Shelly Goldstein recognized the second bit I just asked about and it wasn't from Monty Python. It was in the first Rutles movie — a lawyer who said...
Suddenly, everyone became amazingly litigious. I remember I'd get up in the morning. Sue someone. Check in the papers that I hadn't been fired. Go to the office. Sue someone. Pick up the morning's writs. Sue the bank. Go out for lunch. Sue the restaurant. Get back in, collect the writs that had been received that afternoon. Read the papers. Phone the papers. Sue the papers. Then go home. Sue the wife.
I said it felt to me like Michael Palin or maybe Eric Idle. Actually, it was Michael Palin reading lines that were probably written by Eric Idle.
Okay, let's see if anyone out there can help with this. I've been asked about two phrases that are very familiar but which we ("we" being myself and a friend or two) cannot place.
One is an expression that Keith Olbermann uses a lot: "It's genius! Genius, I tells ya!" Where the heck is that from?
Another is a routine in which a lawyer ticks off a list of things he intends to do that afternoon, and it goes something like this: "Go to the barber...sue the barber...go to the bank...sue the bank..." On this one, I'm thinking Monty Python and hearing Michael Palin or maybe Eric Idle, but I can't precisely identity the routine.
Anyone know for sure about either one? If you can, the e-mail link is over on the right to let me know. Thanks.
Roger Ebert remembers the very funny Lou Jacobi. Everything Ebert says about Lou is correct except that he gets the name of one of Lou's records wrong. It was Al Tijuana and His Jewish Brass...a cute album but not one that shows much of what Lou could do. It's pop music arranged as an amalgam of Herb Albert and a klezmer band...and they have Lou talking over some of it, sounding very Jewish. Downloads (unauthorized, I suspect) are easily found on the Internet but it's not worth seeking out.
Now available on DVD! The Warner Video Archive project (or whatever they call it) is offering a 3-DVD set of all the classic Robert Benchley shorts. There were thirty of 'em and you can get 'em all for $25.00 in this new, no-frills collection. If you're not familiar with Mr. Benchley's wit, you're in for a delightful surprise. Here's the link. And here's a sample...
I agree with Frank Rich about the whole "balloon boy" meshagus. The odd part wasn't that the news media was hoaxed. It gets hoaxed all the time. It's just kinda nice to see one instance blow up so totally that they have to admit they got snookered.
Last night, I was among the speakers at a dinner in honor of the great comic book artist, Gene Colan. It was thrown by CAPS, the Comic Art Professional Society and everyone had a great time...especially Gene, even though he was 3000 miles away. I'll tell you all about it in the morning or whenever I'm not battling a deadline.
One of my correspondents, James H. Burns, writes: "I have a piece in today's Sunday New York Times. I don't quite get around to how I once invented the word 'gore-or' — as in 'gore-or movies' — but I think there may be some neat stuff in there on our country's Halloween legacy of fantasy films, and an unfortunate problem that's arisen, in how some horror movies are promoted." Here's a link to the piece which makes, I think, a good point. Not everyone wants to see (or can handle) some of the more graphic bloodshed in movies today. Especially around the dinner hour.
We're losing our funny people too rapidly. The above pic is of a hilarious man named Lou Jacobi, mugging it up in Woody Allen's movie of Everything You Always Wanted To Know About Sex But Were Afraid To Ask. Mr. Allen used to — and may still for all I know — cite Jacobi as the perfect comic actor...the guy who'd get every single laugh it was possible to get in a scene...and then some. Neil Simon felt much the same way about him. The general public may not have known the name of Lou Jacobi but among folks who create comedy for a living, he was very well respected.
I don't have any great stories about the man, I'm afraid. I met him once on the phone and once on the set of The Dean Martin Show, where he was a regular for a couple of years. He spent much of this time on that series annoyed that he didn't get to rehearse with Dean. That was a point of annoyance with many actors who worked that show, especially stage-trained actors...and that's what Jacobi was, scoring his greatest successes on or around Broadway. But his co-workers didn't mind too much when Lou was riled because Lou was very funny when he was riled. He was very funny when he wasn't riled, too. He just left us at the age of 95 and I'll bet he was funny right up until the second he died...and then some.
October 26, 2009
