Word: shtick
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...kicks. The new boy is JERRY LEWIS, playing the devil. Those who doubted that the veteran comic (69 next week) could play the part without stealing-or ruining-the show have to give the devil his due. In previews (he opens officially this Sunday), Lewis' performance has been mostly shtick-free-and has drawn standing ovations. Says Lewis: "I'm bringing some of my insanity to the role, but I've been playing the devil for 63 years. They've just been waiting...
Other talk-show hosts also know what their fans like: to be flattered with a few minutes in which to say their piece on the air, then insulted into oblivion. Tangle with WABC's hosts, and you risk the sharp end of their shtick. Grant: "Ah, get off the phone, you sick degenerate!" Lyn Samuels: "Oh, shut up!" Jay Diamond: "Are you on anything? How do I know you're not poppin' speedballs?" And so it goes on politically perplexing insult radio. "A lot of talk-show hosts are opportunistic twits," says David Brudnoy, the gay libertarian (with AIDS...
...entertaining, which Bernhard isn't when singing, though she's tuneful enough. Her response would probably be, Okay, then don't buy the CD (I got my copy free), but the fact is that someone who relies on public performance can't get too selfish, not even Bernhard, whose shtick relies on her being a mean bitch...
...times abusive to his sidekick. Smoot is the underdog the audience roots for--but he is also wily, vindictive, and--with the audience's help--even manages to one-up Mump a time or two. Both characters grapple with moral issues usually far beyond the scope of clown shtick, and both infuse their comedy with an underlying shadow of self-destruction and despair. Clearly, Mump and Smoot are not the kind of clowns to take small children or mentally unstable friends...
...play relies more heavily on the shtick of Marr's actual routines than on the substance of her life and, like Tears and Laughter, may be dismissed merely as Joan Rivers in overdrive. But Rivers, who has endured more than her allotment of show-business rejection, likes to quote a line from Sally Marr: "I ain't afraid of death," she says. "I'm in show business. I died a million times...