Today we will be speaking to Adam Shawn, son of the great actor, comedian and monologist Dick Shawn.
It’s strange that Adam and our co-host Josh Mills only met once prior to the taping of this podcast. Dick Shawn starred in two films with Josh’s mother Edie Adams, “It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World” in 1964 and “Evil Roy Slade” in 1972. What’s more Dick Shawn was a guest star on his mom’s 1964 variety show “Here’s Edie”.
Edie adored Dick Shawn. He was zany, creative and hysterically funny. He along with Phil Silvers, Jonathan Winters, Milton Berle, Sid Caesar Terry-Thomas and Buddy Hackett among others brought her out of a deep depression after the death of her first husband, Comedian Ernie Kovacs when filming began on Stanley Kramer ‘s “Mad World” film in 1963. We also spoke to Shawn about starring with Ernie Kovacs in the film “Wake Me When It’s Over” in 1960 before Edie and Dick ever worked together.
We spoke to Adam Shawn about growing up outside of Hollywood, his father’s incredible one-man show, “The Second Greatest Entertainer in the World” where Adam was stage manager, what it was like growing up where people expected you to be funny when they found out who his dad was and how he recorded songs like “It’s Not Easy Being White” but never a comedy record.
So what was it like growing up with a dad whose iconic turn in Mel Brooks “The Producers” as L.S.D. (Lorenzo St. Dubois) was one of his signature roles? Find out now on Rarified Heir. Take a listen.
