Columnist Joe Delaney: Yukking it up with comedy greats

Joe Delaney

Friday, Aug. 21, 1998 | 1:27 a.m.

COMEDY STYLES. ... This is an excellent weekend to study contrasting styles of comedy with George Carlin at Bally's and Howie Mandel at the Caesars Palace Circus Maximus. ... Carlin, the iconoclast and master semanticist, carefully structures each segment, interpolating social comments where warranted, always very funny.

Mandel is younger, works more rapidly, is not structured, with off-the-hip scatter shots, often reverting to an early childhood approach. ... His little boy bits are his funniest. ... He is very facile, adept at recovery, but should avoid overusing shock words.

Both have been successful on television; Carlin with his award-winning HBO specials and recordings. ... Mandel was featured in the 1980s hit "St. Elsewhere." ... Each enjoys a strong following but with completely different audience demographics.

Early influences

Jonathan Winters was a starting point for the early George Carlin. ... The late Lenny Bruce was a mid-point source until Carlin evolved as his own comedic persona. ... There's a lot of Jerry Lewis in Howie Mandel. ... Jerry's chief sources were the late Harry Ritz, of the Ritz Brothers, and Milton Berle. ... If you're a Howie Mandel fan, it will be easy to pick out vestiges of all three comedic giants in his performance.

Too many of your current comedy club comedians are cookie cutter comics with identical openings, sound, pacing, asides and closings. ... Ron Shock, recently in the Riviera Comedy Club, is an exception with individual style, great command, unusual delivery and likability.

Likability is a great comedic asset. ... Earlier comedians like Norm Crosby, the late Corbett Monica and Jan Murray had charisma. ... They were home free from the first walk-on.

Likable comedians

Jack Benny, George Burns, Jimmy Durante and Bob Hope were beloved by everyone. ... Among those still active, Bill Cosby would be a prime example. ... Cos does seminars onstage, is really a teacher, a conversational comedian. ... Phil Foster and Jackie Miles were among the first, circa 1960s, to work using narration with funny depictions, rather than jokes.

Bert Williams, in the 1920s, was the equivalent of a Louis Armstrong for black comedians. ... Cosby owes Williams a tithe here and another to the memory of the late Lord Buckley, inspiration for Cosby's approach to Bible stories, a device Bill used recently at the Mirage.

Redd Foxx, the triple "X" rated Foxx, not his Fred Sanford on TV, was a barrier breaker and an original source along with the late Lenny Bruce, until Bruce decided to re-write the laws on obscenity -- and did. ... Foxx was making a TV comeback when felled with a heart attack.

Black comedy

Richard Pryor started out doing Bill Cosby but didn't really make it until he switched to Redd Foxx and used contemporary street vernacular. ... Pryor's meteoric rise in all media ended abruptly, a classic example of self-destruction via drugs. ... Eddie Murphy is really an extension of Cosby, Foxx and Pryor as a comedian, a success in every media. ... Chris Rock and Will Smith are latter-day disciples.

We're this far into the column and have yet to touch upon Woody Allen, Shecky Greene, Buddy Hackett, Alan King, Don Rickles and Red Skelton. ... Or upon Billy Crystal and Robin Williams, or the impressionists, or female comedians: especially Phyllis Diller, the late Totie Fields and Joan Rivers.

Rivers, with her supermarket tabloid magazine approach to comedy, inspired all the female comics that followed. ... We intend to develop this concept further in future columns.

Special event

Attention, Sons and Daughters of Erin members and friends: Altan, described by the New York Times as "one of the best-loved bands on the Irish music scene," will perform Saturday at 8 p.m., Clark County Government Center Amphitheater. ... Tickets are $8 in advance, $10 at the door, children under 12, are admitted free.

Recommended: "Little Shop Of Horrors," the musical, through Aug. 29, in Spring Mountain Ranch State Park; gates open at 6 p.m. ... Beat the heat and enjoy a good show. ... See you next Thursday.