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Randy Hodgins and Steve McLellan’s lifelong love of comedy was kindled when they met more than 40 years ago in graduate school in Seattle. While managing family and professional work responsibilities, they hosted a one hour comedy radio program on Saturday mornings for 10 years on a small radio station in Olympia, WA and also co-authored two books on northwest popular culture – Seattle on Film (1995) and Wet and Wired (2000). Stuck at home during the early days of the pandemic with hundreds of comedy albums, cassettes and CD’s gathering dust on their shelves, they launched Laugh Tracks Legends of Comedy in May 2020, a weekly mini-program featuring a different comedy icon, with biographical bits and a nice slice of the comedy that made them famous. From standup stars, to stellar sketch teams, to novelty music maestros -- they are all part of our Legends.
This week we sample some classic Halloween Humor from everyone ranging from Bo Diddley and Tom Lehrer to Joe Flaherty and Bobby "Boris" Pickett. While Christmas remains the big dog among holidays for comedy records, Halloween has a more than respectable showing, particularly in the 1940s and 60s, the heyday of novelty songs reaching the Billboard Top 40 charts. So if you aren't able to sneak enough candy from you child (or grandchild's) treat bag, enjoy these comedy confections (plus no calories). As always, find complete cuts below and thanks for listening and sharing our shows.
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Jerry Seinfeld is a master at observing everyday life and his Halloween routine is a brilliant look inside a kid's mind on the one day a year when the manta is "get candy!" https://www.facebook.com/nationalcomedycenter/videos/360617858385857/?mibextid=zDhOQc
If you lived on the East Coast, your faux Dracula tv host was Philly DJ John Zacherle -- known as the "Cool Ghoul" -- who scored a national hit with the tasty Dinner with Drac.https://youtu.be/vZa_kmCxflg?si=mMI9cAsU6mpcBVzx
Novelty song king Allan Sherman couldn't resist getting into the Dracula act with "My Son the Vampire." To be honest, it isn't his best, but man is he committed to a premise -- you will never hear the word "blood" the same way again! https://youtu.be/9B4HroAm78o?si=UY4V0JloLgSU6I-N'
Tune into SCTV back in the early 1980s and you might see Joe Flaherty adopt the persona of Count Floyd, lame late night tv movie host. His movies -- usually 3D stinkers -- would often feature John Candy's "Dr. Tongue" in a key role. Case in point -- this epic Monster Chiller Horror Theater -- featuring Dr. Tongue's 3D House of Cats! https://youtu.be/SMQ8qSEVFo0?si=04oWeuTwAntHIfOt
A legend in satirical song, Tom Lehrer's career was brief but stellar. This clip, taken from a 1967 Danish tour, features one of Tom's most macabre melodies -- "I Hold Your Hand in Mine". https://youtu.be/I9C2v1oLXQo?si=GcqRYbpDWqC2MJ9y
1959 saw voice actor Bob McFadden unleash a truly odd character -- Dor -- which was the backwards spelling of his recording partner, poet Rod McKuen. https://youtu.be/boMW2kVgk34?si=jSZ6AqOzF-ARHYD0
Lambert, Hendricks and Ross are legends of vocalese -- the blending of jazz, scat singing, and sound effects and nowhere did it come together better than in Halloween Spooks. https://youtu.be/7adiWXwPCqU?si=iLbaDsTAO6sAFQeZ
The 1950s and 60s being the era of dance crazes, it's no surprise that Halloween has seen its share. First up, Bo Diddley, adapting his signature style to "Bo Meets The Monster." https://youtu.be/nc6mcuQ-T0A?si=lIopmrH8VZw_oOIz
Once you've seen Ted Cassidy's Lurch character you won't forget him -- but in case you need a reminder here is a long forgotten disc in which Ted teaches us to Do the Lurch. https://youtu.be/p8w4fOBJd_s?si=Am3zRV0X9a3y8FOD
Could we forget the Big Daddy of Halloween hits -- Bobby "Boris" Pickett's Monster Mash? Nope and here it is in all its cheesy glory -- and it still brushes the Top singles charts on occasion! https://youtu.be/vNuVifA7DSU?si=scJz5lV0KXs6PblJ
Today we meet a man who is a true perspiration to both of us, the great Norm Crosby -- also known as the master of malaprop. Born out of the need for a shtick when he was a young comic, Norm's ability to mangle the language on command was a hit with audiences and led to a decades long career in comedy clubs, long runs in Las Vegas, and myriad appearances in film and on television. Norm was also a staple at the Dean Martin Celebrity Roasts (and the much naughtier Friar's Club version), a regular on the Jerry Lewis Labor Day Telethon, and an unlikely pitchman for beer. Not bad for a comic with Catskills material, but a gift for garbled gab that was top shelf all the way. As always find extra clips below and thanks for sharing our shows!
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If you want a nice sample of what Norm was all about this clip from the Ed Sullivan Show in 1967 is a great place to start. It's a simple riff on US History, but filled with the malaprop comedy that made his career. https://youtu.be/gshTXgcyoq4?si=Z3ZkQqqSMO4JrSkl
Norm was a Vegas stalwart with headlining gigs of his own, plus a long run opening shows for the likes of Tom Jones. Here's Norm guesting on the mother of all Vegas gigs -- the Jerry Lewis Telethon (Norm appeared 27 times). https://youtu.be/KjImNhOSDac?si=Cpo3iQkVowynKAT_
Later in his career Norm found a new audience through an unlikely source -- he became a tv pitchman, most notably for the then new Natural Light Beer. Nothing like dressing up a lousy beer with some classic comedy! https://youtu.be/teUfoBNYXrY?si=VPa6k9mjestTFyj3
Meet Alan Arkin, a sly comic actor who turned his fine eye for characters into a legendary career that spanned 50 years and won him many awards, including an Oscar at age 72 for Little Miss Sunshine. From his beginnings as a folk singer, to a stint with the Second City Improv troupe, to an iconic role in Catch-22, to late-in-life triumphs on the big and small screens, Arkin always imbued his supporting characters with first-rate humanity. As always, find more clips below and thanks for sharing our shows!
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Like many iconic comics before (and since), Alan spent time at the Second City Improv Troupe and was a big part of their classic early sketches. Here is Alan, as Noah, auditioning animals fo the ark. https://youtu.be/GaqaFcG0sy0?si=6R41wo-M_gDu0DEa
Little Miss Sunshine was a surprise hit back in 2006 with it's oddball family road trip capturing the public imagination. A big part of that was Alan's portrayal of the grandfather and his interaction with Abigail Breslin who played the title character. https://youtu.be/10WeBvmN0C0?si=3uAPgM2sja5kdImz
Joseph Heller's antiwar novel Catch 22 was a cultural touchstone, and Alan's portrayal of Captain John Yossarian was key to the success of the movie adaptation. Here is Yossarian discovering the meaning of Catch 22. https://youtu.be/oRIFdh0QG7A?
Alan's last major role was as Norm Newlander, longtime agent to acting coach Sandy Kominsky (played by Michael Douglas). Their scenes together were warm and witty, imbued with wisdom that comes with age. https://youtu.be/gUgxPOIkVFQ?si=TDsZYl6thZbbQKis
No, "EGOT" isn't a Tolkein or Star Wars character. In fact, EGOT status is far more rare, with fewer than a dozen winners of the Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, AND Tony Awards to date, including this week's legend, the very funny, very pointed, and very bawdy Whoopi Goldberg. From an early one-woman tribute to Moms Mabley, to movies including The Color Purple, Ghost, and Sister Act, to a long run on ABC's The View, Whoopi has been a ubiquitous part of pop culture for nearly 50 years -- and she shows no signs of slowing down! As always, find extra clips below and thanks for sharing our shows!
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Since 2007, Whoopi has been part of the panel on ABC's daytime talk show The View. Her mouth has landed her in hot water a few times, but more often it lands on comedy gold. https://youtu.be/VRI5IMOCwnY?si=mzSde7lZU30_MewT
Whoopi won her first Oscar playing a psychic in the hit movie Ghost. As an intermediary between Patrick Swayze and his still-alive girlfriend Demi Moore, Whoopi brought a perfect balance of sensitivity and sass to the role. https://youtu.be/oAb2_-uv41Y?si=Rr2tlkK1UtVMVdz5
Whoopi had a great run of hit movies in the 80s and 90s, none more beloved than Sister Act, a fish out of water classic in which Whoopi's "lounge singer on the run" gets placed by the Witness Protection Program into a convent. Here's Whoopi "freestyling" a mealtime blessing. https://youtu.be/-5lFiIvUZ_c?si=cj9zw1-MD1P3Pfac
The Wayans family has been associated with film and television comedy since the 1980s and Keenan Ivory Wayans is the patriarch of that talented group. After almost graduating with an engineering degree, Keenan pivoted to Hollywood with his good friend Robert Townsend, starring in the superb satire about the life of black actors called "The Hollywood Shuffle". From then on Keenan would mix film triumphs ("I'm Gonna Get You Sucka'!) with groundbreaking tv work ("In Living Color"). His comedy is urban, raunchy, and very, very funny. In recent years, Keenan has worked more behind the camera, often featuring family members in his casts. Find more clips below as always, and thanks for sharing our shows!
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Keenan has spent so much time as a sketch actor, director, and producer that it's easy to forget he is a fine standup as evidenced by this 1983 set on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson. https://youtu.be/OU91m_TtTTw?si=3V7_Pk2gVqRS4x22
Keenan found a kindred spirit (and early comedy writing partner) in Robert Townsend and their work bore fruit in the form of the 1987 satirical gem "Hollywood Shuffle". Here's a sample, featuring their take on the "Black Acting School". https://youtu.be/HoqmCwp95Q8?si=b9aFZqJpCI09J59C
In 1990 Keenan launched his signature show "In Living Color". Conceived of as an edgier SNL, with a multiracial cast, In Living Color launched the careers of Jim Carrey and Jamie Foxx, as well as Keenan's siblings Marlon and Damon. This bit about a sketchy shopping service is one of the show's enduring classics. https://youtu.be/55aHvFD-I80?si=hbBGhkZTEHOQA5L-
If you'd like some pie with your coffee we can't help, but if it's a pie in the face you crave let us introduce you to a modern master of that slapstick art -- Soupy Sales! After starting as a teen dance television show host in Cincinatti (ala Dick Clark), Soupy switched to hosting a children's show -- a gig that on-and-off would serve him for four decades. Soupy's show was goofy, including lots of interplay with a cast of puppet co-stars and yes, lots of pies in the face for Soupy and his guests. He also scored a minor dance hit in the 1960s with "The Mouse" and later in life worked in radio and on the nostalgia circuit. And as for those pies -- once Soupy estimated he had taken 25,000 cream pies to the face and judging by the video evidence that exists we aren't doubting it. Besides it we did -- yep, we'd deserve a pie in the face as well! Find more clips below and thank for sharing our shows!
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Soupy was so associated with taking a pie in the face he included a song about it on one of his many children's albums. https://youtu.be/4js5cKeAslw?si=nIL8OxnloChQuW3-
Soupy worked with a menagerie of puppet characters and none was more beloved than Pookie, a lion who could pitch punchlines to Soupy with ease. https://youtu.be/kcb87xi8cVg?si=mjuJ_MgGfuRa8b1R
In the 1960s, Top 40 radio still had space for novelty records and Soupy scored a hit in 1965 with "The Mouse". https://youtu.be/kP1_F9zEF7o?si=m_xgQtLx2hiXgcgP
Meet a longtime favorite from North of the Border -- Rick Mercer! Over a career now over 30 years, Rick has had a hand in creating some of Canada's best loved satirical shows, including This Hour Has 22 Minutes, Made in Canada, and The Rick Mercer Report. Rick's gifts at blending news, parody, sketch comedy, and "person in the street" interviews have earned him multiple Gemini Awards (the Canadian Emmy), membership in the Order of Canada, and a Lifetime Artistic Achievement Award from The Governor General's Performing Arts Awards. Not bad, eh? As always, find extra clips below and thanks for sharing our shows!
Want more Rick Mercer?
Canadians love to poke fun at Americans and few have done it better than Rick, whose "Talking to Americans" bit from This Hour Has 22 Minutes finds him showing Americans to be a bit clueless -- using our own words for evidence. https://youtu.be/7ZE0TuKTpo4?si=YBr4h3PSjXFVfkrt
A big part of Rick's enduring popularity are his rants -- short and pointed bits of satire (in the style of the Dennis Leary MTV commercials). https://youtu.be/225Mx6ya7SQ?si=CWLSM4MwMN6ny-pZ
Rick Mercer is a master at interview work and when he is paired with a wildman such as long-time Hockey Night in Canada commentator Don Cherry it's comedy gold. The topic? Why men's suits, of course! https://youtu.be/EFPuMzza9hk?si=LCqBq0Kjc0XCDVs0
Meet Andy Kaufman whose performance-art style comedy had the power to amuse, mystify, and (sometimes) offend during a short but brilliant run in the 1970s and 80s. A master of oddball characters, Andy first gained national fame with a groundbreaking spot on SNL in 1975, then in 1978 he took on the role of Latka the foreign mechanic on the smash TV sitcom Taxi. But fans who bought a ticket for his live show found themselves in a spectacle of edgy crowd work including a long-running bit in which Andy would wrestle female audience members for the "Intergender Wrestling Championship of the World." Was it all a put on? With Andy, who ever knew exactly where the line was drawn? As always find extra clips below and thanks for sharing our shows!
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Andy's breakout tv role was as Latka, a foreign mechanic, on Taxi. To take advantage of his range of characters, writers gave Latka multiple personality syndrome. But they all came from Latka, whose indecipherable accent was a staple at office water coolers during the show's run. https://youtu.be/NRKxPrFXbO0?si=ov1HyZXabHbyMfk_
Anyone who watched SNL in its early years remembers groundbreaking sketches and appearances and Andy's 1975 spot sure qualifies! https://youtu.be/Yxp23Gkvn9g?si=k-0shn_WLRLR4OJq
Andy had a thing for pro wrestling, eventually sparking a feud with Jerry "The King" Lawler that landed in David Letterman's lap in 1982. Was it all a fake? Andy never broke character! https://youtu.be/FL9PGJslS6A?si=Xxjc_YVHni8bxoGD
Bill Dana is best known for his Jose Jimenez character which charmed television audiences in the 1950s and 60s but there was so much more. A gifted comedy writer, Dana created some classic comedy bits including Don Adams "Would You Believe?" routine from Get Smart and the superb All in the Family episode where Archie Bunker had Sammy Davis, Jr. as a guest in his house. Dana was also a civil rights advocate (he retired the Jose character because of its stereotypes) and a comedy historian, co-founding the American Comedy Archives at his alma mater, Emerson College. Find extra clips below and thanks for sharing our shows!
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Back when a comedy routine could break into the radio Top 40, Bill struck comedy gold in 1961 when he released "The Astronaut" a Jose Jimenez bit that capitalized on the space race and raced up to number 19 on the Billboard charts. https://youtu.be/8YXKL86H6kU?si=AwogyYmDqOXeOSwF
Bill Dana became known to a wider audience as part of Steve Allen's superb comedy troupe, first as a writer, then as an actor. He created the Jose Jimenez character specifically for the show and his banter with Steve was an instant crowd favorite. https://youtu.be/9DMQJtKaXtM?si=y0iQJtKO24ZtK6JW
Back when a comedy routine could break into the radio Top 40, Bill struck comedy gold in 1961 when he released "The Astronaut" a Jose Jimenez bit that capitalized on the space race and raced up to number 19 on the Billboard charts. https://youtu.be/8YXKL86H6kU?si=AwogyYmDqOXeOSwF
A standup stalwart who stepped into the Tonight Show hosting gig when Johnny Carson retired, Jay Leno held that spot for 20 years. So when he finally retired, then unretired, then retired again (after some Succession-worthy intrigue) did Jay pick up the fishing pole? Nope! Instead he continued with frequent standup gigs, became a game-show host (You Bet Your Life), and launched a show about his friends and their cars (Jay Leno's Garage). As always find extra clips below and thanks for sharing our shows!
Want more Jay Leno?
Late night television went to war after Johnny Carson retired with battles over his successor. In that scrap, Leno was often pitted against the prickly David Letterman who many felt should have succeeded Carson. That feud led to a memorable ad during the 2010 Super Bowl featuring Jay, Dave, and "mediator" Oprah Winfrey. https://youtu.be/-KSKkmypTZM?si=le0WGVwrG5Fd3FyE
When Jay moved to Los Angeles and became part of the comedy scene there in the late 1970s it was only a matter of time before he scored the Holy Grail of guest spots -- a slot on Johnny Carson's Tonight Show. Here's that first appearance from 1977 (and dig the green leisure suit). https://youtu.be/qvmQZ1jQjQk?si=NkLFMQagKE2sN1Iu
One of Jay Leno's signature bits on The Tonight Show was "Headlines" in which Jay would read real headlines from local papers -- always with some bizarre or inappropriate typos. It was a hit and spawned a number of book spinoffs. https://youtu.be/L-xm_zjXFMw?si=ePezelqI_O89TRts
Jay Leno is a workhorse -- he doesn't seem comfortable unless he has several projects in the fire. After he retired from The Tonight Show, one of those irons involved his love of old cars (he has a huge collection). This episode of Jay Leno's Garage featured Martha Steward reminiscing about her old Edsel station wagon. https://youtu.be/KaGqElpspm0?si=G2tosPABBwNoLmGE
Amanda is a wife. A mother. A blogger. A Christian.
A charming, beautiful, bubbly, young woman who lives life to the fullest.
But Amanda is dying, with a secret she doesn’t want anyone to know.
She starts a blog detailing her cancer journey, and becomes an inspiration, touching and
captivating her local community as well as followers all over the world.
Until one day investigative producer Nancy gets an anonymous tip telling her to look at Amanda’s
blog, setting Nancy on an unimaginable road to uncover Amanda’s secret.
Award winning journalist Charlie Webster explores this unbelievable and bizarre, but
all-too-real tale, of a woman from San Jose, California whose secret ripped a family apart and
left a community in shock.
Scamanda is the true story of a woman whose own words held the key to her secret.
New episodes every Monday.
Follow Scamanda on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen.
Amanda’s blog posts are read by actor Kendall Horn.
