Monthly Archives: March 2014

• U.S.G.S downgrades earthquake to 4.4. Fox News charges them with covering up for Obama.

• 4.7 earthquake in Los Angeles. Fox News blames Obama.

It's been a long time since I linked to a clip of Michael Flanders and Donald Swann, two very funny Britishers who wrote and often performed interesting songs. Here's one…

Walter George Bruhl Jr. has died. I never knew the man but based on his obituary, which he wrote himself, he seems like my kind of guy.

What is the most futile, overused word on the Internet? Actually, you should be able to guess.

Another Hollywood "great" has left us — Bob Thomas, who may have been the best reporter to ever work that beat. He wrote dozens of invaluable books on the movie industry and the people in it. And I think I'll let Leonard Maltin take it from here…

For those in the L.A. area who are kicking themselves for missing Lewis Black last night: He's doing a benefit this Wednesday night at the Improv on Melrose. Tickets — for a lot less money than I paid — seem to still be available.

I said I'd give a full report on Lewis Black's show last night…and now as I sit there, I realize that a pretty-full report would just consist of saying he was very good and very angry. I'm always impressed when I see him live because he always has fresh material, not only stuff he hasn't already said on TV but some that's specific to the venue and what's in the news that day. There are some comics I've seen live — Dennis Miller was the worst offender — who come out on stage and recite their last HBO special. I watch Black every time he's on anything and I'd never before heard one line he did last night.

Topics covered? Politics, of course. Health care. The missing Malaysian jet. The cold weather. The economy. There was a long discussion about getting a colonoscopy. I've heard a lot of comics weigh in on that subject but Black was the first one to make it truly funny. None of it would read like anything if I quoted lines here. You're going to have to go see the guy live to enjoy what I enjoyed last night. End of full report.

Resuming our look at folks who took the songs of the Beatles and performed them correctly, we have this one which our pal Joe Brancatelli sent me. It's Bing Crosby and his son Gary on the Hollywood Palace. I'll bet Lennon and McCartney were kicking themselves they didn't give this song an arrangement like this…

Went to see Lewis Black last night. Full report later tomorrow but I will share with you his description of John Boehner: "A magical wizard took a mood ring and turned it into a human being!"

Fred Phelps is the founder of the infamous Westboro Baptist Church that shows up at funerals and stages offensive anti-gay protests. A lot of people have fantasized that when he goes, they'll show up at his and give his family and followers a taste of their own medicine. It may be time to start painting those signs…

Obits for David Brenner are saying he held the record of any comedian for the most appearances with Johnny Carson. I'm not sure but I think Pete Barbutti did, though maybe not if you added in Tonight Show appearances without Johnny. Brenner guest-hosted a number of times and at one point when Carson was seriously about to leave, David was one of the contenders for succession. I'll write about that one of these days.

Here's a not-uninteresting discourse on the question of whether one who believes Woody Allen is guilty of something should be boycotting the man's films. I am not convinced Allen is guilty or not guilty, though I lean heavily towards the latter. But if anything about an entertainer makes you uncomfortable, that in itself is reason enough to avoid them.

Elsewhere in the New York Times, J. Hoberman reviews two works from Allen's past — Crimes and Misdemeanors and The Front, now both out on Blu-ray — and in so doing, refers to David Evanier as Allen's "current biographer." That's my cousin David…the writing Evanier who doesn't write stuff about cats who eat lasagna and barbarians who eat cheese dip. David's biography is still in the works and I'm sure glad I'm not the one who has to sort out all that Woody-Mia-Dylan stuff. Soon, he will be known as the Evanier who writes about unbelievable characters.

It is a rare comedian who isn't hated by at least one of his peers. David Brenner was a rare comedian. When he was starting out, there were some who didn't like his comedy because he wasn't nasty enough and he was often wearing a leisure suit. There was a flurry of such comics in the early seventies and a lot of them haven't worked since Make Me Laugh was canceled. But Brenner proved to have the chops and the staying power and he matured into a first class monologist. He also gained a stellar rep as a nice guy who was never too busy to help other comics.

I don't think he quite got his due as a stand-up but if you ever got to see him live — as I did — you know he was a first-rate storyteller. The last time I saw him, he did a long set that was hilarious and skillful. He started telling Story A and halfway through, something he said took him off on a tangent and he was suddenly telling Story B and that led him to Story C and Story D…and I think he got up to Story G before he finally finished one.

But then the amazing thing was the finish of Story G led him directly and unexpectedly into the conclusion of Story F and the end of Story F led him seamlessly back to the dénouement of Story E…and so on. He was supposed to do exactly 45 minutes and at 44 minutes and 10 seconds, he expertly finished Story A to a huge, explosive laugh and bowed-off to fifty seconds of laughter. 45 minutes on the friggin' nose…and the guy, though he made it look so natural and casual, knew exactly where he was every millisecond of the way.

I spoke with him a few times…once when he was trying-out what he was about to tape for a Showtime or HBO special and he said to a bunch of us, "I don't want compliments. Tell me every damn thing you didn't like…every joke you thought wasn't strong." He was thick-skinned and serious about what he did.

Only once did I see him being truly awful. I am among the few human beings who will admit to having seen episodes of Snip!, a never-aired sitcom he did for NBC in 1976. Seven were taped, none were broadcast. At the time, the excuse was that the network was antsy about putting on the series because of a gay character. That ain't what I heard, working on another show for the same producer. I heard it was because the show was terrible — and what I saw sure was — and that Brenner had gone to NBC and talked them into dumping it. He'd said something like, "You know it's going to bomb. Why put it on and devalue me as a performer you have under contract and could use in other projects?" If he really did that, he was even smarter than I thought…and I thought he was pretty smart. And pretty funny.

• I have one word for the thousands of investigators looking for the lost Malaysian airliner: Banacek.

On March 8, a bunch of folks were inducted into the Television Academy's Hall of Fame and one of them was Jay Leno. Each inductee's induction is preceded by one of his or her peers giving a little speech about him and the one for Leno was delivered by the always-controversial Bill Maher. Maher lived up to his rep and somewhat scolded the press folks who wrote those stories that cast Leno as the Bad Guy in the Conan O'Brien affair.

There are some things I don't like about Maher as a person (some of his attitudes about women) and a few things about his comedy. He has this fake laugh he applies to his own jokes the instant he senses a line is not going to get the hoped-for response. But I also find him very funny at times and there's something refreshing about his attitude of placing honesty over being liked. He has said a lot of things on television that I think others believe but lack the courage to say out loud.

The thing about Leno and O'Brien is a trivial matter, of course, but I think he's right. I also think it speaks well of Leno that Bill Maher, who does not hesitate to criticize successful people, can't find anything bad to say about him. Here's the speech. Beware of strong language, those of you who fear strong language…

If you'd like to see Leno's acceptance speech, which includes a nice shot at fellow-inductee Rupert Murdoch, you can view it here.

As Kevin Drum notes, the best advice Barack Obama is getting on what to do about Crimea is stuff like, "Obama must rally the world, push the Europeans and negotiate with the Russians." Yeah, great advice.

I am reminded of something that happened several times during Writers Guild strikes. I've been through thousands of them.  Okay, it just seems like thousands but they often start like this. Our side (the good guys, the WGA) goes in with its list of demands. The other side (the bad guys, the producers) say, "We're not going to listen to your demands. Here's our one-and-only, take-it-or-leave-it offer." And then they give us this really lousy offer full of rollbacks and reduced rights and they walk out of the conference room and refuse to participate in further bargaining. This gives us but two choices: Accept the crappy deal or go on strike. There is no other real third choice.

So we go on strike and some of our members are very angry we are on strike. Some of our members are angry if the Guild decides to use a different brand of paper towel in the men's room at Guild Headquarters. But some are really angry we're on strike and I always find myself talking to someone who blames our leadership and says —

HIM: Our committee should get in there and negotiate!

ME: The producers refuse to negotiate.

HIM: Then we should insist they negotiate.

ME: The producers refuse to negotiate.

HIM: Then we should get in there and be real tough and demand they negotiate.

ME: The only weapon we have against them is to strike.

HIM: Don't strike! Negotiate! Demand they negotiate! If I were on that committee, I could force them to negotiate!

ME: How would you do that?

HIM: By being tougher than they are!

Eventually, I expect Obama or someone on his behalf will negotiate with the Russians…but you can't force them to have those discussions and the mere fact that they sit down to negotiate doesn't mean we're going to get a satisfactory result.

On the other hand, Putin is probably a lot easier to dicker with than the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers.