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Yellow Men. Much of their comedy is sharply contemporary, and carries a sting. A reference to "the 13 Frenchmen who actually fought in the last war" is followed by a summation of Lyndon Johnson in his Viet Nam visit: "Shortly after he arrived, he left." An African head of state is asked by an English interviewer about his country's firm resistance to Red Chinese infiltration. "If God had meant there to be yellow men," the chief explains, "he would have made them like you and me." Hendra and Ullett, both 25, arrived at their joint lunacy three years ago when they went to work in a London nightclub owned by a Lebanese gangster. Moving on to the U.S. in 1964, they were booked into Dallas, where transoceanic satire is as welcome as revisions in the oil-depletion allowance. "It was murder," Hendra recalls. "They canceled us in a week." The boys have since played everything from the Catskills' Borscht Belt to a shortlived TV show called The Entertainers. Their favorite gig was at Mister Kelly's in Chicago, which burned down while they were onstage. The band played Smoke Gets in Your Eyes, and Nic stepped out to reassure the patrons: "Don't worry, my partner once quieted down an audience in a fire to avoid panic, and they all burned to death."
