Jackie Mason Wiki
Jackie Mason Biography
Who was Jackie Mason ?
Jackie Mason, comic who perfected amused outrage, dies at 93
Jackie Mason, a rabbi-turned-comedian whose style of stand-up comedy took him to Catskills nightclubs, West Coast talk shows, and Broadway stages, has died. He was 93 years old.
Mason died Saturday at 6 p.m. ET on Mt. Sinai Hospital in Manhattan after being hospitalized for more than two weeks, famous attorney Raoul Felder told The Associated Press.
The irascible Mason was known for his sharp wit and penetrating social commentary, often about being Jewish, male and female, and his own inadequacies. His typical style was run over fun.
“Eighty percent of married men cheat in America. The rest cheat in Europe, ”he once joked. Another phrase from Mason was: “Politics doesn’t make strange bedfellows, marriage does.” About himself, he once said: “He was so self-conscious, every time the soccer players gathered; I thought they were talking about me. ”
His death was mourned on all sides, from fellow comedian Gilbert Gottfried, who called him “one of the best,” to Fox News Channel personality Sean Hannity, who hailed Mason as “irreverent, iconoclastic, funny, intelligent, and a great American patriot. ”
Mason was born Jacob Maza, the son of a rabbi. His three brothers became rabbis. So did Mason, who at one time had congregations in Pennsylvania and North Carolina. Comedy ultimately turned out to be a more persistent call than God.
“A person has to feel emotionally sterile, empty, or frustrated to become a comedian,” he told The Associated Press in 1987. “I don’t think people who feel comfortable or happy are motivated to become comedians. You’re looking for something and you’re willing to pay a high price to get that attention. ”
Mason started in show business as a social director at a resort in the Catskills. He was the guy who made everyone play Simon Says, trivia games, or shuffleboard. He also told jokes. After one season, he played for Catskills clubs for better money.
“No one else knew me, but in the mountains, I was a hit,” recalls Mason.wikipedia
In 1961, the pint-sized comic was hugely successful, an appearance on Steve Allen’s weekly television variety show. His success led him to “The Ed Sullivan Show” and other shows.
He was banned from the “Sullivan” show for two years when he allegedly beckoned to the host when Sullivan instructed him to end his act during an appearance on October 18, 1964.
Mason’s act even took him to Broadway, where he hosted several individual shows, including “Freshly Squeezed” in 2005, “Love Thy Neighbor” in 1996, and “The World According to Me” in 1988, for which he received a special. Tony Award.
“I feel like Ronald Reagan tonight,” Mason joked on Tony’s night. “He was an actor his whole life, he didn’t know anything about politics and he became president of the United States. I’m a former rabbi who didn’t know anything about acting and I’m going to receive a Tony Award.
Mason called himself an observer who watched people and learned. From those observations, he said that he understood his jokes and then tested them on his friends. “I’d rather make a fool of myself in front of two people for no more than a thousand people who paid for a ticket,” he told the AP.
His humor could shift from computers and designer coffee to then Sen. John Kerry, former Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Donald Trump. He was able to articulate the anger of the average citizen, making life’s put-downs seem fun and perhaps a little more bearable.
“I rarely write anything. I think about life a lot and try to put it into phrases that become a joke, ”he said. “I never make a joke that has a point that I don’t believe in. For me, the message and the joke are the same.”
On television, Mason was a reliable presence, usually with a cameo appearance on shows like “30 Rock” or “The Simpsons” or as a trusted guest on late-night chat shows. He performed in front of Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II and his show “Fearless” played in London’s West End in 2012.
How old was Jackie Mason ?
Comedian Jackie Mason died at age 93 on July 24, 2021
Cause of Death
Known for his “Borscht Belt” style of comedy, often seen in the age of entertainment in the Catskill summer resorts, Mason’s trademark continued that type of acting style long after the resorts they were mere memories.
Doctors and nurses who cared for Mason, who had been hospitalized for two weeks and three days, cried when he died, Felder said.
“They were all his fans. They were all crying, ”he said. “He was like a shooting star that appears every 100 years.”
“I think the world has lost a unique person.”
He played a former Jewish pajama salesman in love with an Irish Catholic widow played by Lynn Redgrave in a series called “Chicken Soup” in 1989, but it didn’t last long. During the O.J. Simpson, the Scottish service of British Broadcasting Corp. hired Mason as a weekly commentator.
Mason’s humor sometimes went too far, like when he sparked a controversy in New York while campaigning for Republican mayoral candidate Rudolph Giuliani against Democrat David Dinkins, who was black. Mason had to apologize after saying, among other things, that Jews would vote for Dinkins because of guilt.
Felder, his lifelong friend of his, told the AP that Mason had a Talmudic view of life: “That whatever you said to him, he would start an argument with you.”
He is survived by his wife, producer Jyll Rosenfeld, and a daughter, Sheba.
Source: wikisoon
