A clip from the Twilight Zone referred to above
A topic from recent KV emails has been our fathers' senses of humor. Some excerpts:
I fondly remember eating many dinners at the Silverstein's and laughing at Sam's dead pan humor. Yetta, Alan and Howie never laughed-guess they heard 'em all before.
Paul
..and Dad always loved a receptive audience, one of the reasons he enjoyed having Paul over the house ...if you got a kick out of, " when I was born I cried like a baby.." and "tell me about yourself .. it won't take long .." , then you were a kibbutzer which was a very good thing in our house.
Howie
Mazel Tov! That's the kind of news we need more of. I'm smiling to myself (no, not aging or mental illness). I'm reminded, very fondly, of periodically running into Sam Silverstein who, well into his 70's and probably 80's, would always offer the wonderful news that "Yetta's pregnant." I loved it, to the point that every once in awhile when an old friend asks me what's new, I comment with enthusiasm that Janie's pregnant. Good stuff!
Bob
If those lines didn't raise a chuckle then "I'm going to get 20 years for talking to myself", was sure to come. I guess living with dad let us know what Henny Youngman's wife must've felt like. No doubt Sam loved those elevators; oh those captive audiences.
Al
Funny you should mention that. My dad's humor was often infectious, much to my mom's chagrin. But she found him funny too. His brother, Uncle Ben who lived to 103, was a humorist, poet, bon vivant and all around great guy till the end. The room lit up when they were together.
Al
Alan - Slib,
I'm sorry to say that I don't remember being part of the audience at any one of your dad's 'stand ups' (or 'sit downs')...although your recollections are a window into the shaping of Howie's great humor.Apparently our dads were the early humor influences in both our families. Their 'comedic styles' differed though...my dad was more of a 'prop comic'. I'll share 2 of my favorite stories (among a wealth of great memories of how much my dad liked to make us laugh):
Early '60s... most of us had a Friday night ritual: watching The Twilight Zone. (the 2nd part of this ritual was Saturday morning, meeting in front of the Normandy on the corner of Catherine and Monroe, where we 'critiqued' the show as we headed to the bowling alley)
...anyhow, on this particular Friday, it was a great episode: A group gets off a bus during a snowstorm --go into a diner -- and are all subjected to disturbing occurances...being manipulated by a 3 arm Martian who is later 'trumped' by a Venusian with a 3rd eye...the ending got a big 'wow' from Joel and I...unnoticed was that my dad had slipped into the bathroom...after a couple of minutes he re-entered the room, with the palm of his hand cupped over his forehead...he stepped in front of us, and with great deadpan delivery said, "I have this real bad headache...(he pauses)...maybe it's eye strain?" ...and with that, he slides his hand up over his head revealing a 3rd eye that he had drawn with my mom's eyelash pencil...I was genuinely startled (hey, I was about 9 at the time...very gullible)...then I cracked up...All these years later, I can still see his expression of glee in having 'got us!
But the single most visual memory of my dad's prop humor was around 1958-59...Joel, Billy and I shared the same bedroom...and it was past our bedtime...in the living room my parents were having a gathering of friends...and from the sound of things, they seemed to be having a laughingly good time. As most of you know, my parents owned a clothing store on Orchard St...we specialized on being purveyors of 'Arrow shirts and good values in odds and ends'....in this 2nd category, we had gotten in a shipment of boxer shorts that were an homage to the cocktail napkins of the 50s that featured cartoon images of men in women in flirtatious banter...these were very funny boxer shorts!...The laughter from the living room caused me to get up out of bed in a feeble attempt to join the good time, if only for a minute...my timing couldn't have been better...as I stood at the entrance to the living room my father proceeded to entertain the 'intoxicated friends' by standing in the middle of the room; setting up his next move by telling the group about these boxers, then, with great style, unfastened his trouser belt, and let his pants drop to the floor, as he proceeded to gracefully turn in a circle, bending from the waist, so that everyone could get a good look of his 'boxers du jour'...Their friends got hysterical with laughter!.....If I was an artist, I could paint a vivid tribute to this memory.
My dad's been gone for over 30 years now...there's not a day that goes by that I don't think about him...I have him with me everyday.
Ron
Vividly remember your Dad holding court with his buddies, playing cards Friday nights with his infectious laugh and un-lit cigar at your dining table while we had a junior game going in the other room. Mike and Natalie always made the evening better.
Paul
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