Moms Mabley on the Differences Between Older and Younger Men

Paste doesn’t just own the world’s largest collection of live music recordings. Our archives are deep with stand-up from some of the best comedians of all time. We periodically share classic comedy from legends like George Carlin, Eddie Murphy and Jerry Seinfeld. Today we listen in as the then-70-year-old Jackie “Moms” Mabley talks about why she prefers younger men, as recorded at the Newport Jazz Festival on July 5, 1964.

Loretta Mary Aitken had been a live entertainer for almost 50 years when she performed at the Newport Jazz Festival in 1964. The North Carolina native, born in 1894, ran away as a teen to be a singer and comedian in a traveling minstrel show. She took the stage name Jackie Mabley while in a short-lived duo with comedian Jack Mabley, and it stuck for the rest of her career. She gradually developed the on-stage persona of a dowdy but sharp-tongued housewife whose unassuming appearance and randy jokes about younger men contrasted with her hilarious and edgy material about racism, sexism and homosexuality. As an out lesbian within the industry from the 1920s on, she could be considered the grandmother of all LGBTQ comedians. A top star on the Chitlin’ Circuit for decades, Mabley broke through with white audiences in the early ‘60s, reaching mainstream success as she approached her 70s. She appeared frequently on The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour, performed on Ed Sullivan and Merv Griffin’s shows, and released a string of popular comedy albums throughout the 1960s.