Tony Mastroianni Review Collection
Alan Isn't Kidding -- His Baby Is Real
Cleveland Press September 22, 1966
You would think Alan King would have run out of relatives, real and otherwise, to talk about by now.
But no, he has a new one. A baby. King will be mentioning him when the comedian opens a two-night stand at Musicarnival Sunday.
"Sure, I'll be talking about the kid then." King said in a phone conversation yesterday.
"Yes, he's real," King protested.
(Some of the relatives in King's monologs are known to be imaginary.)
"My wife had a baby July 27. I'll have a full monologue about it by Oct. 2, but I'm breaking in some of the stuff now.
"Actually, it won't all be about the baby. After all, how much can an eight-week-old kid do? I'll be discussing my wife and the pregnancy and how it is to live with a woman through those nine months."
KING KIDS his wife a great deal in his monologs. Does she mind?
"After 20 years of marriage she's used to it. And she has known me since I was 12.
"Besides, I give her a pretty good check every Friday."
THERE'S A SERIOUS side to King and that is Alan King, Broadway producer.
With Walter A. Hyman he was co-producer of his own starring vehicle, "The Impossible Years," in which he played 11 months. The show is continuing with Sam Levene.
The same team is producing a revival of "Dinner At Eight," and a new play by the "Marat Sade" author, Peter Weiss -- "The Investigation."
Previously they produced "A Lion In Winter" with Robert Preston and Rosemary Harris.
"Rosemary Harris won an award and we lost 90% of our investment," King recalled.
"We're doing 'Dinner at Eight' because Tyrone Guthrie wanted to direct and I've always wanted to produce a play he would direct.
"The Investigation is about the concentration camp atrocity trials and it's powerful and morbid."
KING WILL continue to work as a standup comic, has future dates in Lake Tahoe and Las Vegas plus television appearances, wants to do a musical next year, will make a movie in the spring.
Comic actor Alan Arkin ("Russians Are Coming") wrote the script and King calls it a "Big Deal On Madonna Street" in Brooklyn.
He has no plans to stop kidding marriage, suburban living and large institutions such as insurance companies and airlines.
"I think every insurance company in the country has a picture of me on the wall that they use for a dart board," he said.
"I was ready to get on a plane recently and a supervisor came out and gave me the royal treatment. I told him: This isn't going to help you any!
"You know, that plane was 45 minutes late."
