Love this anecdote from the LA Times obit:
Bean had heard of the Blue Angel night club, and shortly after arriving in New York he went there to see if he could audition.
“The door was unlocked and I went up the stairs,” Bean recalled. “There was a light on, and a guy looked up — he was counting receipts — and said, ‘What do you want?’ I said, ‘I’m a comic.’”
The man looked at Bean and said, “Say something funny.”
Bean said, “Belly button.”
“He looked down,” Bean recalled, “and got a little smile on his face and said, ‘I’m short an act tonight. I’ll put you on.’ I got laughs for the first time.”
And from 1950 to 1960, he was the house comic at the Blue Angel.