Irving Benson

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Irving Benson was a standup comic in the Borscht Belt or Vaudeville tradition. He resembled Myron Cohen to some extent.

He worked with fellow vaudevillian Milton Berle over the years, and gained a good deal of recognition as a (planted) heckler in Berle's weekly variety series in the 1960s, playing a character named "Sidney Spritzer" ("Spritzer" is German/Yiddish for "Needler" or "Sprayer"). "Sidney" would "interrupt" one of Berle's monologues from his private box seat conveniently overlooking the stage, and engage the host in a series of humorous insults and comebacks.

He also made some appearances on The Hollywood Palace. His last acting job appears to have been on Happy Days in the late 1970s.

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