NEW YORK (AP) – For comedians, there was very little to laugh about in 2014.
Three pioneering comic legends died – David Brenner, Joan Rivers and Robin Williams – and Bill Cosby went from America’s dad to an alleged serial sexual predator.
“It’s unfortunate when you lose anybody. To lose three and to have these allegations with Cosby, it’s a tough year,” said Christopher Mazzilli, co-owner of the Gotham Comedy Club.
The year began with exciting late-night transitions for Jimmy Fallon and Seth Meyers, but soon started on a litany of loss, beginning with the death in March of the lanky, toothy-grinned Brenner, whose brand of observational comedy paved the way for Jerry Seinfeld and Paul Reiser.
Then Williams, who inspired and supported so many comedians with a legacy that included Mork and Mindy on TV and films like Mrs Doubtfire and Dead Poets Society, committed suicide in August.
By fall, Rivers, whose brassy style was picked up by Sarah Silverman, Chelsea Handler and Kathy Griffin, had also died. Others lost this year include stand-up comedian John Pinette and SNL veteran Jan Hooks. In New York magazine, Chris Rock called 2014 “a weird year for comedy” and many agree.
“It’s been a brutal year for losing funny people,” said Kelly Carlin, daughter of comedic-legend George Carlin and a performer in her own right. “It feels like comedy is teaching us what it feels like to walk through loss this year.”
Paul Provenza, a veteran stand-up, TV host and director of the film The Aristocrats, said the losses of Brenner, Williams and Rivers hit hard because they each invented unique styles of joke-telling.
This year also saw the re-flaring of accusations – and quick denials – of child molestation allegations against Woody Allen. They cast a shadow over his film Magic in the Moonlight and his Broadway musical Bullets Over Broadway.
The world of humour was also knocked off-balance by the renewed allegations against Cosby by more than 15 women claiming decades-old sexual assaults. He has denied some of the allegations, but his career has suffered.
“I feel like we’ve lost Bill Cosby,” said Carlin. “I feel like there’s some sort of erasure happening on the Mount Rushmore of comedy right now, with his face being sandblasted away in some ways.”
Provenza said he’s deeply saddened by the allegations against Cosby and horrified by the accusations, but tells people who ask about it to always trust the art, not the artist.
