George Kirby

George Kirby June 8 1923 September 30 1995 was an American comedian singer and actor from Chicago Illinois Kirby broke into show business in the 1940s at the Club DeLisa a South Side establishment that employed a varietyshow format and preferred to hire local singers dancers and comedians His first recording was as a standup blues singer performing Ice Man Blues on a Tom Archia session done in 1947 for Aristocrat Records He was one of the first AfricanAmerican comedians to begin to appeal to white as well as black audiences during the height of the Civil Rights era appearing between 1966 and 1972 on The Ed Sullivan Show The Dean Martin Show The Jackie Gleason Show Rowan and Martins LaughIn and The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson He was an excellent impressionist targeting somewhat scandalously for the time many white actors such as John Wayne and Walter Brennan rather than solely black stars such as Bill Cosby and Pearl Bailey and for a man of his ample girth an unexpectedly agile dancer He also did vocal impressions of such singers as Louis Armstrong and Ella Fitzgerald In 1970 he was allowed to produce a television special The George Kirby Show to gauge whether he could attract an audience for a weekly series This led to his hosting a sketch comedy and variety show Half the George Kirby Comedy Hour which lasted for 22 episodes in 1972 it was also one of the actorcomedian Steve Martins first credits in front of the camera The series was in many ways an uneasy compromise between Kirbys natural gifts and what the public would accept of black actors at the time a regular feature was a shaggy dog story segment entitled the Funky Fable He was also a regular in the Britishproduced ABC Comedy Hour series The Kopycats alongside such other impressionists as Rich Little Charlie Callas Marilyn Michaels and Frank Gorshin Following the demise of his show Kirbys career declined especially as audiences began to look for more cuttingedge comedy He had been an occasional drug addict now to make up for lost income he took to selling drugs In 1977 he sold heroin to an undercover cop he plea bargained to a ten year prison term and was released after 42 months His career never again reached its former heights but he did register featured guest appearances on Gimme a Break with Nell Carter Crazy Like a Fox and 227 He then took ill with what was later diagnosed as Parkinsons Disease He was wellloved enough within the comedy community that friends and admirers formed the Friends of George Kirby which performed an allstar tribute to him in 1995 to help pay his mounting medical bills only a few months before he died Description above from the Wikipedia article George Kirby licensed under CCBYSA full list of contributors on Wikipedia