Fred Kaplan reconsiders the usefulness of NATO, particularly in Afghanistan. I never quite understood why the North Atlantic Treaty Organization was involved in Afghanistan at all when, last I looked, Afghanistan was not in or around the North Atlantic.
Back here, I told you about the upcoming presentation of A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum up at UCLA for a mere sixteen performances, March 16-28. What I didn't tell you then (because I didn't know then) is that if you order tickets online, you can enter the codeword LATIN and get a $10 discount per seat. There's no discount available for the two lectures I'm giving in connection with this show but that's only because they're free.
On Tuesday, March 9, Bob Newhart is being interviewed at the Grammy Museum in Downtown L.A. American Express presale tickets are on sale now for $20 and admission includes a copy of Newhart's autobiography, which is in itself probably worth twenty bucks. Such a deal.
Robert Klein is making a few rare appearances in Southern California — and by "rare," I mean I think the last one was a wonderful night at the Improv some of us spent with him at least twenty years ago. He's at the Ice House in Pasadena on March 9 — same night as Newhart's interview downtown — and he's at the Comedy and Magic Club in Hermosa Beach on March 10 and 11.
If you've never been there: The Comedy and Magic Club is a pretty good place to see comedy and it's not as far away from L.A. as it might seem. This is the club where on most Sunday nights, you can see Jay Leno do about an hour (with Jimmy Brogan opening for him) for $30. Leno gets $79-$99 for his show in Vegas and I don't think he even has an opening act there. I have friends who have been unimpressed by Mr. Leno on TV but who still rave about seeing him do an hour live. One said to me, "Now, I understand his reputation..."
And we're not done yet. There's an L.A. group called Writers Bloc which arranges public one-on-one interviews, usually involving someone who has a new book out being interviewed by some sort of celebrity. On Wednesday, March 31, Jeff Garlin is being interviewed by Bob Saget. And on Tuesday, April 27, Carol Burnett is being interviewed by Tim Conway. In both cases, there will be ample opportunity to purchase the interviewee's new book and get it autographed. I've been to Writers Bloc events for folks like George Carlin, Al Franken, Bob Woodward, William Goldman, Lewis Black, Eric Idle, Jerry Lewis and others I can't recall at the moment...but I recall having a good time at all of 'em.
Back in the Reagan administration, Bruce Bartlett was one of the architects of the theory that if we cut taxes (especially for rich people), that would force a shrinkage in government spending. He is now writing pieces like this one saying how that idea has never worked.
I was especially impressed with this line which I came across in Bartlett's comment section. Couldn't have put it better myself...
Republicans depend on this message (or think they do) because it is essential to the coalition Reagan built, which enabled them to pass off a fundamentally corporate-friendly worldview as a populist appeal to the average American (who hates taxes).
Someday, the average American will wake up to the revelation that their taxes would be a lot lower if the wealthiest Americans paid some. One of the things I find amazing in our national debate about taxes is that discussions of raising or cutting them are usually only about raising or cutting them for rich people. Even folks who are maniacal about slashing taxes give Obama very little credit for lowering them on the lower and middle class. It's like a tax cut isn't a tax cut unless the folks who own Walmart get it. And you can still be hailed as a great cutter-of-taxes, as per George W. Bush, if you raise them on those who work at Walmart and/or drive up the debt, which of course will lead to higher taxes on someone at some point.
Here are two commercials which I'm embedding even though I'm not getting paid for either. The first is a famous 80's commercial for Big Red chewing gum...
And now, here's the new Verizon commercial. This is the first time I can recall one commercial aping another this way. I like it, though the lyrics make me cringe like the ones in the gum version did. Hey, just because the gum people didn't hire someone who knew what a "rhyme" is doesn't mean Verizon couldn't...
Craig Ferguson did something unusual on his show last night. He departed from his usual format and instead did a one-on-one discussion, at times quite serious, with British writer-actor-director Stephen Fry. Taped without a live audience, it was an hour of smart conversation between two smart men...and I'm curious as to how it will be received. Actually, I'm more curious as to why they did it. I can understand Ferguson thinking that this kind of chat would be a welcome novelty. The man already does a better job of talking with guests (as opposed to setting them up for pre-interviewed responses) than anyone else in or around the talk show world with the possible exception of Jon Stewart.
What I don't get is why Stephen Fry. I'm imagining a conversation where someone at the network says to Ferguson, "Craig baby, we're not wild about you abandoning a format that seems to be working well...but if you're serious about doing these one-on-ones, how about kicking them off with a guest most of America has heard of? Fry's a brilliant, fascinating fellow but there must be some 'name' who's worthy of an hour. How about booking one of them and then saving Fry for the second or third time you do one of these?" And then I'm imagining Ferguson saying, "I want to launch this idea with the smartest person I know. That's Steve Fry."
But that's all speculation on my part. All I know is I enjoyed it. I would hate for the ratings to be so low than Craig won't try it again. It's so nice to hear people on TV actually talking to each other.
February 25, 2010
