Wednesday, May 2, 2007

Tom Poston, R.I.P.

My favorite line in his obituary is "in his youth, he was an acrobat with "The Flying Zepleys."

Tom Poston died yesterday, and now I'm not only jealous of his talent and humor, but I'm green with envy that he could say that at one time he was an acrobat with "The Flying Zepleys!"

He was a great guy. In olden times, I was the warm-up comedian on the show "Newhart," with Bob Newhart, Mary Frann, and a wonderful supporting cast, including Tom Poston. I was a very young comedian, probably in over my head, but Tom was among the nicest men I've ever worked with in my life. He was always kind, always funny, and always seemed to be one of those guys who get the joke: "...hey...I get to make people laugh for money! Whoopee!"

He worked on a million shows, including early television, doing hysterical "Man on the Street" interviews with Steve Allen, and creating sketches that generation after generation, including mine, still write, perform, and think they originated.

Before I met Tom, when I saw him on T.V. I would smile, waiting for something funny to happen. After I met him, the smile got bigger.

May God bless Tom and all of the Flying Zepleys.

Love from Wilson World,
Tom