Taking a cue from veteran entertainer Tony Bennett, legendary
stand-up comedian Shelly Berman is experiencing a surge in
popularity late in his career. In 2004, Berman played opposite
Barbra Streisand in a supporting role in Meet the Fockers.
You remember him as Judge Ira Goldfarb, the star pupil of Roz
Focker's senior sexuality class.
Berman
is currently receiving rave reviews on the HBO series Curb
Your Enthusiasm as Larry David's father, Nat. In addition,
he recently did a stint on the ABC hit series, Grey's Anatomy
and can be seen semi-regularly on some of the late night talk
shows.
Berman has been
a staple of the nightclub circuit, in films and on television
since the late 1950s. One of his more interesting roles was in a
1961 episode of The Twilight Zone in which he played a
people hating curmudgeon who wished everyone in the world was
exactly like him. It was a classic performance as fans of the
series will remember.
In several
interesting parallels to Barbra's own career, Berman's first
stand-up performance was at Chicago's Mr. Kelly's in
1957, the same venue that helped launch Barbra's rise to
stardom. Berman, like Barbra, is a Grammy award winner (the
first Grammy ever awarded for a non-musical recording) and he
has three gold records to his credit. Berman has appeared on
The Ed Sullivan Show and The Jack Paar Show, among
countless others.
These days, in
addition to his busy television and film schedule, the 79 year
old Berman regularly performs stand-up at Harrah's in Las Vegas.
Shelly Berman resides with his wife in Los Angeles.
