Comedian

I began my career as a funny folksinger (yes, there was a time when that was an actual job description) then dropped the guitar for an act which was less stand-up than one-man sketches and conceptual humor.

I opened for Talking Heads, Billy Joel and The Persuasions, but some of my gigs were less prestigious.

At a community college, I was sent to the cafeteria and told to set up in the center. As hundreds of kids arrived for lunch I was told to play, but with no stage, spotlight or sound system, I appeared to be a mentally-unbalanced hippie singing next to a soda machine. Kids would come over and listen for the amount of time it took to get their Dr. Pepper.

At another college, I was brought into a nicely-appointed lounge with a beautiful sound system… but no audience. “Don’t worry,” said the person who’d hired me. “Just play, they’ll come.” (Continued below)

Demonstrating TV Socks™ : “They look just like Demonstrating Kitchen
ordinary socks, but you can watch TV through ’em!” Magic™ : “1001 uses!”
(Click photo to hear)

So I started and, in a while, kids started coming in, each holding a cookie. They looked odd: ashen, walking stiffly, dazed. They sat down, gazing into the middle distance, never responding, then gradually their faces regained color and they ate their cookies and left.

I was providing the entertainment for a blood drive.

In 1976, Boston Magazine named me its first “Best Comedian In Boston.” It barely detracts from this glorious honor that at the time I was the only comedian in Boston. (In 1977 a kid named Jay Leno moved in and the rankings changed. Although that same year The New Yorker called me “witty” so, y’know, there’s that.)

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One of my bits was a public service service announcement about a heretofore little-known disease. (Click photo to hear.)

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Skipping ahead 40 years… When Mitt Romney asserted that in Michigan “trees are the right height,” I relayed the impassioned rebuttal of a tree. (Click photo for video.)