Word: dangerfields
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...weeks of his life are run-on reminders of his inferiority. No luck. No chance. And of course-as a connoisseur of the hairsbreadth art of stand-up comedy will tell you-no respect. These components of Rodney Dangerfield's fractured comic mask form one of the unlikeliest success stories around. Dangerfield was a has-been even before he was anyone at all. "I dropped out of show business once," he often confesses in his act. "But nobody noticed...
...time most businessmen are playing chicken with their first heart attack, Rodney was planning his comeback from nowhere. At 45, he made his first appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show. He was 47 when he went on Carson for the first of 63 appearances. Now, at 58, Dangerfield has a rambunctious new comedy album out and his first starring role in a Hollywood movie...
...Dangerfield, who keeps his traveling to a minimum and works as much as possible out of his own club on Manhattan's East Side, has put together one of the best comedy acts in the trade by dealing shamelessly in things other comics struggle to hide-like fear, anger and humiliation. In performance, Dangerfield is the enemy of poise. A minute after he hits the lights, his brow throws off sweat like a lawn sprinkler. His eyes bulge. His hands claw at his throat. He may be trying to loosen his tie, but it looks...
Jack Benny once told Dangerfield that his signature line-"I don't get no respect"-cuts right to everyone's soul. Indeed, Dangerfield's best comedy is based on a futile lashing out against misery, often sexual and always social. "Comedy is essentially mood, not a series of one-liners," Dangerfield says. "Every joke is a complete story." The way he tells one, the audience can often see a whole life in a setup, and a fate in a punch line. "During sex my wife wants to talk to me," he confesses, then adds: "The other night...
...Even Dangerfield's silliest gags have the sting of truth. How accurate they may be about his own life is another matter. He talks about "comedic license," but whether he is doing a shotgun discourse on marriage or about growing up Jewish and poor in a section of New York City that is well-off and Waspy, he seems to be drawing from deep roots. Rodney was Jacob Cohen when the neighborhood kids had names "like Marianne and Biff." When they were on the tennis courts, he was delivering groceries. He started writing gags when...