Jerry Sadowitz

Jerry Sadowitz
Sadowitz at the Greenock Arts Guild in 2011
Birth name	Jerry Sadowitz
Born	(1961-06-04) 4 June 1961 New Jersey, United States
Medium	Stand-up Magician Illusionist
Notable works and roles	The People vs. Jerry Sadowitz The Pall Bearer's Revue The Jerry Atrick Show Total Abuse Gobshite
Website	jerrysadowitz.com

Jerry Sadowitz (born 4 June 1961) is an American-born Scottish stand-up comic and card magician.

Notorious for his frequently controversial brand of black comedy, Sadowitz has influenced a generation of comedians, but states that "politically incorrect comedy is no genre: it’s me, and it’s been ripped off by loads and loads of comics". In 2007 he was voted the 15th greatest stand-up comic on Channel 4's 100 Greatest Stand-Ups. In the 2010 list, he was voted the 33rd greatest stand-up comic.

Sadowitz is also widely acclaimed as one of the best close-up magicians in the world and an accomplished practitioner of sleight of hand, having written several books on magic and inventing several conjuring innovations.

In 2008, Sadowitz published an open letter to reviewers asking them not to quote his material stating that "a very important element of comedy is surprise, and it can often make the difference between a show that works and one that does not". He also actively protects his intellectual property, removing clips of himself from YouTube and torrent sites within hours of their appearance.

Early life

Sadowitz was born in New Jersey and moved to Glasgow when he was 7. He took an interest in magic at the age of 9, and by the age of 11 decided he wanted to become a magician acquiring books from Tam Shepherd's Magic and Joke Shop.

Career

1980s

Sadowitz made his comedy debut in 1983 at a Glasgow club and secured a regular stand-up slot at the Weavers Inn pub on London Road in Glasgow. The pub was run by future comedian Janey Godley, and he got the gig after her brother Jim begged her to put him on. Sadowitz began travelling down to London to perform at The Comedy Store every two weeks for two years, making the 400+ mile journey via Stagecoach express coach. He moved to the city permanently in 1986.

In the early days Sadowitz was managed by anarchic comedian and club proprietor Malcolm Hardee, whose provocative selling line for Sadowitz was that he was too shocking to appear on TV; this may have actively put off TV producers from booking him. As a bet with fellow comic Nick Revell, he produced one of his most famous lines of that era: "Nelson Mandela, what a cunt. Terry Waite, fucking bastard. I dunno, you lend some people a fiver, you never see them again." For a time Sadowitz was considered part of the alternative comedy movement, but his act proved too un-PC with the Guardian stating that Sadowitz "shook up the right-on values of the 80s alternative comedy circuit with his willingness to say the unsayable".

Sadowitz's 1987 Edinburgh Fringe show Total Abuse was filmed at the Assembly Rooms and also released as an audio release in the form of the album Gobshite. However, the album was quickly withdrawn from release due to fears of being sued for libel by Jimmy Savile as Sadowitz references rumours of Savile being a paedophile by referring to him as an expert in child abuse. After a brief run as a columnist for Time Out magazine, he embarked on the Lose Your Comic Virginity tour in 1989. At this time he was how being managed by Jon Thoday's fledgling Avalon Entertainment Ltd. The tour culminated in a show at the Dominion Theatre in London, the climax of which was an illusion in which he appeared from the rear of the auditorium wearing a kilt and a huge plastic phallus from which he proceeded to spray the audience.

1990s

In 1991, Sadowitz was knocked unconscious by an irate audience member during a performance at the Just for Laughs Comedy Festival in Montreal, where he mocked French Canadians, starting with the greeting "Hello moosefuckers! I tell you why I hate Canada: half of you speak French, the other half let them. Why dont yo all speak Indian? Might as well speak the language of the people you ripped it off of in the first place."

In 1992, Sadowitz appeared in his own television show The Pall Bearer's Revue. This name was taken from an old magic magazine. This show apparently attracted a record number of complaints and has never been repeated. In the same year, he appeared in the music video of The Shamen's UK number 1 hit "Ebeneezer Goode" (which was later featured in Beavis and Butt-head). He also helped Derren Brown, who he met via the International Magic shop, in his early career by putting him in touch with H&R publishers and Objective Productions, a production company founded by the television magician Andrew O'Connor. which led to his breakthrough show Mind Control in 2000.

Between 1994 and 1998, Sadowitz performed as part of the double act Bib & Bob with Logan Murray. His work with Murray took the form of sketches aimed at alienating almost everyone, with the duo stamping on a blow-up doll of the recently deceased Linda McCartney, and tipping Murray, dressed as Superman, out of a wheelchair into the audience (a reference to the paralysis of Christopher Reeve). At one show, Sadowitz spat in the face of a drunken heckler who was constantly interrupting the show. His final act was to strip naked and run across the stage, prompting a mixture of disgust and hilarity from the audience. The Herald newspaper decribed the show as featuring "Pyrotechnical swearing. Lavatorial straining noises. Wanton foodstuff-smearing. Simulated sodomy. Gratuitous adoption of Indian accents, plus spitting, shouting, and penile dismemberment".

In 1998, Sadowitz joined the newly launched Channel 5, hosting his own panel show The People vs. Jerry Sadowitz. The show featured Sadowitz sitting at a desk inviting members of the audience to join him and talk about a topic close to their heart and trying to get Sadowitz to agree with them. If they succeeded in winning Sadowitz over, they were invited back at the end of the show. If Sadowitz was not convinced or became bored during the audience member's time, he would ring a bell on the desk signalling for the show's resident bouncer Dave Courtney to escort them from the stage. In the same year, a full-frontal nude shot of Sadowitz appeared in Esquire magazine as part of a 14 page "uncensored sex special". Sadowitz continued to work with Channel 5, co-presenting The Jerry Atrick Show between 2000 and 2002.

2000–present

In the early 2000's, Sadowitz began performing close-up magic shows in small venues, where the focus was on the tricks and the offensive patter forming an incidental, yet still angry and obscene, part of the act.

In 2005, Sadowitz performed two separate shows at that years Edinburgh Fringe, a stand up comedy show (Not For The Easily Offended) at The Queens Hall and Jerry Sadowitz – Card Tricks & Close Up Magic at The Assembly Rooms. The comedy show included a character named "Rabbi Burns", a cross between a Jew and the famous Scottish poet. He performed a similar series of shows at the Soho Theatre in London between December 2006 and January 2007.

In 2006 he toured his "Equal Oportunities Offender" show and broke the Soho box office record for ticket sales when he performed his close up magic show at the Soho Theatre. In 2007, he performed his Edinburgh Festival show "Comedian, Magician, Psychopath" to a sold out crowd at the Underbelly.

In March 2008 as part of the Glasgow Comedy Festival, Sadowitz sold out the Theatre Royal. He performed the show "Comedian, Magician, Psychopath 2: Because I Still Have to Pay the Rent" at the Edinburgh Comedy Festival in 2008. In this show he celebrated the 2008 Sichuan Earthquake, making stereotypical references to Chinese people. In December 2008 Sadowitz sold out the Queen Elizabeth Hall on the Southbank, London.

Since 2010, Sadowitz has performed several runs at the Leicester Square Theatre in London. In April 2011, Sadowitz recorded two of these performances with the intention of releasing a DVD. The release was shelved after he changed his mind about releasing anything, stating that "I don’t want people looking at me on a DVD for the first time – and there are loads of people who haven’t seen me – and thinking: "Oh, he’s a bit like Frankie Boyle. Oh, he’s a bit like Ricky Gervais, he’s a bit like Jimmy Carr or Chubby Brown. I’ve heard Doug Stanhope do that…" So I don’t want people saying that about me."

Sadowitz appeared in the 2012 Kathy Burke comedy-drama Walking and Talking on Sky Atlantic, playing the character Jimmy the Jew.

In 2016, Sadowitz launched the "Trick of the Month Club" in which he teaches a new card trick every month to paying subscribers. In late 2016 Sadowitz will embark on his tour "Comedian, Magician, Psychopath!" which will visit cities including London, Glasgow, Manchester and Wolverhampton.

Comedy style

The Derek and Clive sketches by Peter Cook and Dudley Moore were an an early influence on Sadowitz. Much of his comedy emulates in its provocativeness and sheer offensiveness (he once described the Derek & Clive dialogues as "comic poetry").

Sadowitz often comments in a seemingly callous way on contemporary disasters and tragedies which have struck groups or individuals. He uses obscene language liberally and to cutting comedic effect. His comedy style combines the visual traditions of the magician, often using gaudy conjuring props, with political social and cultural observations which deliberately challenge the norms, taboos and transient sensitivities of contemporary culture. He has often been considered as one of the world's most offensive comedians. His controversial style of humour has also influenced a generation of comedians, or "imitators" as he refers to them. Comedians who now use his style of humour include Frankie Boyle, Jim Jefferies, Jimmy Carr and Ricky Gervais. Speaking on his "imitators", he said that "I'm sorry I've given some very nasty people a good living."

He reacted against the alternative comedy movement by dealing in an aggressive and uncompromising way with issues of race and gender which challenged the prevailing orthodoxy of the alternative comedy scene. Outbursts of his savage comedy during his conjuring shows have sometimes alienated him from the more conservative magic community.

Television credits

• Rab C. Nesbitt, BBC, 1988
• The Last Laugh with Jerry Sadowitz, British Satellite Broadcasting, 1990
• The Other Side of Gerry Sadowitz, Channel 4, 1990
• The Pall Bearer's Revue, BBC Two, 1992
• Without Walls: The Greatest F****** Show On Earth, Open Media for Channel 4, 1994
• Stuff the White Rabbit, BBC 2, 1997
• The People vs. Jerry Sadowitz, Channel 5, 1998–1999
• TFI Friday, Channel 4, 1998
• The 11 O'Clock Show, Channel 4, 2000
• The Panel, Network Ten, 2000
• The Jerry Atrick Show, 2000
• The People of New York vs Jerry Sadowitz, Channel 5, 1998-1999
• The Jerry Atrick Show, Channel 5, 2000–2002
• 100 Greatest Standups, Channel 4, 2007
• Stewart Lee's Comedy Vehicle, BBC Two, 2009 (two episodes)
• Walking and Talking, Sky Atlantic, 2012 (four episodes)

Filmography

• Malcolm Hardee: 25 Years in Showbiz, 1990
• 1 Giant Leap, 2002

Bibliography

• Alternative Card Magic: Jerry Sadowitz & Peter Duffie (1982)
• Contemporary Card Magic: Jerry Sadowitz & Peter Duffie (1984)
• Cards Hit (1984)
• Inspirations: Jerry Sadowitz & Peter Duffie (1987)
• Cards on the Table (1988)
• Out of Sight (1993)
• The Marenzal Reverse (1993)
• Thanks to Zarrow (1997)
• Cut Controls (2004)
• Dr Norman Nutjobs 50 Close-Up Problems (2005)
• The Crimp magazine (1992 – present)
• Card Tricks for Beginners (1994)(Illustrations) ISBN 978-0-947533-33-5

Discography

• Gobshite, (1987) – Withdrawn (Copy may be consulted at the British Library Sound Archive)

External links

• Official Website
• Official Twitter
• Official Facebook