Tag: Jerry Lewis
I will state categorically that Jerry Lewis (1926–2017) was a top-notch physical comedian, skilled and often very funny, and I’ve already written about him in four previous posts (see below). Comedy is to some degree a matter of taste, and Lewis sure had his supporters and detractors. He was a megastar, who by 1959 had signed the highest-paying Hollywood contract ever, and one with unprecedented artistic control. But as the years passed he was dismissed by many as being corny, abrasive, over-the-top and, well, tasteless. Not funny!
Jerry Lewis’ over-the-top clowning doesn’t appeal to everyone, but in his prime he was an excellent physical comedian, not to mention being a skilled filmmaker with quite a few technical innovations to his credit. Lewis directed and starred in over twenty films, but one from 1972— The Day the Clown Cried — was intentionally never finished.
Here’s how this here blogopedia works: I come up with great ideas for posts much faster than I can research and write them. (Yes, I have a life.) For every post you see, there are five in some stage of development, which may or may not see life. The sidebar item, “Coming Soon-ish or Later-ish on the Blogopedia,” is merely the tip of the iceberg.
I recently gave up my cable tv subscription so I don’t know when I’ll ever see this, but there’s a new two-hour documentary on Jerry Lewis airing tonight (December 17th) at 8 p.m. and at midnight on Encore. The network is also dedicating much of today’s afternoon programming to a Jerry Lewis marathon, broadcasting films including The Bellboy starting at 1:50 p.m. I imagine the documentary will be shown again in the future, given the name of the channel.
This is an amazing split-screen comparison of Jerry Lewis in The Errand Boy (1961) — where Jerry the lackey is miming being the boss — and the “Brian & Stewie” episode of Family Guy (2010), put together by YouTuber MrEthernex. The music is Count Basie’s “Blues in Hoss Flat” and appears in both original versions in lieu of dialogue.
A few posts back we looked at Lou Costello taking a dance lesson. This time we see Martin & Lewis going at it. Yes, I know the world is divided into those who like Jerry Lewis and those who don’t, but whichever side you’re on I think you’ll enjoy the physical comedy moves in this piece from the old television show, the Colgate Comedy Hour. Dean Martin is the instructor, Lewis the oafish and slow-witted student. The first half is full of solo gyrations by Lewis, while the second half has some real nice partner work.
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Workshops & Other Events
My first book (1976)
My book Clowns has long been out of print, but you can borrow it for two weeks at a time from the Internet Archive. More information is available here.
My second book (2015)
Visual and verbal humor for the cognitively and artistically curious! Available here.
“A book to treasure!”
—Bill Irwin