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Factsheet

• Lived in the Brooklyn Hebrew Orphan Asylum with his siblings as a child.
• Was a champion amateur boxer.
• Gained fame performing his act at the famous hungry i club in San Francisco.
• Claims he talked his way out of military service by convincing authorities he was homosexual.
• Scored his breakthrough on radio with appearances on Edgar Bergen's show.
• Regularly panhandled and gave his take to children's charities in Cuba. 
• Was a public supporter of numerous leftist political causes.