{"id":247220,"date":"2017-02-27T06:06:59","date_gmt":"2017-02-26T20:06:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=247220"},"modified":"2017-02-27T06:06:59","modified_gmt":"2017-02-26T20:06:59","slug":"requiem-for-a-liberal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/requiem-for-a-liberal\/","title":{"rendered":"Requiem for a liberal"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id='gallery-1' class='gallery galleryid-247220 gallery-columns-3 gallery-size-thumbnail'><figure class='gallery-item'>\n\t\t\t<div class='gallery-icon '>\n\t\t\t\t<a href='https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/requiem-for-a-liberal\/alan-colmes-color-mug\/'>Alan Colmes<\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<figcaption class='wp-caption-text gallery-caption' id='gallery-1-247222'>\n\t\t\t\tAlan Colmes\n\t\t\t\t<\/figcaption><\/figure><figure class='gallery-item'>\n\t\t\t<div class='gallery-icon '>\n\t\t\t\t<a href='https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/requiem-for-a-liberal\/colmes-pix\/'>Colmes-pix<\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<figcaption class='wp-caption-text gallery-caption' id='gallery-1-247221'>\n\t\t\t\tFile photo shows the author, left and Alan Colmes in New York City. (Contributed Photo)\n\t\t\t\t<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\n<p>As I write this, on Friday morning, I learned that Alan Colmes passed away of lymphoma\u2014a particularly nasty form of cancer. Alan was the token liberal spokesman on Fox News, and also had his own radio talk show on the Fox network. He had done well.<\/p>\n<p>I first met Alan 43 years ago, in 1974. I had just finished directing a musical, which ran for many weeks, and I needed a break. Somehow I discovered the wacky comedy of Monty Python\u2019s Flying Circus, and thought, \u201cI\u2019d like to do something like that\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n<p>I was living in Boston at the time and put an ad in the Boston Phoenix\u2014\u201cfunny people needed for a comedy group.\u201d Alan answered my ad, as did another friend, John Roarke (a fantastic impressionist).<\/p>\n<p>So Alan, John and I formed a comedy trio. We called ourselves \u201cExcuse Me\u201d and got work at the Boston Playboy Club in their newly-opened comedy room. We also toured colleges in New England and did pretty well. It was exciting\u2014to write a comedy sketch and then put it on before an appreciative audience.<\/p>\n<p>Comedians tend to be loners, and we became our own best friends. Sometimes John and I would take the train out to Alan\u2019s parents house in Lynbrook, Long Island. <\/p>\n<p>Alan had a gorgeous redhead girlfriend named Joyce. In addition to being beautiful, Joyce also played the accordion. So she\u2019d be playing Lady of Spain, and Alan would wisecrack, \u201cIsn\u2019t she FABULOUS?\u201d John and I would howl and Joyce always looked baffled. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cExcuse Me\u201d continued for another year, but we weren\u2019t making any money and there were not good agents in Boston. Both John and Alan struck out for New York City, while I went up to New Hampshire to teach English and direct plays at Milford High School.<\/p>\n<p>Alan and John quickly became regulars at The Comic Strip, a comedy club on Second Avenue. They kept calling me to quit teaching and to come down to join them. I eventually did, in 1978, but by then John and Alan were establishing themselves as solo comics. <\/p>\n<p>Alan was starting to do well in radio also. He was first on WPIX and sometimes John and I would visit him in the studio and be goofy for his listeners. Gorgeous Joyce was the engineer\u2014but no accordion playing, thank goodness.<\/p>\n<p>The really fun part was taking phone calls from the listeners. I did a character called \u201cBleeto the Elf\u201d and would appear on the show each Christmastime. I talked in a high squeaky voice, and brought some prepared jokes. The audience loved Bleeto, and Alan was the perfect straight man. <\/p>\n<p>Bleeto: \u201cI have worked for the S. Clause Foundation for a very long time. And, after you\u2019ve been with Mr. Claus for 10 years, they move you up the ladder.\u201d <\/p>\n<p>Alan: \u201cThe corporate ladder?\u201d <\/p>\n<p>Bleeto: \u201cNo, it\u2019s a little yellow plastic thing you climb.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>By the early 1980\u2019s Alan got scooped up by WABC, also in New York, but it was a little too formal for Bleeto the Elf and funny guests, unless they were celebrities. John got hired by an ABC TV show, \u201cFridays,\u201d which was ABC\u2019s answer to Saturday Night Live.  \u201cFridays\u201d ran for two years and helped launch the career of Michael Richards (also known as Kramer).  I started writing for television\u2014the USA network had a comedy show, \u201cCommander USA\u2019s Groovie Movies.\u201d Later I went over to VH1, where they were launching a live, funny, morning show\u2014\u201cThe VH1 Eggman.\u201d As one of the other writers later remarked, \u201cIf we had just worked a little harder, the show could have been a piece of crap.\u201d But I continued to do stand-up comedy, and was scouted by Saturday Night Live, which was terrific. But they didn\u2019t hire me. It happens.<\/p>\n<p>WNBC offered Alan a great afternoon spot, and he couldn\u2019t resist the opportunity or the money offered. In fact, he was the last announcer on WNBC; after that they closed the station. But Alan continued to do stand-up and was frequently the M.C. at The Comic Strip.<\/p>\n<p>One of the best things Alan Colmes ever did for me was an introduction to my act when I appeared at The Comic Strip.  He said, \u201cNow I want to bring up a guy who used to write for Saturday Night Live!\u201d  The audience nearly exploded at this announcement. Alan then said, \u201cUnfortunately, they didn\u2019t use much of his material\u2026\u201d But the audience thought it was a joke\u2014and that I was some special, anointed, comedic genius. That night I could do no wrong: \u201cI killed.\u201d <\/p>\n<p>The truth was that SNL did indeed use some of my material, but I never got writing credit or even pay. This was 1982, and there was a new producer, Jean Doumanian. They were going through writers like a fat man through French fries. Jean was in way over her head and Lorne Michaels was coaxed back to produce the show.<\/p>\n<p>I am not sure when Alan made the leap to Fox News, to co-star with Sean Hannity.  Hannity had his own show at the time, and felt Alan would be a great asset, to represent the liberal point of view, in contrast to Hannity\u2019s conservatism.  The ratings soared and \u201cHannity &amp; Colmes\u201d became the most-watched show in the Fox lineup. <\/p>\n<p>With his new career as a TV personality, Alan cut back on doing stand-up. After three years together with Sean Hannity, Alan got the boot. I asked him about this, but he was dismissive in his reply. However, a well-connected friend said that Alan embarrassed Karl Rove on live TV, and that Rove made some phone calls to Fox management to get Alan dumped. <\/p>\n<p>Still, Alan appeared as a guest commentator, appearing with Bill O\u2019Reilly and other Fox personalities. He also had a very successful radio show during the daytime, mostly taking calls from idiotic listeners. If someone said something inappropriate, Alan would punch the phone button and say, \u201cYou\u2019re next! Hello!\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Personally, Alan was perhaps the kindest and most gracious friend I ever had. I never heard him curse or berate anyone. He didn\u2019t drink alcohol, smoke, or take drugs. And he was always, always funny. I once told him, \u201cYou\u2019re the most Christian Jew I know.\u201d He didn\u2019t know how to respond to that, but then he said, \u201cThank you I think.\u201d  <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>As I write this, on Friday morning, I learned that Alan Colmes passed away of&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":247221,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[15759,15760,15761,15762],"class_list":["post-247220","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-opinion","tag-alan-colmes","tag-saturday-night-live","tag-wabc","tag-wnbc"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/247220","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=247220"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/247220\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/247221"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=247220"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=247220"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=247220"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}