Category Archives: Video Links

We're going to follow up yesterday's Allan Sherman clip with another. Despite the fact that he threatened to sue me when I was in junior high school, Allan Sherman was always a big favorite of mine. I started writing song parodies because of him (and also MAD magazine, especially the song spoofs of Frank Jacobs) and that's led to me writing poetry and song lyrics. Mr. Sherman knew the value of setting up and delivering a punch line in his parodies…a skill not in evidence with some who try to write funny songs. They think if the joke's in there and things rhyme, it's a funny lyric. No. A spoken joke needs proper delivery and so does a sung one.

Here's a little nugget of Allan Sherman's little-known work. In 1964, he wrote a parody of "Once in Love With Amy" to tout Lyndon Johnson's campaign for the presidency. It was never put on a record but Sherman sang it at campaign rallies across the country. Here's the lyric…

Once in love with Lyndon
Always in love with Lyndon
And on the Tuesday of the big election
Guess who my selection will be!

November third, it's Lyndon
It's Ladybird and Lyndon
And on the morning of inauguration
What a happy nation you'll see!

You might be quite the fickle-hearted rover
Who throws votes away
But once you've looked the opposition over
It's L-B-J!

Once in love with Lyndon
Always in love with Lyndon
Love him and love him till our hearts are aching
And why are we making this fuss?
Cause Lyndon's always been in love with us!

Not a bad little tune. And here, through the good graces of Barry Mitchell (who sings some pretty funny songs, himself), we have a video of Sherman singing most of the above…

Here's a clip of Allan Sherman singing one of his glorious song parodies. I have no idea what show this clip is from…

Mel Brooks, appearing on a show I don't recognize, tells the story of Howie Morris and his father's ashes.This is, Howie told me, a true story…and one Mel always loved. He used it in the movie, Life Stinks, though in there, it involved the ashes of a character played by Howie. (And I'll be writing more about Howie in the next item here…)

From a 1998 concert honoring producer Cameron Mackintosh: Stephen Sondheim introduces an old friend…

I guess this one's for those of us who speak English and only English. I'm one such person. Matter of fact, I'm pretty hopelessly addicted to English. I took Spanish in Junior High School and I was absolutely dreadful at it. I remember about three sentences, one of which translates to "And notice how nice the lights are!" If I ever travel to a place where they only speak Spanish, I need to be in rooms that only have good lighting. Otherwise, I'll have nothing to say.

Later in school, I took German, Portuguese and Italian. I recall about ten words of each and didn't know that many more when I took my final exams in those courses. You could waterboard me and maybe get thirteen or fourteen out of me but that's about it.

Years ago when I worked with the great Sid Caesar, I was (like everyone) stunned and impressed at his ability to generate double-talk in French, in German, in Italian, etc. I found myself wondering, "What does that sound like to someone who actually speaks the language Sid is doing?" Or more interesting, perhaps: "What does it sound like if someone fluent in another language did double-talk English?" I once asked my pal Sergio Aragonés about it and he did an imitation for me of what Mexican comedians do when they do to English what Sid Caesar does to their tongue. It was…odd. A few real English words intermingled with a lot of incomprehensible vowel sounds with a Texas accent.

Anyway, Jim Newman just sent me this video link to a show apparently from some Italian variety program.The star is a gent of whom Jim says, "I'm guessing this guy is the Sid Caesar of Italy." Apparently so…

Here's Jon Stewart on last night's Daily Show making Fox News look pretty danged ridiculous. And it's worth noting that this is kind of a follow-up to a segment on last Thursday's show in which Stewart ridiculed Congressman Steve Cohen, a Democrat, for using Nazi comparisons where inappropriate. The Daily Show fires in all directions…

Here's Jack LaLanne in his prime…but talking and not exercising.That was one of the keys to the man's success: He was a good talker and he knew how to connect with his audience, which was usually housewives. For a decade or two, he did his show every Monday through Friday, largely ad-libbed — and for many years, live. It was just him and his dog and a few props and the cameras…and I seem to recall that in the fifties, it was usually just one camera.Today, you wouldn't do an exercise video without music, costumes, scenery, dancers, fancy camerawork, etc. Jack's show was just Jack and it worked…

The Dramatists Guild is producing a series of interviews for something called The Legacy Project. Basically, it's prominent theater folks of the current generation interviewing prominent theater folks of an earlier generation. It's not quite clear to me where one will be able to view these interviews in their entirety. The Guild's website says they'll be available to schools and libraries…nothing about putting them out on DVD or up on PBS or anything. But they do have excerpts available on the web. Here's a few minutes with composer John Kander in which he discusses the writing of the song, "New York, New York" and other topics…

Here's one you probably won't want to watch in full — it runs 88 minutes — but you might care to sample. It's Bob Hope's 1967 Christmas Special, chronicling his tour that year to entertain our troops overseas.There was some controversy about these shows a few years after this…about whether Hope was doing them because he cared about the soldiers or because he pocketed a helluva lot of money from the TV specials that resulted. I recall the debates were generally based on the premise that it had to be either/or; that both could not possibly be true to some extent.

I always thought the joy of the soldiers was pretty much the answer. If it could make that many servicemen and women happy, who cared about Mr. Hope's motives? As it turned out, I later spoke to a couple of folks who went on one or more of these tours and they all said Hope's attitude was along the lines of "I gotta do this…those boys'll be so disappointed if I don't."The money was kind of a happy bonus. I'll also add for what it's worth that even if there was no financial reward, very few entertainers would ever have turned down the chance to headline or even be a part of something like this…

Way back in this post, we told you about Mao Daichi, a popular stage actress in Japan who can usually be found somewhere playing Eliza in a production of My Fair Lady. She is a big star in this capacity and it apparently has something to do with her resemblance to Audrey Hepburn, who played the role in the American movie version. Or maybe she started doing the part because of that and has now become a superstar in it so that no longer matters. Anyway, here's a sampler reel of her in the part…

I disagree with those who say that by her response to the recent Tucson shooting, Sarah Palin has destroyed any chance she had at being president. I don't think she had a chance before that. What's more, I think she's known that all along and has merely decided there is much money to be made (and perhaps some peripheral political influence to be wielded) by continuing to put on a show for the 30% or so of the population that loves to hear her bash Obama and Liberals and Democrats. If she really thought she had a shot at the Oval Office, she'd be making some effort to woo Independents or even moderate Republicans. Instead, it's all red meat for the reddest states and the Tea Party crowd. You can't get elected with a 53% unfavorable rating or by avoiding actual debates and interviews.

Here's Jon Stewart pointing out how this woman plays the Victim Card the way Bret Maverick used to play the Ace of Spades. Bret always had a couple up his sleeve…

Just watch this…

Here from some time in the fifties is a Disney commercial for Jell-O spinning off Walt's animated feature of Alice in Wonderland.

It features two characters from the original book — the Gryphon and the Mock Turtle.There seems to be some argument among Disney scholars if they were designed for the movie and didn't make it in or if they were only designed for this commercial. Kathryn Beaumont, who voiced Alice in the feature, did her voice here and Sterling Holloway, who spoke for the Cheshire Cat, is the narrator.The voices of the Gryphon and the Mock Turtle are not easily identifiable, though I suspect the latter may be Bill Thompson. But your guess is probably as good as mine…

So Craig Ferguson's people sent their "Secretariat" to New York and arranged for some cameos on the sets of Manhattan-based TV shows. Actually, it looks like a different horse costume and based on the style of dancing, it's two other guys inside it. Apparently, they couldn't quite get everyone to go along with the joke, which is that when the horse dances through, everyone gets up and does the Secretariat Dance. Regis and Kelly went along with it and so did Katie Couric.The ladies of The View and David Letterman decided to just look annoyed and work against the joke. But it's still a funny piece of video…

Back when he pretty much invented the TV talk show, Steve Allen had a whole repertoire of recurring bits and segments, many of which have been borrowed with little modification by others who've since hosted such programs. David Letterman is the only one I can think of who has ever attempted this time-filler, which was just to point a TV camera at the street outside and have the host deliver a running silly ad-lib commentary.

I'm not sure this example of Mr. Allen doing it is entirely ad-lib. The way the video picks up interesting folks on the street, it feels to me like they taped a lot of footage and then edited it down to make sure there'd be no pauses with no one for the host to talk about. That could mean Allen's narration wasn't totally spontaneous…but maybe it was. In earlier times, he definitely did this kind of thing on his shows without pretaping or prep and it was usually very funny. I also have no idea what show this is from. The cars and the mention of Martin Mull would suggest late seventies or early eighties. If you've got a better idea, let me know…