Ed Bluestone

{{Short description|American comedian, writer and actor (1948 or 1949 – 2024)}}

{{Infobox person

| image =

| alt =

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| birth_date = {{birth based on age as of date|27|1976|8|1|noage=y}}

| birth_place = East Orange, New Jersey, U.S.

| death_date = {{death date and age|2024|10|24|1948|mf=yes}}

| death_place =

| occupation = {{flatlist|

Comedian
writer
actor}}

| spouse =

| years_active = 1970s–1980s

}}

Ed Bluestone ({{birth based on age as of date|27|1976|8|1|noage=y}} – October 24, 2024) was an American comedian, writer and actor.

Bluestone wrote for National Lampoon magazine and was the originator of the publication's most famous cover. He is also known for his role on the 1977 revival of the sketch comedy series Laugh-In.

Early life

Bluestone was born in East Orange, New Jersey to a Jewish family.{{cite news |last=Meehan |first=Thomas |title=Breaking in the bananas |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1976/08/01/archives/article-4-no-title.html |work=The New York Times |location=New York City, New York, United States |date=August 1, 1976 |access-date=April 2, 2022}}{{cite news |title=Ed Bluestone Obituary |url=https://www.legacy.com/us/obituaries/latimes/name/ed-bluestone-obituary?id=56701527 |work=Los Angeles Times |via=Legacy.com |date=November 5, 2024 |access-date=November 12, 2024}}{{cite news |last=Knoblauch |first=Edward |date=July 18, 1976 |title=Being Funny Hard Work, But It's Fun |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/145692481 |work=Asbury Park Press |location=Asbury Park, New Jersey, United States |page=C1 |access-date=April 2, 2022 |via=Newspapers.com |url-access=subscription |quote=When Ed Bluestone studied speech and drama at Monmouth College, West Long Branch, in the late '60s, he wasn't too happy . . . Bluestone, who was raised in East Orange, left college and became a comedian, writing his own material and working small clubs in Manhattan. He has made recent appearances on Johnny Carson and Merv Griffen shows, and at The Bottom Line in Greenwich Village, and Town Hall, Flushing, NY.}}{{cite book |last=Zoglin |first=Richard |date=February 3, 2008 |title=Comedy at the Edge: How Stand-up in the 1970s Changed America |url=https://www.today.com/popculture/excerpt-comedy-edge-wbna22982613 |publisher=Bloomsbury USA |isbn=9781582346243 |via=today.com}}

He studied speech and drama at Monmouth College (now known as Monmouth University) in West Long Branch. He had the reputation of being the class clown,{{cite book |last=Karp |first=Josh |date=2006 |title=A Futile and Stupid Gesture: How Doug Kenney and National Lampoon Changed Comedy Forever |publisher=Chicago Review Press |page=153 |isbn=9781556526022 |author-link=Josh Karp |quote=The most famous cover in Lampoon history began as a joke in the nightclub routine of Ed Bluestone, who'd been contributing to the magazine since 1972. In his early twenties, Bluestone was an angry, abrasive, upper-middle-class Jewish kid from New Jersey who idolized Woody Allen and cut his teeth on early Jerry Lewis. Dropping out of Monmouth College, the former class clown performed in Greenwich Village folk clubs that once hosted Bob Dylan and Joan Baez. Bluestone's act was entirely verbal--no faces or noises. One of his jokes was about the kind of record club that [Michael] O'Donoghue berated on his oft-shattered office phone. The bit revolved around a club whose demands for payment got progressively more threatening until they finally sent a picture of their customer's cocker spaniel with a gun to his head. Henry [Beard], on a rare trip out to see live entertainment or a low-brow nature, heard the joke and loved it, and took the concept to [Michael C.] Gross.}} and in a 1967 interview of Monmouth College students by the Long Branch Daily Record, students were asked "What do you think you will be doing five years from now?" Bluestone's response was "Selling subway tokens."{{cite news |last=Walsh |first=Ed |date=October 5, 1967 |title=Facing the ?uestion |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/496795542/ |work=Long Branch Daily Record |location=Long Branch, New Jersey, United States |publisher=Monmouth County Publishing Co. |page=9 |access-date=April 2, 2022 |via=Newspapers.com |url-access=subscription |quote=Question -- What do you think you will be doing five years from now? . . . Ed Bluestone, East Orange Student: Selling subway tokens.}} Bluestone eventually dropped-out and started performing stand-up comedy at 20 years of age.

Career

Bluestone got his start in stand-up in New York City, first in folk clubs and coffee houses in Greenwich Village,{{cite news |last=Hutchinson |first=John |title=Wine and Roses |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/696896610 |work= |location= |date= |access-date=April 2, 2022 |quote=Described as the pride of East Orange, New Jersey. Ed Bluestone's humor was honed in Greenwich Village coffee houses.}} before becoming a regular performer at the comedy clubs Catch a Rising Star and The Improv in Manhattan. He is known for his wry, deadpan delivery and for one-liners. He is also known for his dark sense of humor.{{cite news |last=Nachman |first=Gerald |date=March 7, 1975 |title=The New Comics |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/464434762/ |work=Daily News |location=New York City, New York, United States |page=80 |access-date=April 2, 2022 |via=Newspapers.com |url-access=subscription |author-link=Gerald Nachman |quote=Andy Kaufman, Elayne Boosler and Ed Bluestone are three of the funniest nobodies of comedy. If you're worried where all the new young comics are coming from, the most likely answer is 10th Ave. & 46th St., where The Improv is located and where all of the above may be seen on a good weekend night . . . Ed Bluestone behaves more traditionally -- he has a dry, deliberate, unblinking delivery -- but his concepts are equally inspired and insane. He reminds you of Rodney Dangerfield (bulging eyes, forlorn look) but he things like Woody Allen. Bluestone is less blue than black, even sick, but also ingenious, with quantum leaps in comic logic.}}{{cite book |last=Karp |first=Josh |date=2006 |title=A Futile and Stupid Gesture: How Doug Kenney and National Lampoon Changed Comedy Forever |publisher=Chicago Review Press |page=154 |isbn=9781556526022 |author-link=Josh Karp |quote=The Death issue includes two of Bluestone's best and darkest pieces: "23 Ways to Be Offensive at the Funeral of Someone You Didn't Like" and a series of cartoons entitled "Telling a Kid His Parents are Dead" (adult: "Here's your Halloween costume. You're gonna be an orphan"). In his funeral list, Bluestone suggests that disgruntled mourners: Walk up to the casket and start comparing the size of the deceased clothes to your own. Listen to the baseball game on a transistor radio and react loudly to every pitch. Stand around at the cemetery saying, "At least now he'll no longer be tormented over being impotent." Shake the widow's hand with an electric buzzer. With several other articles in the issue, Bluestone was the definitive voice of the Death issue.}} Bluestone admired comedians such as Woody Allen, Jerry Lewis, Rodney Dangerfield and Richard Pryor.{{cite news |last=Knoblauch |first=Edward |date=July 18, 1976 |title=Being Funny Hard Work, But It's Fun |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/145692656 |work=Asbury Park Press |location=Asbury Park, New Jersey, United States |page=C4 |access-date=April 2, 2022 |via=Newspapers.com |url-access=subscription |quote=[Bluestone] admires comedians Woody Allen, Rodney Dangerfield and Richie Pryor.}}

In 1972 he started writing for National Lampoon magazine. Bluestone conceived of the magazine's famous cover from their 1973 Death issue. It featured a dog with a gun pointed to his head next to the title "If You Don't Buy This Magazine We'll Kill This Dog," which originated from a joke in Bluestone's stand-up act. Bluestone also produced two pieces for the Death issue titled "23 Ways to Be Offensive at the Funeral of Someone You Didn't Like" and "Telling a Kid His Parents are Dead". It was the magazine's best seller that year.{{cite book |last=Berger |first=Phil |date=2000 |title=The Last Laugh: The World of Stand-up Comics|location= |publisher=Rowman & Littlefield |page=368 |isbn=9780815410966 |quote=The January 1973 Lampoon cover that depicted a dog with a gun up against its head and this notation--If You Don't Buy This Magazine, We'll Kill This Dog--was a Bluestone concept too. It drew the magazine's largest mail pull, much of it unamused. The issue was the Lampoon's best seller in 1973.}} The Lampoon cover was ranked number 7 on the American Society of Magazine Editors' list of the "Top 40 Magazine Covers of the Last 40 Years", published in 2005,{{cite web |url=https://www.asme.media/top-40-magazine-covers-of-the-last-40-years |title=Top 40 Magazine Covers of the Last 40 Years |date=October 17, 2005 |website=asme.media |publisher=American Society of Magazine Editors |access-date=March 23, 2022}} and was also one of five covers listed in a 2018 article in The Guardian titled "The best magazine covers ever?"{{cite news |last=Birch |first=Ian |title=The best magazine covers ever? |url=https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2018/sep/23/best-magazine-covers-ever-art-design-glossy-magazines |work=The Guardian |location=London, England, United Kingdom |date=September 23, 2018 |access-date=April 2, 2022}}

A syndicated column featuring Bluestone, called "My Favorite Jokes", appeared in American newspapers nationally from 1973 to 1978. Each column opened with note from an unnamed "editor" who would provide a bit of information about Bluestone, followed by a curation of Bluestone's stand-up material.{{cite news |last=Bluestone |first=Ed |title=My favorite jokes |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/435944205/ |work=The Boston Globe |location=Boston, Massachusetts, United States |page=18 |date=November 25, 1973 |access-date=April 2, 2022}}{{cite news |last=Bluestone |first=Ed |title=My favorite jokes |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/239195173/ |work=Argus-Leader |location=Sioux Falls, South Dakota, United States |page=19 |date=December 15, 1974 |access-date=April 2, 2022}}{{cite news |last=Bluestone |first=Ed |title=My favorite jokes |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/620503147/ |work=The Sacramento Bee |location=Sacramento, California, United States |page=19 |date=May 30, 1976 |access-date=April 2, 2022}}{{cite news |last=Bluestone |first=Ed |title=My favorite jokes |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/634224503/ |work=Fort Worth Star-Telegram |location=Fort Worth, Texas, United States |page=29 |date=May 22, 1977 |access-date=April 2, 2022}}{{cite news |last=Bluestone |first=Ed |title=My favorite jokes |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/111295689/ |work=The Tennessean |location=Nashville, Tennessee, United States |page=18 |date=July 26, 1978 |access-date=April 2, 2022}}

By the mid-1970s Bluestone's name was included in articles on the "new breed" of comedians, alongside names such as Robert Klein, Lily Tomlin, Richard Pryor, George Carlin, Richard Lewis, Andy Kaufman and Elayne Boosler.{{cite news |last=Mason |first=Bryant |date=August 24, 1975 |title=The Comedians Who Have to Be Funny |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/395924144 |department=Leisure |work=Daily News |location=New York City, New York, United States |page=5 |access-date=April 2, 2022 |via=Newspapers.com |url-access=subscription |quote=For the new breed of comics, of whom [Robert] Klein, Lily Tomlin, Richard Pryor, George Carlin, Richard Lewis and Larry Ragland, and Ed Bluestone are examples, the success or failure of a comic is largely determined by his ability to write material.}} He also became a paid regular at The Comedy Store in Los Angeles.{{cite web |url=https://thecomedystore.com/alumni/ |title=Paid Regulars |website=thecomedystore.com |publisher=The Comedy Store |access-date=March 23, 2022}}

He appeared on the variety show Saturday Night Live with Howard Cosell in 1975{{cite news |author= |date=November 22, 1975 |title=Weekend TV Key: Saturday |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/89779989 |department=TV Listings |work=Pittsburgh Post-Gazette |location=Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States |page=19 |access-date=April 2, 2022 |via=Newspapers.com |url-access=subscription |quote=8 p.m. -- Saturday Night Live With Howard Cosell -- Singers Tony Bennett and Linda Hopkins are the main attraction. Broadcast live from New York City, the show will feature Ed Bluestone, a new comedian.}} and appeared on three episodes of The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson in 1976.{{cite web |url=http://ctva.biz/US/TalkShow/TonightShow_1975-76_JohnnyCarson_s14.htm |title=Tonight Show starring Johnny Carson, Season 14 (NBC)(1975-76) |website=CTVA |publisher=The Classic TV Archive |access-date=March 23, 2022}} Bluestone appeared on the Dean Martin variety series Dean Martin's Comedyworld in 1974{{cite news |author= |date=June 27, 1974 |title=Tonight |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/784309611/ |department=TV listings |work=The Albuquerque Tribune |location=Albuquerque, New Mexico, United States |page=A19 |access-date=April 2, 2022 |via=Newspapers.com |url-access=subscription |quote=8-9 (Channel 4) -- Dean Martin's Comedyworld has film clips from "What's Up Doc" and Charlie Chaplin's "City Lights," plus appearances by The Committee, Ed Bluestone, Monty Python's Flying Circus, Muledeer and Moondog, Irwin C. Watson, Kelly Montieth, Morecambe and Wise and Alan Bursky.}} and Dean's Place in 1976,{{cite news |author= |date=January 10, 1976 |title=Today's Hi-Lites |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/200364404 |department=TV listings |work=Asheville Citizen-Times |location=Asheville, North Carolina, United States |page=8 |access-date=April 2, 2022 |via=Newspapers.com |url-access=subscription |quote=Dean's Place: Dean Martin returns for his second variety special. Guests: Peter Graves, Jack Cassidy, Foster Brooks, Vincent Gardenia, Guy Marks and the Golddiggers. Also appearing are comedians Ed Bluestone, Kelly Monteith and Mike Preminger, singers Freddy Fender and Jesse Colter, the Untouchables vocal group and the Committee, an improvisational group. }} in addition to serving as a roaster on the Gabe Kaplan and Peter Marshall episodes of The Dean Martin Celebrity Roast that aired in 1977.{{cite news |author= |date=May 1, 1977 |title=Monday Evening |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/288358559/ |department=TV listings |work=The News Leader |location=Staunton, Virginia, United States |page=5 |access-date=April 2, 2022 |via=Newspapers.com |url-access=subscription |quote=Dean's Martin Celebrity Roast: Peter Marshall is "roasted" by Martin and guest Orson Wells, Paul Lynde, Rose Marie, Jack Carter, Joey Bishop, Ed Bluestone, Foster Brooks and many, many others.}}{{cite news |author= |date=February 21, 1977 |title=Monday Evening |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/506045715/ |department=TV listings |work=Carlsbad Current-Argus |location=Carlsbad, New Mexica, United States |page=B7 |access-date=April 2, 2022 |via=Newspapers.com |url-access=subscription |quote=Dean Martin Celebrity Roast: Gabe Kaplan is 'roasted' by host Dean Martin and Orson Welles, Jimmie Walker, Alice Ghostley, Joe Garagiola, Johnny Bench, Liz Torres, Ed Bluestone, Charo, Abe Vigoda, Billy Crystal, Howard Cosell, Nipsey Russell, George Kirby, Charlie Callas, Milton Berle and Red Buttons.}}

Laugh-In producer George Schlatter visited The Improv to find talent for the show's 1977 revival. Schlatter told the Washington Post: "He hit me with one line. The line was, 'He's a quadrasexual. That means he'll do anything to anybody for a quarter.' When I hear that. I went crazy, and the club went crazy."{{cite news |last=Vanocur |first=Sander |title=The Son Of 'Laugh-In' |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1977/05/25/the-son-of-laugh-in/b5cffe1d-ded1-4164-b189-e17a234087b3/ |newspaper=The Washington Post |location=Washington, D.C., United States |date=May 25, 1977 |access-date=April 2, 2022 |author-link=Sander Vanocur}}

Bluestone dropped out of the public eye in the early 1980s. One of his last TV appearances was a 1982 episode of Late Night with David Letterman.{{cite news |author= |date=May 27, 1982 |title=TV Tonight |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/460616969 |work=The San Francisco Examiner |location=San Francisco, California, United States |page=E9 |access-date=April 2, 2022 |via=Newspapers.com |url-access=subscription |quote=Late Night With David Letterman: singer Grace Jones, comedian Ed Bluestone, cooking show host Mollie Fitzgerald.}}

During a Reddit AMA by filmmaker Douglas Tirola about his 2015 documentary Drunk Stoned Brilliant Dead: The Story of the National Lampoon, Tirola was asked "Where is Ed Bluestone?", to which Tirola replied: "Ed Bluestone has a cameo in the movie visiting Los Angeles. And I believe he performs standup. He's still funny."{{cite web |url=https://www.reddit.com/r/movies/comments/3mzxlq/documentary_filmmaker_doug_tirola_here_ama/ |title=Documentary Filmmaker Doug Tirola here – AMA! |date=October 1, 2015 |website=Reddit |access-date=March 23, 2022}}