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The Nairobi Trio

The Nairobi Trio was a skit Ernie Kovacs performed several times for his TV shows. It combined many existing concepts and visuals in a new and novel way.^{[citation needed]} Image File history File links Broom_icon. ... Image File history File links Nairobitrio. ... Image File history File links Nairobitrio. ... Sketch comedy consists of a series of short comedy scenes, or sketches, commonly between one and ten minutes long. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ...

People in gorilla suits have always been a comedy staple. The notion of well-known or predictable music pieces gone awry has long been practiced by artists as diverse as Stan Freberg, Spike Jones or P.D.Q. Bach. The "slow burn" of one character annoying another resulting in eventual retaliation was not new. But the combination of all those ingredients, combined with impeccable timing, produced a unique and memorable result. Stanley Victor Freberg (born August 7, 1926 in Los Angeles) is an American author, recording artist, animation voice actor, comedian, puppeteer and advertising creative director. ... Spike Jones For the music video and film director, see Spike Jonze. ... P.D.Q. Bach (1807-1742?) is the pseudonym under which Professor Peter Schickele has written a substantial body of satirical music, recorded on nearly twenty compact discs on the Vanguard and Telarc labels. ...

It was a live-action version of a child's animatronic wind-up music box, performed to the tune "Solfeggio" by Robert Maxwell. Allegedly, when Kovacs first heard a recording of the tune, he immediately came up with a mental image of what would become The Nairobi Trio: three gorillas (wearing derby hats and long overcoats) mechanically miming to the music like wind-up toys. In the middle sat the "head gorilla," always played by Kovacs (with a cigar, of course), conducting with a baton or (sometimes) a banana. To the viewer's left another gorilla stood, holding two oversized timpani mallets. (The identity of this ape varied, but among Kovacs' celebrity friends both Jack Lemmon and Frank Sinatra are known to have performed in the skit.) And seated at screen right at a piano was a female simian (often Kovacs' wife, Edie Adams), robotically thumping up and down on the keys. Animatronic is the third album from Norweigan black metal band, The Kovenant, and was released in 1999 through Nuclear Blast. ... A musical box (or music box) is a 19th century automatic musical instrument that produces sounds by the use of a set of pins placed on a revolving cylinder so as to strike the tuned teeth of a steel comb. ... Robert Maxwell (born April 19, 1921) was a harpist and songwriter, who wrote the music for two well-known songs: Ebb Tide and Shangri-La. ... A timpanist in the United States Air Forces in Europe Band. ... John Uhler Lemmon III (February 8, 1925 – June 27, 2001), better known as Jack Lemmon, was a two-time Academy Award-winning American actor and comedian. ... “Sinatra” redirects here. ... Edie Adams (born Elizabeth Edith Enke) is an American singer and light comedienne who was born on April 16, 1927, in Kingston, Pennsylvania. ...

Nearly all skits operated in the same general fashion, involving the gorilla with the mallets, who repeatedly uses the center gorilla's (Kovacs') head as a drum at the end of every phrase, punctuating a sharp "ba-da-BUM" bongo riff. Every repeat brings a slightly changed and escalated response from the victim, as he tries to anticipate the mallet assault and outwit the perpetrator. Ultimately staring him down, he is eventually distracted by the third gorilla for one final blow, moving him to smash a prop vase over the percussionist's head. Look up bongo in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... Riff is also an alternate spelling of Rif, a region of Morocco. ...

The bit was repeated several times over the course of Kovacs' career. The definitive version is likely the last, performed for one of Ernie's 1960s ABC specials shortly before his untimely death. The combination of a bigger budget, videotape, and the luxury of retakes helped him to perfect the timing of the sketch. Bottom view of VHS videotape cassette with magnetic tape exposed Videotape is a means of recording images and sound onto magnetic tape as opposed to movie film. ...

The Nairobi Trio has entered popular culture beyond the television screen. A popular New Zealand jazz group adopted the name, and writer Jim Knipfel wrote an account of his six-month stay in a psychiatric ward entitled Quitting the Nairobi Trio, using a picture of Kovacs in simian drag on the cover. And a video for Harry Nilson's novelty song Cocoanut features three gorillas playing as a trio. For other uses, see Jazz (disambiguation). ... Jim Knipfel (born 1965), a native of Wisconsin, is the author of a series of memoirs, Slackjaw, Quitting the Nairobi Trio, and Ruining It for Everybody, and a novel, The Buzzing. ... Harry Edward Nilsson III (June 15, 1941 - January 15, 1994) was an American songwriter, singer, pianist and guitarist, most popular during the 1960s and 1970s. ... Binomial name Cocos nucifera L. For other uses, see Coconut (disambiguation). ...

External links

• Reference to the "Nairobi Trio"
• The New Zealand Jazz group (The Nairobi Trio)
• Video of the Nairobi Trio performing "Solfeggio"