Today, we have the Masters of Harmony and they're sittin' at the top of the world…

More Barbershop. This is Zero8, the same group we featured yesterday…though this configuration has about half as many members as yesterday's. This is their "Acceptance Song" from the SNOBS Nordic Chorus Championships in Nyköping in April of 2013. I gather that when a group wins something over a certain level, they come on stage and perform another tune as a kind of "thank you" or victory lap.

Zero8 is based in Sweden and it is (they are?) very popular. On their website, it says…

Zero8 — A choir formed in 2007, directed by Rasmus Krigström, the Lead singer of Ringmasters, the 2012 World Champion Barbershop quartet, has since then consisted of 20-50 of Stockholm's best choir singers and shaped world-class Barbershoppers in double digits. Having merits such as placing Top 5 in the International Barbershop Chorus Competition, winning the Rimini International Choral Competition, having produced several full-length A Capella CD's and being on Swedish National Television multiple times, Zero8 proudly stands out as one of Sweden's best and most versatile male Choir. Concerts are hosted at least twice every year, and gigs are accepted on demand. Zero8 can, upon request, deliver world class quartet performances as well as the full experience of the whole powerful choir.

Yesterday's video was at a competition in Las Vegas in 2014. I'm curious as to why their membership doubled and about the finances that get fifty singers plus any family members and entourage to Las Vegas. Maybe someone can enlighten me. In the meantime, here they are…

Some folks on Facebook asked if the fires ravaging Southern California are anywhere near me. Thanks for your concern, some folks on Facebook, but I'm a good twenty miles from the nearest one. The fire would have to burn down about two-thirds of Hollywood, including Universal City, to get to me.

So I'm not worried for me. I'm worried for friends who live much, much closer including a few who've been evacuated. One called to ask if they could house their dog with me if they had to. I said yes and I'd come out and get it…but then they found someone closer. Last I heard, the fire made a left turn and their home was no longer threatened but others still are. Scary stuff.

• CNN says that Trump says that what's on CNN is fake news. So does that mean he doesn't say that? If he does then it isn't fake news, right?

I've been collecting comedy records as long as I can remember. There was a time when if you went to the Comedy section in any record store — this is back when there was such a thing as a record store — you found albums by Mort Sahl, Jonathan Winters, Nichols and May, Bob Newhart, Stan Freberg, maybe Lord Buckley…and Shelley Berman. This would be a record store in a mostly-white neighborhood. In mostly-black areas, you also found a lot of "party records" and a ton of Redd Foxx.

Freberg was my favorite but he was singing and doing musical numbers.  For just funny talking, I loved Shelley Berman, especially that first record of his, Inside Shelley Berman. Here, on a TV show of the sixties, he performs one of the best cuts from that album…

This is so good…every word, every inflection is just perfect. It's all the more impressive though when you consider that when Shelley first began doing this routine on stages, there was almost no one else doing acts like this. Performers had done this kind of thing, though not as well, in vaudeville. Shelley was the guy who modernized it and introduced it into his generation. Others, most notably Newhart, picked up on it…and yeah, there was some bitterness there. Newhart had greater success and Shelley was always rankled when someone would mention the two of them in the same paragraph without noting who'd imitated who.

Shelley was a sweet man but a nervous, paranoid man. There's a joke about two psychiatrists passing each other in a hall. One says, "Good morning" and the other thinks to himself, "Hmm…I wonder what he meant by that." Shelley always made me think of that joke. You could tell him how good you thought he was and absolutely mean it (as I did) and you could almost read the comic book thought balloon form over his head. It said, "Does he really mean that or does he want something from me?"

I got to know him through a comedians' social group I'm part of called Yarmy's Army, and also because I had him in once to do a voice on a Garfield cartoon. Yarmy's Army sometimes does shows for charity and they learned to put Shelley on stage last. There were two reasons for this. One was that he was so funny, no one could follow him. The other was that if the show ran long (or even if it didn't), Shelley would get pissed-off at having to wait so long to go on…and he was even funnier when he was pissed-off.

His peers — to the extent he had peers — worshipped him. Whereas he sometimes accused others — Newhart, especially — of stealing from him, no one ever accused Shelley of stealing from anyone. He was an absolute original with an act that clearly built out of his own worries and frustrations and angers and inability to understand why some people do some things he thought were so insane.

The New York Times obit on him is quite good and I'm going to quote a few paragraphs from it…

In 1963, at the height of his success, Mr. Berman was the subject of an NBC-TV documentary, "Comedian Backstage," which portrayed him as excitable and demanding and captured him losing his temper after a telephone rang backstage during his "Father and Son" monologue. The reviews were mostly favorable (although Jack Gould of The Times called the documentary a "portrait of disagreeableness"), but Mr. Berman nonetheless said that the unflattering picture painted by "Comedian Backstage" made him a "pariah" in the industry, and that his comedy career never fully recovered.

That documentary — which one dared not ask Shelley about — might not have harmed him ten or twenty years later when America got more accustomed to seeing the dark side of stars. In '63, when celebrities came packaged with carefully-controlled images, it was a jolt, though not as big a one as some recalled. Folks who saw it claimed they'd seen him — with their own eyes! — rip the phone right off the wall when it rang, interfering with his performance. He did not rip it off the wall. He merely took it off the hook but people remembered what they remembered. Comedy writer Pat McCormick once told me, "Shelley was a pain-in-the-ass to club owners and other people who booked him because he was always worried about the sound and the lighting and every little thing that could go wrong on stage. His complaining got exaggerated like he was way crazier than he actually was, and then the documentary validated the exaggeration."

His focus shifted back to acting. He appeared in numerous regional and summer-stock productions and played Tevye in a 1973 touring production of "Fiddler on the Roof." In the 1960s he was in movies like "The Best Man" (1964) and "Divorce American Style" (1967); from the '70s through the '90s he was on numerous TV shows, including "The Mary Tyler Moore Show," "Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman," "St. Elsewhere" and "L.A. Law."

Shelley was a superb actor. He also appeared in numerous productions of The Odd Couple, sometimes as Oscar, sometimes as Felix. He got rave reviews as both and you have to be a real good actor to manage that.

It is said though that the creators of The Mary Tyler Moore Show originally wanted him for the role of Lou Grant, and when they called his agent to try and arrange an audition, Shelley's own agent talked them out of it. He then guested in one of the early episodes of the series and after that week of rehearsals and filming, the producers called the agent and said, "Thank you for talking us out of making him a regular." Finally…

A few years later he began teaching a course in humor writing at the University of Southern California, which he continued to teach until 2013.

That sentence exaggerates how long he taught at U.S.C. and when he did stop doing it, the person who replaced him was me. Several students the first semester I did it had signed up for Shelley's class and quit before they completed it because, they said, he was becoming snappish and too critical when they asked what he thought was a foolish question or handed in a writing assignment that he did not understand.  Some of that was because he increasingly felt out-of-sync with the current world of entertainment.

We talked about it once and he told me, "I made a mistake.  I taught the class as the Shelley Berman who performed 'in one' [as a solo performer] all those years.  I should have taken the toupee off and taught it as the comic actor on Curb Your Enthusiasm.  That guy was more in tune with young people and their comedy today."

I don't think Shelley was ever truly out-of-sync with comedy.  He may not have known all the current references but I saw him performing many times up until Alzheimer's slowed his timing and he knew it was time to stop.  He was always funny and his work was so organic and built on common human foibles that it reached across all generations.  Just check out any record or any video of him talking to an audience.  You'll agree.

Do you miss watching the Jerry Lewis Telethon over the Labor Day weekend? Well, there is a telethon today. It's the annual Chabad Telethon…the one with the dancing rabbis, the charismatic Rabbi Shlomo Cunin, and a bevy of guest stars, many of them gentiles who don't know how to pronounce "Chabad." I don't know who's hosting it this year but it can't possibly be anyone who's as good as the late Jan Murray. If it's Dennis Prager, just turn the set off and go do something else.

The telethon runs six hours and it starts on my TV at 5 PM, airing on the Jewish Life TV Network. You can find out where it's running on your set — or even watch it online — at the Chabad website.

Barbershop Week rolls on! This is a group called Zero8.

I like this music in an odd way but I also just like the fact that these people do this. I assume it is almost wholly out of love for performing…at contests like this, if nowhere else. This group, as I understand it, performs from time to time in its native Stockholm and they have a few CDs out.

I'm a little unfamiliar with this sector of the entertainment world but I'm guessing the fifty or so people in a group like this do it in their respective spare times. It no doubt requires a lot of rehearsal and I wonder about the finances. Do the singers themselves have to come up with the funds to buy the costumes and to transport themselves to, in this case, Las Vegas?

This is not the kind of Show Biz someone gets into because he's seeking personal glory and fortune. Even the fans of the group probably don't know who most of these guys are.

A few years ago when I first started posting videos from these competitions, I got an e-mail from someone who was involved in one of them. They wanted to know if I was interested in being a judge at their next convention/contest. I gave them an immediate "No thanks" because I was dealing with my mother's final days and didn't pause to ask myself if I really wanted to do that. If I'm ever asked again, I'll have to decide. On the one hand, I enjoy this music and I wouldn't mind learning more about this world…

On the other, I enjoy it listening to one or two videos at a time. I'm not sure how it would be to hear dozens upon dozens, back to back. One of the funniest half-hours of television I ever saw was an episode of Car 54, Where Are You? in which comedian Jan Murray has to judge a Barbershop Quartet contest and after hearing way too much of it, went crazy and had to be hospitalized. You can watch the entire episode here. Do I want to risk that happening to delicate li'l me?

While you ponder that, here's Zero8 improving on Billy Joel and Elvis…

Who needs Jerry Lewis when we can watch this guy?

• Trump keeps bragging about how great the economy has become since he took office and how rotten it was when Obama was in power.  As I look at the numbers, I see almost all straight lines and pretty much the same levels of growth.  If something was going up 2% a month under Obama, that was a catastrophe according to Trump.  Now, it's going up 2% a month and Donald is to be congratulated for rescuing us.  Jared Bernstein is a good guy to follow if you want to know where we really are.
• Here's an "explainer" for the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, which Trump is threatening to close down because, you know, non-white people.
• Mick Mulvaney, the director of the Office of Management and Budget, brags that he's getting Trump to cut Social Security by finding ways to argue that those cuts do not violate Trump's campaign promise to not cut Social Security.  I don't get why you brag about this unless you're sure that Trump is so ill-informed, he won't read it.
• Daniel Larison affirms once again that the Nuclear Deal is working well.  This is the deal the Obama administration negotiated to keep Iran's nuclear ambitions in check.  Since Trump operates on the premise that all deals are lousy unless he made them, he wants to declare Iran in breach and then redo this whole deal…or just let Iran do whatever they want and count on U.S. might to keep them scared.
• While I'd be cautious to pin too much hope to it, it sure looks like Special Counsel Robert S. Mueller III is building a pretty vast case against various members of the Trump administration. I have no idea when this might be unveiled and I gather no one else does, either. But it'll be a Game-Changer if he does it and a Game-Changer if he doesn't do it.

Lastly: I continued to be fascinated that the worst insult in Trump's repertoire — the one he hurls at almost everyone he doesn't like — is that their business is "failing" or "their ratings are terrible." He almost always uses it against targets whose businesses are doing better and better or whose ratings are going up…but even if they were going down, there's that odd logic there: If your business isn't successful, you must be wrong about everything you say. How many failed businesses has this guy had now?

There's a comic book convention in San Francisco this weekend. I don't know a thing about it but some magazine just printed this little squib…

Is it really featuring artists, writers and celebrity guests in the comic world such as Jack Kirby?  If it is, I'm heading for the airport!  Wow, do I miss that guy!

MAD magazine editor Joe Raiola has some thoughts on when satire crosses the line to become offensive. I don't think there's an easy answer to this question. It has way too much to do with who your audience is and rarely are you reaching a homogeneous audience.

There are still seats available for this event but it will sell out. Admission is free. Send an e-mail to friendsofjuneforay@gmail.com and tell them (this address does not go to me) who you are, if you have any connection to June and whether you'd like one seat or two. A connection to June is not required. We'd just like to know who-all is in the house.

Then wait for a confirmation which may not come for a little while. If you receive one, be there early. If you don't receive one, watch this space for info about a stand-by line. This event will not be live-streamed on the web and because of all the copyrighted films being shown, it cannot be posted online, at least in full.

Shelley Berman was a great comedian.  He usually did what he did seated on a stool but he was still one of the greatest "stand-up" comics of all time, pioneering so much in that field.  His work was innovative, sincere and very funny, and an awful lot of great comics got into that profession because they saw Shelley Berman and said, "I want to do what that guy does!"  He was also a superb actor — comic and otherwise — and a very human, compassionate (but perpetually nervous) man.

I have stories but I have deadlines. I'll try to write more about him over the weekend. Just for now, let me say that he was really, really important in the history of stand-up comedy and really, really difficult sometimes to talk to.

On September 19, 2017, a group of June Foray's friends will gather to celebrate her life, her career and her all-around wonderfulness. It will be at the Samuel Goldwyn Theater which is housed in the headquarters of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. This awesome place is located at 8949 Wilshire Boulevard in Beverly Hills, CA. There will be cartoons. There will be speeches. There will be rare clips of June speaking and performing.

Would you like to attend? If so, do not dawdle. Send an e-mail right this minute to friendsofjuneforay@gmail.com. Let me give you that address one more time: It's friendsofjuneforay@gmail.com.

Tell us if you will be one or two people. If you have some special connection to June, feel free to mention it but we're letting in folks who never met the lady and just loved her work. (Two per e-mail is the limit. If you have five people who want to be there, tell two of them to send in their own damned e-mails.)

And please, please read this: Sending in an e-mail does not ensure you a seat as we expect a lot more applications than we have seats. If we think we have room for you, you will receive an e-mail confirmation though perhaps not right away. And if you do receive an e-mail confirmation, understand that we may "oversell" the house so a confirmed R.S.V.P. might not guarantee you admission. This is what happens with free events like this one.

Other stuff you need to know: Doors open at 6:30 PM. The show starts at 7:30 and I would get there early if I were you. Complimentary parking is available after 6 PM in the buildings at 8920 Wilshire Blvd. and 9025 Wilshire Blvd. Dress for the occasion is "business casual." No antlers or squirrel tails, please.

This should be an amazing evening. But then, that's kind of what an amazing person deserves, right?

Phil Geiger writes…

Jay Thomas just passed away (R.I.P.). Got and stories or anecdotes about him?

Nope. One time when I embedded one of his famous Letterman appearances and the Lone Ranger story here, I got a nice note from someone who seemed to be him thanking me and telling me he enjoyed the blog. Mr. Thomas was a highly-popular radio personality and he did a number of highly-praised acting jobs but I'm sorry to say I neither heard nor saw much of him and so have nothing to say about him than he sure was funny telling that story almost every year in Dave's guest chair. If you want remembrances from someone who knew the man, check out Ken Levine. (I am sending you clicks, Ken, because I know I've been too busy to eat lunch with you lately.)

Recently, I wrote here about The Hollywood Show, where stars sit and sell autographs and photos. Jeff Gehringer wrote me to ask…

Just wondering if you knew the mechanics of these autograph shows. Are the stars compensated by the organizers? Are they guaranteed a minimum amount? I enjoy attending these events, and most of the stars are very nice with fans. Recently Dick Van Dyke attended the show. He was charging $80.00 for an autographed picture. At the end of the day, imagine his take home. But I was curious if you knew how the money worked? Just a curious fan, no connection to the IRS.

The money works all different ways at different shows and with different stars since different stars have different clout and value. A William Shatner or a Dick Van Dyke brings people in the door, whereas one of the replacement daughters on Petticoat Junction probably does not. The deals also vary due to geography. A star who lives in Hollywood and goes to a convention in another city is going to incur travel expenses and lodging, whereas someone who just has to take the 405 freeway to the show does not.

I can't tell you much about the Hollywood Show other than that they have to make an attractive offer to get the biggest stars to show up. In cases where the star has never done this before, they sometimes even have to get photos printed for them.

At most autograph shows, a Big Star may get an up-front payment on top of what they make at their table or as an advance guarantee. A Lesser Star might get travel and hotel expenses if necessary or they may just get a table. Sometimes, the "price" of that table is that they have to give X number of signed photos to the convention to sell at another time or place. I've never heard of the convention taking a percentage on the photos sold but I assume that's been done somewhere. Any sort of deal is possible.

By the way: If what a star charges for signing an autograph seems high, remember that it's usually the buyers who are setting those prices. If Dick Van Dyke charges $80, that means that some of those folks waiting in line to pay it are dealers who believe that it's a good investment; that they will soon be able to sell that photo for way more than $80. If the star drops his or her price for the average, "I love your work" fan, he or she drops it for the investors too.

We'll close with this one from Ben Varkentine…

It's been asserted on Twitter that in the '70s, women writers were forced into using male pseudonyms to write comics; that DC actually had a policy against women writers. To your knowledge, is this true?

Not the way you phrase it. There were some editors who thought women were only good for writing love comics or anything thought of as a "girl" comic and that it took a man to write adventure stories. But no firm policy was necessary because so few women applied.

The assertion probably was inspired by Mary Skrenes, a fine writer who wrote some comics for DC in the seventies that were credited to "Virgil North." That was not a pseudonym to fool editors into thinking a guy had written those scripts. The editors — who included a lady named Dorothy Woolfolk — knew Mary well and knew she was the author. Perhaps some editor had the lunkheaded notion that a female name in the credits on adventure or ghost comics would scare away male readers…but then again, they did love getting Ramona Fradon to draw for the company. In any case, if Mary or anyone was forced to use a pen name in the credits, that was wrong and short-lived.

So no, there was no policy against hiring women. There were editors who were skeptical women could write anything but love comics and since there was a limited number of assignments there, that may have translated into a kind of discrimination. Those days seem to be long past and I would guess that ageism is more prevalent than sexism nowadays.