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Arts & Entertainment

Documentaries at 14th Annual California Independent Film Festival

“The Last First Comic”

Review by Larry Swindell, Moraga

Who is Irv Benson? He's The Last First Comic, and that's the title of a 90-minute documentary film detailing the history of burlesque--its fall, rise, and fall again. Irv Benson marked his 98th birthday last month. He is indeed the last living link to the entertainment that flourished in the 1930s, when he got his start as third comic, working up to second and then to first comic.

Irv Benson, with deadpan one-liner responses to others including Johnny Carson, in take-outs from Irv's 1976 appearance on The Night Show. A typical Benson quip:
"I was one of 14 children. I didn't sleep alone until I got married." In the 1960s he was "Sidney Spritzer" on the Milton Berle show and the documentary includes a hilarious exchange between the two comedians.

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More than simply a celebration of burlesque, the documentary is an encapsulated history of American comedy and its development, from minstrel shows to the variety format, on to vaudeville and finally to burlesque. Effects of the Great Depression on show business is a graphic appointment of the documentary written and directed by John C. Brown and Bart Williams. Ironically, the depression-ravaged 1930s mark the heyday of burlesque when its 25-35-50 cent price range was the most affordable entertainment for the beleaguered American people. It was also an era of transition, as male comics, singly or in combination, yielded to pulchritude--shimmy dancers and a thin-garmented chorus, and yes, the strippers. There are snippet shots of the famous teasers of the era--Ann Corio, Lily St. Cyr, Margie Hart, and of course foremost--Gypsy Rose Lee. One of the better-known ladies of burlesque was Betty Rowland, and she is on camera in a mood of high nostalgia. The parade of featured comedians shown vintage film clips includes Joe Weber and Lew Fields, as famous at the 20th century's turn as were Abbott and Costello (also shown) half a century later.

Tambo and Bones are depicted as minstrels. Tony Pastor is credited with the rise of vaudeville, which ultimately was doomed by Florenz Ziegfeld's spectacular revues. New York Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia's crackdown on burlesque shows in the 1940s was virtually the death knell for the form.

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While Irv Benson is the sustained comic relief for what in essence is a seriously constituted social history, valuable insights are provided by professors Andrew Davis and Armond Fields. The Last First Comic is a Gazeeka Box Film and was awarded first prize in the documentary classification at the Backlot Film Festival in 2011.

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