Professor Irwin Corey

[Louis Proyect <lnp3@xxxxxxxxx>]

NY Press, Nov. 7, 2001
Feature
Jim Knipfel

Who Am the World?s Foremost Authority?
A Lesson from Professor Irwin Corey

"Professor Irwin Corey" may not be a familiar name to the young people of
today, but he?s a landmark. Beginning in the 30s, he singlehandedly, I dare
say, invented improvisational comedy as we know it. Corey doesn?t script
his act?he just goes onstage and riffs. But he more than riffs. As "The
World?s Foremost Authority," he lectures in a rambling mishmash of
important-sounding double-talk (injected with wise one-liners) that at
least seems to be about something very important. He can ad lib
Shakespeare, scrutinize the Bible or explain, eventually, why people wear
shoes.

He?s also, over the years, added a number of aphorisms to the American
lexicon (though he rarely gets proper credit). "Wherever you go, there you
are," was not first uttered by Buckaroo Banzai. And it wasn?t Al Capone who
instructed, "You can get further with a kind word and a gun than you can
with just a kind word." I?m not real sure who "If we don?t change direction
soon, we?ll end up where we?re going" has been attributed to, but that?s
Corey?s as well...

One thing Corey was never very shy about, however, was politics. From his
earliest union days to the blacklist to the present (presidential bid
aside), he?s been mighty outspoken.

"It was never a conscious decision," he said of his admittedly strong
beliefs. "It was never something I set out to do." Nowadays his walls are
adorned with pictures of Corey posing with Castro (he gave $50,000 to send
medicine to Cuba). He?s also made large contributions to the Mumia
Abu-Jamal defense fund, as well as the Communist Party.

In some ways, being blacklisted continues to haunt him ("Though it?s more
of a gray list now," he told me). He says he was never asked back to
Letterman after his first appearance there in 1982, because the blacklist
was still in effect at NBC. Being blacklisted also earned him a hefty FBI
file.

Funny thing is, Richard told me later, Corey got hold of his file, only to
discover that it was a collection of newspaper reviews. "So it?s like the
government was running a clipping service for us," Richard said.

Much of his political outrage these days is aimed at Israel, so much so
that he?s made hefty contributions to Palestinian relief efforts.

"You know, in 1492," he began, "when the settlers came to this continent,
they killed the Indians and took their land. Then they brought black people
to this land and made slaves out of them. And then George Washington, who
was the first president of the United States, had 250 slaves?which is a
felony. At that time?and I use that expression ?at that time,? for the
simple reason that you cannot say, it was okay to kill the Jews at that
time. You know? A felony does not lose its dimension by the passing of
time... And I always say, if God wanted the Jews to have Palestine, why?d
he give the Chinese a whole continent? Understand that? The fact is, East
Prussia was part of Germany. By 1914, there was a thing called the Polish
Corridor, which allowed Poland access to the Baltic?it was a land-locked
country. After World War II, they gave them East Prussia. They gave the
Poles East Prussia?they could?ve given the Jews the Rhineland, and the
world couldn?t?ve said anything. After all, they took the lives and the
property of 600,000 German Jews. What happened to that property? Who has it
now? Israel says that God gave them the land that now belongs to Palestine.
That little piece of land. We are part of a solar system. Nine planets
revolving around the sun. There are billions and billions of planets
throughout the universe, in billions and billions of galaxies. How did God
even find this planet, let alone that little tiny piece of land to give them?"

One of Corey?s most notorious public appearances came on April 18, 1974,
when he showed up at Alice Tully Hall to accept the National Book Award for
Gravity?s Rainbow on behalf of Thomas Pynchon.

"Allen Ginsberg first suggested the idea," he says, "and Pynchon approved it."

So, after being mis-introduced (as "Robert Corey"), the little man with the
wild hair and the rumpled suit walked to the podium and addressed some of
the most esteemed figures in American publishing and literature:

"However...I accept this financial stipulation?ah?stipend in behalf of
Richard Python for the great contribution which to quote from some of the
missiles which he has contributed... Today we must all be aware that
protocol takes precedence over procedure. However you say?WHAT THE?what
does this mean...in relation to the tabulation whereby we must once again
realize that the great fiction story is now being rehearsed before our very
eyes, in the Nixon administration...indicating that only an American writer
can receive...the award for fiction, unlike Solzinitski whose fiction does
not hold water.

"Comrades?friends, we are gathered here not only to accept in behalf of one
recluse?one who has found that the world in itself which seems to be a time
not of the toad?to quote Studs TurKAL. And many people ask ?Who are Studs
TurKAL?? It?s not ?Who are Studs TurKAL?? it?s ?Who AM Studs TurKAL??..."

Full article: http://www.nypress.com/14/45/news&columns/feature.cfm

For more Irwin Corey information, and merchandise, visit:
http://home.xnet.com/~scott880/irwincorey/




Louis Proyect
Marxism mailing list: http://www.marxmail.org


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