I'm not sure how much I want to write about the June Foray Celebration a bunch of us threw at the Motion Picture Academy last Tuesday night. The Internet is already close to bursting from all the self-congratulation crammed into it…but the five of us who threw the bash (Jerry Beck, Bob Bergen, Howard Green, Tom Sito and myself) are darn proud of what we done did, and lots of people seem grateful that we gave the late 'n' lovely Ms. Foray such a special, sincere salute. I was most impressed by the turnout. To see so many important folks from the world of animation assemble like that was really stunning.

Did I mention here that I was the M.C. for the evening? I was the M.C. for the evening…and also the person in charge of the rundown so I was able to minimize my on-stage time. The first rule of something like this is that it should be about the deceased and only about the deceased.

I go to a fair number of Show Biz Funerals and there always seems to be at least one speaker who cannot resist the urge to get up there and deliver an infomercial about themselves, especially if the hall is filled with Very Important People. One time at the send-off for a somewhat-famous stand-up comedian, a less-famous stand-up comic took the stage and began his speech by saying, "He was a great guy and very supportive of his friends. Every time I was on TV, he would make a point of calling me up and telling me how good I was."

We wanted none of that so I said no to a number of people who wanted to speak — at least one of whom is royally pissed at me for denying them the chance to perform before a crowd of industry folks, some of whom have hiring power. I said no to a greater number who selflessly wanted to salute our beloved June for all the right reasons. If I'd said yes to all of them, we'd still be there. Our on-stage speakers were Nancy Cartwright, Jerry Beck, Keith Scott (who came all the way from Australia on his own dime just for this), Bob Bergen, Charles Solomon, Tom Sito, Floyd Norman, Tony Bancroft, moi and the daughters of Friz Freleng, Chuck Jones and Jay Ward. That would be Hope and Sybil Freleng, Linda Jones and Tiffany Ward.

In the audience at one point, we had voice artist Misty Lee and a cameraman who was shooting video that was appearing simultaneously on the big movie screen. We gave Misty five minutes to get as many voice actors as possible to say something brief about June and among those who did were Bill Farmer, Russi Taylor, Gregg Berger, Teresa Ganzel, Fred Tatasciore, Bill Mumy, Tony Anselmo, Laura Summer, Debi Derryberry, Katie Leigh and Billy West.

The highlight of the show for most folks was when we brought up ten women to speak briefly about what June meant to their careers and/or their lives. Nine came up and after each one spoke, she moved over to pose next to a big picture of June we'd placed onstage on an easel. Then I asked several other women who'd participated in the show to come up and join them for our photo-op. Then I introduced our tenth woman who was going to speak in this segment…Lily Tomlin.

We did a fairly good job of keeping Lily's presence a surprise. She wanted to participate and we gave her the choice of sitting through the entire show or just sneaking in for her spot. She said she wanted to see the entire show so we snuck her into the second row during the first cartoon (Broomstick Bunny) and surrounded her with tall people, including me when I was seated. When I announced her name from the stage, there was a satisfying gasp of delight from the crowd. Then she came up, said the perfect things and joined the group for the photo. Here is a small version of that image. It'll get bigger if you click on it…

Here's who's who, L to R: Debi Derryberry, Marian Massaro, Nancy Cartwright, Grey Griffin, Debra Wilson, E.G. Daily, Vanessa Marshall, Lily Tomlin, Photo of June, Laraine Newman, Teresa Ganzel, Audrey Wasilewski, Candi Milo, Julie Nathanson, Kari Wahlgren, Misty Lee, Laura Summer, Russi Taylor and Katie Leigh. Let me know if you ever see another assemblage of talent like that in one JPG.

Of course, we showed cartoons…and some clips of June's work in front of the camera, along with footage of her being interviewed about her life and work. It was difficult to assemble some of that stuff — Jerry Beck did most of the heavy lifting — but even harder to decide what to leave out. For reasons of time, I cut a Fractured Fairy Tale at the last minute and our projectionist was not happy because she, like all of us, loves Fractured Fairy Tales.

Many, many people helped out. We read a list that evening but I wanted to mention two of them here. Seeking to not have the klutzy M.C. on stage much, I had most speakers introduced by our off-stage announcer — a lady whose voice you know from many of the major award shows — Marian Massaro. And other announcements were handled by another award show voice (and frequent cartoon actor) Neil Ross. Oh — and the clips of June talking about her life were excerpted from the documentary, The One and Only June Foray, produced by Gavin Freitas.

People keep asking if the event will be released on DVD or posted online so they can see it. No, it will not be, at least in full. We showed too many film clips for which we only had permission to run them then and there. Excerpts from the speeches will probably be released online but no decision has made yet about doing this.

Throughout the evening, I was busier than a Fact-Checker at a Donald Trump speech and I should apologize to the many friends and acquaintances who I either ignored or didn't give enough attention because I had 9,944 things to do at any given moment. It was an exhausting endeavor but well, well worth it. June deserved the best and I hope we came close to giving her that.

Yesterday, two friends of mine and I took a day trip to Philadelphia from Baltimore, which is where we'll be attending the Baltimore Comic-Con today, Saturday and Sunday. I'll tell you more about our afternoon in a day or so but I wanted to briefly mention that in the evening, we saw my pal starring in a production of my favorite musical, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to Forum. It's at the Walnut Street Theater and boy, is it good. A longer rave will follow but I just wanted to tell you that if you get anywhere near Philly between now and October 22, use this link and get tickets. Really, really hilarious.

• In Philly at the Liberty Bell. You'll be happy to know Trump hasn't sold it to the Russians…yet.

Like it says: Mark has a busy day ahead…so no posting 'til (probably) tomorrow morn. But I'll try to make up for it with a long one about Tuesday night's June Foray extravaganza and my adventures since then.

For now, I just want to say that the G.O.P. Health Care Bill — which I should probably type as G.O.P. "Health Care" Bill since it removes so much of it from so many people — really sucks. So will the next one and the other after because the whole idea here is to establish that if you get sick, the government really doesn't give a damn. The people who want this to pass have that in mind and nothing else.

See you later. And by "later," I probably mean Friday.

The Hollywood Reporter has posted Steve Stoliar's account of last night's June Foray Celebration. It includes the historic group photo we took of a bevy of top voice actresses. I will have more to say about the photo and the evening when I am not posting from an airplane.

Wow. I'm home and exhausted from one of the longest days of my life but I had to thank everyone who made the evening so amazing. I'm talking of course about the event we did last night at the Motion Picture Academy. It was a pretty elaborate show and I'll leave it to others to say how it went.

In a day or two here, I'll post an amazing group photo we took of voice actresses who came up on stage to salute June. Let's see if I can do this from memory: Vanessa Marshall, Audrey Wasilewski, E.G. Daily, Julie Nathanson, Kari Wahlgren, Debra Wilson, Candi Milo, Grey Griffin, Laraine Newman, Misty Lee, Nancy Cartwright, Marian Massaro, Russi Taylor, Laura Summer, Debi Derryberry, Katie Leigh, Teresa Ganzel and our special surprise guest, Lily Tomlin.

Is that eighteen? I'm too tried tonight to count that high so you do it. In fact, I'm too tired to fix the typo in the preceding sentence. Anyway, if it's eighteen, it's all of them. I'll thank the men when I write more about the event.

The next couple days are going to be incredibly full of Things I Must Do, including many I want to do, like tonight's June Foray Celebration at the Goldwyn Theater in Beverly Hills. So this is notice that I may not post much here for a while. Before I go…

The Emmys got fairly low ratings last Sunday night. I was going to write a post on why that might be but my friend Ken Levine went and did it for me. I do think a big factor is that America is simply getting tired of award shows the same way it got tired of beauty pageants. They'll tune in if they think something way out-of-the-ordinary might happen but not if it's just the usual multi-hour ritual. What was the big news out of the show Sunday night? That Stephen Colbert and others made a lot of nasty comments about Donald Trump? Hey, I like nasty comments about Donald Trump and even I wouldn't sit through a three-hour show to hear ten minutes of them.

I don't think I agree with all of Ken's bitchy/snarky review of the telecast but I did a speed-watch of the proceedings thanks to TiVo so I may have been too forgiving.

I have no idea what Donald Trump's new verbal attacks on North Korea will lead to. Gathering from the online punditry I'm reading so far, neither does anyone else — and that includes "in the White House."

A while back here on the blog, I answered a question from someone who wanted to know how the great cartoonist Jack Davis pronounced his last name. I said it was just "Davis" — the obvious way. I added that I'd never met anyone named Davis who pronounced it "Day-vees." I have since heard from several people who have met someone named Davis who pronounced it "Day-vees" and even some people named Davies who pronounced it "Day-vis." Well, Jack pronounced it "Day-vis."

Much to do. I will be back to you after I've done some of it.

• That quake was God punishing Hollywood for all the Trump jokes at the Emmys. (Somebody's going to say that. It might as well be me…)

In the world of Barbershop Quartet competitions, a group called Main Street is among the big winners. They're famous for their medleys of current or recent rock hits turned into old-fashioned barbershop versions and each year, they update it. Here's their latest…

The folks who are madly tweeting about how horrible the Emmys were last night are taking this thing way too seriously…

"Some shows and people didn't deserve to win!" Of course. Isn't that always the case? This is not an exact science. It's all opinions and not everyone's tastes are going to match yours. Why on Earth would you think they should or could?

"It's sickening watching all those overpaid, untalented phonies acting all smug and self-obsessed." Then don't watch. Don't watch the Emmys and don't watch anything on TV or go to movies. Because you do know that if someone is overpaid, untalented, phony, smug and self-obsessed on the Emmy Awards, they're almost certainly overpaid, untalented, phony, smug and self-obsessed all the time. They're just not all gathered together and dressed as well.

"The show was boring." If you don't like stars coming out, reading banter off TelePrompters and handing out awards, you're like someone who hates golf but watches golf matches. Why do you do that to yourself? A large percentage of any awards show is people coming out, reading banter off TelePrompters and handing out awards. That's the premise of the show you chose to watch instead of something else. Actually, I thought this year's show was about as good as Emmy telecasts ever get.

"I didn't know any of those people." Those are the actors, producers, directors (etc.) who for good or ill represent current television and that's who the Emmy telecast is about. The folks on the show weren't selected because someone wanted to piss you off by peopling the stage with people who work in the present industry.

"It was too political!" Translation: They did a lot of jokes about the guy you voted for. Look me in the eye and tell me you would have griped about jokes where you agreed with the premise.

"It was too long." Award shows are always too long, especially the most popular ones because the networks can charge premium rates to advertisers during those shows. And the longer the show is, the more spots they can sell. You're choosing to watch a three-hour show and then complaining it was three hours. If you must watch, don't watch it live. Capture it on your DVR or TiVo and then watch later, fast-forward button at the ready. You actually have the ability to shorten the show but you have to do it. They won't.

This post is getting too long so I'll stop and just say I thought Stephen Colbert was a terrific host and the writers gave him a pretty sharp monologue.

And I'll mention my favorite line of the evening. It came from John Oliver the second time he went up to accept an Emmy. The first time, he included Oprah Winfrey in his thank-yous not because she'd done anything but because she was sitting right in front of him in the first row and felt he had to mention her. His second time up there, Ms. Winfrey was elsewhere, an extra was where Oprah had been…and Oliver was quick-witted enough to thank "Oprah's seat-filler."

Anyway, it's just the Emmys. Unless you're up for one, they really don't matter.

Next Friday, Saturday and Sunday, I will be a guest at the Baltimore Comic-Con in You-Know-Where, Maryland. The programming schedule is here, though it omits a last-minute add that is probably the most important panel I'm doing at the con…

Saturday: 4:00 PM-5:00 PM – Kirby: King of Comics
Jack Kirby created or co-created some of comic books' most popular super heroes. Take a look at Kirby's career in comics as writer Mark Evanier and Abrams Books' Charlie Kochman discuss Evanier's book, Kirby: King of Comics. Room 339-342

Sunday: 11:00 AM-Noon – Marv Wolfman and Mark Evanier in Conversation
Marv Wolfman (New Teen Titans, Deathstroke the Terminator, Tomb of Dracula) and Mark Evanier (Darkseid Special, Groo the Wanderer, DNAgents) discuss writing. Don't miss this chance to see two legendary creators sharing stories about their time in comics and more. Room 345-346

Sunday: 1:30 PM-2:30 PM – Jack Kirby at 100
This past month, the comics world celebrated what would have been the 100th birthday of legendary creator Jack Kirby. Tom King, Walter Simonson, Mark Buckingham, Jerry Ordway, Dean Haspiel, John K. Snyder III, the Kirby Museum's Rand Hoppe, and moderator Mark Evanier discuss Kirby's work and it's lasting influence in comics today. Room 339-342

Plus, there will also be…

Sunday: 2:45 PM-3:45 PM – Len Wein Tribute
I don't know who's going to be on it yet — friends of Len's who feel like talking about him, I guess — nor do I know what room it will be in but we're doing this panel at that time and I'm moderating it.

As I always do at cons, I have refused to let them assign me a table to sit behind but I will be roaming about. Occasionally, you might even catch me sitting for a time at some table that is selling things I've written like the new edition of Kirby: King of Comics. If you like this blog and you see me around, say howdy. I'm rarely as busy as I try to appear I am.

Two weeks later, I will be doing the same thing at the New York Comic-Con. The operators of these cons could have saved me a lot of miles in the sky if they'd put those fine gatherings on consecutive weekends.

Sorry I didn't post yesterday. I was busy all morning and afternoon prepping for the June Foray event Tuesday evening. It's filling up but as far as I know, there are still seats left.

Then in the evening, Amber and I went with our friends Dora and Gregg Berger to see my current favorite stand-up comedian, Jim Jefferies, who was performing at the Fred Kavli Theater out in Thousand Oaks. Mr. Jefferies is very, very funny, though sometimes very, very nasty. I'm generally fine with nasty as long as it's funny and in the right place. A stage where a stand-up comic is performing is usually the right place. Among the people he was nasty to were Donald Trump (naturally), uncircumcised males, blind people, deaf people, sign language interpreters, hecklers, certain people in the front row (especially if they went out to the restroom during his performance) and — most of all — himself. It all easily passed the "funny" requirement and often veered into "hilarious." And brilliant.

About fifteen minutes into his show, I got to thinking I'd made a mistake getting tickets to see him so soon after Amber and I saw him in Las Vegas at the end of June. He was, as we'd both expected, doing a lot of the same material. But after a while, I began to hear plenty of things I hadn't heard before including much that was clearly thought of on the spot. I also realized that even when he did a bit we'd heard in Vegas, it was never exactly the same. He improvises a lot and expands on things and my respect for him went up another few notches for that. If you can see him and you can weather a lot of mean, dirty comedy, you'll have a great time. Here's his touring schedule.

I have a few complaints though, not so much about the comedian as about the venue..,

The show was supposed to start at 8 PM. At 8 PM, most of the audience was standing outside in a long, long line that stretched around the building. Everyone had to undergo a security check (wanding of the body, searching of the purses) before they could be admitted. It took forever, in part because the folks doing the wanding 'n' searching were very nice, cordial people. The one who checked me out seemed more interested in having a friendly, welcoming chat with me than in getting people inside.

As I stepped up to be searched, I told him I had a metal knee and he started asking me questions about the surgery. That might have been nice if it wasn't 8:20 and there were still at least 50-100 people waiting in line behind me to be checked and let inside — and that was only one of five lines. I made it through and then as the gent was searching Amber's purse, a lady who was waiting for her date to be cleared told me they'd arrived a good thirty minutes before showtime and were just now able to get to their seats. "But first," she said, "we both need restrooms after standing outside there for 45 minutes."

Though many who'd arrived early still had to be searched, management had started the show and the opening comedian was midway through his set as we got to our seats. So through no fault of our own, we missed a piece of the show we'd paid to see.

The gent performing was not Forrest Shaw, who opened the last two times we went to see Jim Jefferies. Who was the opening act this time? I don't have a clue since we missed the part where he was introduced and his name was never mentioned once we were inside. On the way out, I asked two ushers and neither of them had any idea…and clearly were puzzled as to why I cared. In fact, on the way in as we were being seated, another usher told us, "Don't worry. Jim Jefferies isn't on yet. You haven't missed anything."

I said, "We've missed half of the opening act" and he just shrugged like that was unimportant. As you may have gleaned from past postings here, I often feel sorry for opening acts. They work real hard and sometimes, they're as good as the guy you did come to see…but they don't, like Mr. Dangerfield, get much respect; not from audiences and often, not from the management of the place where they're performing.

To make matters a tad more annoying, the opening comic and Jefferies were apparently not told that the lethargic, inefficient security checks were the reason people were still straggling in after the show had started. Both comics insulted latecomers for their tardiness, unaware some of those "latecomers" were there 45 minutes early.

I'm not objecting to the security screenings. If they think they're necessary, fine. I'm just objecting that a show which was supposed to start at 8 PM didn't start until 8:15…and a lot of people who got there plenty early couldn't get to their seats until 8:30. And then the comedians on stage insulted them for being late. The Fred Kavli Theater has been in operation since 1994, I believe, and they have hundreds of performances a year. They oughta have this down by now and their security searches shouldn't be directed by someone who couldn't get their head past a metal detector.

Raccoons playing with soap bubbles…

…but only in one sense. Yesterday, I attended the funeral of my friend of 47 years, Len Wein. The thing I once had to get over about funerals in general was the erroneous assumption that your participation was some kind of acceptance that the deceased was gone and could no longer be part of your life. I think it flowed from a comment I heard from an alleged grown-up — a friend of my parents — when I was a tot. This woman said, "I don't go to funerals because I don't want to agree to eliminate that person from my world. If I don't go, I can still think of them in the present-tense. They're still alive in my world. I just haven't talked to them lately."

For a time, I thought that was what a funeral was. And since when you're young and not a lot of people you know die, I continued to think that way. Eventually, I learned my presence did not denote any admission of anything. You showed up because it was polite to show up…because it showed others that the person mattered to you…and maybe because it was a good place to process in your own mind how you felt about that person and their life and the loss of it. In my fields of endeavor, there are also folks who show up at funerals because they can be a good place to network, rub shoulders with important folks and maybe get some work out of it. Happily, I did not see any of that yesterday but I've certainly seen it elsewhere.

My thoughts yesterday were dominated by the many times over the years that some mutual friend told me, "Len's not going to be with us much longer." Dating back farther than our 47 years of friendship, Len had a series of ailments, mostly kidney-related, that made his demise seem imminent. Balanced against the sadness that the prediction had finally come true was the awareness of how many times it hadn't. It was like, "Good for you, Len, for proving them wrong and making it this far!" And it's hard not to appreciate, in a perverse way, that so many who told me Len would be dying shortly died before he did.

I wasn't the only one there thinking like this. Several others there who'd known Len a long time, like Elliott Maggin and Alan Brennert, mentioned having much the same thoughts. In the manner of the old glass half-empty/half-full choice, you could mourn that Len had died or — and I sure prefer this option — celebrate all the times he could have but hadn't. The latter selection allowed you to also smile at all the accolades (and financial rewards) he lived to see as characters he'd co-created became movie and TV characters known the world over. We all have friends who died too soon to reap certain benefits of fame and fortune that happened after they were gone. Len also lived long enough to have around a quarter-century of a very happy life with a woman he loved dearly…and she got all those years with him.

They say you can't cheat death. Well, you can in a way. You can decide that a friend is still part of your world even though he or she is no longer actively contributing. When I said here that I'd tell some stories about being with Len, I said there were a few I couldn't tell. Some of those are for reasons of decorum but some are because while they might mean a lot to me, they'd seem kind of pointless to you and/or wouldn't have good punch lines. When Len told or wrote a story, it always had a good punch line so I don't want to tell one about him that doesn't.

This one doesn't, I'm afraid…but then, it's not really a story about Len, isn't it? It's about me and how I felt about being at the funeral of my friend. To the extent a funeral can be lovely, this one was, and it was well-attended. I saw an awful lot of people I knew and an impressive number that I didn't. In sum, the turnout reminded me how good Len was at making friends. He did it better than just about anybody I've ever known. He did a lot of things like that.

A lot of you were impressed with the magic trick by Paul Gertner that I linked to here. Here's Mr. Gertner again, this time with his signature trick, the one for which he's most famous. It's called "Unshuffled" and it's kind of impressive in that it amazes everyone even though it's really simple to figure out how it's done. It's especially obvious if you know what a "faro shuffle" is. Here — I'll save you the time of Googling to find out if you don't.

You too can do this trick if you get the special deck and learn how to execute perfect faro shuffles. When Gertner did this on Penn and Teller: Fool Us, Penn admitted he'd purchased the trick from Paul, tried to master it but never got good enough to perform it. What he meant was that he couldn't do perfect faro shuffles every time. Paul Gertner sure can…