The Friars Frolics has been around for almost a century (even longer than the Roasts) and this year they paid tribute to some legendary Friar moments as well as performances by Friar legends. Hosted and produced by Friar Stewie Stone, the Frolics–which was held at the theater at The Lighthouse–was a huge success.
The opening number captured the spirit of the Friars and took a page out of the Friars history book when Members used to dress up as monks and perform the Friars song. Friars Rena Strober and Sal Viviano donned the Friars apparel and, accompanied by musical director Friar Barry Levitt, made that song sound better than ever. Written by Friar Victor Herbert in 1907 Here’s To The Friars admittedly takes special handling for it to sound like a show stopper–Strober and Viviano’s performance would have made Herbert proud. Not only were their voices glorious but their patter and comedic antics made it all the more engaging.
 Here’s to the Friars courtesy of Friars Sal Viviano and Rena Strober
Friars Dick Capri, Jack Carter, Norm Crosby, and Dean Freddie Roman, along with Stewie, headlined the event and there wasn’t a dry eye in the house–from all the laughing. Stewie introduced montages of some of the funniest moments in Friar history that have been captured on tape. As Dean Roman joked, “They had to edit down eleven hundred minutes of dirty jokes to get twelve clean minutes.” But it was well worth the effort as the clips brought to life Jack Benny, Milton Berle, Alan King, and Frank Sinatra, and showcased hilarious highlights from Roasts and Dinners past and present.
 Frolics Producer/ Host Friar Stewie Stone
When the audience wasn’t enjoying a Roast moment, they were entertained by the four comics on the bill. “I have a new watch,” explained Friar Dick Capri, “It’s a Michael Jackson watch. The alarm goes off when the big hand touches the little hand.” Capri shared some of his heritage, “My mother said, ‘Marry an Italian girl because any other kind, you hit ‘em once and they go to the police......My mother |
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was catholic, my father was atheist but they compromised–we had a cross on the wall but nobody was on it–Catholic lite....My grandfather had Italian Alzheimer's, he forgot everything except a grudge.”
We heard all about Capri’s family tree thanks to his visit to a genealogist: “I had an ancestor who was at the Last Supper, but you can’t see him because he wasn’t sitting at the head table–he was at table 4 and he won the centerpiece. Another uncle, during the renaissance, worked with Michelangelo. When Michelangelo was up there painting the ceiling, my uncle was doing the closets and baseboards.”
Dean Roman regaled the audience with remembrances of the catskills’ heyday, “Driving up Route 17, till we got to the Red Apple Rest where we all had to pee because the cars only went twenty-eight miles an hour. At Bloomingberg, New York, the most famous sign in the catskill mountains, ‘Eat Here, Get Gas.’”
 Friar Dick Capri
Roman shared his thoughts about the various erectile dysfunction drugs on the market, “I take a Viagra every night, it’s wonderful, it keeps me from rolling out of bed. Cialis can help a man perform for up to thirty-six hours. Now, I don’t know about you guys but at my age I’m looking for a snappy twenty minutes. The last line of the Cialis commercial is the best–gentlemen, should your erection last four hours or more, call a physician immediately. Should mine last more than four hours I am not calling a f--king doctor. I am calling Angelina Jolie, Charleze Theron, Cameron Diaz, and whoever else will answer my call.”
Stone mentioned that “I’m sixty-six years old, sex is not the first thing on my list–regularity is number one on my list. I don’t care about coming, going I care about. You eat matzo, drink water, it will form cement in your stomach. Jews have been constipated for five thousand years. When Moses went to the Pharaoh and said, ‘Let my people go,’ he meant to the toilet. We followed that man for forty years because he
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promised us a toilet!”
“Stewie, you were never better...and it’s a damn shame,” said Friar Jack Carter after his introduction by Stone. He added, “Around the Club he’s known as Friar Tuck, or is it Tire F--k?” Carter had a machine gun delivery of jokes: “I love being back in New York. My oldest friend lives in New York.
 Friar Jack Carter
As a matter of fact, two years ago I loaned him twenty thousand dollars to have his face completely re-done–now I can’t find the son of a bitch.....The last Frolicker was Milton Berle who had the largest frolic in the whole world. It was a grand, monstrous thing, it had its own heart and lungs.”
It’s always a puzzlement what exactly Friar Norm Crosby is saying but what he says is so funny you can’t help but be mesmerized. “With all the excitement and the mastication and the soliciting that went on tonight, and with this incredible array of talent, and for me to come out here this late in the show and you could still come up with that kind of ovulation–God bless you. We need to laugh. With all the lust and the carnage and the filth and the humping that’s going on in the world.”
Norm then riffed on the economy: “Ford Motor Company is making a brand new car for people with limited income. It’s gonna have an air bag but you have to blow it up yourself.” Then there was the state of marital affairs to tackle: “Kids don’t want to get married, they want to live together. Senior citizens, their kids ship them down to Florida to die and they live in these senior citizen complexes and meet and they don’t want to get married, so they move in with each other. The only ones who want to get married are homosexuals and priests.”
It was such a great night of Friar quality entertainment that people were still laughing exiting the theater. It was the perfect mix of tradition, nostalgia, legends, and of course, the main ingredient for any Friars outing–laughs.
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