Jackie Mason | |
|---|---|
 Mason in 2006 | |
| Born | Yaakov Moshe Maza (1928-06-09)June 9, 1928 Sheboygan, Wisconsin, U.S. |
| Died | July 24, 2021(2021-07-24) (aged 93) New York City, U.S. |
| Alma mater | City College of New York (B.A.) Mesivtha Tifereth Jerusalem |
| Notable work | The World According to Me! andJackie Mason on Broadway |
| Spouse | |
| Children | 1 |
| Comedy career | |
| Years active | 1955–2021[1] |
| Medium | Stand-up, television, film, radio |
| Genres | Political satire Observational comedy Improvisational comedy |
| Subjects | American politics International relations Current events Race relations Antisemitism Jewish culture American culture |
| Website | Jackie Mason website |
Jackie Mason (bornYacov Moshe Maza;Yiddish:יעקב משה מזא"ה; June 9, 1928 – July 24, 2021) was an Americanstand-up comedian and actor.
His 1986 one-man showThe World According to Me! won aSpecial Tony Award, anOuter Critics Circle Award, anAce Award, anEmmy Award, and earned aGrammy nomination. Later, his 1988 specialJackie Mason on Broadway won another Emmy Award (for outstanding writing) and another Ace Award, and his 1991voice-over of RabbiHyman Krustofski inThe Simpsons episode "Like Father, Like Clown" won Mason a third Emmy Award. He wrote and performed six one-man shows on Broadway.[1]
Known for his delivery and voice, as well as his use ofinnuendo andpun, Mason's often culturally grounded humor was described as irreverent and sometimespolitically incorrect.[2][3] A critic forTime magazine wrote that, throughout his career, Mason spoke to audiences: "... with theYiddish locutions of an immigrant who just completed a course in English. By mail."[4]
Jackie Mason was born Yacov Moshe Maza on June 9, 1928 (according to the 1940 NYC census), inSheboygan,Wisconsin, the fourth and last son (and only son born in the United States) in a family of six children of strictOrthodox Jews.[3][5][6][7][8] Mason came from a long line ofrabbis, which included his father, his grandfather, his great-grandfather, and his great-great grandfather.[2][3][4][9]
His father Eli Maza and his mother, Belle (Gitlin), were born inMinsk, and immigrated to the U.S. in the 1920s with the rest of Mason's family; his father died in 1959.[10][6][11] A Jewish refugee organization helped his father find a position in Sheboygan, as it needed a rabbi.[12] When Mason was five years old, his family moved to theLower East Side ofManhattan in New York City, largely so that he and his siblings could pursue ayeshiva education, where he grew up onHenry Street,Rutgers Street, and Norfolk Street.[3][5][6][12] There, his parents and their friends all spokeYiddish.[12]
As a teenager, Mason worked as abusboy at resorts in theBorscht Belt in New York'sCatskill Mountains.[3] He recalled: "Twenty minutes, at the Pearl Lake Hotel. I broke all the dishes. They made me a lifeguard. 'But I can't swim', I told the owner. 'Don't tell the guests', he says."[5]
In 1953 Mason graduated with aBachelor of Arts degree in his double major of English and sociology from theCity College of New York.[4][13] At age 18 he became acantor, and at age 25[14] he receivedsemikhah from RabbiMoshe Feinstein[15] and was ordained arabbi (as his three brothers, father, grandfather, and great-grandfather had been).[3][8][16] He led congregations inWeldon, North Carolina, and at Beth Israel Congregation inLatrobe, Pennsylvania.[17][18] He said that insynagogue, "I started telling more and more jokes, and after a while, a lot ofgentiles would come to the congregation just to hear thesermons."[8] Three years later, after his father died, he resigned from his job as a rabbi in a synagogue to become a comedian because, he said, "Somebody in the family had to make a living."[5][14]
Mason wrote most of his own material.[4] A sampling of his humor is his commentary on doctors: "That's a great profession, a doctor. Where else can you ask a woman to get undressed and then send the bill to her husband?"[8] And his commentary on what is important in life: "Money is not important. Love is important. Fortunately, I love money."[19] As well as his ruminations on pleasing people: "You can't please everyone. I have a girlfriend. I think she's the most wonderful person in the world. That's to me. But to my wife ..."[20][21] And on trust: "My grandfather always said that I shouldn't watch my money. That I should watch my health. So while I was watching my health, someone stole my money. It was my grandfather."[21] And on fidelity: "Eighty percent of married men cheat in America. The rest cheat in Europe."[21]
He was a comedian at the Fieldston Hotel inSwan Lake, New York, in the summer of 1955.[22] Mason was let go because his act was considered too far ahead of its time. The patrons had not been exposed to a comic who seemed to be ridiculing them.[citation needed] A few years later,Don Rickles came along, but at that point audiences had become open to this type of humor throughout theBorscht Belt. He adopted hisstage name after appearing on theBarry Gray radio show.[7] He performed at New York City nightclubs (where he was earning as much as $10,000 ($101,000 in current dollar terms) a week), and onThe Steve Allen Show, his first national TV appearance, in 1962, and theTonight Show withSteve Allen, as well as onThe Perry Como Show,The Dean Martin Show, andThe Garry Moore Show.[2][4] TheWilliam Morris Agency advised him in 1962 to take elocution lessons so that he could shed his heavy Yiddish accent, but he refused.[7][8][19]
Mason made several appearances as a guest onThe Ed Sullivan Show during the 1960s.[3] He claimed to have been on the episode which featured the American television debut ofthe Beatles, but he did not appear on any of the three shows that featured the Beatles.[23] Mason stated during his appearance on theBBC showDesert Island Discs, in March 2012, that at the time he did not think much of the group, referring to them as "four kids in search of a voice who needed haircuts".[24] It is possible that he confused the Beatles withThe Animals, who appeared on the same show as Mason on October 18, 1964, to a similar audience of screaming young girls.[25]
In 1962 he came out with his initialLP record, a best-seller entitledI'm the Greatest Comedian in the World, Only Nobody Knows It Yet, followed byI Want to Leave You with the Words of a Great Comedian.[7][26]
In theDesert Island Discs interview, he also related howFrank Sinatra and a group of others once came to his show inLas Vegas and Sinatra started heckling his act. Mason made uncomplimentary comments to Sinatra until he "and his whole group" left. When asked whether he thought it was naïve to do that, given Sinatra's connections with "the Mob", Mason said, "No, I said to myself...what could they do me?" He went on to describe how shots were later fired into his room which cracked all the windows. The police did not pursue an investigation.[27]
During his October 18, 1964 appearance onThe Ed Sullivan Show, Mason allegedly gave hostEd Sullivan thefinger on air. Footage of the incident shows Mason in the middle of doing his stand-up comedy act and then looking toward Sullivan, who had placed himself directly behind the camera, commenting that Sullivan was signaling him.[4][8] Sullivan was reportedly letting Mason know (by holding up two fingers) that he had only two minutes left, and to cut his act short, as the program was about to cut away due to having been partly pre-empted by an impromptu speech byPresidentLyndon B. Johnson that the show carried.[4][5]
Mason began working his own fingers into his act to make fun of the situation and pointed toward Sullivan with anindex finger, a thumb, but not, as Sullivan mistakenly believed, hismiddle finger.[4] Sullivan was infuriated by this, and banned Mason from future appearances on the show, canceling Mason's six-appearance contract worth $45,000 (equivalent to $456,000 in 2024).[4][8] Mason denied knowingly giving Sullivan the middle finger; he later said that he had not heard of themiddle finger gesture at that time.[5]
To clear his name, Mason filed alibel suit on the grounds that Sullivan haddefamed him at theNew York Supreme Court. That court dismissed most of Mason's complaint. Both Mason and Sullivan appealed to theNew York Supreme Court Appellate Division (which reinstated three additional causes of action against Sullivan) in June 1966.[2][28][29]
Mason was nevertheless banned from the show for a period of time. Sullivan asserted that Mason was unpredictable and could not be trusted. Because of Sullivan's influence, he was branded as unreliable, volatile, and obscene, and he failed to get substantial television work for the next two decades.[2][4][5][6]
Mason was given a single comeback appearance on Sullivan's television program two years later, and Sullivan publicly apologized to him, but the damage was done.[4] At that time, Mason opened his monologue by saying, "It is a great thrill ... and a fantastic opportunity to see me in person again."[28] Mason later appeared on the show five times: April 23, 1967; February 25, 1968; November 24, 1968; July 22, 1969; and August 31, 1969. Mason later said: "It took twenty years to overcome what happened in one minute".[4]
In 1969, Mason made hisBroadway theater debut as Jewish widower Nat Weiss in the comedy playA Teaspoon Every Four Hours, which he wrote with Mike Mortman.[1] It held the Broadway record of 97 previews and closed after its official opening performance (a preview record succeeded bySpider-Man: Turn Off the Dark with its 182 previews prior to opening). He also appeared in the filmsThe Jerk (1979) andHistory of the World, Part I (1981).[30]
In 1986, Mason made a triumphant return to Broadway in the two-year run ofThe World According to Me! which ran for 367 performances in its first run and 203 performances in its second run at theBrooks Atkinson Theatre, his first of several one-man theatrical shows.[5][31] It was well received both by critics and the public;Frank Rich, the sometimes harsh reviewer ofThe New York Times, wrote: "So sue me ... Mason was very, very funny".[7] It won aSpecial Tony Award, anOuter Critics Circle Award, anAce Award, anEmmy Award, and aGrammy nomination.[32][33] His specialJackie Mason on Broadway won an Emmy Award for outstanding writing and an Ace Award.[32][33]
Mason starred in the movieCaddyshack II (1988), where his character had the same surname, Hartounian, as his character inThe Jerk.[30] In 1990 and 1991, Mason again was on Broadway, this time with his successful two-act showBrand New, which ran for 216 performances at theNeil Simon Theatre, and won him his second Outer Critics Circle Award.[7][31][34] CriticClive Barnes of theNew York Post praised the "brilliant" comic and his "totally new from top totuchis" humor.[31] CriticMel Gussow ofThe New York Times remarked on the "exact meeting" between performance and material in which Mason engaged in a comic attack on everyone, including himself, cutting them all down to size.[31]
In 1992, Mason won aPrimetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Voice-Over Performance for hisvoice-over of RabbiHyman Krustofski inThe Simpsons episode "Like Father, Like Clown",[35] making him the first guest star to win an Emmy for his role. Mason also appeared inThe Simpsons episodes "Today I Am a Clown", "Once Upon a Time in Springfield", "The Ten-Per-Cent Solution", "At Long Last Leave", and "Clown in the Dumps"; the last episode focuses upon Rabbi Krustofski's death and its effects on his son,Krusty the Clown.[36] The character would appear three more times in fantasy sequences/flashbacks in "The Nightmare After Krustmas", "Flanders' Ladder" and "Woo-Hoo Dunnit?" which was his final appearance in the series and final acting performance before his death in 2021.
_(cropped).jpg)
One of his Broadway shows, his two-actPolitically Incorrect (1994–95) ran for 347 performances at Broadway'sJohn Golden Theater.[2][31] CriticJohn Simon ofTime wrote: "His method is hyperbole andreductio ad absurdum, but always informed by bitter reason. His irony is a spotlight illuminating our absurdities; his zingers are scalpels laying bare the sickness under the skin. There is a unifying thrust, a focus, a structure: an attack on both liberal hypocrisy and conservative apathy, and on the climate of political correctness that makes it impossible to attack anyone butWASPs. ... Mason is a true satirist in the mold of ...Mark Twain . ... "[37] It was performed during the same period thatBill Maher's late-night, half-hour political TV talk showPolitically Incorrect was on the air.[2][31] Maher brought a lawsuit against Mason's production, which was dismissed as frivolous. Mason was able to use this show title, and it is one of his most successful road productions. Between these shows, Mason played the lead in a short-lived television interfaithsitcom calledChicken Soup alongsideLynn Redgrave.[4]
Mason also put on the Broadway one-man showsLove thy Neighbor (1996–97) which ran for 225 performances at theBooth Theatre (criticLawrence Van Gelder ofThe New York Times described Mason's routines as "roaringly funny"),Much Ado About Everything (1999–2000) which was nominated for aLaurence Olivier Award for Best Entertainment for its run inLondon) and ran for 183 performances at theJohn Golden Theatre (in this effort Van Gelder described Mason as "convulsing audiences"),Prune Danish (2002; nominated for aTony Award for Best Special Theatrical Event),Jackie Mason: Freshly Squeezed (2005; for which he was nominated for aDrama Desk Award for Outstanding Solo Performance), andThe Ultimate Jew (2008).[4][31][34][38][39]
In a 2005 poll to find the Comedian's Comedian, Mason was voted #43 among the top-50 comedy acts ever by fellow comedians and comedy insiders.[33] He was also ranked #63 in "Comedy Central Presents: 100 Greatest Stand-Ups of All Time". He holds the record for the longest-running one-man show in Broadway history and the longest-running stand-up show in the history of London'sWest End.[40]
His full-length courtroom dramedy motion pictureOne Angry Man was released in 2010 throughout the US and Canada. Mason's most recent filmJackie Goldberg: Private Dick (2011) was adirect-to-DVD production, released by FilmWorks Entertainment.[41]
Originally aDemocrat, Mason registered as aRepublican in 2007.[4]: 48–49 He spoke out in defense ofDonald Trump.[42]
Mason was an admirer of RabbiMeir Kahane.[43] He openly endorsed Kahane's plan to payIsraeli Arabs unwilling to accept Israeli sovereignty to emigrate. He also served as the honored speaker at a fundraising event for ayeshiva founded by Kahane.[44]
In an issue of the newspaperThe Evening Star dated March 1, 1971, Jackie Mason was quoted as saying "Democratic principles shouldn't apply to Israel like they do to America".[45]
In January 2001, Mason co-founded the organizationOne Jerusalem in response to theOslo peace agreement. Its stated cause is "Maintaining a unitedJerusalem as the un-divided capital of Israel."[46]
In 1991, Mason was criticized by African-American organizations including theNAACP, when he called New York City mayorDavid Dinkins "a fancyshvartze with a moustache";[47] Mason later apologized.[4] In 2009, Mason referred toBarack Obama as ashvartze during one of his stand-up routines, which prompted members of the audience to walk out.[48]
In 2003, Mason co-wrote an article that advised Israeli leaders to threaten the expulsion of Palestinians from Israel, theWest Bank, andGaza Strip.[49] Mason andRaoul Felder wrote, "We have paralyzed ourselves by our sickening fear of World Opinion, which is why we find it impossible to face one simple fact: We will never win this war unless we immediately threaten to drive every Arab out of Israel if the killing doesn't stop."[49]
On 2006, Mason filed a lawsuit against the groupJews for Jesus for using his likeness in a pamphlet.[50] His image was used next to the tagline "Jackie Mason ... a Jew for Jesus!?" Mason said in court papers filed in New York: "While I have the utmost respect for people who practice theChristian faith, the fact is, as everyone knows, I am as Jewish as aMatzah ball orkoshersalami." Mason asserted that the group was using his image and fame to gain attention and converts. The group responded to the suit by saying, "Shame on him for getting so upset about this."[50] The lawsuit was settled in 2006, with Jews for Jesus apologizing.[51]
In 2012, Mason said that a friend at the time, Kaoru Suzuki-McMullen, attacked him while leaving his apartment on West57th Street inManhattan. Suzuki-McMullen said she was attacked by Mason, but she was arrested.[52] Both sides agreed to drop the matter and all charges were dropped against Suzuki-McMullen.[53]
Mason's daughter, Sheba Mason, was born in 1985 during Mason's decade-long relationship with Ginger Reiter, an English teacher from South Florida.[54] Sheba is also a comedian.[55][56][57][58]
In 1991, Mason married his 37-year-old manager Jyll Rosenfeld.[59]
Mason died on July 24, 2021, atMt. Sinai Hospital inManhattan after being hospitalized for over two weeks.[60][61][62]
Many celebrities and other notable figures mourned Mason's death.Gilbert Gottfried called him "one of the best."[61][63]Fox News personalitySean Hannity remarked that he was "irreverent, iconoclastic, funny, smart and a great American patriot."[61] ActorHenry Winkler tweeted that Mason put on "truly one of the funniest shows I have ever seen .. ever .. thank you Jackie and now you get to make heaven laugh."[61][64]
Source:[65]
Mason appeared in over 200 self-written video blog entries onYouTube, in which he gave his opinions on current events and politics. He also experimented with podcasting, and in February 2012 appeared on the cult British podcastAnswer Me This!, to promote his West End stand-up show,Fearless.[81]
Mason received a specialTony Award in 1987 forThe World According to Me!.[98]
Mason won anEmmy Award for Outstanding Writing in a Variety or Music Program for his 1988 HBO specialThe World According to Me! (also known asJackie Mason on Broadway). He also won a 1992 Emmy Award for Outstanding Voice-Over Performance for his role as Rabbi Krustofsky onThe Simpsons, shared with five of the show's regular cast members.[99][100]
InDePatie-Freleng Enterprises' animated cartoon seriesThe Ant and the Aardvark, the Aardvark's voice was performed byJohn Byner as an imitation of Mason.[101][102]
{{cite web}}:|last= has generic name (help){{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| Artists | |
| Other | |
