Back in the sixties, one of my favorite comedians was a deadpan guy named Jackie Vernon. Mr. Vernon was one of those comics who was around for years, developing his act and approach in the worst bars and night clubs…until finally he hit, hit big and became a much-quoted comedy star. A couple of the jokes you'll see in this clip may sound to you like old lines that you've heard a million times…but I actually think they originated with Jackie.
I was an avid fan and I can still quote most of his first record album — A Wet Bird Never Flies at Night — from memory. Most of the lines in our clip today are from his act as it stood at the time he recorded it for that album. (That's a bad sentence so let me try it this way: Vernon had a pretty stock, well-polished routine that he used for years. The lines in this clip are from that routine and the whole routine is on that album. There. That's clearer.)
I only got to see him perform once in person. It was at the old Marina Hotel in Las Vegas, which used to stand on the site where the MGM Grand is now situated. He was in a burlesque revue which was called "Babes Ahoy" because it had a bit of a navy theme, as did the hotel-casino. Mostly, he did old Minsky's-type routines with women whose shirts mysteriously disappeared…but at one point, he came out and did about fifteen minutes of pure standup with no topless ladies on the stage with him. It was his "vacation slides" routine with all new (to me) lines and I probably laughed as hard at that fifteen minutes as I ever have at anything in my life.
He passed away in 1987 and it's rare to see any of his work these days. So it's great to be able to point you to even this 2.5 minutes of it…
