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January 10, 2009

The Very Funny Side of Pete Barbutti

Pete One of the funnier comedians to fall into obscurity since his Vegas and Johnny Carson heydays is Pete Barbutti. Barbutti was a seriously adept jazz musician and very funny stand-up comic. His regular appearances on Johnny Carson were legendary and Barbutti's website features a plethora of Tonight Show appearances from the seventies and eighties in full to view here. Eventually Pete started to fade away from showbiz life and entered the lucrative world of regional Canadian television where he hosted a cooking program called Celebrity Microwaves (seriously). The title pretty much says it all (comic actor Richard Deacon also jumped on the Microwave cooking bandwagon in the eighties, penning a cookbook for Microwave delicacies). This 1966 Decca LP places Pete Barbutti at the height of his career. It is sharp, funny and eccentric, and one of those instances when the comedian is certainly "playing to the band" except in this instance, Pete Barbutti was from the band. Listen to the whole LP here.

Posted by on January 10, 2009 at 11:42 PM |

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Comments

Stewart

Did it get better? I deleted it from the GE podcast after the first five minutes of ultra-stale "Where are you from?" jokes. It was utterly painful.

Posted by: Stewart | January 11, 2009 at 01:30 AM

Jonathan Steinke

Extremely funny in that "didn't see it coming" way.

Posted by: Jonathan Steinke | January 18, 2009 at 06:21 PM

Chris Waterman

I played with Barbutti in Seattle a couple of times in the late 1980s. Very funny, a quintessential musician's comedian. I recommend his version of "Tenderly," rendered on the broom, available on YouTube. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J686_zzSLa4

Posted by: Chris Waterman | November 02, 2009 at 09:51 PM

Ianmanderson1

Produced Pete's Place. The late Pete Barbutti is the warmest, funniest man on the flat side of the earth. He's not dead, he just hasn't contacted me in 30 years.

Posted by: Ianmanderson1 | July 17, 2012 at 06:53 PM

Ron Davis

I flew home from Vegas and since I was flying at midnight the airlines put me in first class sitting next to Pete. I had a personal comedy improve all the way to Denver. He told me about the time that Louis Armstrong was coming thru the airport with a few drugs. Just about the time he got to the inspection table, a side door opened and Richard Nixon stepped out and ask Louis to come with him, thus bypassing the inspection all together. It was a memorable flight.Around 1982-83.....

Ron Davis

Posted by: Ron Davis | April 26, 2013 at 11:03 PM

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