Wright!
Love stand-up comics who are not just off the beaten path but WAY off the beaten path. Two stand-ups along those lines who used to appear frequently in the San Francisco Bay Area were Bob "The Ol' Rube" Rubin and Bobcat Goldthwait, just two among a slew of talented and way-out comedians back then.
The only comedian I can think of recalling Stephen Wright in exploring the cosmos of the stand-up comedy universe was the late, great Mitch Hedberg (1968-2005).
And that brings us to the main topic of today's post on unorthodox standup comics: Emo Philips, born on this day, February 7, in 1956, a fabulous year for rockabilly, jazz, blues, Frank Sinatra at Capitol Records and outstanding sketch comedy starring Sid Caesar and Ernie Kovacs.
Emo Philips was hitting the big time during the same era (1980's) as Bobcat Goldthwait and Bob Rubin.
TV's Weird Al Yankovic Show had its share of very funny bits involving Emo Philips.
We extend a big time Max Linder top hat tip to Emo and all the outstanding stand-ups of yore!
On January 30, 2026, an awful day capping yet another hideous week in a horrible year. . .
We got the sad news that Catherine O'Hara, one of our greatest comediennes, has passed at 71.
Loved her work over 50+ years!
Do we like ending this horrendous month saying farewell to comedy genius, improv champion and actress supreme Catherine O'Hara, most recently known for her role as Moira Rose on Schitt's Creek? NO!!!
There have been terrific tributes on the CBC.
First became aware of Ms. O'Hara through her stellar work on SCTV, my all-time favorite sketch comedy show.
It was always a pleasure to see Catherine on Late Night With David Letterman.
She was among the rare SCTV and SNL stars to be a guest star on The Tonight Show With Johnny Carson.
And Stephen Colbert. . .
While Catherine O' Hara's best known role in movies is her memorable part as the absent-minded mom in John Hughes' Home Alone flicks, we remain absolutely floored by her acting in a bunch of terrific films directed and written by Christopher Guest and SCTV co-star Eugene Levy.
They feature an extremely talented stock company which includes Michael McKean and Harry Shearer (from This Is Spinal Tap and The Folksmen), Fred Willard, Parker Posey, Jennifer Coolidge, Jane Lynch, Bob Balaban and John Michael Higgins.
While it is tough to pick just one favorite among these films, the gang here is particularly partial to For Your Consideration.
Hoping the next time we post, it won't be more terrible news.
Until then, enjoy these excerpts from A Mighty Wind.
Today, music lovers around the world celebrate the natal anniversary of guitarist Django Reinhardt.
Django, the Belgian-born Romani jazz musician was born to swing that guitar on January 23, 1910.
Django was inspired by the music of Louis Armstrong.
With violinist Stephane Grappelli, Django co-led Western Europe's supreme source of scintillating swing, the Quintette Of The Hot Club Of France.
We'll kick this off with a few film clips of the guitar genius in action.
Numerous Django concerts, airchecks and radio broadcasts have been posted on YouTube. Thanks to music historisn Heinz Becker, here are superlative playlists featuring The Quintette Of The Hot Club Of France:
Today is the natal anniversary of Oliver "Babe" Hardy, half of our all-time favorite comedy team.
Oliver Hardy was a singularly brilliant comic actor who stands atop our list of all-time favorite movie comedians.
By far the most profiled funmaker of any on this blog, Oliver Norvell Hardy was born on this day in 1892.
Where does a lifelong L&H fan even start?
With this footage from the set of Should Married Men Go Home shot by George Mann of the comedic dance act Barto and Mann. Thanks, George and thanks, Bob Smith for posting!
For more than a decade before he was teamed with Stan Laurel, Babe Hardy was an extremely prolific supporting player.
Appearing in a slew of films from 1913-1917, Hardy was a stock company stalwart at Lubin and other production companies in Jacksonville, FLA.
This includes a stretch at Vim Comedies, where Hardy co-starred in the Plump & Runt series with Billy Ruge and also was a supporting player in the Pokes & Jabbs series starring Bobby Burns and Walter Stull.
After the Vim company disbanded, Babe Hardy worked with Charlie Chaplin imitator Billy West at King Bee Comedies.
This brought Hardy together with future Hal Roach Studios headliner and director/writer Charley Chase.
As an all-purpose heavy, to some degree the Eric Campbell equivalent at Vitagraph Pictures, Hardy co-starred in numerous 2-reelers and a few feature films.
Most starred the ultra-wacky Larry Semon (1889-1928) and even more over-the-top former Fred Karno comic Jimmy Aubrey.
Hardy appears as a key cast member in numerous films headlined by Larry Semon, who specialized in larger than life comedies featuring epic, spectacular sight gags. Larry's comedy in some respects was a predecessor of the super-cartoony slapstick of The Three Stooges and the kind of humor that turned up 40 years later in such attempts to rekindle the extravagant visual comedy approach as Blake Edwards' The Great Race and the films of Jerry Lewis (some of which were directed by Norman Taurog, who worked with Larry Semon).
Once at the Hal Roach Studios, Oliver Hardy had memorable turns as a supporting player in such Charley Chase comedies as Isn't Life Terrible and Fluttering Hearts.
The vintage comedy fans at Way Too Damn Lazy To Write A Blog enthusiastically extol a new addition to the restorers and celebrators of classic movies and silent comedy rarities, Split Reel.
The ace film historians at Split Reel have been doing a superlative job excavating the silent comedy universe's numerous nooks and crannies. These include Rob Stone, author of Laurel Or Hardy and stalwart preservationist from the Library Of Congress. There are both Blu-rays and books available on the Split Reel website, including tomes by silent film experts Rob Farr, Thomas Reeder and Steve Massa.
As well as the following compilations of L&H silents.
We tip our battered brown derbies to Babe and note that nearly 100 years after their first teaming at Hal Roach Studios, Laurel & Hardy emphatically and spectacularly deliver the laughs!
