Here's a montage of Donald Trump being praised by…Donald Trump. Even if there's a tiny basis for some of these claims — and I'm not saying there is — I wonder if there's a Trump supporter alive who wouldn't want to throw rocks at a Democrat who talked like this…
Through the 22nd of this month, the Garry Marshall Theatre out in Toluca Lake is featuring an excellent production of Neil Simon's 1993 play, Laughter on the 23rd Floor. Everyone says the play was based on the classic comedy-variety series, Your Show of Shows, which starred Sid Caesar and Imogene Coca and which included on its now-legendary writing staff, a young Neil Simon. More accurately, Laughter on the 23rd Floor is mostly about Caesar's subsequent series, Caesar's Hour.
What's the difference? Well, Simon's play was about Caesar's reign as the King of TV Comics coming to an end, and that happened on Caesar's Hour, not Your Show of Shows. Caesar's Hour also had a writing staff that included, along with Simon, Larry Gelbart and Sheldon Keller, both of whom are renamed characters in the play. (Gelbart and Belkin didn't work on Your Show of Shows and Larry especially used to get somewhat pissed at all the articles that said he did. Neither did Woody Allen, who was often credited as a Your Show of Shows writer. Allen worked on some of Caesar's later specials.)
Everyone gets this stuff wrong. Wikipedia says the character of Kenny in the play was based on Gelbart and Carl Reiner. It was just Gelbart. It also says the character of Harry Prince in the play was based on Caesar's brother, Dave. That character wasn't in the play. It was only in the 2001 TV movie of the same name, which Simon wrote using almost none of the play.
The program book bio of Neil Simon for the Garry Marshall Theater production says Simon was a writer on The Sid Caesar Show. No, he wasn't. Mr. Caesar starred in four different TV series: The Admiral Broadway Revue, Your Show of Shows, Caesar's Hour and Sid Caesar Invites You. He did do one special called The Sid Caesar Show but Simon had nothing to do with it. I could go on and on and I usually do…but this time, having made my point, I'm uncharacteristically going to stop.
Nevertheless, the production out at the Garry Marshall is first-rate. I saw the play on Broadway and while it's been a while, I think this production may be better. What I saw in New York had Nathan Lane in the Sid Caesar role. No, correct that: It had Nathan Lane playing Jackie Gleason playing Sid Caesar. He was very, very good but I thought Pat Towne, who's doing it at the Marshall, is doing it better. The rest of the cast is uniformly excellent, as well: John Ross Bowie, Lanisa Renee Frederick, Jason Grasl, Cornelius Jones Jr., Jessica Joy, Ty Mayberry, Roland Rusinek and Jason Weiss. Mr. Weiss is an understudy but you sure couldn't tell it from his fine performance as Mel Brooks Ira Stone.
And a special shout-out to Scenic Designer Alex Calle and anyone else who had anything to do with the terrific period set.
The core of this play is the Caesar doppelgänger. It's a story about the star's breakdown as his show, though hailed as a creative highpoint in the history of television begins losing ratings to programming with lower aspirations. That's why it's Caesar's Hour (where that happened) and not Your Show of Shows, which was an unqualified success. One suspects Simon wrote the play just to show what Sid went through then.
Having worked with the late/great Caesar, I absolutely believe it is an accurate portrait. Sometimes in show business, you do it right and lose to someone doing it wrong. When I was around Sid, I observed a constant procession of people telling him, "You are the funniest man who was ever on television" and the even more hurtful "How come you aren't on TV every week?" The compliments were hurtful because Sid had no answer for that question.
Imagine if you were a baseball player who could bat .365 and no team wanted you. You might be happier being a poor player because at least then you could understand your unemployment.
With Sid, the reasons had to do with his need to control, his inability to be funny (or even genuine) out of character, his inability to change with the times and his constant paranoia. Under the direction of Michael A. Shepperd, Pat Towne captured all of that perfectly while simultaneously and appropriately devouring much of Mr. Calle's lovely scenery. It was really one of the most expert performances I've seen in an off-off-off-Broadway venue. If you're close enough to Toluca Lake to get over and see it before 4/22, I recommend it.
And it reminded me what a crapshoot theater can be at times. I really, really didn't like the last show I saw at the Marshall a while back, so much so that I didn't even tell you about it here. I was regretting my already-purchased tickets to this one but boy, did it more than make up for the previous visit. Sometimes, you need to just roll the dice and go.
I'm getting way behind in my name-dropping here so let's play catch-up and I'm going to enlist my friend Steve Stoliar to help me. Last Saturday evening, we went to see a really terrible, unfunny movie called Monty Python and the Holy Grail.
You may have just read that last sentence twice (maybe even thrice) thinking, "Huh? That's one of the funniest films ever made!" Well, not at the Saban Theater last Saturday, it wasn't. We had poor seats for viewing it, the print wasn't great, the big screen wasn't that big, the sound quality wasn't that good and much of the audience seemed to think the point of showing the film at all was for them to prove how well they knew it by shouting all the lines out loud before the actors on the screen could utter them.
I had planned to take my friend Amber that night because she's never seen this usually-hilarious movie and I thought a theater-full of Python lovers would be the ideal audience with which to view it. Turned out I was wrong. Too many of them thought they were at The Rocky Horror Picture Show and too few of them laughed. In a way, I'm glad she had a sudden family matter to deal with and I took Steve instead.
And another reason I'm glad I took Steve is that when I finally sat down to write about the night, I realized he'd already done most of the heavy lifting for me on his Facebook page. Here, with his permission, is what he wrote there. It may help if I remind you that when Steve was but a mere college student, he had a job as the personal secretary/aide to one Julius "Groucho" Marx…
Last night, I had a certifiably splendiferous experience. A couple of days earlier, I'd gotten a call from my pal, Mark Evanier, telling me that his date for the evening was unable to attend and was I interested in accompanying him to a screening of Monty Python and the Holy Grail at the Saban Theatre in Beverly Hills, after which a Mr. John Cleese would be doing Q&A? I leapt at the chance.
Mark's seats turned out to be very close to the stage (3rd row), but way off to the side, which is not the best way to watch a motion picture — but — it was a terrific vantage point from which to observe the post-film Q&A. The only sour note was the asshole sitting behind us who decided to impress everyone within earshot by reciting the dialogue along with the film. I turned around twice and glared at him. Nothing. Mark turned around and glared at him. Nothing. Finally, I turned around and said, "Please stop doing that."
He leaned forward and said, "Oh, so we're not supposed to talk during a movie we've all seen a million times?!" I said, "That's right." Then the guy on the other side of me turned around and reiterated, "No, you're not." The asshole's recitation subsided for a while, but then he continued, off and on, and I tried to tune him out as best I could, because getting into a useless fight with this jerk wasn't worth missing out on the movie. It had been quite some time since I'd seen Grail and I did laugh frequently.
After the film, Cleese's lovely actress-comedian daughter, Camilla, came out and introduced her 78-year-old father, who strode out to a thunderous standing ovation, waved, bowed, thanked everyone, and then exited the stage. Camilla coaxed him back and they did a wonderful Q&A based on questions audience members had written down on blue cards before the show (I didn't ask anything).
Cleese was very warm, engaging, and funny (big surprise). He talked about the film, his Python mates, Fawlty Towers (adamant about giving ex-wife Connie Booth credit for having co-written the scripts), his mother, and various other things.
After he and Camilla wrapped up their chat, an announcer said that people who had VIP wristbands to meet-and-greet Mr. Cleese and have their picture taken were to remain in the theatre. As Mark and I were filing out, I said, "Can't we pretend we have VIP tickets and get our picture taken?"
He said, "We'd have to pretend, because we don't have them." Oh well; it was still a great night. We figured we'd take what Cavett calls "a prophylactic piss" before heading out into the cold night air, but the line up the stairs to the men's room was quite daunting, so we figured we'd stick around in the lobby and wait for it to die down.
Shortly thereafter, voice-over legend Maurice LaMarche stopped to talk to Mark, with whom he'd worked on a number of occasions. He said he and his wife had VIP tickets to get their photos taken, but they had to take off and did we want their wristbands? If not, they would just go to waste.
In fact, we did. So after using the men's room, we got in line to meet-and-greet Mr. Cleese and have our pictures taken. Despite all the legendary people Mark and I have met, known, worked with, and befriended over the years, we were just two fans waiting to shake hands with a comedy giant (literally and figuratively).
John Cleese and Steve Stoliar
I was mightily impressed with how warm, patient, and personable Cleese was with each fan. There was no sense of "Smile! Click! Now on your way!" He seemed happy to chat, if briefly, with his public. When it was my turn, I shook his hand and said, "Thank you for more than I can possibly articulate." He appreciated that, then laughed at the sight of my "NO TRUMP" button.
I told him I used to write for Dick Cavett and he said, "I did a play once with his wife." I said, "Carrie Nye. She could be intimidating when you first meet her, but she was actually quite warm and friendly." He agreed. I mentioned having worked for Groucho and his eyes lit up. After we posed for our photo, he said, "Stick around in the lobby and we can chat afterward." Fine with me.
So Mark and I hung out in the lobby and, after Cleese had interacted with his adoring VIP wristband wearers, he exited the room — and patiently signed autographs for fans who had brought stuff to sign, but hadn't shelled out for VIP tickets. After he was done, I reminded him that he'd asked me to stick around. Handlers were trying to hurry him out to his awaiting tour bus, but he wanted to know what Groucho was like, how old he was at the time, etc. I told him a couple of brief Groucho-and-me anecdotes and he laughed heartily — and he was amused/intrigued that Zeppo and I had dated the same girl. Then he really did have to go.
A completely unexpected and wondrous experience, thanks to the generosity of Mark, Maurice LaMarche, and — of course — Mr. Cleese.
ME again. This was about the sixth or seventh time I've heard John Cleese in person, speaking or being interviewed and I've heard all the other Pythons, save for Graham Chapman but I had the pleasure (which it was) to lunch with him about a quarter-century ago. I've always been impressed not so much with how witty they were — one expects that — but with how wise they all were. These are — or in Mr. Chapman's case, were — very smart men.
I was also impressed, as was Steve, with how nice Cleese was. I know he was making a lot of money for being there but he didn't have to be as polite and engaged with everyone as he was. He genuinely seemed to want to stay around longer and talk with us. Maybe it's just that he's a good actor but I don't think it was that.
Naturally, I got a photo with him and this may be the only picture I have of myself actually laughing. Steve went before me and told Cleese about working with Dick Cavett and Groucho. Then when I followed Steve to the position before the camera, I said, "I hope he didn't tell you those lies about working for Dick Cavett and Groucho Marx." Cleese laughed and said, "Are you a writer, too?"
I said I was and I added, "And I've made a damn good living plagiarizing from you." While smiling for the photographer, he muttered, "You and half the known universe" and the way he said it is what I'm laughing at in the picture.
Like Steve, I've been around a lot of people I admired for their comedic abilities and had my picture taken with quite a few of 'em. I think this was only the second time someone was paid for posing with me (this first was Marty Allen) and this time, I didn't even pay. Maurice LaMarche did.
He did a very nice thing for Steve and me because while the photo itself wasn't all that exciting, those few minutes of one-on-one with Basil Fawlty were absolutely delightful. I've occasionally been disappointed by heroes I've met and I'm still smiling about that not being the case this time. And yes, I'm still amazed at how unfunny Monty Python and the Holy Grail can be in a roomful of people who think they're doing Mystery Science Theater 3000.
Hey, let's all think good thoughts about one of the most talented, lovely men I've ever known…Chuck McCann. If you're around my age but you grew up in New York, you doubtlessly recall Chuck's famous kid show in which he did wonderfully inventive comedy sketches. He didn't have much in the way of writers or budget or facilities and most of it was live so he had to do bits like the clip below in one take…but he did it.
He went on to have a great career as a comic performer and even sometimes in dramatic roles. Those of us who have been lucky enough to know him brag that we know Chuck McCann and some of us even brag that we know him better than others who brag about knowing Chuck McCann. But now we're all worried and sad because Chuck's in the hospital and word is he ain't doing so well. We don't want him to go away. If you can do anything to prevent that, please do it.
Here's a video from the sixties of Chuck just being wildly crazy and funny for six minutes…
Here's a little excerpt from Bill Schelly's book which I plugged earlier here. It's about what Bill, as a young gay man, found interesting in the comic books he was reading way back when. I wonder how much young kids today find arousing in comic books.
When I was twelve, I did have some low-level fantasies about Supergirl and Lana Lang and a few others, especially as they were drawn by certain artists. But I didn't really have access to anything much stronger the way a twelve-year-old boy today can probably find his way to porn or even just Sports Illustrated models in body paint without a lot of trouble. I recall at around that age reading the story where Superboy got transformed into a girl and I don't think it struck me as much different from a story in which he was transformed into any kind of person or creature other than himself. Today, I'd probably think, "Well, now he's not going to go out and fight crime. He's just going to stay home all day and play with his own breasts."
I would like to recommend a book by a friend of mine. Bill Schelly has written some fine ones about important people in the world of comic books like Harvey Kurtzman, Joe Kubert and Otto Binder but my favorite is his new one which is all about…Bill Schelly. It's an autobiography about his life in and around comic book fandom and it deals with a great many struggles. Bill struggles with finding a profession and establishing his place in it. He struggles with "coming out" as gay at a time when that just wasn't done. He struggles with becoming a father and later losing his son to cancer.
The honest candor of the book will impress you. So will the smarts and reasoning and courage Bill employs in all those struggles. Even if you've experienced nothing similar, you'll identify with the guy and equate some of his challenges with some of yours. The book's called Sense of Wonder — the same name as a fanzine Bill published in the sixties, causing some of us to first become aware of him. If you read this book, you'll know all about him and you'll be glad you do. Here's a link to order a copy. They say it'll ship 4/17 but since I already have my copy, it might be sooner than that. Even if it isn't, it's well worth the wait.
Porn Star Stormy Daniels says she and Donald Trump had an affair. Donald Trump says they did not.
Just before the election, she accepted $130,000 from Donald Trump's attorney Michael Cohen to deny that the alleged affair ever happened. After that, she sometimes denied it and sometimes did not. More recently, she has said they did have the affair and she is suing to have the agreement declared void so she can talk about it all she wants. Cohen is suing her for violating the agreement.
The $130,000 was put up by Cohen who mortgaged his home to raise it because he cared about his client Trump, who he says did not know anything about this. Cohen was not reimbursed for this amount by Trump or the Trump campaign. Various other sums paid to him which seem to total around $130,000 were not for that purpose. Trump also says he knew nothing about this.
The agreement was between a "David Dennison" and a "Peggy Peterson" and a side letter identified David Dennison as Donald Trump and Peggy Peterson as Stephanie Clifford, which is the real name of Stormy Daniels. The use of the aliases was to outsmart anyone who might get hold of a copy of the agreement but not a copy of the side letter, which in some cases was probably in the same envelope.
Among the terms of the agreement is a section wherein Cohen and his client (that would be the client who says he knew nothing about the agreement) require the lady to turn over any evidence she might possess of this affair which they say never occurred.
The lawyer for Ms. Peterson/Clifford/Daniels insists the agreement between her and Mr. Trump/Dennison is invalid because the latter never signed it. Cohen and Trump are insisting it is valid even though Trump never signed it and did not know of its existence.
Cohen insists the agreement is valid because he is Trump's attorney and therefore can sign for his client and commit him to his side of this agreement that he didn't know about.
Meanwhile, Cohen's own lawyer, David Schwartz, says that when Cohen drew up the agreement and forked over the $130,000, he [Cohen] was acting as a friend, not as Trump's lawyer. Trump says that if anyone has any questions about the matter, they should take them up with his lawyer, Michael Cohen.
And Cohen is still Trump's attorney even though if we believe Trump's side of it, his trusted attorney went behind his back to enter into an extremely embarrassing agreement with a porn star to cover up an affair that never happened.
The lady's lawyer, Michael Avenatti, wants this whole matter settled in open court. Trump's lawyer (?) Michael Cohen wants it settled in a closed-door arbitration because his client (?) is completely innocent and when you're found innocent, it's always better to have that happen in secret. Do I have this right?
I have a call in to my lawyer to ask him if he's made any hush money payments to protect my reputation from false allegations but hasn't told me about them.
Our friend Shelly Goldstein has a great article in this month's issue of Written By, the journal of the Writers Guild of America, West. It's called "The Hollywood 10: Screenwriters of Conscience" and it's derived from the script she wrote for a presentation at the 2018 Writers Guild Awards Ceremony. The era of the blacklist — when writers lost their careers because someone didn't like the allegations they were hearing about those writers' personal politics — is in the past but it needs to be remembered so it doesn't happen again. Shelly wrote a good piece about it and you can read it — and that whole issue of Written By — at this link.
Meanwhile, our friend Leonard Maltin has a new edition online of "Maltin on Movies," the must-listen podcast in which he and his daughter Jessie chat with various folks who make or properly appreciate films. This one features a conversation with someone named Al Pacino…and why they'd have that guy on when they could have me back as a guest, I do not understand. Listen to it here and see if you can figure it out.
I told you posting would resume shortly. The matter that took me away from blogging for a few days is resolved. My apologies for leaving you with nothing else to read on the whole bloomin' Internet. Here's what I feel like posting about first. Brian Stelter, a reporter I usually respect, recently aroused some controversy…
Stelter opened Sunday's Reliable Sources [on CNN] with an explanation of the ongoing feud between Ingraham and Hogg: Ingraham mocked Hogg's college rejections in a tweet; Hogg called for an ad boycott of her show; companies began to pull their ads; Ingraham apologized; Hogg declined her apology; Ingraham went on vacation as advertisers continued to pull out.
"Are ad-boycotts the right answer here?" Stelter asked his guests. "I'm personally pretty wary of this. I think it's dangerous to see these ad boycott attempts happening more and more often in this country. My view is let's not shut down anyone's right to speak. Let's meet their comments with more speech. Let's try to respond that way."
I keep rethinking this and it always leads me back to the belief that Mr. Stelter is wrong. First off, Laura Ingraham is not having her right to speak shut down. If her show did go off — which is apparently not happening — what she'd be losing was her right to a job on Fox News and to speak before its large audience. And of course, that's not a right. She'd be reduced to the same right to speak that well over 99% of all Americans have…the right to tell her friends what she thinks, to start a blog, to mount a peaceful protest somewhere, to write letters to the editor which might not be printed, etc.
There's no constitutional right to a TV show. If there is, the A.C.L.U. better get busy because a lot of us don't have ours yet.
And here's another way Mr. Stelter's wrong. Let's say the Klopman Diamonds Company is one of Ms. Ingraham's sponsors. My free speech includes the right to write a letter to Mr. Klopman asking, "Are you aware of the nature of the show you're sponsoring? Are you comfy with having yours ads follow an attack on a survivor of the Parkland shooting?"
Mr. Klopman has the right to decide he doesn't want people associating his product with that kind of mean-spirited smear. He might yank his ads strictly as a business decision, fearing that people will be less inclined to buy his product because of that association or he could do it just because he thinks it's offensive and wants no part of bringing Laura Ingraham to America.
But he has that right and it's tied up with his freedom of expression. And frankly, with a president and a major broadcasting corporation trying to convince the American public that any news that is not to their liking has to be a deliberate, conspiratorial lie, I think we have greater threats to the free press in this country than Laura Ingraham losing the sponsorship of Office Depot, Jenny Craig and Miracle-Ear.
Watching news reports of "active shooter" on CNN. They have absolutely no idea what's happening there so they're just telling us everything that might be happening there.
