The mystery is solved...the mystery about the "elderly couple" who allegedly walked into the Mayo Clinic, found a piano and gave an impromptu performance that became a widely-circulated, highly-viral video. They're Marlow and Fran Cowan, they've been married 62 years and at one time, they toured with an act where they did this kind of thing on stage. Okay...so who's gonna get them on TV first? Leno? Letterman? America's Got Talent? Here's another performance...
And here they are, telling about their attention-grabbing performances...
Regarding the episode of The Late Late Show that Craig Ferguson did without an audience: Around the Internet some are claiming that this was a money-saving ploy. This theory goes with the chilling revelation that Mr. Ferguson's show actually (gasp!) pays a reported $25 per person to get a studio audience into their studio. And so, some conclude, they were seeing if they could get by without that expense.
A couple of folks have written to ask me if this is all so. Well, some of it is. Many, perhaps most TV shows sometimes pay to fill their seats. This includes some programs you might not expect would have this problem (like The Price is Right) but they do, especially at times of the year that don't fit the loose category of Tourist Season. In such times, many a producer has been known to go to an audience service and pay for people. There are also shows that could get enough spectators if they just took anyone but they want a certain age group in their bleachers so they go to a head hunter and say, "Get us young, attractive people between the ages of 18 and 35."
There are many ways the services round up people. They go to various clubs and organizations and arrange field trips. They advertise. They have websites. Here's a link to one service that rounds up warm bodies to see Dr. Phil, The Big Bang Theory and The New Adventures of Old Christine, among others. Here's a link to one that's drumming up folks who want to see Craig Ferguson's show, as well as The Price is Right, Jeopardy!, The Tonight Show and Wheel of Fortune. (There are about a dozen websites that offer "priority seating" for Jeopardy! and Wheel of Fortune. I guess those shows pay real well for audience members.) That's just for Los Angeles. Here's a link to the site of a firm that rounds up audiences for shows done in New York, including Late Show with David Letterman, The Colbert Report, The Daily Show and Jerry Springer.
In some cases, these offerings are really only for emergency standby seats...like I know Colbert and The Daily Show have a long waitlist for tix from folks who write in directly. But it's not impossible that they might occasionally have a few seats open and when they do, this company might be able to put you in them. More likely, if you apply there to go to The Daily Show, they'll say, "We'll try and get you in but if by some chance we can't, we have this great other show you'll love...")
Sometimes, the services even pass along a portion of their compensation to the seat-fillers. I don't think they're doing it now but there used to be an outfit that would approach tourists visiting Farmers Market here in L.A., which is right next to CBS Television City. They'd offer free tickets to something taping next door and if necessary, they'd tell you that if you sat through The $100,000 Pyramid or Press Your Luck, you could make ten bucks. I once turned down $15 to sit through The Pat Sajak Show. It was paid in cash but of course, you didn't get it until after the taping. The guy offering it actually said to me, "We're not that stupid!"
So it's not a scandal that Craig Ferguson's show sometimes pays for some of its audience. But it's a small studio and they must get some people who just write in for tickets...so I doubt they're spending all that much on seat-filling. The show is a success with a studio audience there and it's ridiculous to think they'd muck with that success just to save such a minor amount. I think they did without an audience that night just because Craigy wanted to do a show without a studio audience.
Another event for folks in or around Los Angeles! On Sunday, March 21, a lot of fine authors will be appearing at the 31st Annual Paperback Collectors Show and Sale out in Mission Hills. The list so far includes Ray Bradbury, Larry Niven, Bruce Kimmel, Peter Beagle, Frederik Pohl, Don Glut, Barbara Hambly, Edd Byrnes and...well, you can see it all at this website. Admission is five bucks and authors will be signing for free and the whole event is not far from one great barbecue restaurant and another, so I may just go out there and get me some books and ribs.
The good folks at Operation USA have been sending vital aid to Haiti...and now they're already sending supplies and medical assistance to Chile.
Not to disparage any other charitable effort but I've been following and supporting Operation USA for some time and I've met several of its officers. You can't get a better return on your donations than you'll get when you send them money. The absolute minimum goes to administrative costs and further fund-raising. The absolute maximum goes to helping people who really need help.
Okay, here's the only reason some of you come to this blog five or six times a day: Waiting for me to announce that the Souplantation chain (aka in some areas, Sweet Tomatoes) has its Creamy Tomato Soup available. In a splendid example of overselling something in quest of humor, I have extolled its merits for a few years here in a half-serious attempt to harass the Souplantation people into adding it to their regular lineup. They have been grateful for the plugola to the extent of sending me coupons for free meals...but they ain't about to feature it more often just because I like it.
But they will have it for the month of March, which means starting tomorrow or Monday. Just don't go to your local Souplantation or Sweet Tomatoes (assuming you have one; here's the list) expecting a soup that will cure pattern baldness, combat global warming or make members of the opposite sex like you. It's just real good tomato soup. These days, that can be very reassuring.
Lots of mail regarding my babbling a few days ago about having so many discount cards. An awful lot of you pointed out that when you don't have your cards at some stores, you can give the clerk your phone number and accomplish the same thing. Well, yes you can...at some stores. I haven't had a lot of luck trying that.
Several of you recommended KeyRingThing, a service that might help with your discount cards that involve bar codes. You can enter six numbers online and then print out one card which will take the place of six. That's free...but of course, that card would not be plastic and sturdy. Or you can pay a fee and they'll print out a plastic and sturdy one and mail it to you. That doesn't seem like much of a solution to me.
Several more of you recommended a free iPhone app called CardStar. With this, you enter the numbers and it puts a bar code on the screen of your iPhone. I downloaded this the other day and entered about eight cards into it. I've been to two of those stores since then and in neither case would their scanners read the bar code off my iPhone screen. Then again, that wasn't a big inconvenience for me because the salesfolks in each case then entered the number manually.
So that helps. Unfortunately, it doesn't help with the kind of card that has a magnetic stripe and I have many of them. But thanks to everyone who had suggestions. The traffic I get on this blog seems to include a lot of bright, helpful people. And some of you claim to have even more of these cards than I do.
Thanks to "Eqdoktor," whoever that is, for setting Wikipedia straight about Larry Gelbart and Woody Allen. It won't stop the misconceptions totally but it might cut them down a bit.
So this elderly couple walks into the Mayo Clinic and they spot a piano and decide to give an impromptu performance for the folks waiting there for appointments. Or at least, that's the story that accompanies this video that's making the rounds. I don't know how true it is but I'll bet it makes you smile...
The headline on this one says it all: "Deaths Rising for Lack of Insurance, Study Finds."
20,000-30,000 people in this country die each year because they lack health insurance...and these numbers do not even include children. If 20,000 Americans died each year because of bagpipe music, Republicans would insist we invade Scotland and start waterboarding Craig Ferguson.
February 28, 2010
