Jerry Sadowitz

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Jerry Sadowitz
Birth name Jerry Sadowitz
Born 4 November 1961 (1961-11-04) (age 46)
New Jersey, U.S.
Medium Stand-Up, Magic
Nationality British
Genres Offensive/Blue
Influences Peter Cook, Dudley Moore, Lenny Bruce
Notable works and roles The Total Abuse Video
Website Official website

Jerry Sadowitz (sometimes billed as Gerry Sadowitz), (born 4 November 1961[1]) is a Scottish card magician and controversial stand-up comic. An accomplished practitioner of sleight of hand, he has written several books on magic and invented many conjuring innovations.

Contents

[edit] Background

Born in New Jersey to a Jewish family, Sadowitz was brought up in Glasgow, Scotland.

Following the breakdown of his parents' marriage, his mother returned to her native Scotland. A sickly child, Sadowitz took an interest in magic while still at school. He is today widely acclaimed as one of the best close-up magicians in the business.

[edit] Comedy influences

An early influence were the Derek & Clive sketches by Peter Cook and Dudley Moore, which much of his comedy emulates in its provocativeness and sheer offensiveness (he once described the Derek & Clive duologues as "comic poetry").

He often comments in a seemingly callous way on contemporary disasters and tragedies which have struck groups or individuals. He uses obscene language liberally and to cutting comedic effect. His comedy style combines the visual traditions of the magician, often using gaudy conjuring props, with political social and cultural observations which deliberately challenge the norms, taboos and transient sensitivities of contemporary culture. To this end, he is knowingly and deliberately offensive and sits firmly in the tradition of the "sick comic" established by Lenny Bruce.

[edit] Career

Some of his earliest performances as a magician, with comic asides, were at a Glasgow pub (the Weavers Inn) run by future comedienne Janey Godley. He first came to prominence as a comedian in London in the early 1980s and was, for a time considered part of the alternative comedy movement. His earliest inspiration in stand up comedy was Alexei Sayle. While living in Scotland he would travel down to appear at The Comedy Store in London by express coach. In his early days he was managed by anarchic comedian and club proprietor Malcolm Hardee, whose provocative selling line was that Sadowitz was too shocking to appear on TV; this may have actively put off TV producers from booking him. As a bet with fellow comic Nick Revell, he produced one of his most famous lines of that era: "Nelson Mandela, what a cunt. Terry Waite, bastard. I dunno, you lend some people a fiver, you never see them again."

While still with Hardee, Sadowitz's hit 1987 Edinburgh Fringe show Total Abuse was turned into the album Gobshite, but was soon withdrawn due to fears it may have libeled Jimmy Savile. After a brief run as a columnist for Time Out magazine, he embarked on the Lose Your Comic Virginity tour in 1989. At this time he was no longer being managed by Malcolm Hardee but by Jon Thoday's fledgling Avalon management company. This tour culminated in a show at the Dominion theatre in London, the climax of which was an illusion in which he appeared from the rear of the auditorium wearing a kilt and a huge plastic phallus from which he proceeded to spray the audience.

In 1991 he was famously punched after uttering just one sentence ("Good evening, moosefuckers!") at the Just For Laughs Comedy Festival in Montreal by an irate audience member.

In 1992 he appeared in his own television show The Pall Bearer's Revue. This name was taken from an old magic magazine. This show was not considered successful and attracted a record number of complaints ([1]) and has never been repeated.

He later reacted against the alternative comedy movement by dealing in an aggressive and uncompromising way with issues of race and gender which challenged the prevailing orthodoxy of the alternative comedy culture. Outbursts of his savage comedy during his conjuring shows have sometimes alienated him from the more conservative magic community.

In the 1990s he was part of a short-lived double act with Logan Murray, in the shows Bib & Bob and Late Night Filth. His work with Murray took the form of sketches aimed at alienating almost everyone, including stamping on a blow-up doll of the recently deceased Linda McCartney, and tipping Logan Murray, dressed as Superman, out of a wheelchair into the audience (a reference to the paralysis of Christopher Reeve). At one point he spat in the face of a drunken heckler who was constantly interrupting the show. His final act was to strip naked and run for a few minutes across the stage, prompting a mixture of disgust and hilarity from the audience.

In 1999 he performed for a month at the Penny Theatre in Camden, London, performing close-up magic to 30 people at a time. In recent years he has performed more of these close up magic shows in smaller venues where the focus has been on the tricks and the offensive patter forming an incidental, yet still angry and obscene part, of the act. He performed two separate shows at the 2005 Edinburgh Fringe, a stand up comedy show (Not For The Easily Offended) at The Queens Hall and Jerry Sadowitz - Card Tricks & Close Up Magic at The Assembly Rooms. The comedy show included a character named "Rabbi Burns", a cross between a Jew and the famous Scottish poet. He performed a similar series of shows at the Soho Theatre in London between December 2006 and January 2007.

Sadowitz also appeared in the music video of The Shamen's UK number 1 hit from 1992 "Ebeneezer Goode", and helped get now-famous mentalist Derren Brown his first shows on Channel 4.

In 2006, Jerry was voted number 15 in the Channel 4 production One Hundred Greatest Stand-Ups.[2]

In 2006 he broke the Soho box office record for ticket sales when he performed his close up magic show at the Soho Theatre. He is considered to be one of the top close up card magicians in the world.[citation needed]Some of the card tricks he performs in his close up show are so technically difficult that there are only a couple of magicians in the world who can perform them.

In 2007 his Edinburgh show "Comedian, Magician, Psychopath" at the Smirnoff Cowgate sold out.

In early 2008 Sadowitz posted a photo of his penis on his website. The offending photo can be found in the "Bollocks" section of his site. Moreover, it is rumoured - although not substantiated - that this resulted in UK television's Channel 5 withdrawing an offer of a comedy/magic series.

[edit] Television credits

[edit] Bibliography

  • Alternative Card Magic: Jerry Sadowitz & Peter Duffie (1982)
  • Contemporary Card Magic: Jerry Sadowitz & Peter Duffie (1984)
  • Cards Hit (1984)
  • Inspirations: Jerry Sadowitz & Peter Duffie (1987)
  • Cards on the Table (1988)
  • Out of Sight (1993)
  • The Marenzal Reverse (undated)
  • Thanks to Zarrow (1997)
  • Cut Controls (2004)
  • Dr. Norman Nutjobs 50 Close-Up Problems (2005)
  • The Crimp magazine (1992-2007)

[edit] Discography

[edit] References

  1. ^ Jerry Sadowitz. The Comedy Zone.
  2. ^ One Hundred Greatest Stand-Ups. Channel 4. Retrieved on 2007-03-27.

[edit] External links