Lamb Chop Lives!

A measurable percentage of the performers on the Jerry Lewis MDA Telethon this year were ventriloquists. Which is OK by me–and especially so considering that one of them was Mallory Lewis, daughter of Shari Lewis.

On paper, the idea of Shari Lewis’s daughter performing with Lamb Chop sounds like a bad idea. For my money, Shari was the best ventriloquist who ever worked, and there aren’t many examples of children of the famous taking over their parents’ life work and holding their own. (When Mel Blanc used to talk about Noel being his successor, you just knew it probably wasn’t going to work out that way.) I have no desire to see Candace Bergen go on the road with Mortimer Snerd, nor see April Winchell team with Knucklehead Smiff.

But Mallory is very good, I think. And Lamb Chop is..well, Lamb Chop is Lamb Chop. Which is quite an accomplishment. The official Lamb Chop site shows that they’re working regularly, but mostly in low-profile gigs; I’d love to see them show up on TV in a regular engagement.

They were on in the wee, wee hours of the telethon, so you probably missed them. But here’s a snippet of another performance from YouTube:

4 comments on “Lamb Chop Lives!”

  1. Earl Kress has noted on his blog that Mallory Lewis (who has also gone under the name of Mallory Tarcher, which I believe is her real name) only has live performance rights with Lamb Chop and is unable to do TV shows, other than special things like the Jerry Lewis Telethon – none of which I watched this year, owing to my cross-country flight back home after the vacation and related activites previously reported on.

  2. She’s good! I loved ventriloquists as a kid and would practice in front of a mirror like five million other six-year-olds after they’ve watched Paul Winchell or Shari Lewis.

  3. Thanks for the info, Dave. Of course, it raises an interesting question: Why aren’t Lamb Chop’s owners trying to make some money off their property by launching a new show starrting Lamb Chop and Mallory?

    –Harry

  4. I’m of an age where I had an enormous crush on Shari Lewis back when she had her NBC(?) TV show.

    I was shocked to find out there was a guy named JERRY Lewis!

    “What a rip-off,” I thought, “trying to confuse people like that! It’s Shari, dammit, SHARI!!!”

    And now here’s her daughter on Jerry’s telethon!

    (I remember Shari appearing on the Democratic Party Telethon back in the 70s. I’m sure she must’ve appeared on Jerry’s as well…)

    Hmmm. Did I have a point, I wonder?

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