Mark Evanier shares a link to a Tonight Show performance by the prop comedian George Carl, who began his career traveling with circuses in the 1920s and was still performing for Johnny Carson in 1986:
When you saw him live, Mr. Carl did about 20-30 minutes of solid comedy, all paced with about this laughs-per-second pace. When he was on TV, he always did — probably at the insistence of those who’d booked him — this six minute hunk. No matter. I could watch it again and again…sheer poetry.