At the recent 2022 Tony Awards show — broadcast from Radio City Music Hall on June 12 — comedian, actor, impressionist, and author Billy Crystal enlisted the entire audience to participate in a (fake) Yiddish scat singalong. The audience members — including cameos with Samuel L. Jackson and Lin-Manuel Miranda — joined in enthusiastically.
Quote: “ ‘Ella Fitzgerald, wherever you are, I apologize in advance.’ Billy Crystal gave this year’s Tonys a jolt of Jewish shtick when he coaxed the audience into a call-and-response ‘Yiddish scat’ routine, as part of a live performance to promote his Broadway musical Mr. Saturday Night. In a good-faith mockery of Fitzgerald’s own famous ‘scat’ routine, Crystal, in character as his show’s fading comedian star Buddy Young Jr., let loose on the Sunday night telecast with a series of nonsensical guttural sounds vaguely approximating Yiddish.”
— JTA and The Times of Israel
Learn more about Billy Crystal from Wikipedia. ►
Watch Billy Crystal’s Yiddish scat singing singalong. Once the video begins, click on it to activate the sound [2:45]. ►
Watch “Billy Crystal Accepts Lifetime Achievement Award | 27th Critics Choice Awards | TBS” [4:27]. ►
Photo: JewishNews.co.uk
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