There’s a certain kind of comedian who succeeds because they’re the only one who really does their particular shtick. Then slowly they get drowned out by others who actually have talent or can write better jokes.
The British equivalent of Rich Little in the late 70s was a guy named Mike Yarwood, who similarly wasn’t very good at it, and had five or six go-to impressions while the rest were borderline at best, but he got all the attention and TV appearances because he was effectively the only one doing it at the time.
Not that impressions have ever been the greatest comedy. Even top efforts are a bit rubbish. See also ventriloquists.
Speaking of impressionists, does anyone [inc Rich Little] ever do ‘Hollywood Party’ any more?
For you youngsters, it seems to have been a fairly standard stew of material for stage and TV imressionists. They would start with 'Hi, we’re at the Hollywoood party and look! Jimmy Cagney has just walked through the door … [miracle of transformation] … ‘You dirty rat, you dirty rat’, and now he’s talking to Gomer Pyle! etc etc until you wish you could swallow your tongue and die.
It’s like Edgar Bergen who visually a terrible ventriloquist because he started on radio and never had to focus on his mouth movements. But he’s revered as a good ventriloquist because he was the first to become popular on TV.
Even during their prime, I liked a few minutes of any impressionist, then the novelty quickly wore off.
I will say I have a soft spot for Rich Little’s Christmas Carol, which was made in 1976 and used to run quite a bit on HBO in the early eighties when I was a kid. Of course, there were several rather witty jokes that went squarely over my head at that age–especially Marley/Nixon being wrapped in recording tape instead of chains and the “eighteen and a half minutes” reference. Nor did I have the foggiest who Columbo was.
I also give Rich props for filling in David Niven’s voice in the final Pink Panther he was in (Curse of the Pink Panther). His ALS had gotten to the point where his voice faltered, so Rich Little dubbed in his few lines. (Rich had also voiced–yes, voiced!–the Panther himself in the two or three late-period shorts where he actually spoke a few lines.)
As you say, those were awful. “My voice can sound a bit like this person who has a recognizable voice, but I need to tell you who it is and say one of their iconic lines!” That type of impression is rarely very funny. That is in contrast to the types of impressions often found on SNL, where they are done to tease or mock the target. That can be funny, depending on the quality of the material. The impression doesn’t even have to be very good, because the humor is based on more than just the impression, look at what an idiot this politician is, or what if Jimmy Stewart went to a prostitute, or whatever.
As for Rich Little, I remember as a kid thinking he was funny on an HBO special, or something, but then seeing him on other stuff and thinking he just sounded like Rich Little. I seem to recall some comedian doing meta impressions where he’d impersonate Rich Little impersonating Marlon Brando.
A singing impressionist. I’ve mercifully blocked his name from my memory. Warm up act at a county fair concert. Lots of short medleys to pre-recorded instrumental tracks.
His big finale was singing all the parts for “We are the World”… In 1998.
You know how when some people open a gift they say “Oh, you shouldn’t have” but don’t really mean it?
I mean it. Literally. You shouldn’t have. I could have happily gone the rest of my life without knowing who that was. (Some internet sleuthing confirms about a 90% chance it was him.)
He also does a super awesome saxophone imitation you should Google. Spoiler: it’s pretty exclusively the Pink Panther theme. He should just do that full time as a Kenny G impersonator.
I always thought Little did a pretty good imitation of Johnny Carson’s 20 different mannerisms. But that was about it. Never understood why he was so ubiquitous on tv in the 1970s while David Frye, who imo was more talented, faded away quickly.
My suspicion is that Little had a very good agent, and/or he was well-liked by influential people, such as Carson, which helped to get him more visibility and opportunities.
I saw Rich Little back in the 70s; the show was in a theater-in-the-round with a slowly-revolving stage. I remember that my mom made fun of me for going to see a guy who was on TV all the time anyway.
My admittedly-hazy memory of the show is “quantity over quality.” The individual impressions weren’t that great, but he did a lot of them. The guy had a huge repertoire. The show was about two hours long (excluding intermission and a warm-up act I’ve forgotten) and he was on his feet for the whole thing, talking constantly. He also had a decent gag in every impression; it wasn’t just saying “I am not a crook” for Nixon, etc.
So, considered purely as an impressionist, I’d say he was mediocre—but he was a highly professional entertainer and delivered a good show.
Even as a kid, I never found him funny. I remember once thinking, “He can do voices well, but what he says in those voices isn’t funny, so what’s the point?”
And maybe the voices weren’t even as good as I thought then.
Anyway, I haven’t thought about Rich Little since probably before the OP was written.
I’m glad someone finally mentioned David Frye. Otherwise I would have. David Frye was great. He did politicians a lot, people topical at the time, like Lyndon Johnson, George Wallace, Richard Nixon, Bobby Kennedy and many others. He didn’t just do the voice. He had what was called a “rubber face” and he used it to really capture the facial expressions of those he caricatured. He was hot for a few years in the late 60s and early 70s. As for Rich Little (and Frank Gorshen), I never thought much of either of them.
My parents dragged my wife and me to see him in Vegas in about 1980, and he was doing a lot of film stuff there also - including a long clip of Jimmy Stewart singing which just showed how bad Little’s imitation was.
I can hardly imagine how bad he must be today.
Remembering seeing Little in a lot of TV appearances back in the 1970s, his routine was mostly doing short bits in which he imitated various celebrities – he’d do Johnny Carson for a minute or so (because that was one of his better imitations), then John Wayne for a few lines, then Durante or Cagney, etc. I wouldn’t be surprised if he really only had enough good* material for a standup routine (10 to 20 minutes, tops). Headlining a Vegas show probably means an expectation of a 60-90 minute show, and he probably needed to put in a lot of filler.
