‘AGT’ contestant killed in hit-and-run at 73

Perry Kurtz, a slapstick comedian who appeared on America’s Received Expertise, died after being concerned in a hit-and-run collision on Thursday night time. He was 73.

Kurtz’s supervisor confirmed that the comic was the unnamed sufferer in a site visitors accident reported by the Los Angeles Police Division early Friday morning. The LAPD confirmed {that a} male pedestrian was killed in a hit-and-run round 11:20 p.m. close to the intersection of Ventura Boulevard and Corbin Avenue within the Tarzana neighborhood. The Los Angeles Hearth Division pronounced him useless on the scene.

Later, authorities arrested suspect Nathon Jaimes, 18, on a cost of Felony Hit and Run Inflicting Demise. NBC4 reported that police discovered the suspect’s broken grey Honda Civic lower than half a mile away from the scene earlier than the arrest.

The comic’s supervisor Dante Rusciolelli mourned Kurtz in a press release to Leisure Weekly. “Golden Artists Leisure and myself are personally devastated by this information,”  Rusciolelli mentioned. “Perry was not solely a consumer, he’s been my buddy since 1987. He has been a staple within the Los Angeles comedy group for many years and might be enormously missed. Our prayers are together with his household.”

Kurtz appeared on the eighth season of America’s Received Expertise in 2013. In a clip from the present on Kurtz’s private YouTube channel, the comic describes himself as “an ex-male stripper” earlier than beginning a comedic rap routine concerning the judges Howard Stern, Heidi Klum, and Mel B. 

Kurtz was swiftly rejected by the judges, however implied in his YouTube caption that he was set as much as fail. “Howard had prewritten imply jokes, to which I heckled him again and acquired laughs from the group,” he wrote. “They gave me no mic stand, unusual music, and shut my mic off to 2/3 of the viewers once I began to sing, THEN instructed the group to face up and boo me. Welcome to actuality TV.”

The comic additionally appeared on The Late Late Present with James Corden, We the Folks, The Gong Present, and America’s Funniest Folks, and gained a spherical of Let’s Make a Deal. 

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Kurtz really did work in stripping, serving as an MC at a San Francisco male strip present within the late Nineteen Seventies, a 2004 profile by LA Downtown Information revealed. Kurtz additionally labored as a mattress salesman, often booked company gigs, and mentored younger comedians by educating comedy lessons.

He often headlined Dangerfield’s within the Nineteen Eighties, and in addition carried out on the Comedy Retailer, the Pantages, and quite a few different Los Angeles comedy staples, TMZ reported.