The Smothers Brothers "I Talk Too The Trees"

http://reachmorenow.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/100_3244-768x1024.jpg

No day of comedy could continue without including The Smothers Brothers. Tommy, who is nearly 3 years older than his brother Dick, is the goofy one. Dick plays the straight man who always acts superior. They are 77 and 74, but you would never know it because they act just as fresh and young as they always have.

If they had stuck to their music and their comedy routines, CBS never would have fired them from their extremely popular show “The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour.” But CBS did that in 1969 because of their often rude political satire and their obviously intense objections to the Vietnam War. One of the reasons they no doubt felt so intensely angry toward the war was because their own father, a graduate of West Point, died in a Japanese concentration camp during the Second World War.

They didn’t seem to suffer for the CBS cancellation because they went right on doing television appearances on other networks, working alone and more often together, and doing movies. They also toured together doing concerts everywhere for 51 years before retiring.

The Smothers Brothers "I Talk Too The Trees"

Mark Lowrey Movin On Up

http://reachmorenow.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/hqdefault-2.jpg

It’s hard to believe Mark Lowery is also the Christian who wrote the lyrics for”Mary Did You Know?” Buddy Greene wrote the music for that song years later. It has been sung by more than a dozen great vocalists including Kenny Rogers, Natalie Cole, Wynonna Judd, Clay Aiken, and the Pentatonix. Mark has recorded twelve albums of comedy and song. He is the winner of a Dove award and several other awards.

Mark can sing so that the angels hush their songs to hear him. In 1988, Bill Gaither asked Mark to become a baritone with the Gaither vocal band. He has left the band twice for several years to pursue his own ministry of comedy and song. He’s doing that now.

The world almost lost Mark Lowrey in 1978 when he broke eleven bones in a car accident. He then had to go through many months of very painful therapy to recover. What a loss the world would have had if he had gone home to Heaven at that time.

Mark is still single, ladies, but says he has never married because he has never had time enough in one place to begin a real relationship “with a woman who would put up with me!”

Mark has been a part of the Bill Gaither Trio

Mark Lowrey Movin On Up

Sid Caesar and Imogene Coca on the Johnny Carson Show

http://reachmorenow.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/new-girl-cartoon.png

Sid Caesar and Imogene Coca were two of the funniest early performers on television. Their program was called “The Show of Shows” and it was a hoot from the very first minute of every one of the episodes. Years later – September 7, 1977 – the two proved they still had all their talent on this excerpt from the Johnny Carson Show. Pantomime is a lot harder than it looks. And these two were professionals. When Sid finally gives in and begins to teach his wife how to drive, the laughs come every second.

“Your Show of Shows” began in 1950 and ran live for 90 minutes every week. It was watched by at least 60 million viewers every week it aired. On early television the lights were extremely hot and it wasn’t unusual to see anyone before a live camera perspiring. Makeup artists would sometimes run on stage and powder a performer like Sid or Imogene right before the television viewers eyes.

Sid wrote nearly all of the material for each show. Mel Brooks and Woody Allen were among those who also wrote scripts for him. Sid was nominated for 11 Emmy’s and won two of them, plus many other awards throughout his years. He started his career as a professional saxophonist in nightclubs. In his two autobiographies he describes his own battle with alcohol and drugs which he finally overcame. He died in February of this year (2014) at the age of 91.

Imogene Coca began as a child acrobat in vaudeville. She starred in six television series between the late 40’s to the 90’s. She was nominated for 11 Emmys and won one, plus a lot of other awards throughout the years. Although she was blinded in one eye in a car accident, she never let that stop her. (She is blind in that eye in the skit you’re about to see.) In 1978 she began a long run on Broadway in “On The Twentieth Century”. Imogene died in 2001 at the age of 92.

Sid Caesar and Imogene Coca on the Johnny Carson Show

The Very First Show of Mork and Mindy!

http://reachmorenow.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/mork_mindy.jpg

I’m going to let this show run for two hours before I change it. That’s so if you hurry, you can watch it twice!

This very program was their pilot (not Pontius Pilate or an airplane pilot). It was the test show produced to convince ABC they should use Mork and Mindy as a series. Both Robin Williams and Pam Dawber were brand-new to television and untried as performers. Robin had done one show on the equally famous “Happy Days” and Pam had been a model and did beauty commercials but had never acted on TV. ABC decided to use the show and the rest is history. The first year of Mork and Mindy shot to the top of the Nielsen ratings week after week (along with “Happy Days”).

These were happy days for Robin and Pam, and for the television audience who loved them. Pam is 63 and still beautiful. She followed after four years of doing the show by immediately playing Samantha on another television series “My Sister Sam”. She retired after a year and a half of that to raise her second baby and spent her time being a mom. She did do occasional television appearances and movies. She’s now a happy grandma.

Robin Williams went on to be one of the most successful actors in Hollywood and as a standup comedian on stage. It is now known that his doctor told him he had the beginning of multiple sclerosis before he took his own life at 63.

The Very First Show of Mork and Mindy!

When comedy was clean – Mike Nichols and Elaine May

http://reachmorenow.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/contortionist_funeral_1483425.jpg

Unless you are in grief over the death of a loved one, one of the greatest comedy teams of all time – Mike Nichols and Elaine May – are going to crack you up with their presentation of “The 65 dollar funeral!”

Although they were close friends, Nichols and May lived very separate lives while coming together every once in awhile to do these kind of skits together. Nichols directed two movies that are still considered classics – “The Graduate” and “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf.” He won the Oscar in 1961 as best director of the year for “The Graduate.” The two acted together in the stage version of “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf.”

Elaine May was also a screenwriter and wrote the screenplays for “The Birdcage” and “Primary Colors.”

Although their comedy routines were hilarious and clean, they also have the distinction of doing the most amount of movies that I have ever walked out on! I’m sure that would have impressed them! – Ray

When comedy was clean – Mike Nichols and Elaine May