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Thursday, October 31, 2002
Posted by Daniel Frank at
2:36 PM
Whenever Rickles is on Letterman, Letterman will invariably say "Oh, Dooooon." This is an allusion to Don Wilson, announcer and butt of fat jokes on the Jack Benny Show. # | |
Posted by Daniel Frank at
11:49 AM
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Posted by Daniel Frank at
11:19 AM
# | | Wednesday, October 30, 2002
Posted by Daniel Frank at
9:40 PM
I once performed comedy with Butch Patrick in the audience. He knew the headliner or something and was living near Austin, TX so he dropped in and became part of an audience of about 7. This was part of a particularly surreal evening which included the city of Austin attempting to start an annual Mardi Gras parade as 6th Street is, of course, Austin's answer to Bourbon Street (No, I don't know what the question was). We literally stopped the show in the middle so everyone could look at the parade. The parade itself consisted of two pickup trucks and a Toyota Corolla that made a wrong turn and just thought everyone was being really friendly by cheering and such. The parade was over and we continued the show. Later that evening, between shows, someone popped his/her head into the club and said "Hey, Clint Eastwood and Kevin Costner are at Maggie Mae's." And, no, neither Costner nor Eastwood dropped in. As MC of show 2, I opened with the announcement that Anson Williams was at the pizza place across the street. But the point is I played for Butch Patrick. And if that don't get me laid, nothing on this blog will. # | |
Posted by Daniel Frank at
9:18 PM
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Posted by Daniel Frank at
9:05 PM
Nor does Mr. Wells particularly sound like John Cleese. (via Mark Evanier). # | | Tuesday, October 29, 2002
Posted by Daniel Frank at
8:56 AM
# | | Sunday, October 27, 2002
Posted by Daniel Frank at
10:33 PM
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Posted by Daniel Frank at
10:32 PM
Clown prince, feh! And people wonder why I have no doubt that Uncle Scrooge is richer than Richie Rich. # | |
Posted by Daniel Frank at
10:20 PM
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Posted by Daniel Frank at
10:57 AM
Lenny Bruce is the most influential comic of the last forty years. My proof of that is very simple: Nobody gets arrested for telling jokes anymore and we have Lenny Bruce to thank for that. This CD is a recording of what is supposed to be Lenny's best performance ever. # | | Saturday, October 26, 2002
Posted by Daniel Frank at
4:54 PM
If only Trudeau's skepticism about things written on the Internet was developed before he drew this strip. # | | Wednesday, October 23, 2002
Posted by Daniel Frank at
11:50 AM
Today's was kind of funny. Although I notice that the other kid has switched from "Dude" to "Man". Look for "Bro" tomorrow and "Homey" on Friday and Saturday. # | | Monday, October 21, 2002
Posted by Daniel Frank at
7:29 PM
Almost every comedian I know has commented on how heartening it is to see that even Seinfeld has to endure some of the same crap we do and gets the same jitters we do. (At one point, he asks "How big do I have to be for the audience not to talk?") Seemingly less unsure of himself is Orny Adams whose high confidence level doesn't seem to match his talent level (Granted we don't see much of his act but his using the bar stool as a wacky prop was enough proof for me; when you watch a lot of stand-up comedy, you pick up on these signs.) Granted, Orny, who's about my age, has George Shapiro (who manages Seinfeld and who managed Andy Kaufman) as a manager and did Letterman and Montreal. So what do I know? I don't think he looks good in this movie and even if the general public doesn't care, those who do the hiring will probably see it. All in all, an excellent moving picture show. # | |
Posted by Daniel Frank at
6:51 PM
I don't have much to say, I will grant. Other than, at least I wasn't dopey enough to fall for the Presidential IQ hoax. # | | Sunday, October 20, 2002
Posted by Daniel Frank at
9:48 PM
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Posted by Daniel Frank at
5:32 PM
Uncle Scrooge writer Don Rosa attacks this injustice as well as the gross underestimate of Scrooge's wealth at $8.2 billion. (Although in Forbes's defense, perhaps the day they did the official count Scrooge had been robbed by the Beagle Boys and had not yet rescued his dough.) # | |
Posted by Daniel Frank at
5:20 PM
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Posted by Daniel Frank at
5:17 PM
# | | Wednesday, October 16, 2002
Posted by Daniel Frank at
11:54 PM
I dunno if I agree that it's unmarketable. There's gotta be a market for a comedic, Jewish-looking gangster. Hell, Michael Lerner and Alex Rocco can't play everything. # | |
Posted by Daniel Frank at
11:42 PM
The friend I saw it with had the perfect summary "You don't know what will happen next. And how many films can you say that about?" # | |
Posted by Daniel Frank at
11:25 PM
So I'd find a town near Aspen and hold the Gaspin' Comedy Festival or the Graspin' Comedy Festival or whatever. However there is a fatal flaw to this plan: The reason alternate film festivals are so successful is that people like going to the movies. "Come see eight more hours of stand-up" is a harder sell. # | | Sunday, October 13, 2002
Posted by Daniel Frank at
11:28 PM
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Posted by Daniel Frank at
11:07 PM
This essay was the start of my dislike of Moore because he denies that the Serbs were committing genocide on the Albanians. I wonder if he ever retracted that claim. Maybe I should follow him with a video camera, this photograph, a bullhorn and a guy in a gorilla suit to find out. # | | Friday, October 11, 2002
Posted by Daniel Frank at
4:02 PM
Here's the story of the real-life guy who spent $3000 on pudding to get a million frequent flier miles. # | |
Posted by Daniel Frank at
2:22 PM
# | | Tuesday, October 08, 2002
Posted by Daniel Frank at
10:31 PM
If the imdb entry for Sheldon Leonard is insufficient to jog your memory cells, here's an episode of The Lucy Show guest-starring Sheldon Leonard. The episode is called, appropriately enough, "Lucy Meets Sheldon Leonard". As was the style of the time, a brief biography of the special guest star is worked into the dialogue ("After appearing so many times as a gangster in the movies, you then started producing television shows such as The Danny Thomas Show!"). UPDATE: The reviews are in! # | |
Posted by Daniel Frank at
8:50 AM
Early in September on NBC's "Late Night With Conan O'Brien," Mr. O'Brien asked Tom Kenny, the comic who is the voice of SpongeBob, to address the "controversy" about one of SpongeBob's pals, a grumpy squid named Squidward who speaks in a voice some find reminiscent of Paul Lynde, the late comic actor who specialized in gay double-entendre on "Hollywood Squares."When Tom Kenny was saying "all the main characters are hiding horrible secrets of their own", he was not alluding to the Spongebob Squarepants show. He was doing a bit about how sitcoms in the past would have clearly gay characters but no one talked about it because the characters were hiding their own secrets (my wife is a witch; I live with a genie; I own a talking horse, etc.). In fact, the question itself was obviously a lead-in to do the bit. # | | Saturday, October 05, 2002
Posted by Daniel Frank at
4:50 PM
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Posted by Daniel Frank at
2:34 AM
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Posted by Daniel Frank at
2:25 AM
Marty Ingalls was peeing in his pants, Freddie Roman was worshiping me, Red Buttons said it was brilliant, Jack Carter was in tearsComedian Red Buttons sued Conan and NBC for slander. Here are the details and results of that case. # | |
Posted by Daniel Frank at
2:22 AM
The most famous/infamous example is Ed Sullivan at Don Rickles's roast in the late sixties (You will, of course, need to imagine this in Ed Sullivan's voice): I have a few words to say. F&% you, you bald-headed bastard. # | |
Posted by Daniel Frank at
2:13 AM
The best example I remember was during the NBC show. Dave was ranting about Howdy Doody and Buffalo Bob's appearance in a commercial for a hotel chain. Dave complains that it makes Buffalo Bob and his puppet look sleazy, like they spend their days travelling and staying in cheap hotels. He then says "I don't know if that's the image they're trying to project." Paul says "Who, Howdy Doody or the hotel?" BAM! Dave chuckles and says "Yeah, I guess it's hard to choose a winner out of that bunch" and then proceeds to do a few more minutes of comedy around how silly the hotel looks for having a puppet as a guest ("More towels for Mr. Doody?") This is exactly what a straight man is supposed to do, provide fodder for additional comedy. # | |
Posted by Daniel Frank at
1:59 AM
# | | Friday, October 04, 2002
Posted by Daniel Frank at
2:02 PM
I'm not convinced. Roasts aren't that hard and I say that as someone who's done a few (including this past Monday when I roasted Lew Wasserman's granddaughter in honor of her pending nuptials to Milton Berle's grandnephew. I love Hollywood!). Of course, hidden under the veneer of the insults and gay sex jokes is genuine affection for the roasted. I think the problem with the Chevy Chase roast is that the only SNL veterans he could attract to his roast were Lorraine Newman, Al Franken, and Paul Shaffer. According to a review of Tom Shales's book about SNL, the main constant amongst the casts throughout SNL's history is a hatred for Chevy Chase. What sort of surprised me was how good Paul Shaffer is at roasting. Combustible Boy aka the Blazing Blogger (of the Sound and the Fury) asked me to explain this joke: When the laughter subsided, Mr. Shaffer dropped a beauty of a show-business insider’s joke: "How about that new Saturday Night Live book," he said. "They were pretty rough on Chevy. I haven’t seen anybody eat that much [$&%!] since the biography of Danny Thomas."An apocryphal rumor about Danny Thomas is that he was into what the kids call "plating". Mr. Thomas would supposedly lie under a glass coffee table while the hookers he had hired would defecate on said table. Hey, blame Combustible Boy. He asked! # | | Tuesday, October 01, 2002
Posted by Daniel Frank at
2:27 PM
UPDATE: Streisand admits to being duped but resorts to the usual last refuge of the duped: saying that the statement is true even if not written by Shakespeare. # | |
Posted by Daniel Frank at
12:39 AM
UPDATE: I stupidly forgot to include a link of who the hell Sheldon Leonard is. I have one now. # | |
Posted by Daniel Frank at
12:37 AM
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