Biff Manard
Paid Regular
Biff starred in Make Me Laugh and wrote and co-produced the comics segments on the show with Marty Cohen. Biff was an anchor of the the 1970s Sunset Strip comedy scene and a hell raiser second to none.
Our pack of wild comics all lived at the same apartment complex on North Laurel, a block above Greenblatt’s on Sunset, a half mile from the Comedy Store. Biff loved to hold court in the afternoon and write jokes with fellow comics in the marijuana stage of the day. Later, after everyone had showered, killed the crowd, we often re-grouped together and partied till dawn, like it’d never end.
How he loved to laugh and encourage other comics to keep it real. Biff LOVED wordplay.
My first week at the Comedy Store in April of 1976, still an open miker, fresh out of OU, I was at a party at Alan Bursky’s parents apartment. Biff walked up to me and snarled. “So…Argus…I hear you hang out at the Polo Lounge?" ”Yes" I replied, “So," he grilled me, “Who was that named after, Marco Polo?” Pulling out a reply from God knows where, I blurted, “No, Biff, it was named after Genghis Lounge!” He fell on the floor laughing, grabbed Tim Thomerson, told him the line, and within a week, I was hired as a doorman, emcee, and Mitzi’s runner, thanks to Biff and Ollie Joe’s influence with Mitzi.
We would raise a LOT of hell together in the next ten years, with comedians Alan Bursky, Mitchell Walters, Allan Stephan, Kip Addotta, Marty Cohen, Debbie Klegman, Mike Binder, Tim Thomerson, Ronny Kenney, Robin Williams, Richard Pryor, Dave Tyree, Ollie Joe Prater, Charlie Hill—centered nightly together at the Comedy Store and welded to each other in our Joy of Raising Hell …..a core unit of the funniest people of our generation, young, bulletproof and irresistible. NO ONE had more fun than we did, NO ONE and that’s saying something for the late 70s in LA.
Biff was there EVERY night, until six in the morning arrived and time to crash. and he consciously decided to keep swinging until the end. How he made it to 71 is a tribute to an incredible constitution. Love you Biff and Our Era is the favorite time of my life. If I had a time machine, I’d go back to 1979 and stay there when we were all unbeatable.
See you at the coffee table on the other side.
-Argus Hamilton, American Comedian