Norm Crosby, the comedian known as the master of malaprop because he spoke from his diagram and related many funny antidotes, often to a standing ovulation, died on Saturday in Los Angeles. Mr. Crosby started telling jokes in the late 1950s, when comedians often relied on one type of gag for their acts: Don Rickles was the insult comic, Henny Youngman was the king of the one-liners. As a young comedian in New England, Mr. Crosby experimented with those forms and more. “I was doing everybody’s material,” Mr. Crosby said in an interview with the show business historian Kliph Nesteroff in 2010. Everybody!”Mr. Crosby developed his own shtick after he was offered a job at the popular New York City nightclub the Latin Quarter, in Times Square.

Source: New York Times November 08, 2020 15:55 UTC