One of the funniest comics of the late 50s and early 60s – and maybe of all time - was Brother Dave Gardner. Originally a jazz drummer and singer – he had one top 20 hit in 58 with White Silver Sands – his monologues between songs became so popular that he switched to comedy full time.
He looked and sounded like a televangelist long before such a thing existed, and he interspersed his Southern Baptist Sermon style delivery with voices that were hilarious caricatures of the illiterate poor folks he grew up with in the South.
Those bits would be seen as politically incorrect today, but back then they had us rolling in the aisles.
Hall-of-Fame disc jockey Paul Berlin at KNUZ had the number one show in town in the early 60s, and I worked just across the hall at sister station KQUE-fm. When Gardner came to town, he would stop by to see his old friend, and they recorded a series of bits with Gardner as a young black girl known as Prissy.
Those short bits became a mainstay of Berlin’s show. Judicious use and careful timing made it seem as if Prissy was there in the studio almost every day. Prissy was hilarious,so popular and so believable that she got fan mail and even phone calls at the station.
If you’ve never heard Brother Dave, or just want a trip down memory lane, try this:
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