hollywood
by bill biss
Jack Benny
EddiE Carroll
is JaCk BEnny
Continuing a LegaCy in Laughter in BLoom
Stepping into the shoes of an entertainment giant like Jack Benny is no easy
feat. Yet actor Eddie Carroll has been doing it in sold-out houses for the past 24
years. This exceptional task and tour de force performance comes to our Balboa
Theatre for one afternoon on Sunday, December 7. Carroll not only continues
his one-man recreation of Jack Benny all over the country, he is the voice of the
beloved Jiminy Cricket for Walt Disney Studios and has been since 1974. A real
Hollywood trooper, Eddie took some time out from his busy and blessed schedule
to speak with The Rage Monthly.
Rage: Laughter in Bloom is scripted in a realistic manner.
Will you explain a bit more about this?
Eddie Carroll: Sure. We’re so conditioned today, Bill, and I’m sure you will
agree… over the years we’ve had so many tribute everythings. You know, the Elvis
impersonators and so forth, there’s a tendency on people’s part to think that if
someone is recreating a famous person, it’s a Las Vegas nightclub act. What I do is
not an act. I’m not a stand-up comedian or an impressionist. I’m a theatre-trained
actor. So, what I did to recreate and to keep alive Jack Benny’s image is to write a
show where Jack Benny literally shares his entire life story with the audience.
Rage: That sounds interesting.
EC: Yes, that’s what gives it its foundation and its heart. Otherwise, it’s just
somebody standing up and doing a Rich Little for thirty minutes. It’s a two-hour
stage production with a 15-minute intermission. I did my first production of this
as Jack Benny in 1983. The whole purpose of coming to see a famous icon again is
Eddie Carroll as Jack Benny to create an illusion that it’s really him in person.
34 RAGE monthly | DECEMBER 2008
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