Mantan Moreland & Nipsey Russell 1955

In this rare video clip from 1955, Mantan Moreland peeks out from behind the curtain of Harlem's Apollo Theatre, calling for "Mr. Chan!" to the delight of the audience.
He then joins Nipsey Russell for a classic comedy routine!
FUN!

Category:

Comedy

Tags:

• Mantan
• Moreland;
• Nipsey
• Russell;
• Comedy;
• Apollo
• Theatre;
• Chitlin
• Circuit;
• Black
• comedians;
• African-American
• history

[rhinnawi95]

What's gone is gone :'(

These guys were irreplaceable!

[misharyutubbee]

Mantan was really funny. He should have been better appreciated.

[luviananna]

Conspiracy... By the Devils

[HalcyonicRepose]

Did they make any movies together?

[HalcyonicRepose]

What great timing, another comedy team I've never heard of before! (well' I've heard of Nipsy, but didn't know he was in a comedy team.)

It's much more difficult to be funny if you're a clean comic, so props to them!

[kariwattsup]

I grew up watching this on t.v. Filtered to the general public again in the seventies. Is it part of "the plan" to keep "us" distracted from wuts really goin on? Hmmm....

[ridgerunner721601]

@DAngelo136 I agree with you wholeheartedly.

[ridgerunner721601]

@WSenator1 Me too. LOL And a good day to you too Senator. : )

[WSenator1]

@ridgerunner721601 - Agreed. I'm not a prude. I can laugh down and dirty as well as the next person. But I do love funny-but-clean material more so. Glad you're enjoying - have a good day!

[DAngelo136]

@ridgerunner721601 The difference is: the comedians of the past were forced by circumstance to "coon", today's comedians do it by choice. As the late Gil Scott-Heron said: "Four letter words won't make you a poet; it offends 9 out of 10 people and exposes how shallow you are and lets everybody know it".-from "Message to the Messengers"

[ridgerunner721601]

@DAngelo136 The ironic thing is that those old timers like Willie Best and Mantan Moreland had more talent in their little fingers than any of the so called comics of today who get cheap laughs by being either foul mouthed or just plain abrasive.

[ridgerunner721601]

@WSenator1 I remember Nipsey on The Dean Martin Show back in the late '60s and early '70s. He and Dom Deluise were in a memorable recurring skit as a couple of barbers who would supposedly give haircuts to Dean and whoever might be one of his guests that particular week. They were all terrific. The comedy was funny and not foul mouthed or juvenile like so much of what passes for comedy nowadays.