Rant #1,756: Rhyme Time

Today is a pretty normal day on the calendar, and quite frankly, work is pooping me out right now.

We have been so busy that I seemingly can't stand up for falling down.

So today, I thought I would take it really light here, and I mean, really, really light.

Which I think is bright because I am not as high as a kite, but still have that fight.

So today, with some rhyme and reason, I am going to celebrate what would have been the 98th birthday of the clown prince of rhyme, Nipsey Russell.

Born Julius Russell in Atlanta, Georgia in 1918, he was ubiquitous on the small tube in the 1960s and 1970s, but the road was a long one for him, as it was for many, many comedians and others who performed on the so-called "Chitlin' Circuit" in the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s.

Along with other comics like Redd Foxx, Slappy White and LaWanda Page, Russell toiled on the all-black nightclub circuit during this period, and he got his big break on TV variety shows, which were always looking for talent, like "The Ed Sullivan Show."

Although not as X-rated a comic as Foxx could be, Russell's act could be slightly risque, using his propensity at rhyming to create some really funny double entendre situations, some of which you can still hear on vintage albums released during that period. I have heard a few of them, and they are quite funny, in a sort of PG-13 rated way.

But network TV at the time would have none of that, so Russell, always clad in some type of sweater or outer jacket, cleaned himself up a little for the small screen, and it paid really big dividends for him.

He was one of the first regular characters of color on network TV, appearing as the phone operator on the classic "Car 54, Where Are You." Ironically, during his entire time on that show, he seemingly had few lines, odd for somebody who made wordplay his living, but it was a start.

A few years later, he was the first black performer ever to become a regular on a game show, on the short-lived game show "Missing Links," and this was just a preview of what was to come, making his name a household word.

He was on just about every variety and talk show there was in the 1960s, but he really made his mark in the late 1960s and 1970s as a fixture on game shows, and especially on game shows where he could use his wordplay to the hilt, such as "Match Game," "What's My Line," "Hollywood Squares" and "Password."

He really honed his rhyming skills during this period, and he became to be known as television's "poet laureate." He was so good at what he did that game shows often gave him a couple of seconds prior to game play to recite one of his poems.

During this period and into the 1980s, he was featured in several TV shows and movies, including the movie adaptation of the Broadway musical, "The Wiz," as the tin man.

As TV was opening up and getting a bit more brazen, Russell seemingly did not fit into that framework anymore, and in the 1980s, he was seen less and less on regular TV. He did appear frequently as a late night talk show guest, in particular with Conan O'Brien.

He died on October 2, 2005, at age 87.

It is only right that I end this with one of his self-penned poems. After looking for a few minutes for one that fit just right, I took this trio of Russell's short poem's off his Wikipedia entry, because, well, the fit just right.

"What is the secret of eternal youth?

The answer is easily told;

All you gotta do if you wanna look young

Is hang out with people who are old."

"If you ever go out with a schoolteacher,

You're in for a sensational night;

She'll make you do it over and over again

Until you do it right."

"The young people are very different today;

And there's one sure way to know;

Kids used to ask where they came from;

Now they'll tell you where you can go!"