Irwin Corey
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"Professor" Irwin Corey (born July 29, 1914 in Brooklyn, New York) is an American comic, film actor, and left-wing political activist who is billed as "The World's Foremost Authority." He is credited with inventing his unscripted, improvisational style of stand-up comedy at Enrico Banducci's San Francisco club the hungry i.
He grew up in local orphanages until he was 13, then rode the rails out to California. While working his way back East, he became a featherweight Golden Gloves boxing champion.
In 1938 he was back in New York, where he got a job writing and performing in Pins and Needles, a musical comedy revue about a union organizer in the garment trade in New York. He was fired from this job (he has said) for his union organizing activities -- the irony of which was not lost on him. Five years later, he was working on another review, New Faces of 1943 and appearing at the Village Vanguard, doing his stand-up comedy routine. He was drafted during World War II, but was discharged after six months, after (according to Corey) convincing an Army psychiatrist that he was a homosexual.
From the late 1940s he cultivated his "Professor" character. Dressed in seedy formal wear and sneakers, with his bushy hair sprouting in all directions, Corey would amble on stage in a preoccupied manner, then begin his monologue with "However..." He created a new style of doubletalk comedy; instead of making up nonsense words like "krelman" and "trilloweg," like other comics, the professor would season his speech with many long and florid, but authentic, words. The professor would then launch into nonsensical observations about anything under the sun, but seldom actually making sense. Changing topics suddenly, he would wander around the stage, pontificating all the while. His very quick wit allowed him to hold his own against the most stubborn straight man or interviewer. One fan of Corey's comedy was Ayn Rand. [1]
[edit] Television
Corey also appeared occasionally in 1950s television as a character actor. He is memorable in an episode of The Phil Silvers Show titled "Bilko's Grand Hotel," in which Corey plays an unkempt Bowery bum being passed off as a hotelier by Sgt. Bilko. The professor was a frequent guest comic on variety shows and a guest panelist on game shows during the 1960s and 1970s.
He accepted the National Book Award Fiction Citation on behalf of Thomas Pynchon for Gravity's Rainbow in 1974. He is also briefly mentioned in Chapter 22 of the Robert A. Heinlein novel Friday, but as "the World's Greatest Authority."
Professor Irwin Corey became so synonymous with comic erudition that, when a Rhode Island TV station wanted a spokesman to explain changes in network affiliations, Corey got the job. Lecturing with pointer in hand, Corey manipulated magnetic signs to demonstrate how TV schedules would be disrupted. By the end of the announcement, the visual aids were in shambles and the professor, as usual, had meandered from his original point.
Corey often appeared on Steve Allen's late night show, syndicated by Westinghouse, The Steve Allen Show (1962-64), whereon he would end his rambling stand-up routine with Allen literally chasing him off the stage.
"Professor" Irwin Corey's stage persona bears some similarities to that of "Professor" Stanley Unwin.
Corey has appeared in Shakespearean theater; he was one of the gravediggers in a production of Hamlet. He is seldom seen on stage today, something he attributes to lasting affects of his 1950s blacklisting. He stays active participating in political rallies, and has appeared in support of Cuban children, Mumia Abu-Jamal, and the American Communist Party.
Professor Corey resides in the Murray Hill neighborhood of New York City.
