No Sleep 'Til Minsky's: A Tribute to Burlesque & Vaudeville

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See pictures and footage from the original production here!

It was October of 2000, and I was taking a class in the performance of comedy. We were studying a variety of forms from Commedia Dell’Arte to the comedy of manners and into the modern day. Following a particularly crazy class day, I shared with one of my classmates that the experience had reminded me of “an old Marx Brothers movie.”

My friend replied, “Who?”

Stunned by the question, I quickly rattled off a short list of film names and my friend took notes. I found out later that he went directly from our conversation to the library. The next class day, he said, “Those were the funniest movies I ever saw. Do you have any more?”

It didn’t take me long to discover that he was not alone among my friends. I had taken it for granted that the people I had grown up with had watched the same things I did – Warner Brothers cartoons, the American Movie Classics channel, and the programming of Nickelodeon’s “Nick At Nite” line-up.

Six years later, I discovered that even I was not nearly as educated as I believed. In the summer of 2006 I was taking a course at ETSU called “The Comedy Continuum,” taught by Bobby Funk. It was there that I saw Buster Keaton for the first time and that I ever truly watched Laurel and Hardy.

The characters that I know and cherish have a shared background in burlesque and vaudeville, the variety theatre forms that thrived at the beginning of the twentieth century. These American pioneers inspired the more modern comics like Lenny Bruce, Andy Kaufman, and Steve Martin. As the next generation of comedians grows to maturity they study these modern comics, but often neglect or are simply unfamiliar with the foundations they built on.

No Sleep ‘Til Minsky’s is intended to bring those foundations to light. Lou Drake is not a major player, nor was he ever. He is the workaday comic making ends meet wherever he can, and today – March 29, 1937 – he stands on the verge of the death of the form. In April, the Minsky brothers will have their burlesque clubs raided by the police. All fourteen of their clubs – the only burlesque clubs left in New York City – will be closed until further notice. In May, they will be stripped of their business license, closing their theatres permanently. Burlesque in New York will be effectively dead until the late 40s.

But tonight, Mama Draskovich’s boy is opening the show in a small southern town. In his pocket is a ticket to New York, and the next week he begins his show at Minsky’s.

 To Book No Sleep 'Til Minsky's, contact:

Lou Drake Burlesque -at- Gmail -dot- Com