Theater

HUNTER & STAN FREBERG…Comedy at the Castle

REVIEWED BY JOAN PINE

Another magical evening at the MAGIC CASTLE in Hollywood -- only this time it was with Hunter and Stan Freberg performing their own kind of magic. No tricks, nor slight of hand, just a lot of talent, good humor and quick wit.

Stan Freberg has been in the ‘biz’ for almost 60 years. His autobiography, It Only Hurts When I Laugh was a best seller and so were his comedy recordings. The evening that I was there he showed pictures of himself as a kid and commercials that have become widely known. He sang a few bars of Take An Indian To Lunch from his recordings of THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA…volume I and now volume II. He showed an energetic, toe-tapping clip of Ann Miller’s classic commercial, Let’s Face the Chicken Gumbo and Dance that he wrote for the Campbell Soup Company.

Hunter and Stan have been married for about nine years and are soooo funny together. When they talked about each other they sparkled and as soon as he finished a story, she prompted him to tell another.  And he had some wonderful stories to tell. They talked about how they met and how brilliant each thinks the other is. He told about that fateful day when he asked his Uncle how he could get into show business. 

“Take a bus,” his Uncle said, “to the center of Hollywood, get off and go to the first big building that you find, look up agents and talk to them.”  He rode up in the elevator to the 9^th floor. There was an agent who asked him what he could do. Thinking quickly, he said he could do impressions and promptly did an impersonation of Franklin Delano Roosevelt. They liked it and sent him to Warner Brothers where he got his first job! Yea!

He worked with the greats and became one of the greats himself. He started working with Mel Brooks, performed his comedy on the Ed Sullivan show, replaced Jack Benny on the radio during Jack’s summer off and continued on radio, with impersonations, parodies  and skits. He’s had his own TV show and award winning TV commercials. The list of his accomplishments never stops.

He refused to accept alcohol or tobacco advertisers as his sponsors and was ahead of his time on that subject. His quick wit and quirky sense of humor made him a legend in his own time and today he is still working, but not alone. Hunter, or Betty Hunter, as she was known ‘before,’ really was a hunter…a head hunter and also worked in many avenues of show business.

As they sat in their tall director’s chairs on the stage, you could tell that they both were very comfortable performing. Over the years his humor made us laugh at ourselves, our governments and our celebrity ‘friends.’ He also opened doors for a new generation of comics and comedy. Check out tickets for up and coming shows. Go to www.magiccastle.com/eventicketsr, or call 323-858 3313 x 434.

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