This year has seen many of our favorite comedians pass away. Norm, Bob, Louie, and now Gilbert.
The format of the last "Steve Martin" article from last month is still in my mind for writing. I think I'll think of some of the best Gilbert moments, today.
I have been a big fan of his for so long. I saw him preform live at Just For Laughs festival once and the audience gave him a standing ovation and he was bowing... it is a memory in my mind that is very crystal clear for me.
I remember writing when Norm MacDonald passed away that I had searched my blog and noticed I mentioned Norm in something like fifteen or twenty articles on here. I bet if I search this blog for how many times I've mentioned Gilbert it would be in that range as well.
He's mentioned on here in about seven or eight articles over the years. One article was praising his podcast which I listened to every week. I have enamel pins and an official membership card that I sent away for.
The Amazing Colossal Podcast with co-host Frank Santopadre was dubbed by them as sort of being a "before they go" interview with beloved celebrities of the past. It's interesting because a lot of celebrities of that nature aren't going to a talk show to promote anything... because they don't have anything to promote any more... so they will just talk about their life in show business in a very honest and fun way. There was one where Sonny Fox told war stories and it was just so interesting. It really is a historical landmark this podcast... it has so much information about show business from so many beloved personalities from so many different eras.
There are certain re-occurring stories Gilbert would tell all the celebrities guests that's become a long-running inside joke. As soon as he'd even mention Cesar Romero or Joe E. Ross... you'd start to laugh because you knew what was coming next.... thinking to yourself... "Oh no! Is he really gonna tell this crazy orange wedge thing to Adam West!?"
Gilbert was in show business for almost fifty years, I think. He always claimed he first preformed standup at fifteen years old in 1970. There's so much stuff to consider to even begin listing Gilbert Gottfried moments.
I mean, most people really know him from the cartoons. He had an "iconic" voice that is truly unique and would pop up in gigantically popular cartoons like Disney movies and things of that nature... but to me... I really know him as a trouble maker who like many truly funny people was like a walking nuclear bomb just waiting to go off ... and you just never really knew what he was going to do or where he was going to go.
He had a "green light" in the golden years of the Howard Stern show to walk into the studio and hang out whenever he wanted. He almost feels like a cast member of Golden Era Stern. He was so funny ... one time they called Jerry Seinfeld's answering machine and left an hour-long message with Gilbert pretending to be Jerry's son Jerry Seinfeld Jr. and doing an impression of Seinfeld the entire time. Gilbert's Seinfeld impression is amazing!
Speaking of "cast member" he was a cast member on Saturday Night Live... and whenever he spoke about this in his book or on his show... he was sure to make it clear that he didn't enjoy being a cast member on SNL.
He was in many movies. My memorable ones of his were the Beverly Hills Cop movie where he's not even in it very long but manages to be one of the most memorable scenes of the film. He was in the Problem Child films which are cult classics to many people (mostly the first one). He would often bring up on his podcast some of his lesser works that he's tongue-in-cheekingly "proud" of such as some of the later Rodney Dangerfield films, the Bobcat vehicle "Hot to Trot", and of course the forgotten Matthew Modine classic... Funky Monkey.
People know him for the Aristocrats thing, also dubbed the "Too Soon" fiasco... but I was already familiar with the Walking Nuclear Comedy Bomb (you didn't know when will just go off) this man was before that so it didn't surprise me as much as it did others. The "Tsunami Fiasco" was much more memorable for me because he just one day woke up and decided to write some jokes on Twitter and it just about almost ruined his entire life.
When he talks about that fiasco in his book or in his podcast he describes it as he would wake up every day and eat corn flakes... and one morning he looked at the corn flakes after the fiasco broke out... and just realized he wasn't famous anymore in a blink of an eye. It was all taken away in an instant. Fame is very fleeting. It is a very fleeting thing, fame is.
He was the first celebrity that ever interacted with a post of mine on social media... and this was like back in like 2011 when you never really thought celebrities would even use social media. Back then, I thought, celebrities lived in some far-off plane of existence outside of reality in some golden palace somewhere... now a days... we have come to accept that celebrities are obsessed with social media and how they are perceived in the public... but back then like a decade ago... it was still believed by common folk that celebrities were larger-than-life and not part of real life. I remember writing encouraging words on his page during his Tsunami fiasco and he "liked" it. It was so cool.
I saw his documentary and what I remember most from it was that he was sort of a Nomad... like a comedy nomad. He'd go around North America, do some clubs, stay in hotels, and then amass this vast collection of soaps and shampoos from hotels n' motels across this great land. I think people thought he did this because he was cheap and wanted free stuff... but... to me... it was a collection.... he went on so many journeys and had mementos from all of his travels and it is actually a pretty cool collection.
Traveling all over doing stand up for fifty years. To say this guy honed his act is an understatement ... he started at 15 and did it for 50 years! He was a stand up comedy Master.
I still remember spitting coffee on my keyboard while listening to him and Mario Cantone do When Harry met Sally as Herve Villechaize and Carol Channing. Now, if I re-listen to it, my mind is ready for it... but the first time I heard it... I wasn't... and I spit coffee all over my keyboard. It was just a barrage that I could not handle! It was so friggin' funny.
Another thing was that he would never try and be hip or placate to fans. Now a days an agent will tell their 50+ aged clients what they have to talk about to win over a certain demographic... but he didn't care about stuff like that at all....he did what he wanted to do and what he thought was funny .... like impressions of Old Groucho on The Dick Cavett Show .... talking about how Nunnally Johnson liked to smoke cigars and how, back then, people liked to put cream in their coffee.
He was a completely unique individual in our society that cannot be replaced.
I bet you anything, he's in Comedy Heaven now, and the God of Comedy is welcoming him into this spectacular comedy club with a nice hotel right next to it (so he doesn't have to pay for a cab from the club to the hotel) that has a beautiful array of free soaps and free shampoos in little tiny free bottles and the God of Comedy wonders if he has any questions....
....and he says....
"Yeah, just one........
..............Ben Gazzara is such a great actor.... why didn't he ever get a TV series?"
Goodbye, Legend.
