Comedian Soupy Sales Dies at 83
Soupy Sales, the boundary-breaking comedian who good-naturedly endured, by his count, more than 20,000 pies to the face, has died. He was 83.
The comic's anything-for-a-laugh pie-throwing shtick became his trademark, and stars including Frank Sinatra, Tony Curtis and Shirley MacLaine took one in the face on the comedian's television show in the early 1960s.
His nerdy cool paved the way for such later comedians as Pee Wee Herman and Andy Kauffman. Intentionally or not, Kauffman's famous Mighty Mouse routine plays like an ironic homage to Sales' own lip-synced performance of his hit "The Mouse." His humor sometimes sprung from his supposed surprise at recognizing, for the first time, a joke's corniness.
Sales died Thursday night at Calvary Hospice in the Bronx, New York, according to The Associated Press. His former manager and longtime friend, Dave Usher said Sales suffered from many health problems and entered the hospice last week.
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The comic's anything-for-a-laugh pie-throwing shtick became his trademark, and stars including Frank Sinatra, Tony Curtis and Shirley MacLaine took one in the face on the comedian's television show in the early 1960s.
His nerdy cool paved the way for such later comedians as Pee Wee Herman and Andy Kauffman. Intentionally or not, Kauffman's famous Mighty Mouse routine plays like an ironic homage to Sales' own lip-synced performance of his hit "The Mouse." His humor sometimes sprung from his supposed surprise at recognizing, for the first time, a joke's corniness.
Sales died Thursday night at Calvary Hospice in the Bronx, New York, according to The Associated Press. His former manager and longtime friend, Dave Usher said Sales suffered from many health problems and entered the hospice last week.