How The Beatles Spoiled Comedian Mitzi McCall’s Big Break

Sketch comedy duo McCall and Brill thought they were about to have their big break, getting booked on the star-making platform of their time: “The Ed Sullivan Show.” However, there was a twist—they were one of the acts performing between the sets of The Beatles making their American debut.

Mitzi McCall, who recently passed away, recounted this tale alongside her partner and husband Charlie Brill on a classic episode of NPR’s iconic show “This American Life.”

“If you got a shot on ‘Ed Sullivan,’ you had a shot at stardom,” Brill reminisced.

With excitement, they practiced their sketches tirelessly, performing them at a Santa Monica club to positive reactions. Brill said, “A lovely reaction. And we told everybody. In fact, I think I sky-wrote it over Hollywood. We’re on ‘The Ed Sullivan Show.’ Yoo-hoo!”

They were particularly thrilled to share the stage with famed impressionist Frank Gorshin, known for playing the Riddler on the 1960s “Batman” TV show. But when their manager said, “And guess what? You’re going to be with The Beatles,” their reaction was, “Who?”

During the episode’s dress rehearsal, they used “blah, blah, blah” as placeholders for punchlines to keep them fresh for the live show. This caught the attention of Ed Sullivan, who summoned them to his office.

“He said, ‘What you did in dress rehearsal—first of all, I don’t get the blah, blah, blahs,’” Brill explained.

Despite their attempt to clarify, Sullivan found their act too sophisticated for an audience composed mostly of teenage girls. Sullivan then asked them to showcase their entire nightclub act and quickly rework their set, giving them only an hour.

Amidst the chaos, John Lennon entered their tiny dressing room to fetch a Coke and stayed to sketch them on napkins.

“We just thought, ‘I wish this kid would go so we could work on our act. Get out of here,’” McCall recalled.

When The Beatles opened the show, the screams were so loud McCall and Brill couldn’t discern the music from backstage.

“We hadn’t gone on yet,” McCall said. “I wanted to know that we were going to be fabulous.”

When McCall and Brill finally took the stage as the last non-Beatles act of the night, the teenage girls eagerly waiting for The Beatles’ return weren’t in the mood for sketch comedy. The response was lukewarm at best.

“We knew immediately,” McCall said. “They didn’t have this expression then, but we sucked.”

Despite the crushing experience, they managed to build successful careers with nightclub and Vegas shows during the ’60s and ’70s. They also appeared on TV panel shows and pursued acting careers.

Watch a portion of McCall and Brill’s performance on “The Ed Sullivan Show” here:

For more on Mitzi McCall’s career, read her obituary. Listen to the full “This American Life” segment for a deeper dive.

Source: NPR, This American Life, TheWrap