You may recall that I spent much of last March, as I spend most recent Marches, eating Creamy Tomato Soup at my local Souplantation. They have it every March and then usually for one week in October. One week in October is probably when you will next find me at my local Souplantation.
So one day last March, I was sitting there eating Creamy Tomato Soup when a gentleman approached me to say hello and thank me for recommending my favorite soup here. He was Bill Freiberger, a top writer-producer who's worked on a wide array of shows including The Simpsons, Herman's Head, Pee-Wee's Playhouse, Get a Life and Greg the Bunny. He's currently working on Warren the Ape, which is seen on MTV. He told me that he'd just written an episode in which the Souplantation's Creamy Tomato Soup was mentioned. I told him to let me know when it airs.
Well, he just let me know it airs this coming Monday evening at 10:30, which probably means different times in some time zones. He also let me know that while the Souplantation is much-discussed, the reference to Creamy Tomato Soup got cut. I plan to watch anyway and so should you.
...and one week from this moment, a lot of us will be attending Preview Night. It's coming up fast on us.
I'm going to get around to answering a number of your questions in a day or so but one thing a lot of folks are writing me to ask is how to go about approaching celebs at the con. "Supposing I see one of my favorite writers walking the aisles. Is it okay to just go up to them and say hello?"
The answer's pretty simple: It depends. If you saw them wandering at the supermarket, would you approach them? It would depend on how busy they seemed, how engrossed, how much they appeared to be in a hurry. The same rules apply at the Comic-Con. If they're not rushing to get somewhere or engaged in a private conversation, say hello and take it from there. Most folks who are likely to be approached are fine with it as long as you're not pushy or inconsiderate...
...or unshowered. Several con attendees have written me to ask that I make a pitch here for hygiene and bathing and not clearing the aisles with your body odor. There it is.
Not much more to add. Here's this again...
Lastly for now: No one seems to be lobbying any longer for the Comic-Con International to relocate to Las Vegas. Just in case, however, I'd like to point out that the current forecast for opening day of the Comic-Con in San Diego calls for a high of 73°. The forecast for Las Vegas for the same day is 107°. Anyone still want to go to Sin City? I didn't think so.
Back in this post in December of '08, we gave you the lowdown on what happened one odd day on The Price is Right when a contestant named Terry made a seemingly-impossible perfect bid. Before you go any further, you might want to go review that post and watch the video clip there of that moment.
Now then: Chris Jones, who authored that great profile of Roger Ebert for Esquire, is back with a piece on Terry the Perfect-Bidder. As we noted, there was more to it than seemed apparent at the time. Thanks to Peter Gawdunyk who sent me the link.
Matthew Yglesias makes a simple statement that I would think would be simple to disprove if it's not true: That while Republicans may say they think the budget deficit in this country is too high, they never actually do anything that would reduce it. This ties in with my long-held belief that we give way too much weight to what politicians say, as opposed to what they actually do. Can anyone point to any real recent example of the G.O.P. doing anything in the cause of deficit reduction other than to merely oppose anything Democrats want to spend money on?
Here we have an interview with my friend Jim Brochu, who is currently The King of Off-Broadway in New York playing Zero Mostel in the one-man show, Zero Hour. I've known Jim since the day we were hiring writers on the infamous variety show, Pink Lady. He came in to "audition" (chat) and as I was walking him out, he joked, "I live to grovel." That's a line from my favorite musical, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum. I responded with another line from the show and he did another line...and pretty soon, we'd done about half the show in the outer office there, stopping just short of singing a few choruses of "Everyone Ought to Have a Maid."
Jim told me he'd not only seen the original production with Zero (envy, envy) but had gone backstage. His mentor in the theater was David Burns, who was the original Senex in the show. We talked of the play for a while and in that moment, we bonded and I thought, "Hmm, maybe we oughta hire this guy." Remember the line in Bob Fosse's All That Jazz where Roy Scheider says, "See? That's how you get a job." Well, that's how you get a job.
Anyway, I often talked about Zero with Jim, little realizing my pal would soon become him. Jim always had an innate understanding of...well, I was about to type "performers" but it probably applies to all human beings. We are, after all, all performers in some sense. That insight is evident in his play, which is currently viewable at the Actor's Temple Theater in New York. Click here for more details on how you can go see it, which I heartily recommend. And now, here's Jim...
Kliph Nesteroff, who brought us that great article recently about Woody Woodbury, strikes again. He interviewed and wrote about Rusty Warren, who was kind of the First Lady of Bawdy Comedy Records. There's a talent deserving of wider recognition.
July 13, 2010
