BREAKING American millionaire Jonathan Lehrer denied bail after being charged with killing Canadian couple
American millionaire Jonathan Lehrer, one of two men charged in the killings of a Canadian couple in Dominica, has been denied bail.
Jackie Mason, a rabbi-turned-comedian whose feisty brand of standup comedy led him to Catskills nightclubs, West Coast talk shows and Broadway stages, has died. He was 93.
Mason died Saturday at 6 p.m. ET at Mt. Sinai Hospital in Manhattan after being hospitalized for over two weeks, the celebrity lawyer Raoul Felder told The Associated Press.
The irascible Mason was known for his sharp wit and piercing social commentary, often about being Jewish, men and women and his own inadequacies. His typical style was amused outrage.
"Eighty per cent of married men cheat in America. The rest cheat in Europe," he once joked. Another Mason line was: "Politics doesn't make strange bedfellows, marriage does." About himself, he once said: "I was so self-conscious, every time football players went into a huddle; I thought they were talking about me."
His death was mourned far and wide, from fellow comedian Gilbert Gottfried, who called him "one of the best," to Fox News Channel personality Sean Hannity, who hailed Mason as "irreverent, iconoclastic, funny, smart and a great American patriot." Henry Winkler tweeted: "Now you get to make heaven laugh."
Mason was born Jacob Maza, the son of a rabbi. His three brothers became rabbis. So did Mason, who at one time had congregations in Pennsylvania and North Carolina. Comedy eventually proved to be a more persistent calling than God.
"A person has to feel emotionally barren or empty or frustrated in order to become a comedian," he told The Associated Press in 1987. "I don't think people who feel comfortable or happy are motivated to become comedians. You're searching for something and you're willing to pay a high price to get that attention."
Mason started in show business as a social director at a resort in the Catskills. He was the guy who got everybody up to play Simon Says, quiz games or shuffleboard. He told jokes, too. After one season, he was playing clubs throughout the Catskills for better money.
"Nobody else knew me, but in the mountains, I was a hit," Mason recalled.
In 1961, the pint-sized comic got a big break, an appearance on Steve Allen's weekly television variety show. His success brought him to "The Ed Sullivan Show" and other programs.
He was banned for two years from the "Sullivan" show when he allegedly gave the host the finger when Sullivan signaled to him to wrap up his act during an appearance on Oct. 18, 1964.
Mason's act even carried him to Broadway, where he put on several one-man shows, including "Freshly Squeezed" in 2005, "Love Thy Neighbor" in 1996 and "The World According to Me" in 1988, for which he received a special Tony Award.
"I feel like Ronald Reagan tonight," Mason joked on Tony night. "He was an actor all his life, knew nothing about politics and became president of the United States. I'm an ex-rabbi who knew nothing about acting and I'm getting a Tony Award."
Mason called himself an observer who watched people and learned. From those observations he said he got his jokes and then tried them out on friends. "I'd rather make a fool of myself in front of two people for nothing than a thousand people who paid for a ticket," he told the AP.
His humour could leap from computers and designer coffee to then-Sen. John Kerry, former Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Donald Trump. He was able to articulate the average Joe's anger, making the indignities of life seem funny and maybe just a little bit more bearable.
"I very rarely write anything down. I just think about life a lot and try to put it into phrases that will get a joke," he said. "I never do a joke that has a point that I don't believe in. To me, the message and the joke is the same."
On TV, Mason was a reliable presence, usually with a cameo on such shows as "30 Rock" or "The Simpsons" or as a reliable guest on late night chat shows. He performed in front of Britain's Queen Elizabeth II and his show "Fearless" played London's West End in 2012.
He portrayed a Jewish ex-pajama salesman in love with an Irish-Catholic widow portrayed by Lynn Redgrave in a series called "Chicken Soup" in 1989 but it didn't last. During the O.J. Simpson murder trial, the British Broadcasting Corp.'s Scottish service hired Mason as a weekly commentator. He was in "Caddyshack II," a notorious flop.
Mason's humour sometimes went too far, as when he touched off a controversy in New York while campaigning for GOP mayoral candidate Rudolph Giuliani against Democrat David Dinkins, who was Black. Mason had to apologize after saying, among other things, that Jews would vote for Dinkins out of guilt.
Felder, his longtime friend, told the AP that Mason had a Talmudic outlook on life: "That whatever you would say to him, he would start an argument with you."
He is survived by his wife, producer Jyll Rosenfeld, and a daughter, Sheba.
American millionaire Jonathan Lehrer, one of two men charged in the killings of a Canadian couple in Dominica, has been denied bail.
Cabinet minister Dominic LeBlanc says he plans to run in the next election as a candidate under Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's leadership, amid questions about his rumoured interest in succeeding his longtime friend for the top job.
A group of suspects that allegedly defrauded seniors across Ontario and other parts of Canada using a so-called emergency grandparent scam appear to have ties to 'Italian traditional organized crime,' according to an investigator involved in the OPP-led probe.
Sophie Kinsella, the best-selling author behind the 'Shopaholic' book series, has revealed that she is receiving treatment for brain cancer.
A motion to reverse a ban on the keffiyeh within Queen’s Park failed to receive unanimous consent Thursday just moments after Ontario Premier Doug Ford reiterated his view that prohibiting the garment in the House is divisive.
Most Canadians in March reported feeling angry or pessimistic towards the federal government than at any point in the last six years, according to a survey by Nanos Research.
A Google Drive link allegedly containing 17 tracks that are purportedly from Swift's eagerly awaited "The Tortured Poets Department" album has been making the rounds on the internet in the past day and people are equal parts mad, sad and happy about it.
Calgary police say Winston Campbell, 45, has been charged in the death of a two-year-old girl in 2022.
Guitar legend Dickey Betts, who co-founded the Allman Brothers Band and wrote their biggest hit, 'Ramblin' Man,' has died. He was 80.
Molly Knight, a grade four student in Nova Scotia, noticed her school library did not have many books on female athletes, so she started her own book drive in hopes of changing that.
Almost 7,000 bars of pure gold were stolen from Pearson International Airport exactly one year ago during an elaborate heist, but so far only a tiny fraction of that stolen loot has been found.
When Les Robertson was walking home from the gym in North Vancouver's Lower Lonsdale neighbourhood three weeks ago, he did a double take. Standing near a burrow it had dug in a vacant lot near East 1st Street and St. Georges Avenue was a yellow-bellied marmot.
A moulting seal who was relocated after drawing daily crowds of onlookers in Greater Victoria has made a surprise return, after what officials described as an 'astonishing' six-day journey.
Just steps from Parliament Hill is a barber shop that for the last 100 years has catered to everyone from prime ministers to tourists.
A high score on a Foo Fighters pinball machine has Edmonton player Dave Formenti on a high.
A compound used to treat sour gas that's been linked to fertility issues in cattle has been found throughout groundwater in the Prairies, according to a new study.
While many people choose to keep their medical appointments private, four longtime friends decided to undergo vasectomies as a group in B.C.'s Lower Mainland.
A popular highway in Alberta's Banff National Park now has a 'no stopping zone' to help protect two bears.