One of the last Borscht Belt-style comedians
NEW YORK — Jackie Mason, whose staccato, arm-waving delivery and thick Yiddish accent kept the Borscht Belt-style of comedy alive long after the Catskills resorts had shut their doors, and whose career reached new heights in the 1980s with a series of one-man shows on Broadway, died Saturday in Manhattan. He was 93.
The humor was punchy, down-to-earth and emphatically Jewish: His last oneman show in New York, in 2008, was called “The Ultimate Jew.” He was a former rabbi from a long line of rabbis.
He was born Yacov MosheMaza in Sheboygan, Wis., on June 9, 1928, to immigrants from Belarus. When he was 5, his father, Eli, an Orthodox rabbi, and his mother, Bella (Gitlin) Maza, moved the family to the Lower East Side of Manhattan.
His father, grandfather, great-grandfather and great-great-grandfathers had all been rabbis. His three older brothers became rabbis, and his two younger sisters married rabbis.
After earning a degree from City College, he completed his rabbinical studies at Yeshiva University and was ordained. In a state of mounting misery, he tended to congregations in Weldon, North Carolina, and Latrobe, Westmoreland County, unhappy in his profession but unwilling to disappoint his father.
Hedging his bets, he had begun working summers in the Catskills, where he wrote comic monologues and appeared onstage at every opportunity.
In 1960, he caught the attention of fellow comedian Jan Murray, who recommended him to Steve Allen. He became a regular on the top television variety shows.
After dozens of appearances on “The Ed Sullivan Show,” Mr. Mason encountered disaster on Oct. 18, 1964. A speech by President Lyndon B. Johnson preempted the program, which resumed as Mason was halfway through his act. Onstage but out of camera range, Sullivan indicated with two fingers, then one, how many minutes Mr. Mason had left, distracting the audience. Mr. Mason, annoyed, responded by holding up his own fingers to the audience.
Sullivan, convinced he saw an obscene gesture, canceled Mr. Mason’s contract and refused to pay him for the performance. Mr. Mason sued, and won.