Tweet Bob Elliott is 88 today: a Q&A

[Mike Gebert]

Bob Elliott, American humorist who was one half of the team of Bob & Ray with Ray Goulding, whose career began on radio in Boston and managed to take in network radio, TV, movies and Broadway, as well as being the father of contemporary comic Chris Elliott, is 88 today.

"I know they were big on radio, did Bob & Ray have success in any other media?"

Yes, Bob & Ray, the American comedy team consisting of Bob Elliott and Ray Goulding, who got their start on radio in Boston, also appeared on TV, in some movies, and on Broadway. You know, Bob is also the father of Chris Elliott, familiar as a writer and performer on the David Letterman show, and he turns 88 today.

"88, huh? Did he have any children who followed him into show business?"

Yes, Bob Elliott, one half of the comedy team of Bob & Ray, familiar comic performers on radio, television, the movies and even on Broadway, is the father of Chris Elliott, who used to be a writer and performer on the David Letterman show. Chris' dad, Bob Elliott, turns 88 today, and you can purchase recordings of Bob & Ray's classic routines at Bobandray.com.

"Say, I'd love to hear some of those old Bob and Ray routines again, I wonder, is there anywhere that I could get my hands on those?"

Yes, at Bobandray.com, there are literally dozens of hours of classic comedy available from the team of Bob & Ray, which consisted of Bob Elliott and Ray Goulding. Bob, incidentally, is turning 88 today, and besides his long career in radio, he also appeared in movies, on network TV, and even on Broadway, where their show "The Two and Only" was a great success with everyone except the critic John Simon, who they later dubbed "the worst person in the world."

"I've always wondered about that, did their style of comedy transfer well to the stage?"

Yes, the show "The Two and Only," starring the comedy team of Bob and Ray, which consisted of Bob Elliott and Ray Goulding, popular radio comedians who also appeared on TV, in movies, and even on Broadway, and the surviving member of whom, Bob Elliott, turns 88 today, was highly successful with most critics, with the notable exception of John Simon, whom they later dubbed "the worst person in the world," a title which has been taken up more recently by a fan of theirs, Keith Olbermann, on his own TV shows.

"Is there anyone on today's scene who considers himself a fan of Bob and Ray?"

"......The ........Slow.......Talkers.......of...............America....."

You know, Bob is also the father of Chris Elliott, familiar as a writer and performer on the David Letterman show.

Chris' daughter Abby is now a cast member on Saturday Night Live, so we're into the third generation in the comedy business.

Mike, I loved your post. And where would you take the kiddies if you wanted them to see a Komodo dragon, world's largest living lizard?

David Shepard

To a cranberry bog, of course!

[Mike Gebert]

Incidentally, since Google is now putting up old magazines to read, I was able to read for the first time John Simon's infamous pan of The Two and Only.

It's really strange. Simon doesn't seem to get that it's basically a greatest hits comedy show with two figures familiar to the audience, so he insists on comparing it to The Importance of Being Earnest and finding it falls short as drama (I kid you not). And he seems completely insensible as to why Bob & Ray insisted on making media their true satirical subject; he faults them for not bringing realistic characters to real life when their whole point was mocking the ironclad certitudes and cluelessness of media, puncturing the golden-voiced professional's veneer of professionalism with such absurdities as a cranberry farmer who's never heard of cranberry juice or cranberry sauce, or a man on the street interviewer trying to get his story done over the noise behind him... which is a much bigger story (a fire) he's oblivious to.

You'd think, in the age of McLuhan, Simon could have seen why the medium was their satirical message, but he's so busy insisting they're out of date that he's oblivious to how far ahead of him they are. Truly, he was the worst person in the world.

Anyway, it's here.

WOW!!!

I'm listening through some of Mary Backstayge now and the Worst Person in the World has just shown up on an airplane noisily eating his meal.

I think my favourite sketch takes place on the set of the film If Pain Persists where Barry Campbell can't get his lines right:

"I knew your father, Ferguson. You're the first Ferguson to fail to fulfill the fundamentals of a field-flank frontrunner!"

"Colonel Frisbee, that's a filthy, flagrant falsehood!"

I guess Simon would have thought the sketch stupid since Campbell could just dub his line in later.

I loved reading John Simon's Theater reviews in New York magazine, but with respect to film I sometimes had to agree with Andrew Sarris's famous one liner:"John Simon is the greatest film critic of the nineteenth century."

Simon did not "get" Bob and Ray, just as he did not "get" Talking Heads. His review, and its highly defensive followup, of Jonathan Demme's "Stop Making Sense" makes for amusing reading.








"You said that irony was the shackles of youth."

[Mike Gebert]

Happy 90th, Bob.

I love their interview with "Mrs Wingate C. Bellingham the 3rd" who works as a shill in a supermarket. Her job is to wear a mink stole and fancy jewelry while shopping so the customers will buy what she's buying - "But what they don't know is what I'm putting into my cart is a lot of junk the management wants to get rid of.....and if you're in a certain market don't buy the veal cutlets. I'll be pushing them, but they're rancid."

On first hearing Johnny Depp's unintentionally comic Tonto accent in the trailer for THE LONE RANGER, I thought of Bob's chief to Ray's interviewer in the golden spike sketch. (from memory):

"What do you think of the iron horse, Chief?"

"Iron horse bad medicine."

"What do you consider good medicine?"

"Milk of Magnesia."