The Best Night time In Pop, the brand new Netflix documentary concerning the making of “We Are the World” has everybody nostalgic for these 80’s music team-ups to profit good causes. That music was itself impressed by “Do They Know It’s Christmas?” an identical gathering of UK pop stars to help ravenous folks in Africa. “Tears Are Not Sufficient” was the entry from Northern Lights, a Canadian rocker supergroup. Willie Nelson, John Mellencamp and Bob Dylan organized Farm Support to profit farmers. And American comedians acquired in on the motion with Comedian Aid USA.
HBO’s Chris Albrecht credit Andy Kaufman co-conspirator Bob Zmuda for bringing the thought to the desk, in response to oral historical past Tinderbox: HBO’s Ruthless Pursuit of New Frontiers. Over dinner one night time, “(Zmuda) mentioned, ‘We should always do Dwell Support, however as an alternative of musicians, we should always use comics.’” The concept was a pure for HBO, identified for its stand-up specials with the nation’s greatest comedy stars. Albrecht put collectively a mid-80s dream staff of comedians to host an hours-long humorous fundraiser: Whoopi Goldberg, Billy Crystal and Robin Williams.
“The homeless downside was turning into a nationwide shame,” mentioned Crystal. “They introduced Whoopi, Robin, and me in for a gathering and mentioned, ‘We wish to unite the comedy world, like Dwell Support, and get each stand-up we are able to.’ It was an audacious concept.” However Comedian Aid pulled it off, enlisting Gary Shandling, Harold Ramis, Catherine O’Hara, Martin Brief, Michael Keaton, George Carlin, Gilda Radner, Jon Lovitz, Howie Mandel, Bobcat Goldthwait, Dennis Miller, Eugene Levy and John Sweet for its preliminary outing. Comedian Aid was one in all faculty pupil Judd Apatow’s first comedy jobs, producing native advantages to boost cash for the trigger.
“They’d us go to completely different shelters and we began to see the severity of the issue,” remembers Goldberg. “Then they’d us go all the way down to Washington and discuss with vital figures in politics. It was a tremendous awakening for the three of us. This downside was a lot greater than anyone thought, and we needed to carry some dignity again to of us.”
The preliminary occasion, roughly a telethon, lasted for greater than 5 hours. However it solely took minutes into the hosts’ opening bit earlier than the telephones started ringing. “Robin, Whoopi, and I began crying,” remembers Crystal. “When the cash got here in, (we) traveled across the nation delivering checks in individual. No matter got here in, the charities acquired. That was fairly extraordinary.”
Ultimately, the Comedian Aid fundraisers ran their course in the USA (though their U.Okay. counterparts are nonetheless going robust). The HBO efforts raised about $75 million over time that the cable big ran the Comedian Aid specials.
“We had been so naive as to assume that we might do it, elevate sufficient cash, and wouldn’t must do it once more,” remembers Goldberg. “That clearly didn’t change into the case. Now I’m fairly unhappy as a result of we stopped and nobody else has picked up the job. I believed the youthful comics would, however I haven’t seen it.”
