Tinseltown Talks by Nick Thomas

We all use the wrong word occasionally — “that skinny dog looks emancipated” — but comedian Norm Crosby molded a career from such humorous grammatical gaffes known as malaprops.

“Although I had a good job as an advertising manager for a shoe company in Boston, I liked to fool around with comedy,” said Crosby from his home in Los Angeles.

It was the 1950s, and Crosby began visiting small, local bars and clubs on weekends to try his hand at standup.

“I would watch the Ed Sullivan show and borrow a few lines here and there from guests like Red Buttons and Buddy Hackett to create a routine,” he explained. “Then I started getting invited to do political functions like the governor’s birthday ball or mayor’s dinner.”

At one event, he bumped into E.M. Loew, owner of the popular Latin Quarter nightclub in New York City.

“He liked my work and invited me to do a week there,” said Crosby. “I told him I’d think about it.”

While adapting the jokes of others worked for occasional regional performances, Crosby  knew he would need original material to perform in a major city. Then he remembered the owner of a club in Springfield, Mass., where he sometimes appeared.

“The guy would hit on the singers and dancers,” recalled Crosby. “The club was 90 miles from Boston, so some of the girls stayed at hotels during their engagements whereas others would commute each day.”

When the club owner took a fancy to one cute girl, he had asked Crosby for help.

“He said ‘find out if she is staying over or is communicating,’” chuckled Crosby. “I knew that wasn’t the right word, but it was funny.  So I starting playing around with the idea of malaprops and that’s how my signature act evolved.”

Now 87, Crosby still performs at casinos and for the Friars Club roasts.

“I also work on cruise ships,” he says. “It’s a melting pot of young and old, but they all still seem to enjoy my style.”

 

Nick Thomas teaches at Auburn University at Montgomery, Ala., and has written features, columns and interviews for over 500 magazines and newspapers.