Comic Marty Allen is 94, but who's counting? He's laughing

NEW YORK (AP) — The baby face and bug eyes were still in place.

Allen — who, more precisely, is 94-and-a-half years old — is still making his audiences laugh six decades after hitting the big time touring with the great jazz vocalist Sarah Vaughan.

While Allen's comedy is still as broad as his grin, the jokes were still gentle and, even when offered up as topical, they clearly qualified for landmark status.

Allen's act has always been family-friendly, somewhat of a rarity in the Vegas universe where he has long flourished.

For the record, only once during his act did he voice his timeless catchphrase, "Hello dere!" And then it was delivered as a sunny, earnest greeting when he first took the stage.

[...] beyond that, those once were household words that even Mercury astronaut Gordon Cooper radioed from space: "Hello, down dere!"

After Tuesday's set, Allen dispensed his "Hello dere" greetings generously, voiced to each fan who stepped up to get a book signed or pose for a photo.

Allen, who has outlived so many stars he knew and worked with (including Rossi, who died two years ago at 82), had finished his nearly two-hour act looking not at all tired but, instead, refreshed.

EDITOR'S NOTE — Frazier Moore is a national television columnist for The Associated Press.