Steve Allen was a well-known comic in the 1950s and 1960s. But, after that, Steve Allen slipped into obscurity. But, before Allen pretty much disappeared, he wrote this book: Curses! A Collection of Verbal Vengeance for Every Occasion (1973). I always considered Steve Allen as one of the brighter and more clever comedians of his time. This book demonstrations many of his strengths: wit, guile, and slyness.
My favorite curse in this book is: “May your wife understand you.” Who is your favorite comedian? GRADE: B+
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
Introduction — 1
Cursing techniques — 7
The curse: Does it work? — 16
The anger of the ancients — 21
The Jewish verbal weapon: Humor — 27
The wrath of Allah — 48
Cursing in church — 54
Critical prayer: Another name for cursing? — 62
Black words from the Emerald Isle — 66
The curse of the frog — 78
Curses from paradise — 81
The original curse of the Gypsy — 86
The Curse of Garra –94
The Skeptics — 96
The Curse As A Boomerang — 98
A Curse in Rhyme — 100
Curses In Wich Actions Speak Louder Than Words — 103
The Last Word — 106
A toss between George Carlin and Rodney Dangerfield. George was great at social observation. Rodney made me laugh the most.
Steve, Carlin and Dangerfield were great. I’m going to try to watch the George Carlin documentary on HBO this weekend.
George, you overstate Steve Allen’s later obscurity…he had a ’70s syndicated series, if not as innovative as the STEVE ALLEN WESTINGHOUSE series of the early ’60s (David Letterman’s series took a lot of cues from that Allen series, particularly), and then at the end of the ’70s, his somewhat self-indulgent but usually amusing PBS series MEETING OF THE MINDS for several seasons (a dinner conversation between various historical figures from different eras, with Allen playing himself and always a role for his wife, Audrey Meadows). And I certainly wasn’t old enough to seen any but his ’70s series when they aired, but I certainly knew who they were when they popped up on ST. ELSEWHERE as the spy parents of the “officially” orphaned, now adult (mostly) character played by Ed Begley, Jr., Victor Ehrlich (“That wasn’t your name when we had you…”).
Favorite comedians…wow, quite a panoply. In the ’50s, still have to go with Lenny Bruce and Nichols and May and Dick Gregory, along with veteran titans Fred Allen and Jack Benny, and such up and comers as Mort Sahl and Jean Carroll and and and. Carlin and Dangerfield are certainly fine, along with the likes of Cathy Ladman and Margaret Smith, Rita Rudner and Joan Rivers, David Steinberg (and fellow Second City grads, along with Rivers , Steinberg and May & Nichols) and the Firesign Theater and Beyond the Fringe, Richard Pryor and Steven Wright and Jake Johanssen. Along with the last and Ladman and Rudner (even if RR is a bit Vegas-ly not pushing too hard these days, perhaps), among today’s best are Jackie Kashian, Maria Bamford, Aisha Tyler, Paul F. Tompkins, Jena Friedman, Eddie Pepitone, Charlie Brooker, Trevor Noah, Josie Long. So many more.
Ha! It’s heavy early, as Johnny Caravella would say, and I managed to have a middle-aged moment swapping out sisters Audrey and Jayne Meadows, the latter long married to Steve Allen. Always found both sisters attractive.
Todd, I liked Audrey and Jayne Meadows, too.
Sarah Silverman, Laura Kightlinger, Tig Notaro, Jessica Williams, Sandra Bernhard, Laurie Kilmartin…I really liked Danitra Vance, who died Way too young.
Todd, I’m a huge Lily Tomlin fan.
I can second that, along with at least most of everyone else’s choices so far.
And in another middle-aged moment, I slightly screw up Allen’s PBS series title: MEETING OF MINDS, 1977-81. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hKRxZSOqAYw
Todd, I missed out on MEETING OF MINDS. Time to catch up!
Todd, Steve Allen’s brand of brainy humor became overshadowed by more slapstick stuff like LAUGH-IN and HEE HAW which aired first-run on CBS from 1969 to 1971, in syndication from 1971 to 1993, and on TNN from 1996 to 1997. Reruns of the series were broadcast on RFD-TV from September 2008 to April 2020, and have aired since January 2021 on Circle.
Eh…Allen wasn’t above his own kind of slapstick on occasion, and I think the audience overlap for HEE-HAW (Minnie Pearl Not doing her best work!) and the Allen shows was kind of slim…I don’t think THE GREAT AMERICAN DREAM MACHINE (PBS), THE DAVID STEINBERG SHOW (CBC up north, syndie in the US), or NBC’s SATURDAY NIGHT (as it was initially known) were mining the cornpone lode so much as more in Allen’s tradition. (Steinberg’s series was a larval stage of SCTV)…and comedians of all stripes were still working chat shows such as Carson’s TONIGHT, Cavett’s ABC series, Merv Griffin’s CBS late night show and return to syndie daytimes along with Mike Douglas, the variety shows, and so on. The sitcoms were also getting smarter, on balance, and imports of MONTY PYTHON didn’t hurt…
Todd, I loved MONTY PYTHON. But I’m about to give up SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE after this latest purge.Kate McKinnon was my favorite recent SNL cast member (even though the SNL writers only shined with the political sketches featuring McKinnon).
SNL has had worse years than this last one, and the most consistently good parts of it have been the opening sketches and Weekend Update, with some inconsistency there…but the retiring quartet will be missed, and we’ll see if next season is even as good. MacKinnon is certainly close to having been the Phil Hartman of the last decade of the series.
Todd, I just don’t find much humor in SNL anymore. And, there’s too much other stuff to watch.
Allen also wrote some mysteries. John has two of them which he got Allen to sign when he (Allen) came to speak at a writers conference John was attending: MURDER ON THE GLITTER BOX and MURDER IN MANHATTAN.
Deb, I’ve seen those Steve Allen mysteries and kick myself for not buying them! Lucky John!
From Wikipedia:
Allen was the credited author of a series of mystery novels “starring” himself and wife Jayne Meadows as amateur detectives. The first one (The Talk Show Murders) was ghostwritten by Walter J. Sheldon; later volumes were ghostwritten by Robert Westbrook.
The Talk Show Murders (1982), ISBN 0-440-08471-7
Murder on the Glitter Box (1989), ISBN 0-8217-2752-4
Murder in Manhattan (1990), ISBN 0-8217-3033-9
Murder in Vegas (1991), ISBN 0-8217-3462-8
The Murder Game (1993), ISBN 0-8217-4115-2
Murder on the Atlantic (1995), ISBN 0-8217-4647-2
Wake Up to Murder (1996), ISBN 1-57566-090-3
Die Laughing (1998), ISBN 1-57566-241-8
Murder in Hawaii (1999), ISBN 1-57566-375-9[
Jeff, I suspected that Steve Allen didn’t personally write those mysteries. It’s another Willard Scott/Bill Crider situation.
CURSES! sounds like a book for our times.
Allen actually wrote ten mystery novels, along with a wide range of other books. His 1855 collection FOURTEEN FOR TONIGHT is a must-have.
Favorite comedians? I’d have to go with Jack Benny, Burns and Allen, and The Smothers Brothers.
Jerry, I’m tracking down FOURTEEN FOR TONIGHT based on your recommendation!
“1955 collection FOURTEEN FOR TONIGHT” — darned fumble fingers!
All sympathies!
Jerry, you may have fumble fingers but I have the demonic WORDPRESS spellchecker to deal with!
Just watched the Ricky Gervais special and didn’t laugh once. Just too blue and mean for me. SO I guess the comedians I enjoy are pretty old school although not Dangerfield. I like Mike Birmiglia, Aziz Ansari, Marc Maron, Bo Burnham, Sarah Silverman, Jerry Seinfeld, John Mulaney, Key and Peele.
Rodney Dangerfield, definitely. We saw him live two or three times. He was great. Also Robert Klein, the late Robert Schimmel (whose off-color stuff made me laugh uncontrollably)., Robin Williams, Billy Crystal, Lewis Black, Lily Tomlin, Jerry Seinfeld, Jim Gaffigan, Sarah Silverman, Bob Newhart, Louie Anderson, Bill Hicks, Judy Gold, Dom Irrera, Flip Wilson.
Jeff, I love Lily Tomlin’s humor. Jerry Seinfeld is a student of comedy. Diane loves Jim Gaffigan.
I remember Steve Allen fondly. I wasn’t able to watch too many episodes of meeting of the minds, but loved the ones I did. So many current and past comedians I’ve loved (I’ll always watch a comedy before a drama as I love to laugh. I won the San Diego Laugh contest for most unique laugh, This is when we lost the gop convention, and the powers that be named San Diego America’s finest city.)
Steve Martin, George Carlin are the 2 that come to mind, but many many others are must sees,
I shared a suite at an antiquarian book fair in the LA area once with the West Coast mysterious book shop. They had sponsored signings, one of which was steve allen. Jayne was there and the line was long an first, but it dwindled down. The manager had a bunch of unsigned books, and had me recruit fellow booksellers to get them signed (to placate Jayne). They were both charming
Maggie, I wonder if there’s any market for those signed books today…
As you’ve learbed by now, Steve Allen last far past the sixties! I read that he carried a portable tape recorder at all times and spoke his books into them! Looks like he had others flesh them out if that’s to be believed! Thanks for another episode of the George and Todd Show!
BTW, I won $1800 at the casino today!!!!
Bob, congratulations on the $1800 win!
*learned*