If you’re a fan of Conan O’Brien you know that every once in a while he likes to bring ol’ Sideshow Abe out so he can do something funny and get immense applause from the audience. Everybody loves Abe. But it seems to me that in the past ten years or so that I’ve been watching Conan, Abe has never had a speaking part. He always does his brief bits silently. I always assumed this was for two reasons:
It’s more funny that way, and
They didn’t want to pay him.
But the past couple weeks, Conan has featured Abe bits where he actually has lines! First was Abe receiving a telephone call asking if he would come down and do a pre-tape, and then a couple nights ago, Abe was molesting avacados at the supermarket. So what’s the deal? Is Abe in dire straits? Does he need lines so he can pay his rent? Or have Conan and Co. finally recognized a vast source of untapped comic potential?
Personally, I think Abe is slowly but surely usurping Conan’s power. Late Night with Abe Vigoda is mere weeks away.
Don’t do this to me! I was afraid Vigoda was no more!
I doubt Vigoda is super-rich but I also doubt he needs the coin. He’s got several pensions by now (SAG, Social Security) and got in a lot of lucrative appearances in his time, plus being 50 when he got his first role that could pay the bills he hopefully had the maturity and wisdom to save a bit. It could be that he had a weak voice due to illness and they worked around it.
Also, Conan’s not that stingy. He paid $50,000 for the information, supplied first class airfare/accomodations/transportation for Whitman Mayo (“Sanford & Son’s” Grady) and wife when he wanted Grady for a sketch and couldn’t find him. (Mayo had retired from acting and his former agent didn’t even know where to find him; he was in Atlanta.)
I’m surprised to find that Vigoda was only 51 when he appeared in The Godfather (his film debut) and only 56 when he left the cast of Barney Miller. Does anyone know if he ever looked young?
