I have been to a few live “stand-up comedians shows,” but for the most part, I have just seen them on television. And I will have to admit that they are not my favorite form of entertainment; I have come to like them more as I have aged than when I was still “wet behind the ears,” as Dad liked to say! Redd Foxx, Richard Pryor, Robin Williams, Eddie Murphy, Rodney Dangerfield, John Candy, Jerry Seinfeld, Arsenio Hall, Carol Burnett, Roseanne Barr, Lily Tomlin— O. K. I guess I liked more of them and liked their routines more than I had remembered before I began this article.
One, whom I did not ever notice until later in my life, was JUDY TENUTA, who was a “sidekick” of George Carlin (a great comedian I did not mention above) and who often referred to herself as “The Love Goddess.”
I learned a while back that she always said she was younger than she really was, by about 15 or so years. In reality, she was born in 1949, and she died recently at age 72 of ovarian cancer. (I remember that as a teacher, I remained 36 of age for several years and then 46 for the rest of my career!)
Why did I consider her an enigma (a question or puzzle)? Because she looked like a cute, sweet, innocent, shy school girl but was actually much the opposite as she “did her routine.” Tenuta had a loud comedic voice, a harsh/rough delivery, a biting/ burning type of humor, and EXPLETIVES were a staple of her routine—Redd and Richard could have been matched pretty equally against her—a testament to her ability!
The fact that she used an accordion as part of her act, and her pretty, heart-shaped face, and her “dolled up” hair made the “adultish” aspects of her comedy all the more attractive. She has to be credited for both driving up the popularity of live comedy and for driving up the popularity of WOMEN performers!
When news of her passing got out, some of the expressions were “lost a goddess,” “devastated by her passing,” “one of a special type,” “She made me forget my problems!”
Some of her special credits include On Location: Women of the Night (HBO), Space Ghost Coast to Coast, often a guest on late night talk shows, The Weird Al Show, The Vagina Monologues, and comedy albums, such as In Goddess We Trust and Attention: Butt Pimy rate and Lesbeterians. And, like most good comedians, she was able to poke fun at herself and her friends without offense.
Tenuta grew up, attending Catholic schools in Chicago and feeling somewhat isolated, so she picked up the nickname of “petite flower,” which was later one of her stage names!
She graduated from college, tried several different jobs without too much success, and finally joined a Chicago comedy troupe, called “2nd City.”
From the beginning, this special comic actress said that folks who took in her act quite soon caught the meaning of her act and the point of her comedy, despite the sometimes disparity of her dress and looks.
She did what so many of us would probably like to do—“Make viewyears ers and listeners forget about their problems and focus upon those of my character on stage or on tape!”
As my Grandson, who has learned his Grandpa’s style of acting and talking pretty quickly and well, often asks me: “ARE YOU KIDDING?”—people asked JUDY TENUTA the same thing and already knew the answer!
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