The Art of Audio #7: "Liquid Comedy 102"

The Joe Bev
Experience

The Art of Audio #7

"Liquid Comedy 102"

I sat in the Lighthouse Deli in Ellenville, NY, hand printing feverishly in my note pad:  "If we all talked like Allen Jenkins, Everything would turn out right," sung to the tune of "It's Long Way to Tipperary".

Jim Folly with yours truly voicing the new "Duffy's Tavern"!

The script, which I completed in that deli in about four hours, poured out of me because I was inspired. I was writing it to showcase the talents of Jim Folly, the funniest man alive!

Get NEW Fibber McGee & Duffy's Tavern here!

Jim has been a member of our troupe Liquid Comedy since we formed it in 1979. Jim is Don Rickles, Chico Marx and Allen Jenkins all rolled into one!

Jenkins was a great character actor who appeared as Edward G. Robinson's sidekick in a number of 1930s Warner Brother's pictures, including my favorite "Brother Orchid", and was the voice of Officer Dibble on Hanna-Barbera's Bilko spin, "Top Cat."

I thought it would be fun to have Jenkins (Jim Folly) and Robinson (me) appeared on my new "Duffy's Tavern" radio show.

Watch VIDEO of us in action in the new "Duffy's Tavern"!!

Jim brings the same snappy "1930s Warner energy" to all of his performances, whether it is a script I wrote or his own wildly imaginative ad-libs.

He was also a regular on my XM Radio show, The Comedy-O-Rama Hour. Together with Kenny Savoy, Lorie Kellogg, and Tom Giannazzo, we often improvised entire hour-long plots!






In one hour, Jim and Kenny played two old Italian men on vacation and the result was hilarious! You can hear that entire Comedy-O-Rama Hour here: Part One / Part Two.

Check out this video below of me (as Mad Cow)
and Jim (as Sloth) improvising with puppets!

Me with the funniest man alive, Jim Folly!

Jim Folly will be part of our 2012 lineup of audio comedy. 

So will Tom Giannazzo. Find out more about this Vet who's a veteran, when you tune in next time...

Best to you all,

Joe Bev.

Joe Bevilacqua is a veteran award-winning actor, writer, author and producer. His audio is available at Amazon, iTunes, and Audible for Kindle, Blackberry, Android, iPhone, iPod or iPad download, or CD purchase or rental. Find out more!

JOE interviewed on STU's SHOW TODAY

STU’S SHOW

12/7/2011          WEDNESDAY              9pm EST/ 6pm Pacific

 
                   Joe will be on LIVE 9 pm EST

stusshow.com

Joe Bev is a mufti-talent animation/comedy/radio/TV/movie history expert who can also do thousands of characters, who is successful bringing radio theater techniques to audiobooks. We just finished 200 Spanish children's stories translated into English. But we did not just read them. We acted them out, improvised scenes to make the narrative story more engaging, and Joe post-produced with SFX, music and stereo effects that give what Joe calls a 3-D audio feel. We even do many of them as parodies. We did one as the B-52s!

Here is a great Holiday gift idea!

Joe's current project is...
Yabba Dabba Doo! The Alan Reed Story 

BUY THIS TITLE ON AMAZON

BUY THIS TITLE
ON AMAZON

REVIEW:
"Clip-filled tribute to a master character actor"
A lively tribute to the life of character actor and cartoon voice Alan Reed, spiced by background music and audio clips of radio/TV shows and movies. Most of it is read by Alan Reed Jr. (whose father had died in 1977) but there are some bits spoken by Reed himself from 1970s interviews. Joe Barbera is heard commenting on Alan's work with The Flintstones (as Fred) and the creation of the series. Bill Marx narrates some letters Fred Allen wrote to Reed.

Teddy Bergman, later to become Alan Reed, was determined to be a stage actor, including a job in Oklahoma City and a dramatic academy. He found his way into what we now call old time radio (comedy/drama) and there are many clips of hilarious or dramatic moments from Baby Snooks, The Shadow, Fred Allen (where he did the Falstaff character), The Mel Blanc Show (an early partnership, years before they played Fred and Barney). Movie clips, too, and it's amazing to hear all the parts Alan played over the years. Joe Bevilacqua, who turns up doing some narration, puts in backing music and various clips which make this a nostalgia trip into the Golden Age of Radio. I really enjoyed all the clips, the inside info, and the journey into the life of a skillful character actor--the man who decided the best way to express Fred Flintstone's exuberance at life was to shout out, "Yabba Dabba Doo!"
- Bob Nelson (review on Audible.com)

Joe Bevilacqua is a veteran award-winning actor, writer, author and producer. His audio is available at Amazon, iTunes, and Audible for Kindle, Blackberry, Android, iPhone, iPod or iPad download, or CD purchase or rental. Find out more!

The Art of Audio #6: "Liquid Comedy 101"

The Joe Bev
Experience

The Art of Audio #6

"Liquid Comedy 101"

We sat on the floor of Steve's parents' house--laughing uncontrollably.

(Steve's not his real name but we'll get into that in a future column.)

It was 1979 and the five of us had just decided to call our troupe Liquid Comedy.

Liquid Comedy, circa 1979.
Listen to us on XM Radio!

We are still together today. Well, all except Steve (not his real name).

I work with many others and sometimes alone. My greatest joy, however, is getting together with Jim Folly, Tom Giannazzo and Kenny Savoy, and making some comedy magic.

Me with two funny men:
Kenny Savoy & Shelley Berman!

These funny fellows became regulars on my Comedy-O-Rama Hour for XM Radio, which featured such guest as Lewis Black, Al Franken, Bob Edwards, Norm Crosby and Shelley Berman.

More recently, we performed before an audience my new Fibber McGee & Molly and Duffy's Tavern shows which are available on Amazon.

Kenny Savoy in The New
Oldtime Radio Hour.

You can see video of us performing Duffy's Tavern here.

One of the funniest guys I know is Kenny Savoy. Kenny can do voices and read a script as well as any actor I know, but what makes Kenny special is is bright open upbeat personality. He lifts the energy of everyone he meets.

Me & Kenny improv on a a boat in Florida.

Kenny is also a great improviser. When we toured as Liquid Comedy--after the rest of us struggled before the audience with parodies of current TV shows and juvenile dialogues--Kenny brought down the house by pulling out his harmonica and ad-libbing a hilarious and clever blues song.

I can also count on Kenny as a close and trusted friend. I look forward to many more years of making people laugh with Kenny Savoy!

Get NEW Fibber McGee
and Duffy's Tavern here!

But what about Jim Folly? Tune in next time... and find out!





Best to you all,

Joe Bev.

Joe Bevilacqua is a veteran award-winning actor, writer, author and producer. His audio is available at Amazon, iTunes, and Audible for Kindle, Blackberry, Android, iPhone, iPod or iPad download, or CD purchase or rental. Find out more!