Posted on 06/27/2022 10:36:56 PM PDT by texas booster
During the course of his six-decade career, Jackie Mason was declared one of the greatest comedians of all time, by Mel Brooks; played hundreds of sellout shows, on Broadway and in London; won a Tony, an Emmy and was even nominated for a Grammy; and performed for the Queen and the Queen Mother. He also had career-damaging feuds with the TV host Ed Sullivan and the singer Frank Sinatra, the second of which would end with Mason’s Las Vegas hotel room being strafed with bullets.
Mason, who has died aged 93, was a pioneer of a modern, personalised form of comedy. Much of his material focused on the differences between Jews and Gentiles, and he seemed to delight in teetering on the edge of racism and – oddly, for a man who called himself “the ultimate Jew” – antisemitism. The Guardian writer Jonathan Freedland, after meeting Mason in 1998, drew parallels between the American and the equally provocative Bernard Manning, who was part-Jewish.
He was born Yacov to Jewish immigrant parents from Belarus, Bella (nee Gitlin) and Eli Maza, in Sheboygan, Wisconsin, in 1934. Or, as he sometimes said, 1931. Or 1936; he was famously inconsistent and contradictory about personal matters he regarded as trivial – such as his age, and even whether he was married or not. In his 1988 autobiography, Jackie Oy!, he says that he was born “in the fourth year of the 1930s”, though when his death was announced his friend the lawyer Raoul Felder confirmed the year as 1928. The family moved to New York when Mason was two, or five, according to his own varying accounts. But it was early enough to ensure that he grew up with the thick Brooklyn accent that became his trademark.
(Excerpt) Read more at theguardian.com ...
Mason lived wholly for his work; the joke was everything for him. He would simply shrug and say, “I’m an equal opportunity abuser.”
In 1991 he married Jyll Rosenfeld, his manager. She survives him, along with a daughter, Sheba, from an earlier relationship, with Ginger Reiter.
Jackie Mason (Yacov Moshe Maza), comedian, born 9 June 1928; died 24 July 2021
Nice, long write up of one of my favorite comedians.
Priceless - Mason’s impersonations, perfectly captured, Reagan, Shamir, Perez, Kissenger, Begin, Sharon, Nixon etc.
If he died in July 2021, why is this article being posted now? Or is the error in your comment, but the article is current?
No, he passed away a year ago. A similar article popped up on a newsfeed tonight, which started a search.
I searched FR with Goog but it didn’t find an article, so I posted one. Makes me think that Goog is playing with the results in really, really dumb ways.
Jackie Mason has been gone a year, so think of this as a remembrance, not a mistake.
Thank you for the clarification.
I remember when he got married in 1991. He was on WABC constantly in those days. He told the audience that there was a pre-nup, and that if Dinkins got re-elected they would have to move 1,000 miles away.
Lucky for him Giuliani won the next election. I can’t think of Jackie Mason not calling NYC home.
A YAHRZEIT! AN UNVEILING! YANKEL, WAS AN ABSOLUTE GENIUS. HIS RIFF ON THE SACRED COW, JESSE JACKSON, IS ABSOLUTE GOLD!!!
ON TOP OF ALL HIS OTHER GREAT COMIC ACHIEVEMENTS IF IT WASN’T FOR JACKIE MASON WE WOULD NEVER HAVE HAD THE BLUE AARDVARK!!!
THANKS FOR THIS POST...WE ALL TEND TO FORGET THINGS. JACKIE MASON IS WELL WORTH REMEMBERING.
John Byner doing an imitation of Jackie voiced the aardvark.
CC
It wasn't published on June 25 2022.
It was published on July 25, 2021.
-PJ
Jackie Mason was the funniest comedian. No one else evoked in the listeners in every one of his performances such uncontrollable laughter in so many people across the English speaking world. Check out on YouTube his performances in England, for instance. Laughter just as much as in NYC and beyond. Silliness, truth, impersonations, punch lines exquisitely timed in a unique, endearing staccato.
Interesting. Didn’t know that. He does fine impressions, so I should have known that I suppose, but...
Did you catch my response to your LYSISTRATA comment the other night? I think that you were the ONLY commentator to make the reference. In case you missed it, I commented that you were very sharp and that I enjoyed your posts.
Hope you catch that now, if not then.
Thanks so much for the mention of Mason on Jesse Jackson. I wasn’t aware of it. I went to youtube and found it — fantastic.
יהי זכרו ברוך
The man was an absolute genius!
You know, our yahrzeit here is a serendipitous and spontaneous event. I hope it would come close to giving to him as much heartfelt pleasure as he gave to us.
SEI GESUND!
Got to see “Jackie Mason, Freshly Squeezed” in a NYC theater for my 53rd birthday in 2005. We were front row dead center, and I was the target of a couple of gentile jokes. It was great fun.
Saw him perform many years ago in a night club environment. Funniest performance I have ever attended. He brought truth to the term, ‘side splitting humor’. Rip Jackie.
Believe it or not Jackie Masom posted here sporadically for about a year. It might have been 2004 or so.
CC
I had a roommate in the Marine Corps who was black and once we learned we could be ourselves with each other, we got along just great and were always joking around about each other in a way that would horrify most today. But we learned to appreciate each other and for example, I got him listening to country music like Waylon Jennings, Emmylou Harris and Hank Jr and he got me into Marvin Gaye, Isaac Hayes and Earth, Wind & Fire (this was well before rap).
What the Left is trying to do is divide us and make it so we have to walk on eggshells all the time out of a fear of "offending" somebody while at the same time being forced to accept what used to be considered deviant and immoral behavior. If allowed to continue, this will not end well for our society.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.