Al Lubel

Al Lubel became a lawyer to please his mother. Three years later he quit the law for standup comedy in order to displease her.

Getting stage time is difficult for a new comic so Al would unannounced, stand up in the middle of restaurants and do his five minutes. As he says, “I may have originated pop up stand up!”

Al eventually got work at comedy clubs and four years later won the $100,000 Grand Prize on television’s Star Search. He went on to become one of the last comics to do The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson, then making multiple appearances on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno and The Late Show with David Letterman.

In 1992 Al was the subject of A Standup Life, directed by Peter Lydon for the BBC. A documentary about American standup, it features Jerry Seinfeld, Bob Hope, Mort Sahl and Joan Rivers.

In 2002 he played basketball superstar Bill Walton’s sidekick in the the ESPN series, Bill Walton’s Long Strange Trip.

Al’s solo show, Mentally Al, won the Amused Moose Award Judges Prize as the best one person show in the 2013 Edinburgh Fringe Festival. He was nominated for best performer of a one person show along with four other comics by the Barry Awards at the 2015 Edinburgh Fringe Festival. If anyone is wondering, Al lost.

A new documentary about Al directed by Joshua Edelman, Mentally Al, is being distributed by Comedy Dynamics and can be seen on Amazon Prime and YouTube.

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