Evening star., 1937-03-28
LAUGHS WILL EARN
$4,000, Al CLAIMS
Gets Muscles Behind Ears
in Trim for Grand Tour
of Minor Circuits.
BY JOHN LARDNER.

Al Schacht, who has been appointed
base balls of1icial comedian by COM
mittee composed OF Al Schacht, Is
working out down here with the ball
clubs. He is training to be funny, and
. few more weeks will see those
muscles behind his ears thoroughly
.baked out and limbered. He Is almost
down to weight already.
II expect to convuse EN- this year."
said Mr.. Schacht, "for fees and per-
centages totaling s35o00. The dough
Is not funny, but am
Mr.. Schacht was interviewed in the
midst Of his daily workout as he prac-
ticed on three deaf stooges in front
of a quiet st. Petersburg hotel. The
stooges, perfect strangers to Mr..
Schacht, showed no signs Of being
amused, but Mr.. Schacht was cheer.
full, if not downright optimistic.
Wait till I get warmed up" he
said. 1T is little early in the year
to hit curve ball pitching, but, as soon
As I find my edge I will have these
muckers rolling in the street with
laughter, regardless Of parking rules
and freplugs. There One Of them
almost smiled, or didn't you catch it?
| Or is he asleep? guess he is, at that.
But give me three more days and I
will be clearing the fence, in dialect"
| Mr.. Schacht works out twice day
-pantomime in the morning and gags
| in the afternoon.
He's His Own Severest Critic.
TT ONLY took me two days to get
laugh out Of myself" he said,
and that means I am rounding into
form unusually fast, because am my
own severest critic, and what will
panic the average man will only get
brief chuckle out of me. The other
day a kid laughed at me on the street
when l wasn't even working. That
shows progress"
1t is Mr.. Schachts plan to appear
with his act in some IS minor league
towns this Summer, towns where the
routines are new. Before the ball
game he will wow the spectator for
a fat guarantee or a percentage OF
the gate He will give them the
pitcher-c catcher routine, and the strip
tease routine, and the delayed throw,
and the burlesque broadcast and the
rest of what Mr.. Schacht, for want OF
better word, calls my repertoire
1t Is harder than you think, get
ting ready for season Of high COM
edy When he reported to himself in
Florida this month Mr.. Schacht was
slow and out of condition.
"A fella I knew said Hello to me
and I couldn't think of any better
comeback than Hello" confessed the
Chaplin of the base paths. "One day
of training and 1 might have at least
given him Hello yourself or How
are you, I'm sure?' but l was stale.
| 1t takes time to round into shape.
The weather does not interfere with
Mr. Schachts training. Rain or shine,
he puts in five or six innings q day
tossing gags to himself in batting
| practice When the downpour-or
dew" as they say in st. Petersburg
is unusually heavy. Mr. Schacht works
indoors, panicking bridge parties or
rehearsing in front Of mirror. He
has acquired Seminole sunburn and
| several new routines, which he may
show in some of the major parks be-
| fore going on the road.
AltrOck, Schacht Vowed En-.
| VOU probably remember the days
when Mr.. Schacht worked as the
| junior partner in the comedy team Of
! Altrock and Schacht He and Nikolay
Petrovitch Altrock, the old czarist
emigre, were coaches on the Washing
ton Ball Club and some of the STUFF
| they got off before the game was pretty
| funny, if Schacht and Altrock do say
so themselves.
The one used to like best was tho
rainy day gag when Schacht and Al
trock would commander raft and
attempt to row down the base line
| from first to second in the teeth OF
the deluge. Mr. Altrock was equipped
by Nature with an ideal comedy face,
and Mr. Schachts pan was by no
means Grecian, either.
One Of the problems Of the act was
the feud which existed between AL
| trock and Schacht, feud so bitter at
times that the boys did not speak to
each other in private. Mr.. Schacht
says today that the bitterness of thus
quarrel has been exaggerated by his
torians, but the fact remains that he
does not care to discuss it much, and
sheers of with great rapidity when
the subject comes up.
Likes His Public.
MR.. SCHACHT went to Boston n
AA coach when Joe Cronin switched
from the Nationals to the Red Sox.
leaving Altrock In Washington. AL
bert decided that he needed some solo
stuff, and the stuff he developed Is
pretty funny. I expect he will do all
right on his tour of the country this
year, artistically He is bound to do
all right financially, because s35, 900
Is not rhubarb.
II got the idea of touring" says
the gifted clown, when I realized
that millions OF people in this great
Republic of ours had never seen my
stuff. I thought they ought to see it
before they died, or before l did. I
thought they were entitled to it.
Why should one-half Of the world
have Schacht while the other half
lives on bread crumbs? That's how I
put it to myself I belong to the
people Viewing my art in its broader
aspects -"
Mr.. Schacht intends to do some
stage turns, too, after the ball parks
shut down If you took all the people
whom Mr.. Schacht will panic in 1897
and laid them end to end-well, MI.
Schacht expects to do that anyway.
End to end, in the aisles," he ex-
| plains. II never felt funnier."
(Copyrisht. 1887, by the North American
Newspaper Alliance, IncD
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