Ed Sullivan Appearences

Feature from 2011

26th July 1964

Back for more, and this routine see’s Eric being persuaded to get a new suit. Ernie arrives with the new clothing and hands them over to Eric. Putting on the ‘pants’ now shows the audience that they are huge, which gets a giggle. The jacket is of similar size, dwarfing Eric, again this gets a laugh.

It now comes to our attention that the suit is too large because Eric doesn’t like being touched and so the tailor could not measure him correctly. Ernie offers to measure him and the slapstick routine begins. Each time Ernie moves close, Eric jitters away raising laughs from the audience, especially as Eric uses one of his catch phrases; “Gerrofff – I’ll smash yer face in..”

Ernie begins to take each measurement; each being different as his partner bends his limbs in an attempt not to be touched and offers different and ridiculous methods of being measured. The audience enjoy this knock-about work, especially when Eric falls to the floor during a leg measurement.

This sketch ends oddly; no pay off, no gag, just Eric and Ern wrestling on the ground.

Back to index

2nd May 1965

This is the last appearance of the boys in black and white – the rest of their American appearances were in colour.

This is the Boom Oo Yatta Ta Ta routine they often did, but this time they enlist Ed Sullivan into the group and he makes a complete mess of it.

You can tell by the looks on Eric and Ernie’s faces at this point that they just want to get off and go home. Ed comes in at the wrong time and fails to end even when everyone else has. This of course gets huge laughs mainly because Ed is made to look like an idiot – but only by himself.

One thing to note about this performance is that change in attitude and style by the boys. It is much more confident and polished; the little nuances, slaps, looks to camera, asides – it’s all there.

Sadly the audience still don’t fully ‘get’ them despite loving the routine.

Back to index


© Morecambeandwise.com 2011