Nick Lewin and Little Jewford at The Backstage in Austin, Texas.
I had the very great pleasure of performing with my friends Little Jewford and The Durawa Band at The Backstage at El Mercado last night here in Austin during our Valentine’s Eve/Fat Tuesday Party. Kinky Friedman has been lucky enough for the last forty years to have double threat funny man/musical maestro Little Jewford as his onstage “sidekick” I had the time of my life working with him again—-I can’t wait till the next time! I wanted to post a couple of short clips from our vignette together. It is my 6 Card Deja Vu Routine.
We also performed a piece that I haven’t used in a long, long time! I brought it out of retirement as a little tribute to the 
great comedian Marty Allen. I had just heard the sad news of my old friend’s passing the night before the show. Many magicians are not aware that Allen & Rossi featured and made the Banana/Bandana routine uniquely their own back in the ’60s in their show. I thought it would be fun to take this now, all too familiar, piece out of mothballs as a specially tip of the hat to this legendary funnyman.
If you have never seen Marty and Steve in their heyday look out some old clips from YouTube and enjoy their masterful performances. Marty was 95 years old when he passed and never stopped performing live. His energy and comedic timing never faltered through the years. In this picture you will see Marty and I accompanied by Marty’s lovely and talented wife Karon Blackwell who was his partner in performance and life. We are losing so many of our great comedian’s from the Golden years of comedy and it is so sad. Marty was kind enough to be the very first guest on my ’90s Las Vegas interview show “The Entertainment Files.” I will try and locate and digitalize the footage and upload it onto my blog.
This is my (somewhat rusty!) performance of his classic routine for that same “Backstage” performance.
REMARKABLE MAGIC 
Nick,
Many, many thanks for your updates and education to history and past performers. To me, you are an important link to those forgotten, and “needed to be studied.” I personally did not realize Marty Allen was still around, let alone still working. I use to see him on Sullivan (whose that?), the Tonight Show (when it was a great show), and so many specials and great talk shows that don’t exist today!
I remember, even if you could not see the television screen, if you heard the words, “HELLO DER!!!”
you knew exactly whose face with bugged eyes and wild hair was staring at you in the camera. He was a true “CHARACTER,” something we do not see anymore in show business.
And hey, look at the magic scene today. Just where are the Flossos, Ken Brooks, Coopers, Johnny Platts, Heba Habas, and Bobby Wonders??? Aside from the late Tom Mullica, there have been none. The rest are gone and unfortunately, like Mr. Allen, are still leaving us.
Maybe people today are all too concern about card tricks, assault style magic, and that nonsense on TV they call magic shows, to be concerned about history and learning from the REAL MASTERS, not just Youtube. They could care less about that old stuff called “history.”
As I have told you before; “Please Nick, we need your experience, background, and connection to the past. Keep refreshing our memories, reminding us, and most of all letting the kids out there realize who they need to study and emulate. The information is all there and readily available. Just take the time and make the effort to enlighten your brain!
You will discover many surprises in store just for you!