Comedian-Movie and TV Actor, Shelley Berman will be the honored guest at the City’s 25th annual Doo Dah Parade set for Saturday, April 17 starting at noon.

Active in show business for over 60 years, Berman has appeared most recently on TV with roles on numerous shows including Boston Legal, Hannah Montana, CSI-NY and on HBO’S Curb Your Enthusiasm for which he received a 2008 Emmy nomination.

Berman has also been featured in many movies including The Holiday with Cameron Diaz and Jack Black, Meet the Fockers with Robert DeNiro and Ben Stiller and You Don’t Mess with Zohan with Adam Sandler. He has also been in movies with Henry Fonda, Dick Van Dyke, Debbie Reynolds, Marty Feldman, Burt Reynolds and many others.

Berman first soared to fame as a ground breaking comedian. While working in New York as a writer for Steve Allen, Shelley received an invitation to join the Compass Players in Chicago. This group later evolved in the famed Second City ensemble. Here he worked with such legendary performers as Mike Nichols, Elaine May and Barbara Harris among others.

While performing with the Compass Players, the comedian began developing solo pieces employing an imaginary telephone to take the place of an on stage partner. While watching Mort Sahl’s act at Mister Kelly’s in Chicago, he realized he didn’t have to tell traditional jokes like other comedians of the day. He could just talk to himself.

His unusual monologues caught on and soon he was performing throughout the country appearing on national television and recording his routines for Verve Records.

Inside Shelley Berman released in 1959 became the first comedy album awarded a gold record and the first non musical recording to win a Grammy. He would eventually record six albums for Verve, including Outside Shelley Berman and the Edge of Shelley Berman both of which also went gold.

Shelley went on to appear on numerous TV specials and all the major variety shows of the era, including Ed Sullivan, Steve Allen, Jack Paar, Dinah Shore, Perry Como, Andy Williams and Dean Martin.

Shelley’s great success as an original comedian enabled him to continue with his first love, acting. He starred on Broadway in A Family Affair, The Odd Couple, Damn Yankees, Where’s Charley, Fiddler on the Roof, I’m Not Rappaport, La Cage Aux Follies, the Prisoner of Second Avenue, Guys and Dolls and many others.

Dramatic and Comedic roles on television also came his way including memorable appearances on Peter Gunn, The Twilight Zone, Rawhide, Bewitched, the Man from U.N.C.L.E, the Mary Tyler Moore Show, St. Elsewhere, Night Court, Walker, Texas Ranger, Friends, The King of Queens, Grey’s Anatomy among many.

Shelley continues to do film and television work, as well as headline in Las Vegas several times a year. He has authored three books, two plays, several TV pilot scripts and numerous poems. For over 20 years he taught humor writing in the Master of Professional Writing Program at USC, where he is now Lecturer Emeritus. He spends what free time he has volunteering for various charitable organizations.

The City’s 25th Annual Doo Dah Parade will be dedicated to Soupy Sales, a great friend of Ocean City, who passed away late last year. The comedy program held after the Parade will feature a recreation of the Ed Sullivan Toast of Town Show. Berman, impersonators of legendary comedians and others will pay tribute to the irrepressible Soupy. Trudy Sales, Soupy’s wife and a former June Taylor dancer, will be grand marshal of the Parade.