Sunday, July 29, 2012

Groucho the Great

Some years back, after a childhood of preoccupation with comedy that led me to observing the styles of all the great comedians, I came to the conclusion that Groucho Marx was the best comedian this country ever produced. Now I am more convinced than ever that I was right. I can't think of a comedian who combined a totally original physical conception that was hilarious with a matchless verbal delivery. I believe there is a natural inborn greatness in Groucho that defies close analysis as it does with any genuine artist. He is simply unique in the same way that Picasso or Stravinsky are, and I believe his outrageous unsentimental disregard for order will be equally as funny a thousand years from now.In addition to all this, he makes me laugh.
--Woody Allen on the liner notes of An Evening With Groucho (1972)
Allen is right, though he ended up a goddam Ingmar Bergman fangirl, thinketh roT. Of course AA and Tecs prefer to eat stinky boiled sea fauna reeking of saffron and barnacles while drinking 7 Up nonalcoholic wine and listening to smelly grape-pickers singing out of tune to ukulele accompaniment.

1 comment:

Arelcao Akleos said...

Groucho woulda been nuttin' without his Beppo