Category Archives: To Be Filed

Damon Linker explains why he is not so much a Democrat as he is an anti-Republican.

Back in '97, Carolyn and I saw a show on Broadway called The Life, which was all about hookers and pimps. I chose it because the score was written by Cy Coleman and I've always liked Mr. Coleman's work…and I did like many of the songs. What I didn't like was the book, which seemed to me to about people who didn't interest me acting rather self-destructive, all of it leading to…well, by the time we got to the ending, I didn't care. I just wanted out.

There were nice moments here and there and as I said, some of the songs were pretty good. But by the time we got to the end, I was not sure what was happening. I was just thinking, "Why did I want to see a show about hookers and pimps?" Not everyone felt as I did. The show ran more than a year in New York and got a mess of Tony nominations (two supporting actors won) and the Drama Desk Award named it Best Musical. But after it closed, it pretty much disappeared with few subsequent productions anywhere. Here are some musical moments from the original production…

Norm Macdonald is campaigning for the 12:35 talk show slot on CBS. I can't see them just handing him the job but if they try auditioning different hosts by having them each do a few nights or a week, Norm could easily rally himself into a tryout.

A friend of mine over at CBS wrote to me the other day that the in-house buzz is that the execs there had someone in mind for the job before Craig Ferguson's departure was announced but that things fell through. I don't think he's talking about Neil Patrick Harris. He may be talking about John Oliver, who reportedly turned the job down. So on-air auditions may be in the cards.

I've always found Norm Macdonald to be a very funny guy. I first saw him one night at the Improv. I was there with Victoria Jackson, back in the days when she didn't think folks like me were destined to burn in Hell for destroying America. She wanted me to see this new comedian she'd "discovered" so we saw Norm…and he was quite good. He did 15 strong minutes around 9 PM and then we joined him at the bar and talked a bit. He had to be at the Laugh Factory up on Sunset at Midnight and didn't have a car…so the three of us went to my house to talk, then Victoria and I drove him up to Sunset and watched him do the same material to even better response.

But as funny as he was on those stages, he was even funnier in my living room. It has never surprised me that he's attained such a following.

Victoria was on Saturday Night Live at the time and she said she was going to get Norm's material to Lorne Michaels to perhaps fill an open slot on the writing staff. The next thing I knew, Macdonald was not only writing for SNL but he was in the cast…and Victoria was not. I never heard what happened or if he got the job because of her. Never heard him mention her in interviews, either. If you ever hear anything about this, let me know.

Hey, I didn't tell you where I am. I'm in San Diego, attending the annual meeting of the National Cartoonists Society. It's weird to be so close to the convention center where Comic-Con is held and not be there for Comic-Con. Yesterday morning, by sheer force of habit, I went over there to a convention of gas station operators and moderated panels on petroleum futures, how to avoid providing service and new technology in hourly price-raising. For some reason, Sergio was on two of these.

After decades of poaching at N.C.S. events, I have finally joined and paid dues. This could mean that I assumed some level of responsibility for my actions. Or it could mean they'd let me poach no longer. I'll let you decide. The N.C.S. has a grand and glorious tradition — so grand that it cannot be diminished by the inclusion of me. At least, they seem to think so.

The N.C.S. has regional chapters and does much good throughout the year, both for cartoonists and for people who are not cartoonists. Today, for example, members are being bused to a nearby Naval hospital to draw for patients and to a nearby aircraft carrier to entertain the folks aboard. Once a year, on or about Memorial Day weekend, there's a convention attended by as much of the membership as can get away to wherever the event is. It rotates all around the country.

Yesterday, I attended the business meeting, about which I am not allowed to blog. In the afternoon, there were seminars, one of which involved me interviewing Russ Heath, who is this year's recipient of the prestigious Milton Caniff Award. Russ was funny and interesting discussing his work before a hall of fellow creators.

In the evening, we all put on tuxedos and evening gowns — I opted for a tux — and attended the gala Reuben Awards banquet. My friend Carolyn looked stunning in a "copper maroon" (that's what we decided it was after extensive discussion) dress with beads and…well, she just looked great in it. TV writer (and creator of The Doozies) Tom Gammill was a superb M.C., right up there in Neil Patrick Harris territory. Lots of important people presented awards and so did I. The winners are listed here.

High-points of the weekend: Well, seeing Stan and Pauline Goldberg walking around was a big one. Stan, who's drawn more comic books than you've read, and his wife were in a terrible auto accident last November — the kind from which you'd think people of their age would never recover. They recovered. Seeing Russ Heath honored was great, even though his acceptance speech was mostly about how the tuxedo rental place hadn't given him suspenders so his pants were falling down. It was great to see folks like Mell Lazarus, Sam Viviano, Charlie Kochman, Wiley Miller, Grant Geissman, Nick Meglin, Bill Janocha, N.C.S. President Tom Richmond, John Reiner, Bill and Kayre Morrison, Greg Evans, Greg Walker, Cathy Guisewite, Weird Al Yankovic (another honoree) and I'll think of at least ninety more names after I post this.

A great event. I just can't get over the experience of coming to this part of San Diego and not hosting a dozen or more panels. I'll have to make up for it in July.

We're spending an awful lot of time on this old That's Singing TV special but here's Dave Sikula…

Just some personal memories of the show. It was taped at the La Mirada Theatre in those days when they did a lot of stuff for cable. (I remember a particularly gruesome Charley's Aunt with Charles Grodin. One of the most foolproof comedies in the canon just laid there. Transplanting it to Yale did not help it.) The IMDb tells us it was made for "The Entertainment Channel," whatever that was. I was there — and my laugh is even audible at one point. On the night, Tom Bosley found it so unique, he actually stopped tape to comment on it. (In my defense, I wasn't trying to be obnoxious; I just have a distinctive hooting tone.)

I was able to knock seeing a lot of performers off my bucket list that night: Merman opening the show; Mary Martin, Glynis Johns, Len Cariou; Donna McKechnie (whom I'd already seen six times in A Chorus Line at the Shubert; student rush was $20 in those days); Jerry Orbach; Chita Rivera; Barry Bostwick; Bosley himself. I seem to recall a few performances that didn't make the tape, but I'd have to dig through too many boxes to find the program to verify that feeling.

Being that this was the theatre where — in its original incarnation as a movie house — I'd seen The Three Stooges in the early 60s, had seen Cary Grant do his one-man Q&A show in the 80s, and had performed one of the most memorable shows of my life — a Paint Your Wagon in 1980 that had more on-stage insanity than any other show in which I've participated — the house holds a lot of memories.

In memory, Mr. Walston did not give the finest performance that evening. He was consistently behind the orchestra, and I seem to recall he even went up in his lyrics once — which would have been surprising given how many times he'd performed it by that time. (Again, this may be faulty memory.) He still seems behind the music in the clip, but I don't know if that was the original performance or a retake.

All in all, one of the great theatre-going nights of my life.

It was said that Ray Walston was a musical comedy performer in the Rex Harrison tradition. That means he would just ignore the conductor and start singing whenever he felt it was the right moment. Same with Harrison. He did not follow the music. The music had to follow him. It's why most of Rex Harrison's numbers in the movie of My Fair Lady were sung live on the set and not pre-recorded.

Harrison also said that he had problems performing songs from My Fair Lady out of the context of the show. He was never happy with his performances and he sometimes forgot lyrics. Perhaps that was true of Mr. Walton, also.

The La Mirada is a great theater but a bit of a drive for me. Every time I go there, I see something good, though not always good enough to justify the bumper-to-bumper freeway traffic going to and fro. I wish we had more places like that…and more centrally located. When people lament the decline of live theater in Los Angeles, I don't think they always realize how difficult it is to get to some places and park. When I go to the Pantages now, I park far away and take the subway because to park nearby is [fill in your own joke]. Alas, few theaters have a subway stop directly across the street. Wish the La Mirada did.

Politifact debunks reports that Barack Obama is planning on running for a third term. There are apparently people out there who believe this kind of thing despite the fact that it is legally impossible, there's no way to make it legal in time and that Obama has not lifted a finger to make it happen.

And as Politifact notes, this story was circulated back when George W. Bush and Bill Clinton were in their second terms. I also recall a version that has popped up every time any president, going back at least as far as Lyndon Johnson, was nearing the end of his term. It was that the president and his advisors had whipped up a secret plan to declare Martial Law in the country for some reason — even to stage a bogus terrorist attack here if necessary — and then suspend the election so the Chief Exec wouldn't have to leave. A quick Googling shows that there are currently folks convinced Obama will do just that. I'd say the odds are less than one in three.

Last week, Mel Brooks did two pretty good half-hour interviews with Tavis Smiley on PBS. Here's the first half hour…

And here's the second…

Film historians, note: I seem to recall that in interviews long ago, Mr. Brooks said that the casting of Gig Young in Blazing Saddles — in the role Gene Wilder eventually played — was forced on him by the studio over his objections. Now, he talks like it was his idea. My understanding is that it was first offered to Dan Dailey, who was in no shape to tackle it. Then on some mad whim, Brooks offered it to Johnny Carson, who not only turned it down but told Brooks he didn't think the script was at all funny. Then Mr. Young was cast by somebody and filmed for about an hour before being taken away to a hospital, which is when Mel called Gene.

A charity called Save a Panda, which I am all for, has set up a 24-hour live panda cam so you can watch pandas from the comfort of your computer chair. You're there and the pandas are in the Bifengxia Panda Center, which is near the city of Chengdu, China. I'll have to drop in and see them live the next time I'm in that neighborhood. I hear they have some great pizza places in Chengdu.

So far, I haven't seen much but pandas are always worth waiting for. Thanks to Mark Thorson for the tip and also for all the messages he sends me pointing out typos on this site. I thought it would be funny to make a deliberate one in that last sentence but I'd just be making more work four Mark.

Penn Jillette tells you how to do the fire-eating trick and makes it sound like the stupidest damn thing you could ever do in your life.

Meanwhile, Teller tells you how most other magic tricks are done.

Longtime readers of this site — I think I have some — know that I am a huge fan of the musical, Li'l Abner. I was too young to see it the first and only time it was on Broadway but I loved the 1959 movie of it which everyone says was very close to what was done on stage. I wrote about the Broadway version here and about the movie here.

(Quick aside: The DVD of the movie is out of print. There's a rights dispute about the movie and it might be some time before it's straightened out and someone can put out a new DVD or reissue the old one. If you see a copy around at an affordable price, you might want to grab it but beware: There are a lot of cheap public domain versions around of the 1940 non-musical movie version and some of them are packaged to look like the '59 version, even using stills and cast lists from that one.)

I have seen seven or eight stagings of the musical. It has never been revived for Broadway because, among other reasons, it's not a cheap show to do. It takes a very large cast…which oddly enough makes it the ideal show for a college or community theater that doesn't pay its performers. In those venues, the more actors you get on stage, the more friends and relatives of the cast buy tickets. In fact, some productions have flooded the stage with people for that reason…and costuming can be done on the cheap since most performers are, after all, dressed as hillbillies.

Wednesday evening, I saw what was easily the best production I've ever seen of the show…with a pretty large cast in a pretty small theater on the campus of Los Angeles City College. There were 33 people — a mix of students and Equity performers. They also had a five-piece orchestra that more than did justice to the fine Johnny Mercer-Gene DePaul score.

I had reservations about seeing the show in such a small auditorium…and the fact that they were doing only seven performances did not bode well for great production values or polished performances. Then again, I was hopeful because the show was being staged by my pal Bruce Kimmel, who is very good at this kind of thing and who shares my fondness for the material. Bruce has always wanted to direct a production of Li'l Abner and he did a great job.

It started with terrific casting. The four lead roles — Evan Harris as Abner, Madison Claire Parks as Daisy Mae, John Massey as Marryin' Sam and Barry Pearl as General Bullmoose — set the high bar for the evening…strong presences and the ability to deliver the over-the-top dialogue with utter sincerity.

Abner is a tricky role to cast. It demands a certain type — tall, muscular, handsome — that lets out about 95% of all actors. The producers of the original show had a devil of a time finding the right Abner and once they found Peter Palmer, they never did the show without him. Evan Harris fits the physical requirements, sings well and manages that "twinkle" the character needs to say outrageously egotistical things and still make you root for him to succeed and get the girl.

That girl can be a thankless role if not approached properly. Oddly enough, though Edie Adams campaigned to land it (before she saw the script) and won a Tony for her performance as Daisy Mae, she didn't like the show or what she had to do in it. Madison Claire Parks really made the part into something by nailing its inherent sweetness…and I suppose it didn't hurt that she's beautiful and has an astounding singing voice.

I was really impressed by John Massey who got every single laugh there is in the Marryin' Sam role plus a number that weren't in the script. We were sitting second-row center and it was a joy to watch all the subtle reactions and expressions on his face. (Actually, it's such a small theater than I'm sure everyone saw them.) Mr. Massey also sings quite well and did full justice to the best song in the show, "Jubilation T. Cornpone." The audience would not have minded a dozen encores.

And then you have Barry Pearl as the bad guy, General Bullmoose, delightfully chewing up and spitting out the simple, handpainted scenery…again getting every laugh in the script plus more. Some of the character's blustery, avaricious rantings sounded especially funny and pointed as delivered by Mr. Pearl in the era of Wall Street excess. People sometimes talk about updating the book of this show to make it more modern…but it seemed pretty timely Wednesday night, especially when General Bullmoose was talking.

I single out those four actors but really, everyone was good. Everyone. The show calls for a lot of speaking parts — too many to itemize here — and I don't know how Kimmel did it but every one was filled by someone who pulled theirs off. Most of those on the stage were drama students at the school and you could feel the talent and potential. You could also see that sparkle and happiness that occurs when young folks are doing something they love. Richard Sherman, who was sitting with us, remarked on that. It was one of the things we in the audience most enjoyed about the show: How much the folks on stage were enjoying the show.

Sets were simple but effective in two-dimensional comic strip style. The arrangements by David Siegel served Gene DePaul's score well, dialing it down for the five-piece band so effectively that no more instruments were needed. And I don't know what they spent on costuming — for these few performances, it couldn't have been much — but designers Roxanne De Ment and Natalya Shahinyan saw to it that each actor went out there perfectly dressed to be whoever they were supposed to be.

Which leads us to the one bad thing about this show, which is that it opened on Wednesday and plays its last performances tomorrow. I suppose it's tough getting people to traipse to this little theater on the campus of L.A. City College, even to see a show as good as this one. My town sadly doesn't have a lot of great performance venues into which one might move a show of this size but I sure hope they find one.

As I said, I really know and love this musical and have sat through a lot of productions that tried hard and couldn't quite manage to be what they should have been. You need a really large, talented cast and operation. It was amazing that Bruce Kimmel could do it at all, let alone in a small theater with what I'm sure were limited resources.

There may still be seats for the one show this evening and the matinee tomorrow. (The last performance, which is tomorrow night, is sold out.) Here's a link in case you're local and want to have a real good time on the cheapest theater ticket you'll ever purchase. I hope the last performance isn't the last performance because I'd like to visit Dogpatch again.

More on that That's Singing special. My pal Geoffrey Mark writes that it had a strange history…

Ethel Merman's and Mary Martin's parts, along with about two-thirds of the show, were taped in 1980. Some of the other numbers were taped separately a couple of years later for a PBS thing that never aired. They were cobbled together and shown in 1983, after Merman had her stroke but before she died in 1984. It was then repeated on PBS a couple of times after she died.

And then Michael Frank writes to say that IMDB says it aired on PBS on May 24, 1985. Thanks to both of you.

Since we're talking about Merman on that special, here she is, boys…

If you're interested in the family tree of Walt Disney — and I'm not sure I am — some of them are fighting over money. If nothing else, you may enjoy the photo of Michael Eisner wearing mouse ears.

Paul Whitefield writes about rising admission prices at Disneyland and says they won't stop folks from flocking there. I agree. The sheer act of deciding to go to a place like that is to decide to spend a large chunk of cash for the experience…and the price to get in is only a part of that. Most people, if they even paused to think it through, would decide, "Okay, so it's two bucks more to get in. I'll just spend two bucks less on souvenirs." Or something. I suspect for most folks, the financial obstacle to going to the Magic Kingdom or some place like that is not the ticket prices. Those are at least predictable. It's all the difficult-to-estimate costs of transportation, lodging, food, etc.

Last evening was one of the best nights of live theater I've had in I-don't-know-how-long. I had not expected to see a fabulous production of Li'l Abner in a tiny auditorium on the campus of a city college here in Los Angeles. The tickets were $15 each so that further drove down my expectations. I mean, what do you expect for that money?

As it turned out, I would not have felt cheated to pay ten times that. In a room where the audience barely outnumbered the size of the cast (33 people plus a five-piece band), I saw a great production with an awful lot of care and cleverness in the design and costuming, especially when you consider they're only doing a half-dozen performances.

Opening night was last night. There's a matinee today at 3 PM and an evening performance at 7:15. On Friday, it's up at 8 PM and then on Saturday at 2 PM and 8 PM and that is it…for now, anyway. I think they're hoping to move it somewhere else at some point but that's not easy to do in Los Angeles, even with a show as good as this one.

I intend to write a big, enthusiastic review praising the excellence of the cast members and the staging. The direction, by the way, is by my pal, Bruce Kimmel who has always wanted to stage this show. He did an amazing job. Anyway, I have a deadline tonight and I'm waiting for some photos Bruce said he'd send me to post here…but I wanted to get this much up a.s.a.p. because you can't afford to waste a second if you want to see this.

I understand there are many seats available for both shows today and a few for Friday and Saturday. Here's the link to order. Trust me on this one, folks…and besides, it's $15 a seat. How can you go wrong? (And if you don't want to believe me, the group I was with included the great composer Richard Sherman and he had nothing but raves about it.)

I will write more about this show very soon because the folks responsible deserve to read some high praise. Just know that I had a great time and I really hope this thing has an afterlife. Just in case it doesn't, if you're in the L.A. area — it's at Los Angeles City College on Vermont near Melrose — hurry to see it while you can.

In the previous item, I said the That's Singing special was either done in 1982 or 1985. A perceptive reader of this site named Andrew Smith writes to note that Ethel Merman was in that show. She died in February of 1984 so that kinda lets out 1985. Merman was the kind of trouper who never missed a performance but even she had her limitations.