Talk:Brother Theodore

Around 1963
Around 1963 Theodore had a regular show at the Cafe Bizzarre in Greenwich Village.

Do you have a cite for that? Personal recollections are verboten as "original research," but details on BT's pre 70s venues are needed here.

I worked at the Cafe Bizzarre in 1966, during which time it was a so-called "basket house" (meaning a basket was passed among the clientele for donations to the unpaid performer) Bustter (talk) 13:49, 19 May 2009 (UTC)

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BetacommandBot (talk) 04:23, 12 February 2008 (UTC)

WTF?
What exactly pray tell is "chess hustling?

Most of this article sounds like a tall tale -- unless reliable sources can be provided, it should probably be deleted. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 86.149.139.136 (talk) 23:53, 5 July 2008 (UTC)
 * Time Magazine and the New York Times not good enough for you? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.202.150.152 (talk) 15:14, 5 July 2009 (UTC)


 * Chess hustling means gambling on chess. Here is a link to Theodore's obituary in the New York Times which can be used to cite much of this article: Theodore Gottlieb, Dark Comedian, Dies at 94. I'll try to find some other sources and do the cites over the next couple of days. Truckerbomb (talk) 12:09, 1 August 2008 (UTC)

That NYT obit is something else. It included the following: "In the death camp, he said he saw men eaten alive by dogs while Nazi guards laughed, according to Who's Who in Comedy." I think Mr. Gottlieb would have appreciated this. At any rate, what an amazing life. I had know idea the true darkness that was behind the comedy. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 70.112.68.51 (talk) 17:56, 4 December 2011 (UTC)

Chess hustling: same as pool hustling - you pretend to be weak to game the gullible opponent. An art in itself. Zezen (talk) 05:42, 2 July 2019 (UTC)

1970s retirement? NOPE!!!
I interviewed BT about 27 years ago, in the early 80s, for an article that appeared in Fangoria magazine. he was neither retired nor in obscurity, as he was then making frequent Letterman apearances while performing at the same 13th St theater the NY Times obituary refers to as follows:

"Mr. Gottlieb, with his wild white hair shining under the lights and with a demonic glint in his eye, was in his element at the 13th Street Theater, where he performed for nearly two decades, until a few years ago."

At the time the obit appeared, the 70s was not "a few years ago." The inaccuracies in this article seem to be a matter of certain parties claiming that they "revived" a career that needed no such resuscitation.

Someone who knows the facts, or who knows how to actually do proper research, needs to correct this.Bustter (talk) 03:54, 12 April 2009 (UTC) Reading it again, it's apparent that Theodore's two decades at the 13th St. Theater followed the briefer run of shows at the Magic Towne house, from the late 70s to the late 90s. This "artist in residency" shouuld be in the article, as no other [quote-unquote] performance artist has had a comparable runBustter (talk) 04:08, 12 April 2009 (UTC)


 * Nobody is likely to object if you take a hammer to unsourced claims--be bold. Ewulp (talk) 04:51, 12 April 2009 (UTC)

What makes him a comedian?
I ask this purely out of ignorance: I know nothing of the work of Brother Theodore, and came to this page following a reference to him on a board where someone was campaigning for his albums to be re-released. Anyway, reading the piece, I can’t quite follow what his act was, and what made it funny. The bulk of the early stuff - working with Welles etc. - just seems dramatic. There is a mention that his dramatic monologues became “darkly humorous”, but I can’t tell if that means that the material was just delivered well (much of Poe for example is deliberately funny, e.g. The Raven), if he interpolated gags into serious work (as per Victor Borge and calssical music), or if his performance was itself the gag (he was sending up classical monologists, and overly dramatic performance in general - playing the ham, as it were). I suppose what I’m asking is a) was he in on the joke: did he set out to be funny, or was he just a person who’s attempts to be a dramatic success lent themselves to being seen as funny?; b) did “Brother Theodore” exist as a character, with Theodore Gottlieb having an on- and off stage person, or was “Brother Theodore” how Gottlieb lived his life?; and c) did he have any signature work, or bit, which could be given as an example of his style?

Many thanksJock123 (talk) 13:12, 13 January 2010 (UTC)


 * Brother Theodore is a comedian the same way Sun Ra is a musician. 66.207.23.59 (talk) 19:56, 20 April 2010 (UTC)


 * Sun Ra is most certainly NOT a musician. Why?  Because he's been dead for some years.  —Preceding unsigned comment added by 69.171.176.182 (talk) 11:43, 28 September 2010 (UTC)


 * Actually he was more like a slightly more off the wall version of Andy Kaufman (or vice versa as he predated Kaufman) - comedian probably isn't the right description, more like a performance artist... — Preceding unsigned comment added by 108.171.131.189 (talk) 20:12, 14 September 2019 (UTC)

A lot of the humour is his unique delivery. He had a command of English such that he would expertly select unexpected sophisticated words in sequence that sounded appropriate for a split second until the meaning was appreciated, and then realized that it was intentional. “ Listen my friend - my I call you “my friend”? - and that is a euphemism…” Drsruli (talk) 14:50, 28 April 2024 (UTC)

The Burbs
Someone needs to add in a mention of his role in this 1989 film as Uncle Reuben Klopek. It's actually probably where the most people would recognize him from 24.4.132.165 (talk) 00:19, 27 February 2010 (UTC)

He was also a regular for Rankin Bass in the 70s; played Gollum in The Hobbit & Return of the King, & was Ruhk from The Last Unicorn. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.17.134.7 (talk) 07:17, 16 May 2012 (UTC)

No mention of his voice work with Rankin Bass in the 1970s and 1980s? I think this should appear somewhere.

1990's
Brother Theodore had ads regularly in the Village Voice in the late 1980's into the 1990's where he was appearing in a small club in the West Village. When I saw him around 1993-1994, in his monologue he mentioned that he was "almost 90". It was a memorable part of my four-year stay in the city. I don't see anything about this period toward the end of his career. Shocking Blue (talk) 10:05, 18 August 2012 (UTC)

Filmography not complete
Brother Theodore also starred in a horror/comedy movie called Nocturna: Granddaughter of Dracula in 1979. It is not included in the article. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Trisha d (talk • contribs) 05:05, 2 March 2017 (UTC)