Some wonderful, largely-homemade things are appearing online. I'm just starting to watch episodes of Stars in the House and let me tell you what that is. It's a twice-daily webcast telethon to benefit The Actors Fund, which is a charity that helps folks involved in show business and not just actors. It also helps writers and stagehands and ticket sellers and anyone who's in that vicinity and needs financial aid…as so many do at this time.

It's run by SiriusXM Broadway host Seth Rudetsky and producer James Wesley from their New York home (they're husband and husband) and they do an episode each day at 2 PM Eastern Time and another at 8 PM Eastern Time (so 11 AM and 5 PM on my coast) and via Skype or some other teleconferencing software, they chat with Broadway stars and even get performances out of them. There's also some surprisingly-responsible medical news and advice.

They started this March 16 with a show featuring Tony winner Kelli O'Hara and that's the one I've embedded below. Since then, the guest list reads like a Who's Who? (or maybe a Who's Anybody?) of live theater. So far, the list includes Jason Alexander, Sebastian Arcelus, Colleen Ballinger, Laura Benanti, Linda Benanti, Annette Bening, Stephanie J Block, Sierra Boggess, Betty Buckley, Andréa Burns, Norbert Leo Butz, Liz Callaway, Len Cariou, Will Chase, Kristin Chenoweth, Gavin Creel, Charlotte D'Amboise, Jason Danieley, Colin Donnell, Raúl Esparza, Tina Fey, Christopher Fitzgerald, Melissa Gilbert, Joanna Gleason, Mandy Gonzalez, JoAnn Hunter, Jeremy Jordan, Ramin Karimloo, Tom Kitt, Judy Kuhn, Anika Larsen, Norm Lewis, Judith Light, John Lithgow, Melissa Manchester, Terrence Mann, Andrea Martin, Eric McCormack, Audra McDonald, Lindsay Mendez, Ruthie Ann Miles, Brian Stokes Mitchell, Jessie Mueller, Patti Murin, Pamela Myers, Kathy Najimy, Anne L. Nathan, Rosie O'Donnell, Kelli O'Hara, Billy Porter, Jeff Richmond, Chita Rivera, Blake Ross, Lea Salonga, Keala Settle, Marc Shaiman, Christopher Sieber, Jennifer Simard, Ashley Spencer, Brian Stokes Mitchell, Will Swenson, Andrew Lloyd Webber, Vanessa Williams, Patrick Wilson and Chip Zien.

See anyone on that list who's any good? I can spot a few.

Throughout, they encourage you to donate to The Actors Fund, which you can do here or other ways they'll tell you about. There are also auctions and other fund-gathering mechanisms and while I haven't watched them all, the shows I've watched are very entertaining. You can see the lineups and watch episodes on this page. And now, here's Show One…

Patrick Galligan sent me this today…

Hi Mark, just wanted to run a question by you. I recently spoke to a friend of mine to inform him that I had bought a DVD complete series of I Spy! Boy, when I say I was not prepared for his response, it's a total understatement! My buddy ranted how could I support that rapist with my hard earned money?

I tried to explain I separate the performer, from their art, much the same way I would with a performer's politics, but you'd have thought I told him I was baking a birthday cake with a file in it to spring Bill Cosby out of jail. How would you explain it, or maybe you too hold that opinion? Am I wrong to say, what's in the library is not an endorsement of any bad behavior?

Well, there are two aspects to this question, one being whether you really can separate the art from the artist and enjoy the work now. Apparently, you can. I was never a huge fan of Bill Cosby the performer but I respected the work and recognized the joy he brought to so many. I was not likely to patronize much that involved him before we learned of his reprehensibleness so I dunno. If I was a huge fan, would I now find it hard to laugh at what I used to find funny? To look at him and be reminded of what he did? I might — which would be a perfectly acceptable reason to not buy it. Why buy something that doesn't please you?

As for the other aspect: If I could still enjoy the work, the idea that in doing so I would "support that rapist" would not have much impact on my decision. The amount of dough Cosby would clear from the purchase of one I Spy DVD set is probably inconsequential to him. Even after paying oodles of loot to his lawyers, he probably still has enough for that income to make no difference to his life. It might mean a little something to any less wealthy writers, producers, other actors, owners of the DVD company, et cetera, who were involved with I Spy and as far as we know, raped no one.

It was also, as I recall, a pretty good show. It deserves to not disappear because of something one of its stars did later in life. Enjoying it would not be an endorsement of anything done by anyone in the cast when they were off the clock.

What I guess I'm getting at is that this is a matter of individual choice. Your friend wants to boycott Cosby? Fine. You can not watch any show for any reason. As I've said here before, I don't think most boycotts accomplish anything more than to make the boycotter feel better…but that's not a bad thing. It's your decision and don't let anyone take it away from you or feel bad because of it.

In 2014, the BBC Proms did some numbers from Kiss Me Kate as part of their presentation. Here, the John Wilson Orchestra accompanies Michael Jibson and James Doherty in one of the best numbers from that show…

It has been suggested to me that this would be a good time to rerun this post from 11/30/14…

I would like to talk about an aspect of creative work (writing, drawing, etc.) that doesn't get enough attention. It's the part about making a living. And in what follows, I am not talking about trying to earn enough to live in a mansion, own a summer home and a yacht, drive a Rolls, etc. I'm talking about living in a decent home with enough to eat and having health insurance and providing for one's family. A few dollars in the bank is also nice. Everyone has unexpected expenses and should have the dollars to coast through life's little emergencies.

We live in a society where if you declare yourself a businessperson, a lot of folks cheer you on as you amass wealth. That's more or less the defining scorecard on whether you're a success and worthy of admiration. When you're supposed to be an artist, it's a little different. An awful lot of folks expect you to create your Art for the sake of Art and nothing more…which might be okay if we lived in a world where food, rent, clothing and even the tools by which you create your Art were free. 'Til then, one must pay one's mortgage and Visa bill. A person may well be a capital-A Artist but first and foremost, he or she is a person with human needs and realities.

It is difficult to judge someone's life from afar. I have found that frequently, the guy you think is loaded is in actually in desperate financial trouble. And very often, people don't think of that at all. (How many of you were surprised to read that Burt Reynolds was broke?)

A few years ago, a Creative Person I know — I won't say if he's a writer or artist or actor or anything — took on a job for which others pilloried him as a sell-out. It was not worthy of him, they said. Not up to his high standards. He lowered himself for the Almighty Buck. It was like Olivier had gone out and dropped his pants in an Adam Sandler movie because someone had waved a big paycheck.

But to those who knew the Creative Person, it wasn't that at all. He hadn't done it because he was greedy. He'd done it because he was trying to save his life. He was in hock to Loan Sharks (in the guise of a perfectly respectable bank) for a large amount and they were talking about taking his home away…taking away everything he had in the world, in fact. He was literally "borrowing" money from friends to buy groceries for himself and his wife and kids.

I put "borrowing" in quotes because they all knew he'd never be able to pay it back. And he was running out of friends who were willing and able to make such "loans."

Needless to say, a Creative Person cannot be very creative in those circumstances. A painter cannot paint when he can't afford paint. A writer cannot write when his electricity is turned off. It's hard to create anything, good or bad, when your stomach is tied in sheep shank knots and you're panicked about the rent that's due in ten days.

Increasingly, I find myself discussing this when I speak to classes of wanna-be actors or writers. There's a certain romance to some about being in the situation where if you don't start getting decent-paying jobs soon, you'll be out in the street. I've also met some who think that putting themselves in that precarious position is a way to guarantee success: "I'll make it because I have to." It's been my observation that that rarely works. It's why there are more people in Los Angeles waiting tables who want to be Professional Actors than Professional Waiters.

What I suggest to them is that they find a steady source of income to tide them over while they wait for their break. Ideally, that might be in a related field — say, writing tech manuals while you wait to sell your screenplay — but that's not always possible. Second best would be something that gave you a steady income but flexible hours. You may have to, in effect, work two jobs at the same time: One to make your weekly nut and one to break into your chosen profession.

An actress I knew was getting small acting roles — a good start on a full-time career but not yet a full-time career. She signed with a "temp" agency to do typing and secretarial work and she did something I thought was smart. She told them to never send her to any job that involved show business. She'd drive to Downey to type mailing labels for a plumbing supply company but she wouldn't go type scripts over at Paramount. She didn't want people in the industry to see her and then think of her as a secretary who was trying to act. Getting "inside" that way might have been a pathway if she'd had no credits but she had enough that when she went in on auditions, they thought of her as an actress, not a secretary.

In my case, I was kinda lucky because I landed writing jobs right out of high school. They weren't necessarily the kind of writing jobs I wanted to make my career but they subsidized me while I got ever closer. When I was trying to break into writing for television, I had a decent income writing comic books and that made it easier to break into TV. When you're financially desperate, you can make some very bad decisions you wouldn't make if you had some cash banked. And a lot of folks just plain aren't inclined to hire you if you appear to be desperate.

But the main thing I want to get back to here is that a Creative Person has a duty to his or her muse and to his or her audience…but there's also a duty to paying down that MasterCard that's charging you 18.99%.

I know one Creative Person who's dealing now with a duty to pay a whopping tax bill to the Internal Revenue Service. He's doing jobs he might not otherwise do and selling things he might otherwise not sell, and some observers and acquaintances are saying he's greedy, he's a sell-out, he's just out for the Almighty Buck. But that's not what's really going on. What he is is desperate. (But of course, he doesn't want people to know he's desperate. Not only it is humiliating, it's also — see above — a good way to not get hired.)

And I want to also get back to something I said before: Sometimes, people you think are well-off are actually desperate. There are a thousand reasons why it happens but the point is it happens. Don't begrudge them the necessities of life: Home, food, car, health care, etc. Human beings need that and I don't care what anyone says. Actors, writers, artists, directors, producers, editors…they're all human.

Well, maybe not some producers…

We were set to do Quick Draw! at WonderCon next month with Sergio Aragonés, Scott Shaw! and the star caricaturist for MAD, Tom Richmond. I also had a great Cartoon Voices panel lined-up and several other fun program items. Anyway, it's nice to see that Tom Richmond found something else to keep him busy.

Next week on April Fools Day (aka Wednesday), I will be the guest — via Skype from my Fortress of Solitude here — on Stu's Show. That is the only thing I have on my calendar between now and the first week of August apart from Comic-Con International (still a maybe) in July. Everything else has been canceled.

Not much to report here in All Alone Land. I've been reading Woody Allen's memoirs, which seem to be getting decidedly-mixed reviews. I'm nowhere near the parts involving anyone named Farrow yet but I find what I've read to be delightful. I can't remember the last time I laughed out loud at anything I read off the Kindle app on my iPad but I'm laughing at a lot of this. It is an odd mixture of too much self-deprecation and the occasional brag. Here's an Amazon link if you want to buy a Kindle download. The hardcover version is sold out at the moment.

But I don't feel all that all alone here in All Alone Land, perhaps because I'm well aware that everyone I know is in their All Alone Lands…so we're united in that. And the phone rings a lot. And people FaceTime and Skype and Zoom and I'm getting a lot of writing done. And the ones who don't just want to talk about how terrible things are make it all much more endurable. So here I sit. I hope you're equally well and at peace.

Bill Cosby, because he fears getting the coronavirus, is requesting early release from the prison in which he is confined. Hey, get in line, Bill. We'd all like out of our current prisons…and you may be safer right where you are. At least you probably have toilet paper.

By the way: It's probably just me but when I hear that someone is "cosplaying," I don't immediately think that they're roaming around a comic convention dressed as some super-hero or character from Star Wars or Trek. I think just for an instant that they slipped something into someone's drink so they could criminally molest them and in so doing, betrayed the admiration and love of a nation. But like I said, that's probably just me.

I may not make these dispatches a daily thing because, first of all, a lot of my days of isolation so far have been nearly identical to one another. The main thing of interest yesterday was calls and e-mails relating to the mess that's happening due to Diamond. Diamond Distributors — the folks who disseminate most comic books and related publications — have announced they will stop receiving new product from printers for distribution starting in April. So everyone's scrambling to decide what's on, what's off, what's postponed, when things are now due, etc. A couple things I'm working on will be affected but I'm not yet sure which ones or in what way.

Otherwise, I'm just staying in, writing and talking to friends. I wonder how the folks who lived through the 1921 Diphtheria Epidemic got through it without FaceTime. When friends tell me they're bored, I tell them the following: "Think back to a moment in recent memory when you said a sentence that began with the phrase, 'When I have some free time, I'm going to…' and do that thing. You've got free time now. You may not have hand sanitizer but you've got free time…plenty of it. Do that thing you said you were going to do when you had some. If you don't do it now, it'll never get done."

Just what you need to cheer you up in these harried times: Weird Al Yankovic on a balcony somewhere playing "Classical Gas" on his accordion…

Most of the late night shows are returning to the air with all-new shows, most (all?) of which will involve remotes from the hosts' homes and guests in their own homes, all connected over the Internet. Some of them have been broadcasting a combination of new segments from their hosts' homes and repeat material but it looks like they're going all-new and make more effort to approximate what they did in the studio.

Jimmy Fallon, Samantha Bee and The Daily Show came back this week. John Oliver resumes this Sunday, Colbert returns on Monday and Bill Maher comes back a week from today. No word yet on return dates for Seth Meyers, Jimmy Kimmel or James Corden. Corden is hosting a benefit show in prime time on Monday with proceeds going to the CDC Foundation, a non-profit that supports the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's work, and Feed the Children.

If linking-in guests this way over the web works, it might not be completely abandoned once it's no longer a medical necessity. It's cheap and people in television like cheap. I'm also thinking that so many people in various industries are now working from home that we'll see a lot more of that after the coronavirus is history. In many businesses, someone is going to be saying, "I've been thinking…why do we need the huge, expensive office?"

Turner Classic Movies is running It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World tonight (or tomorrow morning, if you want to get technical) at 1 AM. A lot of people know this is my favorite movie but I sometimes have to explain that it's my favorite movie when viewed on a big, big, big, big screen with a big, big, big, big audience. I like it a lot less on a small screen watched alone or with just a few, few, few, few people.

In fact, I think when I do watch it the latter way, my main enjoyment comes from how it reminds me of previous times when I saw it on a big, big, big, big screen with a big, big, big, big audience. It's one of those films — I could name several — that was made to be experienced like that. Even though I'm on the commentary track of the Criterion DVD/Blu Ray release, I do not recommend watching it that way except (let me put that in bold: except) to remind you of the happy time you had seeing it on a big screen with a big audience.

My lovely friend Amber has not seen it because I have not shown it to her because I have not been able to take her to see it the way it should be seen. I am not suggesting you not watch it or TiVo it tonight on TCM even if you have never seen it as God and Stanley Kramer intended it. I'm just suggesting that even if you see it repeatedly on television or home video, you haven't seen it until you've seen it as you should see it. Thank you.

As we hit the two-week mark here in my Fortress of Solitude (not to be confused with any Fortress of Solitude in which you may be living), we pause and reflect — first of all on why we're saying "we" when it's just me here. I mean, that's the whole point of a Fortress of Solitude, isn't it? I'll do a deft, undetectable pronoun switch in the next paragraph.

It's now been two weeks since my doctor told me to stay in, don't go out, avoid the plague as if it were the plague and generally isolate myself. The primary goal here — and certainly a worthy one — is to not come down with the raging coronavirus that our esteemed president seems to have stopped telling us was a Democratic Hoax that would be gone in days. The fallback goal, if the primary cannot be achieved, is to not get it now when our nation's health services are already overwhelmed and struggling to cope with volume, volume, volume. I'm still working for that primary goal.

Groping to find less-horrible aspects of this thing, I recognize that a National Vacation — even one taken under duress and causing great destruction in a 360° circle — has its value. And those of us who'll come away from this will come away with an adventure we'll speak of forever after. I'm not suggesting mine is any more interesting than yours when I write about mine on my blog. I'm just doing because it's my blog and filling it is something I can still do.

My mother, the last decade or so of her life, came largely unstuck in time and not like Billy Pilgrim. She rarely ventured out of her house and when she did the last few years, it was just for medical appointments and ambulance rides. She lived by no clock. She ate not on any predetermined schedule but whenever she felt like she wanted to eat. She slept when she was tired and it wasn't always at night when a normal person would sleep. She might take to bed at Noon and wake up at 10 PM.

I always called her between 5 PM and 6 PM but did not panic when it took many rings for her to answer. If she happened to be in hibernation, she'd eventually pick up the phone on her bedside table, tell me she was fine and we'd agree that we loved each other…then she'd hang up and go back to sleep.

She listened to TV (by that age, she could not really see it) whenever she wanted the company. She had no favorite shows, no program she just had to have on when it was telecast. Often, what she listened to was Don Imus's TV show because what the hell else are you going to listen to at 5:30 in the morning? The Imus program was essentially a radio show on television and you didn't miss anything by not being able to see it.

At times when I've been immersed in a script that requires many days to complete, I have lived like that for a week or so at a time. It's more fun in Las Vegas because something's always open there so if you want a slice of pizza at 4 AM, there actually is a slice of pizza at 4 AM. But I've lived like that here and it's fine in short spurts if you can cope with the occasional need to do something on the timetable of the rest of the world. My mother had to be awake and reasonably functional when a caregiver came or a doctor appointment demanded her presence.

I'm living a little like that now.

Yesterday, I cleaned myself up and left my house, driving for the first time in two weeks. It was to my doctor's office where things were peaceful and there weren't a lot of people and a lot of them were nurses cleaning anything anyone touched, seconds after they touched it. The appointment was swift and easy. I passed a few tests, then felt the need to hurry back here to my Fortress of Solitude, taking a route that took me down La Cienega Boulevard and through the drive-thru at a Pollo Loco.

Later, I got two grocery deliveries — Instacart at 6 PM, Amazon Fresh around 8:30. I had not planned to get both on the same day but that's how the "next available delivery windows" played out. I'd ordered much the same things from both and happily, what one was out of, the other had. Instacart was out of my favorite potato chips, my favorite crackers and my favorite peanut butter. Amazon Fresh had my favorite potato chips, my favorite crackers and my favorite peanut butter but was out of a half-dozen things Instacart had brought me. Both delivered organic baby carrots but all the other dupes were things that have expiration dates in the far future so they'll get eaten in time.

So I have food. I have things to write. I have occasional company on the phone or Facetime. And since I stopped following the news closely, I have a general sense of peace but not, I hope, a naïve one. Horrible, horrible things are happening and I know we'll be recovering from them for years…but the important thing to remember is that most of us will be recovering. And while it may be tough to get through it, it sure beats the alternative.

Here's "The William Tell Overture" performed by my favorite singing group in the "One Hundred Members or More" category — The Ambassadors of Harmony. Saddle up…

On a topic not unrelated to the previous post, there is currently an awful lot of chaos and crisis in the world of publishing, distributing and selling comic books. I have an e-mail folder here full of requests to explain it and I will do you the favor of not explaining it. I know very, very little about that end of the industry, though I can recognize panic and financial hardship when I see them. Boy, do I wish Tom Spurgeon was still around to explain it to you…and to me.

Heidi MacDonald has some words about it here. Go read Rob Salkowitz, too.

If you are a fan of the fine books and magazines we get from TwoMorrows Publishing, go read what John Morrow has to say about the situation his company is now in. You might get some real good bargains out of it.

The San Diego Convention Center — home away from home to those of us who attend Comic-Con International there every year — is now cosplaying as a hospital of sorts. As Mayor Kevin Faulconer tweeted…

The convention center is a centerpiece of San Diego's economy. During this pandemic, it will be a centerpiece of our fight against the coronavirus. Preparations are underway to temporarily use parts of @SDConventionCtr and all of Golden Hall to shelter homeless individuals.

As this news story reports, they're spending a lot of money to bring in cots and install showers and do all sorts of things to handle the emergency. I started to write some silly lines about how they should leave those in place for us and I should go down there and host panels but this is all too serious. Let's just say I remain skeptical that this whole virus crisis will be over as soon as some want to think.

And this is as good a place as any to deal with the question of whether Comic-Con will be postponed from its July dates or not held at all this year. Let me say this very clearly: As far as I know, no decision has been made about that and it won't be for a few more weeks at least. There's time to wait for more information…and more information can be a very good thing when it comes to making important decisions.

The rumor is going around apparently that the folks who'll make that decision have already decided to not do it in July. I believe that this is some outsider's speculation being passed off as an insider tip. It may turn out to be exactly what they decide but it is not true now that the decision has been made. Do we all understand the difference? I believe that when the decision is made as to whether to have it in July or not, you will not hear it as a rumor. You will hear it loud and clear as an announcement.

…or as I might put it if being melodramatic, Day 13 of my self-imposed isolation. That might sound really important if two-thirds of the folks in this country weren't on Day 10-15 of their self-imposed isolations. Actually, I had a little company the first few days of mine but my cleaning lady aside, it's been ten days since anyone was in this house but me. I've taken one walk — down to an ATM to deposit three residual checks totaling about twelve dollars — but today, I'm driving over to my doctor's office for a minor test that has nothing to do with the coronavirus.

Then I plan to hurry back because I have a grocery delivery scheduled. If I get done at the doc's early, I might hit the Pollo Loco drive-thru and pick up a couple days worth of broiled chicken. If I do that, I'm going to have to decide whether or not to advance-order it via the Pollo Loco app on my iPhone. If I do, that's less human interaction once I get there. I just drive through the drive-thru, grab the bag and run. If I don't, I have to hassle with paying and getting change. Option 1 would seem like the wiser choice…but what if I order through the app then get there and there's a huge line of cars which is way too long to join?

This is the kind of strategic planning that's vital in these desperate times.

But I'm trying not to think of them as desperate times. I've accepted that I'm (we're) just going to have to live like this for an indeterminate time. Could be weeks, could be months. If this is as bad as it gets for me, it's not that bad. The other night, I said to a friend, "I've just been sitting at my desk in my pajamas, watching movies and/or working on my computer. Oh, how I long for the days when I used to sit at my desk in my pajamas, watching movies and/or working on my computer only about 90% of the time."

Actually, that percentage might be a little high. But it's not hard to live this way. Especially when there's no place to go.