Comedian Murray Langston, The Unkown Comic, Las Vegas Sun, Oct. 29, 2004

Columnist Lisa Ferguson: ‘Unknown’ Langston has ‘Gong’-ed on to simpler life Lisa Ferguson Friday, Oct. 29, 2004 | 9:03 a.m. Even during the height of his career in the '70s, audiences didn't see much of Murray Langston. Of course, when you go onstage wearing a paper bag over your head, that's entirely the point. As the Unknown Comic, Langston became an instant celebrity, hiding his face amd spewing corny one-liners on television's "The Gong Show." These days, however, it's become even tougher to see the comedian -- not that the bags have gotten any bigger, rather Langston's performance schedule has shrunk considerably over the past three decades. He headlines through Sunday at Riviera Comedy club, the first time he's played Las Vegas in several years. "I work two or three times a year, at best," he explained recently from his home in "the country town" of Tehachapi, Calif. "It's rare that I actually go out and do stand-up." He doesn't have to: Langston claims the Unknown Comic character and other ventures have served him well financially, so that he's been able to focus his energies on raising his 6- and 15-year-old daughters. "I don't travel, mainly because I don't like to leave my kids." Meanwhile, by performing his stand-up act sporadically, "I have a lot more fun, because when you do it every night it becomes an arduous task," he contends. Also, "I don't know if I have the guts of a comedian, like a lot of the guys who really made it big as stand-ups. I always thought I had the talent, but I never had the passion or the desire to just bust my (back) to become a big comic." Langston started out in show business intent on becoming a comedic actor, and for several years was a regular player on "The Sonny and Cher Comedy Hour." During that time, he purchased a Los Angeles-area nightclub at which up-and-coming comics including David Letterman and Gallagher performed. The place eventually went belly-up. "That's when I needed to come up with an idea to make some money," he recalls. "The Gong Show" had a policy of paying performers who appeared on the series, as long as they belonged to an actor's union. Langston's quandary: "Because I'd been on the Sonny and Cher show and a bunch of other shows, I didn't want any of my friends to see me on 'The Gong Show.' "But I was struggling," he explains, "so I just said, 'I'll put a bag over my head, I'll tell a couple jokes, I'll make myself a couple hundred dollars." And the Unknown Comic was born. What happened next launched Langston into pop-culture history: "I insulted the host," he recalls of mocking "Gong's" legendary ringmaster, Chuck Barris. "I said, 'Hey, Chuckie, do you and your wife ever make love in the shower?' and he said, 'No.' And I said, 'Well, you should -- she loves it.' And the audience loved that joke, and so did Chuck. He said, 'You've gotta come back and insult me again.' " Before long, the Unknown Comic was a "Gong Show" staple, and also appeared on its spin-off "The $1.98 Beauty Show." "It was like being in the middle of a whirlwind," Langston says of those years. "It was like everything was about 'The Gong Show' and I, as the Unknown Comic, was doing all the talk shows of those days. It was just a very exciting period." Interestingly enough, "I'd probably done like 50 or 60 'Gong Shows' before I realized that I had a viable commodity here," Langston says of his decision to pursue stand-up comedy full time. He claims to have been contacted by the Sahara, and eventually signed a 20-week contract to perform an Unknown Comic lounge act at its properties in Vegas, Reno and Lake Tahoe. "I hired a band and put paper bags over them and called them the Brown Baggers; and I hired two girls and called them the Baguettes. So I did a whole production show around the bag back in those days," he explains. "The thing about it was, I think they were paying me about five grand per week, but it was costing me about $6,500 a week to run the show." In the years since, Langston has worked in front of and behind the camera on a string of B-movies ("Night Patrol," "Up Your Alley," "Wishful Thinking"); appeared on slew of TV game shows; and hosted "The Gong Show 25th Gong-iversary" special that aired in 2001 on cable's Game Show Network. The following year, he portrayed the Unknown Comic in "Confessions of a Dangerous Mind," the George Clooney flick based on Barris' eyebrow-raising memoirs. Don't believe the accounts that Barris was recruited to be a CIA hit man, as was portrayed in the film. "None of that was true," Langston insists. The comedian says Barris once relayed to him a story about a barroom conversation he'd had, in which a fellow patron commented: " 'You're the type of person who would be great for the CIA; you ought to consider joining them.' And when (Barris) started doing his bio years later, he thought back to that time in the bar and said, 'Gee, I wonder what would have happened if I'd taken him up on that?' " Langston says he and Barris remain friends. "He's always been very nice to me. I go to New York, he takes me out to dinner. He's married now, and he's very happy. He's done very well for himself." Last year Langston directed and starred in a version of the play "Run for Your Wife" -- also featuring "Dallas" co-star Charlene Tilton, and "The Exorcist" star Linda Blair -- which he staged at a L.A. playhouse. Most recently he and his creative partner, actor Greg Evigan (of "B.J. and the Bear" and "My Two Dads" fame), have been creating and pitching ideas for reality television series, though they have yet to find any takers. The Unknown Comic is never far behind, however: On the rare occasions that he's on a comedy-club stage, the 60-year-old Langston wears the paper bag and pummels audiences with one-liners, impressions and even magic tricks during the first 15 minutes of his act. "It's actually much easier without the bag, trust me," he says. "It's just that you don't have your face to push over jokes and stuff like that, so you've really gotta do a lot of body movements. It's a very energetic character and I put a lot of energy into it, but you need to have that energy because those jokes wouldn't go over without it." After ditching the sack, he follows up with quips that cover current affairs and his family life, among other topics. "I call my act 'something old, something new, something borrowed and something blue.' It's a combination of everything." What continues to be "amazing," Langston contends, is people's response to the Unknown Comic. "When you see a guy with a bag over his head, it's hard to forget that, so it's stuck in a lot of people's heads simply because of the oddity of that character, so that's been nice." Out for laughs When Michael Finney isn't showcasing his blend of comedy and magic -- as he does through Sunday at the Comedy Stop at The Trop -- the funny man works to raise funds for children in need through The Michael Finney Foundation. Established in 1997, the organization sponsors the annual Dry Heat Classic golf tournament, most recently held in August in Scottsdale, Ariz. At previous tourneys, magician Lance Burton and comic/sitcom star George Lopez have taken to the links alongside avid-golfer Finney. Richard Jeni, on Thursday, kicked off a special four-night gig at The Improv at Harrah's, which wraps on Sunday. Also on the bill: "Family Ties" alum Marc Price, who chatted it up in this space on Sept 17; and Lenny Travis. The last episode of the recently canceled series "Tough Crowd with Colin Quinn" is set to air at 11:30 p.m. Thursday on Comedy Central (Cox cable channel 56). Don't shed any tears for Quinn, though: He'll be back in the saddle a couple nights later, on Nov. 6, headlining "The Hollywood Comedy Tour" at the Palms. Show times are 7:30 p.m. and 10:30 p.m.; tickets are $25.