Word: langston
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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After a start seven years ago on Laugh-In, a regular stint on The Sonny and Cher Show, both as comic-actor Murray Langston, and 130 bagged appearances on The Gong Show, the Unknown Comic is on the verge of becoming known. The bag-headed comedian has been offered the lead role, without the bag, in a television pilot called Scared Stiff, about a bumbling private detective. He is also close to doing a syndicated half-hour variety show that would star the Unknown Comic, with...
...Langston's dressing room at the Diplomat is small but comfortable with one large mirror taking up an entire wall. A large black trunk, the kind you took to sleep-away camp, sits open on the dresser, his name in bold letters painted on the front. Inside is an assortment of paper bags, large ones, small ones ("Pictures of me as a child"), some with faces drawn on, and some clothes. The two musicians sit on stools as Langston washes and takes off his sweat-drenched shirt...
...question not easily answered. On stage, Langston is a hysterically funny bagged bundle of raw adrenalin, frantically moving from one side of the stage to another, arms zigzagging in all directions like erratic thunderbolts. On top of his head is a simple brown bag, two holes for eyes, one for a mouth. The patter is a never-ending, nonstop swirl of deliberately bad one-liners...
About halfway through the act, Langston removes the bag to perform as himself. His first words are meant as a joke, but more than the comedian's face is revealed. "I can't believe," he tells the audience, "that you bought all that bag crap...
Much of the nation has. After his first appearance on The Gong show about three years ago, Langston, unemployed and broke, started a mini-national phenomenon with his bagged buffoonery. Imitators galore popped up: an Unknown Disc Jockey, an Unknown Used Car Salesman, a University of Georgia student who ran for class president (and won) as the Unknown Candidate...