Dahlia Lithwick on today's testimony by Alberto Gonzales. I think we're reaching the stage where the only thing keeping this guy in his job is his seeming ability to defy the law of inertia. It's like, "Yeah, he should quit. But he should have quit a month ago and he's still there. So maybe 'should quit' doesn't apply to him."
Dick DeBartolo, who's been writing funny stuff for Mad Magazine for centuries, worked for almost as long at the Goodson-Todman game show factory. He sends in the following...
I wrote The Match Game, but also worked on To Tell The Truth. One week, I got Gaines on as a central subject. (Gaines as in William M. Gaines, for those who might not know.) I'll never forget Bill's joy when it was Kitty Carlisle's turn to pick who she thought was the real publisher of Mad Magazine. She said it obviously wasn't #3 (Gaines.) When the host (can't remember if it was Garry or Joe G.) said "why not?" Kitty said: "Well, the publisher of Mad, a very successful magazine, must be an executive and...and...well, just look at #3. It can't be him!"
Gaines was thrilled not to look like an executive. God bless him. And Kitty, too. I hope they meet up there.
If they do, she'll probably think, "What would the guy who published Tales from the Crypt be doing up here?" But it's a nice thought.
newsfromme, your full service weblog, is about to do some of you a big favor. You may recall a recent post here where I discussed the new Hostess Cupcakes that come in 100 calorie packets. Lately, I've been trying almost every 100 calorie item I've spotted in my local markets. These come in handy for me. Since my Gastric Bypass Surgery, I don't have to worry much about my weight but I have to eat in certain rhythms. It usually comes down to two or three small meals a day and three or four smaller ones. The 100 calorie packets are usually perfect for the latter, not so much because of their calorie count but their size.
I've sampled the Chips Ahoy, Oreo, Lorna Doone, Planter's Peanut Cookies, Cheese Nips and Ritz Mix packets, all from Nabisco. The Ritz Mix, I found nearly inedible and since I bought a box of six packets, I forced the other five on company. The Oreos bothered me because they weren't Oreos. It was as if the Nabisco scientists said to the boss, "No way can we configure Oreos for 100 calorie packages," and the boss said, "I don't care...I want 100 calorie packets of something I can say are Oreos." So they came up with these air-filled chocolate wafers that they claim are Oreos but which have nothing to do with real Oreos. They're probably decent cookies but who can swallow a lie like that?
The other Nabisco products were okay. So were the 100 calorie packets of Cheetos that come from that company, and I've also tried 100 calorie Hershey dark chocolate bars, 100 calorie Thomas' English Muffins, 100 calorie Orville Redenbacher microwave popcorn and the aforementioned 100 calorie Hostess Cupcakes. They were all decent in that they were either tasty food or they reminded me of tasty food. But I'm here to tell you about my favorites, and some of you will thank me for this.
The Trader Joe's chain has gotten into the 100 calorie sweepstakes with several items, two of which I like a lot. One is their cheese crackers, which are shaped like little toucans. The other is their oatmeal chocolate chip cookies, which are shaped like oatmeal chocolate chip cookies. They taste pretty good, you get more product in each packet than you might expect, and the ingredients do not include too many unpronounceable chemical names.
Give 'em a try...and while you're there, you might want to sample some of Trader Joe's other 100 calorie products, just in case you like the cinnamon graham cracker toucans more than I did. They were all right but I liked the others better. The stores also have some multigrain cracker toucans that I didn't test. In my experience, Trader Joe's products are very hit and miss, and when I find a good one, I sometimes opt to not press my luck.
Craig Yoe has up some nice photos of Johnny Hart and Brant Parker, along with the first week of The Wizard of Id. Boy, that was a funny strip during its best years.
Another post about the new NBC series, Thank God You're Here. As I mentioned, last Saturday night I was with a group of people who excel at improv comedy and have studied it with the best teachers and co-improvisers in the world. There, the buzz on the new show was uniformly negative to the point of disgust. This article by Dan Kois sounds like a transcribed summary of those complaints.
I agree with everything in the article but I will add the following, not so much in defense of the show as explanation. Some of the press releases claim the show is "improv" but the producers themselves don't seem to be claiming that, and the folks using that term don't seem to mean "improv" in the classic tradition of Second City, Viola Spolin, The Groundlings, Del Close, Nichols and May, etc. In classic improv, the goal is to create a scene that is natural and organic and, if possible, funny. On Thank God, the goal seems to be to create an instant blooper reel where one player on stage (and only one) is in trouble and we can laugh at his predicament and perhaps applaud how he gets out of it.
There are some theater games in the classic tradition that revolve around one person not knowing who he is or what the scene is about...but even in those, as played at Second City, no one has any advance prep. So it's a challenge for the one naïve performer to guess what has been predetermined but it's also a challenge for the others in the scene to hint and convey that information for him. Everyone is improvising. The producers of Thank God seem to have decided that it's more fun to stack the deck against the one player. The improv vets who are criticizing the show know from past experience that the "real thing" would be more entertaining.
Jim Brochu is performing his one man show in Houston. This is the one I raved about here in which he channels/recreates Zero Mostel, right before your eyes. It's called Zero Hour and if you're anywhere near the Stages Repertory Theatre, get a ticket right away.
Bob Bergen is performing his one man show in Hollywood. This is the one I haven't seen yet but I know how good Bob is so I'm going to go and you should, too. It's called Not Just Another Pretty Voice and it's the story of — to use the oft-quoted line about Bob — a nice Jewish boy who grew up to be the voice of Porky Pig. It's at the Stella Adler Theatre every Wednesday through May beginning next Wednesday.
The Totally Looped show, which I've said good things about here in the past, is back in a new home...also in Hollywood. Beginning Saturday evening, April 28, they'll be appearing the last Saturday of every month at the iO West Comedy Theater, which is just a couple blocks from where Bergen's doing his show. They are great and well worth your attendance.
Finally: Recently here, I raved about the Spolin Players, a group that does genuine, 100% improv comedy in a classic tradition. Their next performance will be on Saturday, May 5 at the Westsideeclectic, which is situated on the 3rd Street Promenade in Santa Monica. I'm going to try to get to this one, too.
The musical Fiddler on the Roof opened on Broadway on September 22, 1964. Since then, that show and that Fiddler have never stopped playing. It is always being produced somewhere. There are actors who have literally made their livings for decades by going from one production of Fiddler to another, playing whichever role they were then the right age for.
The show was a hit all over the world and the following anecdote has appeared in almost every article ever written about its popularity. The anecdote tells of how the show opened in Japan, translated into the language there and featuring a local cast. It was a big hit and someone involved in that production went to the folks who'd originated the show and asked, "Was this really a hit in America?"
The American producers were puzzled. "Of course," they replied. "Why wouldn't it be?"
The Tokyo producer responded, "Well, it's so Japanese."
A Japanese Fiddler on the Roof? What could that have been like?
April 20, 2007
