Al Kelly Lives! Rock and Roll From Outer Space
This week's Sunday Special.
Jazz music meets comedy and classic hipster Beatnik humor, with the one the only Al Kelly in... Rock and Roll From Outer Space. I can dance to this jazz, Daddy-O. Believe me.
From Bret "Jazz Video Guy" Primack.
Al Kelly (1896–1966) was a brilliant and wildly original American double-talk comedian—one of the most unique performers in the history of vaudeville and early television. Al Kelly specialized in “double-talk”: a surreal, rapid-fire blend of gibberish and real words delivered with such convincing rhythm, tone, and confidence that it sounded like he was speaking actual English—even though it was complete nonsense. He could improvise these routines on the spot, often fooling entire audiences (and sometimes other performers) into thinking he was speaking a foreign language or obscure technical jargon. Imagine Groucho Marx and James Joyce having a lovechild who sells used encyclopedias on amphetamines—that’s Al Kelly. Career Highlights: • Vaudeville & Nightclubs: He was a regular on the Borscht Belt circuit and a favorite in New York clubs. • Television Appearances: Frequent guest on variety shows in the 1950s and 60s, like The Ed Sullivan Show and The Jack Paar Program. • Film: He had a small part in The Five Pennies (1959), starring Danny Kaye. • Friars Club Roasts: A legendary figure in the New York Friars Club, where his ad-libbed double-talk roasts were considered masterful. IInfluence: Kelly inspired a generation of comedians, including Sid Caesar (who developed his own “foreign language” riffs), Mel Brooks, and Carl Reiner. His routines embodied a mix of Dada absurdity and classic Catskills timing—bridging the intellectual and the idiotic in glorious, hilarious confusion. Sample Line (typical Al Kelly gibberish): “Well of course, as any orthonostical plumbulator would tell you, the bamboozical subresistor must engage in triphasic retrogrammification—otherwise the whole shebang goes kerfloptious!”
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