Hello Dere, Mr. Warmth, Take My Wife, You Can't Fix Stupid and Little Buddy!

Two of my favorite passions collided at Potawatomi Casino’s Northern Lights Theater last week – history and comedy. 

Just 25 days after hip replacement surgery and a few months shy of his 90th birthday, legendary wild-haired comic Marty Allen performed two shows with his wife and partner Karon Kate Blackwell.

I caught the evening show as a guest of Milwaukee media maven Gino Salomone, who helped arrange the performance. Gino is a local legend in his own right, having produced the wildly successful Reitman and Mueller morning show on WKTI radio before helping Dave and Carole on WKLH. He knows of my affinity for lost legends and was kind enough to invite me to this show.

Allen resurrected old bits from his 700-plus television appearances – more than 40 on the Ed Sullivan Show alone, including three of the four times the Beatles were on. Allen's rapid fire jokes took the crowd back in time. His wife’s musical performances in sequined dresses brought a bit of Las Vegas to Milwaukee. Being called out by both Marty and his wife during the show was an honor. Afterwards, we went back stage and met Marty in the Don Rickles green room. There we had our photos taken with the comedy legend and listened to Marty share jokes and Vegas stories about Dean Martin, Nat King Cole, Louis Prima, Phyllis Diller, Paul Lynde, Charlie Weaver and more.  It was an amazing treat that I will never forget.

I’ve been fascinated with comedy my whole life.  A 1967 article in the mimeographed student newspaper at St. Patrick’s grade school in McHenry, Illinois listed future occupations of many of its 2nd graders. There were several astronauts, doctors, lawyers, firemen and policemen, but next to my name was the only response of “comedian.” I never had the nerve or the quick wit to take the stage. Instead, I admired comedians on stage, screen and television.

My father shared his love of big screen comic actors the Marx Brothers and Laurel and Hardy with me. Unintentionally, my dad shaped my comic taste by watching endless hours of Monty Python’s Flying Circus, the Dick Van Dyke Show and Chicago’s Ray Rayner and Bozo the Clown with me.

Besides Marty Allen, the other comedy legends I’ve seen perform live are Don Rickles and Henny Youngman. I saw Youngman at Chicago Fest in the 1970s. He was known for his quick one-liners and his catch phrase, “Take my wife, PLEASE!”  I saw Rickles last year at Northern Lights Theater, where his insult act shined exactly as he has for the last 60 years. Off stage, he appeared every bit the 85 year old man he is, but when the spot light is turned on, so is he.

In recent years I’ve seen political humorists Bill Maher and Lewis Black at the Riverside Theater and blue collar comedian Ron White – “You can’t fix stupid” – at the Milwaukee Theater.

I’ve also had a few “brushes with greatness” with well known comics when I lived in Los Angeles in 1994. My morning commute was once slowed by a slow moving antique car driven through Cold Water Canyon by Jay Leno, and I once passed Howard Hesseman on the 405. I also watched NFL games one Sunday morning at Yankee Doodles on the Third Street Promenade in Santa Monica with a group that included Jerry Van Dyke and Christopher Lloyd! 

I had a local brush with comic greatness when Gino brought Bob Denver (Maynard G. Krebs and Gilligan) to town for a Milwaukee Wave promotion in the late 1980s. He was supposed to come in the day before the game for a VIP reception, but Denver's flight was delayed due to a snow storm. After sitting for hours in the Memphis Airport, he finally arrived in Milwaukee after midnight. My wife and I picked him up at Mitchell International Airport, but had to stop to fill up with gas before taking him to his hotel.  When we pulled up to the gas tank, the “little buddy” hopped right out of the back seat and insisted on filling up the tank himself.

Through Twitter, I’ve gotten to know more comedians virtually. Rowan & Martin’s Laugh-In star Ruth Buzzi now follows me and occasionally even "favorites" my Tweets. Marty Allen’s former stage partner Steve Rossi follows me as well. You can follow me on Twitter at http://twitter.com/peterwilt1.

I never reached my own boyhood dream of becoming a comedian, but seeing and meeting some of the best has been the next best thing.