Berman inspired generation of comics
Comedian Shelley Berman, who won gold records and appeared on top television shows in the 1950s and ’60s delivering wry monologues about the annoyances of everyday life, died Friday. He was 92.
Berman was a pioneer of a new brand of comedy that could evoke laughter from such matters as air travel discomforts and small children who answer the phone. He helped pave the way for Bob Newhart, Woody Allen, Jerry Seinfeld and other standups who fashioned their routines around the follies and frustrations of modern living.
Late in his career, he played Nat David, father of Larry David, on HBO’s Curb Your Enthusiasm.
Berman trained as an actor but, after 10 years of small jobs, auditioned at the Chicago nightclub Mister Kelly’s and got the job.
Berman made the first of many appearances on The Ed Sullivan Show in 1959. That year he issued his first album, Inside Shelley Berman, which received the first Grammy Award for the spoken word.
Along with his busy schedule in nightclubs and auditoriums, he fulfilled his first ambition to be an actor. He appeared in a Broadway play, The Boys Against the Girls, in 1959 and a musical, A Family Affair, in 1962. Berman’s film debut came in 1964 with The Best Man, starring Henry Fonda and Cliff Robertson.
In recent years, he landed guest roles on series including The King of Queens, Boston Legal and CSI: NY, and appeared in the film Meet the Fockers. Berman retired from performing in 2014 after being diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease.