Magic, Typewriters & Classical Music

[Joe Mckay]

I always felt magic was a celebration of ingenuity. With that in mind I am always on the lookout for other charming examples of ingenuity that reflect some of the warmth I feel towards magic.

A good example of this kind of silly ingenuity is the Typerwriter song by Leroy Anderson. It is a piece of light classical music that stars... a typewriter.

There is a great performance of the piece here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G4nX0Xrn-wo

I went down a bit of a youtube rabbit hole and found that this piece was later made famous by a funny piece of mime by Jerry Lewis:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uaPKEbVypRQ

And the piece by Jerry Lewis reminded me of a similar idea by Lee Evans that seems to have taken inspiration from the Jerry Lewis mime and taken it to a whole other level:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lGiuDEVf2wE

So as well as the celebration of silly ingenuity - the above reminds me of magic in the way different generations have taken an earlier idea and added their own unique touch.

Sorry for the ramble. I think somebody might have spiked my second bottle of bourbon.

[Bill Mullins]

And the piece by Jerry Lewis reminded me of a similar idea by Lee Evans that seems to have taken inspiration from the Jerry Lewis mime and taken it to a whole other level:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lGiuDEVf2wE

I think the Evans piece is at least as much influenced by Rowan Atkinson as by Jerry Lewis.

[Joe Lyons]

Great stuff.

When I think of the planning and practice that went into some of these seemingly facile pieces of comedy it hurts my head.