 |
| Wally Boag With Miss Piggy on The Muppet Show |
Ms. Taylor died this past Saturday at the age of 91. Mr. Boag passed away the day before at the age of 90.
I never heard of Wally Boag until a few years ago when I was watching video from an old "Disneyland" TV show that featured the Golden Horseshoe Revue show.
Boag's performance as the traveling salesman with his rapid fire one liners and making of balloon animals inspired me from the first time I saw it. I aspire to one day be as quick witted and smooth as he was. I really felt bad would never have the chance to see his act in person. He performed from 1955 through 1982 when he retired. The Golden Horseshoe Revue was replaced by a new show in 1986.
Although it's been nearly 30 years since he retired, the talent of Wally Boag is a recent discovery for me. When I read Steve Martin's book about his days of stand up comedy a few years ago I found out that he was greatly influenced by Wally Boag.
Although I was always interested in him I never really looked for anything else about Wally Boag after I found out he retired. Since I hadn't ever heard anything about him in any of the newsletters or podcasts I subscribe to I just assumed he was no longer around.
With the announcement of his death I find out after the fact that he was still around but out of the public spotlight. So now I'll have to do some research to see if I can find any post retirement interviews with him. The result of the searches I've done over the last few days has been the discovery of an episod of The Muppet Show with Boag as the guest star. He performs a lot of his "Golden Horseshoe" act on the show.
Even if I can't find anything more than what I already have seen that will be enough. As a matter of fact even though Mr. Boag's act contained a "suitcase full" of punchlines the one that will always resonate with me and preserve his memory in Disney section of my heart will be:
"When they operated on father; the opened mother's male"
RIP Wally Boag, You'll be missed.
