By Rita Charleston
For the Times

He’s been described as the “Funniest Man in the World” and the “Jewish Will Rogers.”
So what took Jackie Mason so long to make it to Broadway?
It was the now all-too-familiar jabbing finger that he still uses in his act for emphasis that almost destroyed his budding career back in l964 when he appeared on the Ed Sullivan Show.
Unfortunately, an address by then-President Lyndon Johnson had caused the show to run overtime, so Mason was signaled to cut short his segment. The comedian ad-libbed that he was “getting a lot of fingers tonight,” and then proceeded to issue his own hand signals.
“They were nonsensical and didn’t mean a thing,” said Mason, who will be on the stage of the Playhouse Theatre in Wilmington, Del., June 5 to 9. “The next day, however, front-page stories reported that an outraged Sullivan had canceled my contract for making obscene gestures on the air.”
Previously hailed as one of the hottest young comics around, Mason watched his career plummet.
But Mason managed to survive and, eventually, go where no other comics had ever gone before. After years of trying to prove himself, his first one-man show, The World According to Me, landed him on Broadway in the late ’80s, performing sold-out shows before standing-room-only crowds for two years. The production earned Mason a special Tony Award for Outstanding Theatrical Achievement in l989, as well as his first Outer Critics Circle award, ACE Award, Emmy Award and Grammy nomination.
Three more hit shows followed, and Mason says he’s about to do his fifth, titled Prune Danish, in September.
So what does it feel like to finally be on top after all the rough spots he’s encountered along the way?
“It feels terrific,” he says without hesitation. “A person has to be nuts not to appreciate it, enjoy it and get a big kick out of it. I always read about people who are successful and are suffering from it. I don’t know what there is to suffer from. That’s why a person becomes a performer in the first place. Obviously he needs the recognition. First, he wants to be a star and a hit and a sensation. A person who doesn’t need attention and doesn’t need to be respected and celebrated doesn’t go into this business. He becomes an accountant or a plumber. Nobody’s gonna notice you in the toilet.”
Born into a long line of rabbis, the former Jacob Maza was himself a rabbi for a few years in the l950s. He even had a congregation in Weldon, S.C., for a brief time. But his outrageous, joke-filled sermons soon filled the synagogue with more than the usual number of worshipers.
“Word got around that I filled my sermons with jokes, and soon the place was so full of gentiles that the Jews couldn’t get in!” he said.
So he soon abandoned his sermons for stand-up, and began showing his stuff in little hotels in the borscht belt of the Catskills. He’d finally made it to the big time when the Sullivan fiasco hit.
But that, he acknowledges, is all behind him now. Besides his recent Broadway blockbusters, he has appeared on TV and film, done Command Performances for the Queen, published several books, and become a political commentator with his own nationally syndicated radio talk show, among other achievements.
Today, there are many who sing his praises — finger and all — and agree that his uncompromising views on everything have led him to be called an “equal opportunity offender” by his many fans.
“I talk about what I see in front of me,” Mason explains. “I have so much to make fun of about the truth of human nature, about all its contradictions and hypocrisies and pretentiousness and everything that goes on. The way people behave, it’s not that hard a job to find a whole story of ridiculous comedy.
“Take watching a guy buy a car,” Mason says. “Right away I see a nut case in front of me. Everybody wants to buy a Mercedes. They all tell you it’s for the engineering. Now that’s worth two hours of comedy right there. They tell you it holds the road . . . as if a Chevrolet turns over when you drive it. But that’s the kind of nonsense you hear from people in order to justify their behavior.”
And wait, Mason says, there’s more lunacy out there.
“A guy buys a boat and invites you over to see how beautiful it is. When you come on the boat you can do everything but sit down. There’s no room for a chair. You can’t pick up your head because you’ll hit the ceiling. Then he’ll show you the bedroom and you’ll have to get down on your knees to crawl in there. He tells you how stunning it is. Yes, it’s stunning if you’re a cockroach! There’s no room to sit or stand or move around. It’s like you were captured by the Taliban!
“So where do my routines come from?” Jackie Mason asks. “I just look around me and there they are.”
For times and ticket information, call the Playhouse Theatre box office at l-800-338-088l.