Monthly Archives: May 2025

The Tony nominations were announced yesterday and as someone who hasn't set foot in New York since 2018, I don't have any particular faves or rooting interest. But — my lower extremities permitting — I expect to be back there before 2025 is out and among the shows I'm curious to see is Boop! The Musical. It got mixed reviews from official-type critics but, so far, unanimous raves from everyone I know who's seen it. Admittedly, that sampling may include people a bit more cartoon-oriented than most…

…but what I'm saying is that I hope it's still running late this year if/when I get back there. Looking at online reports on its grosses, it doesn't seem to be doing huge numbers — a fact which may be attributable to the sudden flurry of new musicals that have recently opened. Its producers were probably hoping/praying for a Tony nomination for Best Musical but it wasn't among the five so designated.

Betty's show was nominated for costumes and choreography but those aren't the categories that typically drive patrons to the box office. One that does though is Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role in a Musical and there, they scored. Jasmine Amy Rogers, who plays Ms. Boop, was nominated. That's the good news. The bad news is that also nominated is Audra McDonald in Gypsy and there are those who will scream "Fix!" louder than Donald Trump if Audra doesn't receive her seven millionth Tony — or however many she has.

I'm not saying who should win. I haven't been in a Broadway theater since '18, remember? This just bolsters my feelings of how flawed this kind of award competition is. Theoretically, they're to recognize excellence but if there's a lot of excellence one year, one instance gets recognized…and if there's none, one will probably be recognized anyway. I think the Tonys do have a provision for "No Award" if the nominators feel nothing is worthy but they don't allow for multiple honorees. Maybe they need a category called "Best Performance by Someone Who Isn't Audra McDonald."

Some folks who were at Boop! The Musical yesterday after the nominations were announced shot this video of the Curtain Calls. Stay until the end…

Attorney General Pam Bondi is claiming that in the first hundred days of this new Trump regime, agents have seized so many illegal fentanyl shipments that they've saved more than 75% of the U.S. population from a fentanyl-related death. I dunno about you but if any fentanyl came anywhere near me, I'd certainly be a dead man by now. Snopes explains.

I woke up this morning wanting to write more about the gala opening night of the new Jack Kirby Exhibit at the Skirball Cultural Center here in Los Angeles. I'm still feeling a warm glow from just setting foot in the place…being surrounded by all that Jack Kirby artwork, all those memories of that wonderful man, all those people who had some connection to him or at least his work. After spending so much of the previous few weeks in a hospital, it was an exciting contrast…and maybe the best medicine I could have had.

I can't guarantee it will have the same effect on you that it had on me…but it should enrich you in some way. As I've mentioned, the exhibition will be there until March 1 of next year and you can get all the info on it you need on this page.

The only negatives for me that evening had to do with how crowded it was and how many people there I knew but didn't get to talk to…or didn't get to talk to long enough. The grandson of Jack's one-time partner Joe Simon was there but we didn't have nearly enough time. Fortunately, Jesse Simon came by to visit yesterday for several hours…and though we still didn't have enough time, we had a few hours and there was no music playing to talk over.

(This is not particularly a criticism of the Skirball Center — I now love that place even more than I did before — but as I edge up on living for three-quarters of a century, I have still not been at any party or public gathering where the playing of records accomplished anything besides making it more difficult for people who wanted to talk with each other to talk with each other.)

At the opening, I also talked with some of Jack's grandkids but not nearly enough with Jillian Kirby, who among the many things she has done to tell the world about her grandpappy has been to run the Kirby for Heroes campaign. It's raised awesome amounts of dough for good causes. Jillian, if you're reading this, let's get together one of these days so I can tell you more about what a great man your grandfather was…and your father is, as well.

But didn't get to talk to my longtime pal William Stout. Barely got to talk to my longertime pal Scott Shaw! Didn't get to talk to lots of folks who I heard were there but didn't see them. And didn't get enough time to stare at all that magnificent Jack Kirby artwork. Fortunately, it will still he there when I return.

There was a time in this world when Ruth Buzzi was on everything…and I'll spell that word out for you: E-v-e-r-y-t-h-i-n-g. Because she was funny on everything. But I don't have to tell you that. What I have to tell you is that I had the pleasure of knowing and working with her a little and she was one of the nicest people I ever met in a business where not everyone is as nice as you wish they could be.

She was. I think I first saw her in the years I was occasionally hanging around on the set of Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In, watching them tape. Bewildered cameo guest stars would wander onto that set, not quite sure why their agent had booked them into what seemed like an environment of madness. Ruth was often the welcoming committee, greeting them, making them feel welcome and getting them acclimated to that odd world.

I saw her at just about every fundraiser for every good cause, helping raise cash. One thing I will never forget, I wrote about back in a post about autograph shows, which were not as prevalent as they are these days…

It involved the late comedian Pat Paulsen who, at the time of course, was not a late comedian.  Alas, he then knew he was about to become one.  He'd been diagnosed with something terminal — the big "C," I believe — and was out on a crusade to accrue cash to leave his family.  Pat was a very sweet, very funny man who had managed to not rack up much of a fortune during his years on television — though I suspect his last minute putsch for dollars was less a matter of needing cash than of needing something constructive to do.  Whatever, for his last few months, he was appearing everywhere he could, performing and signing, making whatever money he could make.

Colleagues were abetting him.  Ruth Buzzi was sitting with him that day, dolled up in the Gladys Ormphby outfit she wore on Laugh-In, signing and posing for photos, with and without him, all proceeds going to Pat.

She did a lot of things like that. A very nice woman and, as I can't say often enough here, a very funny one. I got to voice-direct her once for an animated feature that I'm not sure was ever released but she was very, very good in it. She was very, very good in everything. Sorry to hear this morning that she left us at the age of 88. Here's a good overview of her amazing career.

From The Jack Paar Program for December 18th, 1964 — a big break for a new act…

Despite just being released from the hospital, I knew I couldn't miss the gala event this evening at the Skirball Cultural Center here in Los Angeles. It was the opening of two new exhibitions — Jack Kirby: Heroes and Humanities and Away in the Catskills: Summers, Sour Cream, and Dirty Dancing. Guess which one I was there to see.

John Morrow — who publishes The Jack Kirby Collector and the other fine publications from TwoMorrows Publishing — flew in from North Carolina just for the event. He was nice enough to pick me up along with my lovely friend Gabrielle Muttone and drive us to the Skirball Center. I was using my Rollator because my balance is not great, my legs get tired when I stand too long and a Rollator gives you the opportunity to sit whenever you like, regardless if there's an empty chair nearby. Actually, there were quite a few folks there on Rollators.

It's a terrific exhibit and I need to go back at least once to enjoy all its terrificness and yes, I know that's not a word. Call DOGE and have me fired for not doing my job properly.

The halls at the Skirball have many original pages and covers from Jack's long, amazing career and there are photos and a running next in the captions and…well, it will not disappoint anyone interested in the man's work. The exhibit will be there until March 1, 2026 and you can find out everything about visiting it on this page.

The place was mobbed and, interestingly, a lot of folks there came not knowing much or anything about Jack Kirby. They were loyal Skirball members who attend everything there and seek to broaden their knowledge by exposing themselves to whatever the Skirball thinks is worth hanging on its walls. I found myself in a fascinating conversation with a couple who didn't really know who Jack was when they walked in. They were mightily impressed with what they saw and had become on-the-spot Kirby fans. They also seemed unable to grasp the concept that I or anyone could have possibly known someone who created such mind-boggling artwork.

But of course there were people there who knew Jack — or knew of him — or knew each other. Among the many I encountered were Mike Royer, Rand Hoppe, Tom Kraft, Lisa Kirby, Jeremy Kirby, Tracy Kirby, Jillian Kirby, Tom Kenny, Jerry Beck, Scott Shaw!, Paul S. Levine, Dave Schwartz, Paul Power, Frank Balkin and many more. It was really a lovely evening and if you can get yourself to the Skirball in the next year, you'll have a very good time. You may even see me there again having another very good time.

I think Seth Meyers is doing some of the best political comedy ever done on television. Some of you might say, "Well, that's because you're Liberal and so is he" and the answer to that is that non-Liberal political comedy isn't even in the game. No one has ever done it that well and it's doubtful anyone ever will because, to use the analogy I made up for this years ago, it's like doing a Marx Brothers movie and trying to make Margaret Dumont the funny one. Right-wing media is good at a lot of things — I think it's a lot better than left-wing media at attracting loyal followers — but humor? Nope.

Here's Mr. Meyers the other night explaining why the Biden economy was so much better than the early stages of the Trump economy…and I'm not saying Donald can't turn it around but the way he tries to invert history and take credit for his predecessor's successes does not make me optimistic that he and his mob know what they're doing…

Glenn Kessler of The Washington Post points out how Trump keeps spinning the news of the stock market to claim the good news is his doing and the bad news is Biden's.

He also finds 32 false or misleading claims in Trump's recent interview with Time magazine.

Daniel Dale of CNN finds another whole bunch of not-true statements in Trump's interview with ABC News.

Politifact takes on the issue of whether Kilmar Armando Abrego García has "MS-13" tattooed on his knuckles. Photo experts say no. Trump will go to his grave insisting the photos are real. Snopes agrees Trump is wrong.

The New York Times, FactCheck.org and The Associated Press all list accomplishments Trump is claiming for his first 100 days in office that are not true.

While you're at it, I recommend reading Fred Kaplan on how Trump's attempts to make America more of a world power are backfiring big time.