For an hour Tuesday night a small church affiliated college became the hot spot for stand-up comedy.
Bill Dana, comedian, actor and screenwriter, was guest speaker at Maryville (TN) College, founded in 1819 under sponsorship of the Presbyterian Church. There was a crowd of roughly 100 on hand.
Best known for portraying Jose Jimenez, Mr. Dana did about a half hour of stand-up comedy before taking questions from the audience. A short film clip of "The Steve Allen Show" was shown beforehand.
A true friend of the A&M label in its formative years, he acted as manager for the Baja Marimba Band and wrote liner notes for the BMB RIDES AGAIN album.
His 1968 parody of the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi with the late Comedian Joey Foreman, THE MASHUGANISHI YOGI, was released on A&M as SP 4144, and Dana recorded some 45 sides that were not on an album.
At age 83 Dana maintains great comic instincts, as demonstrated in his banter with the audience. One questioner laid the effusive praise on pretty thick, thanking him for bringing laughter into so many lives.
"I think I'm in love," was Dana's reply.
The jokes came fast and furious, and from my (most fortunate) front seat locale I jotted down punch lines in order to try to reconstruct what I heard later.
He did a routine from MASHUGANISHI, the one about the deep-voiced hoarse smoker who turned out to be female ("Smoker With a Problem").
He speculated on what married life with Einstein must have been like. "There had to be a time his wife said 'what do you know' to him."
Thomas Edison's spouse may have said: "I don't care what it is. Turn that thing out and go to sleep."
Don Adams, later of "Get Smart," was in the cast of Dana's NBC show, and Dana fondly recalled Adam's defense attorney routine.
"Your honor," Adams' character said, "The prosecutor has just spent a half hour making an ass of himself in court. Now it's my turn."
Dana described the 'animals vs. insects' football game where the insects were down in the first half until the centipede came on the field and pulled the insects to victory. "Why weren't you here earlier," he was asked.
"I was busy taping up my ankles," the insect replied.
The Question Man, Dana's character on Steve Allen's show, inspired Johnny Carson's Karnack the Magnificent routine on "The Tonight Show." Both started with an answer, to which the character phrased the question.
If "Chicken Teriaki" is the answer, the question was, "The name of the oldest surviving Kamikaze pilot," for example.
A memorable doctor's office scene he reinacted was a conversation between a stutterer and a prostate patient.
"Pr-pr-pr-prostate? Wh-wh-what's that," the first patient asked.
"I pee the way you talk," said the other.
The most often replayed episode of "All in the Family" is a script penned by Dana. It's the episode where Sammy Davis Jr. left his briefcase in Archie's cab and the actor visited the Bunker home in Queens.
Dana got his break while working as a page at NBC, where he met War Narrator Ed Hurley and through him got to appear on "The Kate Smith Show."
A surprise honor followed the post-speech question session when Maryville Mayor Joe Swann presented a framed proclamation of February 19, 2008 as "Bill Dana Day." The comedian was kind to pose for the picture I snapped of this.
There was ample time after the show for informal talk, autographs and photo opps with the Comedian. Genuinely touched by the proclamation, he sat and admired the framed document while we all chatted.
We learned his wife's family has deep roots in the local community, as she's a University of Tennessee graduate. She met Mr. Dana while teaching in the Watts area of Los Angeles during the post-riot reconstruction.
Other family members said he's as funny offstage as on. He's known for trying out new routines for them.
After years of living on the West Coast and in Hawaii, the Dana's are now Nashville area residents.
While I've enjoyed the Dana/Jimenez routines for many years, I never expected to see him perform at a local college, much less have the chance to meet him in such a relaxed setting.
A friend and I were the only ones present with album covers. He had the Kapp label ones featuring the astronaut routines. As you'd expect, I had copies of the MASHUGANISHI, an A&M promo 45 ("Childhood Scenes" and "Jose Jimenezchevitz"), and a great CD compilation, JOSE CAN YOU SEE (Rhino, 1991).
Be assured I plan to watch the small college guest speaker and entertainment calender closely from now on. I may consider learning shorthand, so I can remember all the jokes, rather than just some.
JB
Bill Dana, comedian, actor and screenwriter, was guest speaker at Maryville (TN) College, founded in 1819 under sponsorship of the Presbyterian Church. There was a crowd of roughly 100 on hand.
Best known for portraying Jose Jimenez, Mr. Dana did about a half hour of stand-up comedy before taking questions from the audience. A short film clip of "The Steve Allen Show" was shown beforehand.
A true friend of the A&M label in its formative years, he acted as manager for the Baja Marimba Band and wrote liner notes for the BMB RIDES AGAIN album.
His 1968 parody of the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi with the late Comedian Joey Foreman, THE MASHUGANISHI YOGI, was released on A&M as SP 4144, and Dana recorded some 45 sides that were not on an album.
At age 83 Dana maintains great comic instincts, as demonstrated in his banter with the audience. One questioner laid the effusive praise on pretty thick, thanking him for bringing laughter into so many lives.
"I think I'm in love," was Dana's reply.
The jokes came fast and furious, and from my (most fortunate) front seat locale I jotted down punch lines in order to try to reconstruct what I heard later.
He did a routine from MASHUGANISHI, the one about the deep-voiced hoarse smoker who turned out to be female ("Smoker With a Problem").
He speculated on what married life with Einstein must have been like. "There had to be a time his wife said 'what do you know' to him."
Thomas Edison's spouse may have said: "I don't care what it is. Turn that thing out and go to sleep."
Don Adams, later of "Get Smart," was in the cast of Dana's NBC show, and Dana fondly recalled Adam's defense attorney routine.
"Your honor," Adams' character said, "The prosecutor has just spent a half hour making an ass of himself in court. Now it's my turn."
Dana described the 'animals vs. insects' football game where the insects were down in the first half until the centipede came on the field and pulled the insects to victory. "Why weren't you here earlier," he was asked.
"I was busy taping up my ankles," the insect replied.
The Question Man, Dana's character on Steve Allen's show, inspired Johnny Carson's Karnack the Magnificent routine on "The Tonight Show." Both started with an answer, to which the character phrased the question.
If "Chicken Teriaki" is the answer, the question was, "The name of the oldest surviving Kamikaze pilot," for example.
A memorable doctor's office scene he reinacted was a conversation between a stutterer and a prostate patient.
"Pr-pr-pr-prostate? Wh-wh-what's that," the first patient asked.
"I pee the way you talk," said the other.
The most often replayed episode of "All in the Family" is a script penned by Dana. It's the episode where Sammy Davis Jr. left his briefcase in Archie's cab and the actor visited the Bunker home in Queens.
Dana got his break while working as a page at NBC, where he met War Narrator Ed Hurley and through him got to appear on "The Kate Smith Show."
A surprise honor followed the post-speech question session when Maryville Mayor Joe Swann presented a framed proclamation of February 19, 2008 as "Bill Dana Day." The comedian was kind to pose for the picture I snapped of this.
There was ample time after the show for informal talk, autographs and photo opps with the Comedian. Genuinely touched by the proclamation, he sat and admired the framed document while we all chatted.
We learned his wife's family has deep roots in the local community, as she's a University of Tennessee graduate. She met Mr. Dana while teaching in the Watts area of Los Angeles during the post-riot reconstruction.
Other family members said he's as funny offstage as on. He's known for trying out new routines for them.
After years of living on the West Coast and in Hawaii, the Dana's are now Nashville area residents.
While I've enjoyed the Dana/Jimenez routines for many years, I never expected to see him perform at a local college, much less have the chance to meet him in such a relaxed setting.
A friend and I were the only ones present with album covers. He had the Kapp label ones featuring the astronaut routines. As you'd expect, I had copies of the MASHUGANISHI, an A&M promo 45 ("Childhood Scenes" and "Jose Jimenezchevitz"), and a great CD compilation, JOSE CAN YOU SEE (Rhino, 1991).
Be assured I plan to watch the small college guest speaker and entertainment calender closely from now on. I may consider learning shorthand, so I can remember all the jokes, rather than just some.
JB
