Can you top this? [antikvár]

FOREWORDThe radio program "Can You Top This?" is the brain child of "Senator" Ed Ford, who not only created, produces, and owns the show, but also appears in it with the noted wits Harry Hershfield, cartoonist, raconteur, and columnist; and Joe Laurie, Jr., pint-size author and comedian."Can You Top This?" is an audience-participation show in which the listening audience sends in stories and jokes that are edited and presented by character actor and dialectician Peter Donald in the role of peoples* representative. The three knights of the Clown Table^Laurie, Hershfield, and Ford then try to top the submitted story with a joke on the same subject.The person whose joke is presented by Peter Donald automatically receives ten dollars. Each time the three wits fail to top the sent-in joke, the contestant receives five dollars more.The visible audience is the judge. Its laughter volume is registered on a big laugh meter in full view of the studio audience. It is calibrated from i to i,ooo."Can You Top This?" is unrehearsed and spontaneous. Hershfield, Laurie, and Ford do not know what jokes are to be used until Peter Donald presents them on the air. They have no scripts or notes, but draw solely from a vast repertoire9