For this week’s Classic TV Scene, we return to New York’s Sunshine Cab Company.

You may remember earlier in the year, the Choob featured the all-time best scene from the 1970s/80s sitcom Taxi – Jim’s Driving Test.

However, it had plenty of other memorable scenes and great performances, so here are another couple of great clips.

First, another tour de force from Christopher Lloyd as “reverend” Jim Ignatowski who, having lost his job as a cabbie, has become a door-to-door salesman:

And here is the late, great Andy Kaufman as mechanic Latka Gravas, sharing his views on the importance of friendship:

• Sometimes, when I don’t feel very clever, I read the comments on YouTube videos.  This invariably makes me feel better. Consider the retort of a Grecian on this trashy Eurotrance video, which boldly asserts “i can bet that i am more human than u are by the fact that i have a phd and emotions.” Indeed, sir.
• Systems of taxation are, invariably, simultaneously fair and totally nonsensical. One is liable to dismiss the former as a result of the latter. Especially when one is essentially extending  a no-interest short-term loan when one’s own debts cry out for payment.
• For the reasons above, I intend someday to nationalize the GM corporation, engage in a campaign to make it radically unprofitable, and then sell it to a wealthy dilettante, preferably a foreigner. This asymmetry will please me.
• Have you ever noticed that Sarah Palin supposedly “transferred schools” shortly after Andy Kaufman allegedly died of cancer?
• I have come to believe that I occasionally lose consciousness and do a great deal of work for persons unknown. If you are persons unknown, please come forward in order that I might be able to more adequately complete my tax information.
• As a result of all of the above, I am reconsidering grad school.

Ściągnij osiemdziesiąty szósty odcinek

Redaktor Zawada biega w deszczu po mieście. Jose Maria Bakero ląduje w Warszawie. Wielka remontada w Madrycie. Cristiano Ronaldo jednak kontuzjowany. Real w derbach pokonał Atletico. Chelsea – Manchester bez fajerwerków. Ojciec Terry’ego dorabia na boku. Czemu wszyscy pragną faulować Drogbę? Szpilki Adama Musiała. Marsylia z Lyonem bez obrońców. Czy Boenisch będzie wybierał przeciwników kadry? Kłócimy się o redaktora Steca. Polonia Białogon gromi Wicher Miedziana Góra. Żegnamy Roberta Enke. Mały ucieka dużemu, czyli Wałujew po raz kolejny. Jak w bokserskim biznesie próbuje się kopiować tricki Kaufmana. Skra Bełchatów druga. Kubot wchodzi do pierwszej setki.

It’s easy to mock celebrities, actors in particular, who stress to the public how difficult and important their lives are and how much fame belabors those facts. Especially when we see them living such pampered and extravagant lives. I’m here to discuss five men in Hollywood who actually DO live rather industrious existanses and yet fail to ever complain about them. In fact, most are as hard-working as they are do to their love for what they do, and wouldn’t have it any other way. Now, check all your false pretenses at the door, this list takes NO monetary statistics into account to tabulate this list. I’m simply conducting an opinionated grouping of five actors who I feel have taken on more than most men can handle in the show biz…biz, and I’m compiling this list in relation to this point in time, Autumn of 2009. Yes, Seth Rogen has appeared in MULTITUDES of films over the last five years, but after Funny People and Observe and Report of this year, the guy has been laying pretty low. This list tabulates the mainstreamers who have been racking up leading role credits in muliple expansive flicks. So, without further ado…

5. Johnny Depp

To say that I respect this man would be an intense understatement. His acting prowess is some of the best of our time, so it makes me EXTREMELY happy to see him inundated with work. If you’ve been living under the sea (visions of The Little Mermaid just popped into my head. Walt Disney prevails) for the past year then you probably haven’t heard of Depp’s numerous forays into film he has recently undertaken. Public Enemies was the only work he appeared in that was released in ‘09, however, he has been fast at work on massive cinematic staples of the 2010 movie-going season that will almost-assuredly dominate the market. The first being Tim Burton’s reiteration of Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland. Depp plays The Mad Hatter in Burton’s CGI-laden could-be-wonderful-could-be-terrible still up-in-the-air retelling of the classic story. Headlining next to Anne Hathaway, Helena Bonham Carter, Matt Lucas, and Alan Rickman, the film has all the makings of a complete cinematic win, the screenshots and trailers, however, leave doubt in my mind, as CGI-laden, as I said before, is putting it nicely. Time will tell. Depp also was involved in Terry Gilliam’s The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus, filling one of the three roles created after lead actor Heath Ledger’s passing. Depp, along with Colin Farrell and Jude Law, will stand in for Ledger as alternate versions of Ledger’s character, to help the stroy along despite the events that took place prior to the film’s completion. The next chapter in the Hunter S. Thompson chronicles, The Rum Diary, is also in post, in which Depp will reprise his role as the gonzo-journalist.
In addition to these films that Depp has finished, the newest film in the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise is slated for a 2011 release date and is currently in the earliest stages of pre-production. Sin City 3, which Depp has been rumored to be involved with basically from its inception, is also geared up for a 2012 release (funny considering Sin City 2 is still stuck in developmental hell).
And here’s the kicker. IMDB lists Depp as in development with FOURTEEN new titles, as well. Among them, a Dali biopic and The Lone Ranger. Wow, simply wow. While these developmental deals can fall through at any time, they can also usually indicate desire and co-involvement between the parties of the actors and the producers. It will be interesting to see where Depp’s career goes looking towards these titles.

4. Brad Pitt

Here’s another guy with developmental deals in spades. The ‘ole rusty, trusty IMDB has Pitt pegged with sixteen deals, the most I could find. In addition to being attached to The sequel to Downey Jrs Sherlock Holmes vehicle, Pitt is also listed with World War Z and a Steve McQueen biopic. Goo.
Pitt tore up the screen in Tarantino’s Inglourious Basterds this summer, and has currently been attached to the fledgling project Moneyball, which is listed as being in the earliest stages of production, despite the fact that it has no director. Pitt is further attached to The Tree of Life and The Lost City of Z, as well as providing a voice to the upcoming animated flick Oobermind. He’s also rumored to be apart of 2012’s upcoming The Odyssey and The Sparrow.

3. George Clooney

The former Sexiest Man in America has never slowed down since his rocket-propelled rise to fame in the mid-to-late 90’s as well. Clooney most recently has released The Men Who Stare at Ghosts, a loosely based adaptation of the book of the same name which regards a 1970’s to 1980’s military experiment that documented telepathic phenomena. In addition to this recent film, though, Clooney finished up providing voice work for the titular role in Wes Anderson’s upcoming The Fantastic Mr. Fox, alongside Bill Murray, Meryl Streep, and Jason Schwartzman, as well as polishing off his role in the Jason Reitman-helmed Up in the Air, which is also currently in post. These are merely his acting credits for 2009, though, the man also executive produced the Matt Damon vehicle The Informant! and Playground, a movie I honestly couldn’t find too much on. As far as his queue list goes, IMDB has him cited with ten in-development deals.

2. Jim Carrey

Jim Carrey is a man of many faces. The actor became famous for his rubber-faced persona that landed him a slew of comedic work in the mid-to-late 90’s and a career launching pad that ANY actor would be proud of. By the turn of the century, however, Carrey was becoming far more versatile as an actor. Already dabbling in the dramatic with The Truman Show, Liar Liar,, and the INCREDAMAZING Andy Kaufman biopic, Man on the Moon. Carrey then went on to tackle the serious side of life full-tilt in Charlie Kaufman’s magnificent Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, opposite Kate Winslet, The Majestic, and the box office blunder The Number 23. He has returned to comedy in recent years, however, and, as always, has fully immersed himself in his roles. Recently released is the Zemeckis-penned adaptation of Dickens’ A Christmas Carol in which Carrey provided the movements and voices to Scrooge at all ages of life AND the three spirits that visit him! Encompassing multiple accents, multiple ages of life, and multiple SPIRITUAL BEINGS, Carrey tackled the project head-on while keeping busy with multiple other projects, such as I Love You, Philip Morris, the tale of an escaped homosexual convict who goes on a quest to find his lover that was released from prison before he was. The film has been receiving stellar reviews and co-stars Ewan McGregor opposite Carrey in this bold and self-titled dark comedy. All the while that these two flicks have been in post, Carrey has both been bulking up and studying up to play Curly Howard in the upcoming Three Stooges revamp with Paul Giamatti and possibly Benecio Del Toro. This was all considered fact for the longest time and was referenced multiple times by Carrey’s apparent weight gain in the tabloids and public citings, but, as of late, Carrey has been described as withdrawing from the project. It doesn’t negate the fact that the man was taking on multiple roles immediately after finishing his previously mentioned two. Further, IMBD.com has Carrey listed in FOUR different upcoming development deals. Which may seem normal for a star of his status, but when you consider the work load he will indefinitely take on with these upcoming roles, it makes a profound statement on his desire to never be bored.
In addition to his films and the launch of a fully-functioning personal website that has actually made the rounds and received a warm/geeky reception from the film/internet blogosphere, Carrey and his wife Jenny McCarthy have consistantly maintained their involvement in the charity Generation Rescue, which strives to find alternative ways to treat autism in children. Not bad for a man who was talking with his butt a little over 10 years ago.

1. Nicolas Cage

Go ahead and laugh (you’ve earned it) but the man has yet to produce a dull movie (I said ‘dull’ not ‘bad’) and his work output is something for ANY actor to admire, regardless of how badly he phones roles in. Before I continue, most of you know, but for those who don’t, everything I joke about Nicolas Cage comes from a place of sincere reverance. Yes, the man takes part in AWFUL movies (which, given his current economic situation could just be to keep the lights on) but in each film he’s in he is always FULLY committed to the story being told. And I’m sorry, but I’d rather watch Cage run around in a Bear suit any day FULLY EMBRACING THE ROLE than see Tom Hanks win ANOTHER Oscar for appearing in some adaptation of a story set in the 1940’s. ALL TANGENTS ASIDE, Cage has kept himself QUITE stacked as of late. In early 2009 the CGI-Fest known as G-Force dropped with Cage providing a voice as well as Cage’s vehicle Knowing, in which he played the lead. Throughout the remainder of the year he has worked on The Sorcerer’s Apprentice, Matthew Vaughn’s Kick-Ass, Season of the Witch, and Werner FOOKING Herzog’s Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans. Did I mention the voice that he provided for Astro Boy? No? Well, lump that in there as well.
IMDB has him attached to 4 deals in development, one of which being (GET READY!!!) Ghost Rider 2! Which creators have said will distance itself from the original as a revamp, not a sequel. Yet, it still stars Cage as the lead. Oh, how I LOVE this man! It simply amazes me what Hollywood will greenlight.

And speaking of hard working, (and by hard-working, I mean shameless self-promotion!) visit my sketch troupe’s Youtube or Facebook and comment/subscribe/hate/love/befriend/never talk to us again/enjoy our attempts at making you laugh!

Although he tears up when he sees clips of his comedy sketches, Stanley Kaufman admits that his son, Andy Kaufman, was difficult to handle growing up. He ran away from home. He didn’t do well in school. His hair was “down to his hips.”

But one day, he gave his father a copy of Jack Kerouac’s On The Road. “That moment was my awakening as to who Andy was and what he was trying to say,” Kaufman said Tuesday night at Caroline’s Comedy Club midtown Manhattan, where amateur comedian Blaine Kneece received the fifth annual Andy Kaufman Award and $2,500.

The competition—named for the New York-born comedian, who died 25 years ago—featured six finalists, each given eight minutes to woo the judges. But a few acts were interrupted by the show’s chain-smoking emcee, Tony Clifton, who was eventually asked to leave. A lounge-singing character created by Kaufman and known for outrageous outbursts, Clifton was often played by other people even when Kaufman was alive.

Some audience members questioned whether the scene, which included a shouting match and the emptying of a glass, was scripted.

But Kaufman’s daughter, Maria Colonna, compared her father’s work to that of Sacha Baron Cohen, another actor known for bringing controversial characters to life.

She said her father would be honored to know there’s a comedy award in his name. “But at the same time,” she said, “I’m sure he’d play some little trick on us.”

Al Parinello, executive director of The Andy Kaufman Award ceremony, was a good friend to the comedian. In college, Parinello paid Kaufman $5 to perform in a coffee house. Like most of Kaufman’s work that followed, the performance shocked the audience. But as alternative comedy has taken center stage, work like Kaufman’s—known to make audiences uncomfortable—has gained in popularity. Every week, 125,000 YouTube viewers request an Andy Kaufman video, Parinello said.

Parinello and Kaufman’s brother, Michael Kaufman, spent two months pouring over 100 videos submitted by amateur comedians from 15 states. They narrowed their selection to 25 contestants, who performed Monday night. Six were chosen for Tuesday’s finale, where judges included Flight of the Conchords actress and Kaufman Award winner Kristen Schaal; Kaufman’s manager, George Shapiro; and Michael Kaufman.

“We look for people who will take risks—unprecedented risks in some cases,” Parinello said, giving a nod to comics who incorporate costumes and technology into their performance. Tuesday’s winner, Kneece, used iPods and video. Another finalist, Eric Davis, wore a red, spandex jumpsuit filled with inflated objects.

Before the comedians performed, the audience watched a video featuring some of Kaufman’s more memorable moments: among them, a conga drum skit, an Elvis impersonation and his curse-laden appearance on the David Letterman Show.

“Looking at this video, I’m even amazed at how much Andy created in the short time he was with us,” said Michael Kaufman. “It’s given people freedom to do things they might not have otherwise done.”

George Shapiro, Kaufman’s manager and a producer of the award-winning television series Seinfeld, said the first time he saw him perform, the audience seemed uncomfortable.

“He’s the most original—not only performer, but I think the most original person I ever met in my life,” Shapiro said. “My only concern was, as a manager, am I dealing with someone totally insane?”

After the finalists performed, Carol Kaufman-Kerman introduced a song her brother performed at the end of many skits: Friendly, Friendly World. Her brother’s routines were out-of-the-box, she said—but at the end, he usually tied the knots.

“No matter how far he brought you,” she said with a smile, “he always brought you back to that safe place at the end.”

Imagine a talk show where the host’s face is, often, momentarily obscured by a plume of smoke from one of his guest’s cigarettes. Or a boom mike quite obviously dropping into a stoned guest’s personal space so as to better capture his incoherent ramblings. Or the host, again, being caught off guard by an impending commercial and then making little attempt to hide his frustration about yet another interruption to his conversation; crankily, and through rings of smoke, he announces the show will return after a brief commercial message.

Nowadays such qualities in a show would be openly mocked by a media-literate audience. Any imperfections that do occur in the dozens of talk shows that now poison the airwaves are well-planned attempts by the host or producer to keep it “real” or to convey an air of spontaneity or off-the-cuffery. Perhaps that’s why the fall-back technique for most non-fiction programs is to illuminate the production flaws, thereby perpetuating the myth that what is being viewed has not been plotted with meticulous precision. It didn’t used to be this way. People who worked in non-fiction television didn’t always try to dupe their viewers.

Lest anyone suspect I’m about to launch into a nostalgic riff about the glories of live television, that era was well before my time. I’m referring to the Dick Cavett Show, which in its various incarnations aired on seven different networks, most memorably for five years on ABC starting in 1969 and then in a scaled down version on PBS from 1977-1982.

The talk show has been around since the earliest days of television. For as much as television has changed in the last 50 years the talk show has changed very little. Neither have TV executive’s admiration for it. The reason talk shows are held so dear by the suits is not because they are a more highly evolved form of entertainment. It’s because they’re cheap. The only major outlay is the salary of the host, which is not insubstantial, but it pales in comparison to the cost of shooting on location, where a cast and crew must be paid, fed, housed and insured. In a time when viewers of prime time network television are dwindling like a 401k it should come as no surprise that a popular host landed a gig at 10 o’clock five nights a week.

Even though hundreds of channels are now available for every imaginable niche group, as a format, the talk show remains much it like it did at its inception. There is an opening monologue, a sidekick, a desk (usually), a band and invited guests (who are paid a few hundred dollars for their troubles). The guests, generally, are actors, musicians or comics. Occasionally, politicians, authors or athletes find their way onto the seat next to the host. Other variables include skits, stunts, and conceits that invite audience participation.

Dick Cavett made every effort to reject these clichés over the course of a forty year career. 

I recall my mother watching the Dick Cavett Show during the PBS iteration, but I can’t honestly recall a specific episode or guest from that period. Later, I heard my mother draw a comparison between Cavett and Charlie Rose. Since I’ve always admired her taste in anything cultural, I put myself on notice for anything bearing his name.

In 2005 Shout! Factory released several theme-based multi-disc DVD sets of Cavett’s old shows. They include specials with blandish titles like “Hollywood Greats” and “Comic Legends.” I recently rented the three-disc “Rock Icons” set through my Netflix account and I expected that the discs would feature only music performances and interviews, but the shows are available in their entirety, with a brief introduction from Cavett himself. Presently, he writes semi-regularly for The New York Times website and often includes clips from his old shows in his column.

In all the clips I’ve seen of Cavett’s shows I can’t help but having the impression that the only reason he had a talk show to begin with was because it gave him an excuse to meet and chat with a lot of really interesting people. The opening monologues from the ABC shows are terrible. They are too often referring to events germain only to New York, which is where the show was shot; garbage strikes, the incompetence of Mayor John Lindsay and local weather are common topics. He had a bandleader/sidekick who he tried, usually without success, to engage in witty repartee. Cavett himself could barely conceal his distaste in these talk show tropes. The PBS version of his show suited him much better as it dispensed with bandleader banter (there was no band to lead) and the opening monologue was more of an introduction than a series of one-liners. Cavett is at ease in this format, a mood that was probably exacerbated by a very small audience as opposed to the large studio audience that greeted him on the ABC version. There’s little doubt as to which version Cavettheads prefer.

Nevertheless, the ABC show aired during what could be fairly described as the salad days of popular music in America. The first program on the Rock Icons disc aired the day after Woodstock. Jimi Hendrix was slated to appear but had back out since his performance had lasted into the early morning hours of the day of shooting. The guest appeared more or less together. Joni Mitchell, looking childlike, sang three songs, one of which was performed a cappella. She had declined an appearance at Woodstock in favor of preparing for her appearance on Cavett’s show. A scheduling faux pas that her career was able to overcome. The other guests were David Crosby, Stephen Stills and Jefferson Airplane, whose singer, Grace Slick, referred to Cavett as Jim. Crosby is his usual grating self, commanding attention through the quantity, rather than the quality of his thoughts.

What’s interesting about this show is neither the guests nor the now-classic music, it’s Cavett. He and the musicians are seated in a circle, on what look to be pillows. Cavett, ignoring his usual jacket and tie, briefly dons an ascot—which he tosses into the crowd, recognizing the absurdity of its presence around his neck—and opens at least two buttons on his shirt. He looks like a complete square—to use the parlance—yet the musicians see that his curiosity is genuine. Watching this scene, I tried to imagine fellow talk-show host (and fellow Nebraskan) Johnny Carson in such a setting. And this, really, was the essence of the difference between the two men. Carson, who had his beginnings as a game show host was a master at making his guests feel comfortable and the best way to do that was to exude an air of comfort himself. He had great timing as a comic, and his monologues expertly combined self-deprecation with Midwestern sensibilities. Mostly though, Carson loved the Hollywood-ness of being the host of The Tonight Show. Sure, occasionally a topical guest found a spot between him and Ed McMahon, but he loved talking to Jimmy Stewart and Buddy Hackett and Shelley Winters and Phyllis Diller, about their latest movie or vacation or pet or hilarious circumstance. Very few people, besides Tiny Tim, made news on The Tonight Show. Carson specialized in being familiar.

By contrast, Cavett was willing to step out of his comfort zone if it meant he could book non-traditional guests. While it’s possible this was for the sake of ratings, it’s more likely that he was fascinated by people like Salvador Dali and Ingemar Bergman. Not only was Cavett willing to rattle his own cage he was not above rattling his guest’s when he felt it was merited. He interviewed Lester Maddox and Angela Davis, until she was forced to cancel. A guest, Jerome Rodale, died on his show (it was never aired) and he talked bluntly about pornography. He had no reservations about playing a role in the “Symphony of Emotions.” Try to imagine Carson doing this.

The first disc of the “Rock Icons” series concludes with interviews of David Bowie and Sly Stone. I’ve never been much of a fan of Bowie, but his appearance with Cavett was mesmerizing. He’s probably high at the time of the interview and once seated, his frame is so lean his bones seem ready to burst through his suit. As Cavett questions him, he grips a cane for balance, emotional or otherwise. Whether it’s Cavett’s presence or the narcotic effect, Bowie is as forthright any rock star I’ve ever seen. His very British smile (cosmetic dentistry apparently was not among Bowie’s expenses at the time) reveals an air of uncertainty about his well-established career. It’s Bowie as raw as he’s ever been.

Of all the performances on the set, Sly Stone’s is the best. He and the Family Stone are vibrant, enthusiastic and utterly charming. Unfortunately, Sly seems to also be under the influence when chatting with Cavett, his beaming smile providing little clue to what was actually coming from his mouth. At one point, Cavett looks like he has no clue what Sly just said—a very un-Carson like loss of poise—but plows on, knowing that another musical number will render this lapse in coherence irrelevant.

The second disk is dedicated to Janis Joplin. As with Bowie, I’ve admired her music more than I’ve enjoyed it, but here she is heartbreakingly endearing. Of course, I know what fate awaits her, but Cavett, who has acknowledged his own battles with depression, senses that this is a woman worn out. Cavett tries to build her up through praise, but then Janis talks about the loneliness of the road. He sympathizes with her complaint about overly cerebral European audiences. He lights her cigarette. In one memorable sequence, seated among Douglas Fairbanks, Jr, and Chet Huntley, she and Racquel Welch talk about current events and overzealous fans. Try to imagine say, Lady Gaga, talking with, say Harrison Ford, Tom Brokaw and Kate Winslet. It would be impossible in today’s heavily regimented, self-promotion environment, where guests have been trained to speak only of themselves.

Later, Janis finds herself on the same set as Gloria Swanson. Cavett seems to make an effort to include her in every conversation like an older brother guarding his baby sister in her first days in high school. He wants to indulge her and protect her.

The final disk opens with Paul Simon performing, talking about songwriting and working out an early version of “Still Crazy After All These Years.” Once Simon departs Cavett himself is interviewed by three authors—Jerzy Kosinski, Barbara Howar and Anthony Burgess—on the occasion of the printing of his own memoir. The authors critique the book and  Burgess is wonderfully frank while Kosinski attempts, with moderate success, to penetrate Cavett’s psyche. In a moment of meta-media, Howar reminds Cavett that what he does on a nightly basis as a talk show will quickly be forgotten, having written a book will be a more permanent accomplishment. I wonder which sells more these days, the book or DVDs of old shows?

The next artist featured is the effervescent Stevie Wonder. Even when writing about inner-city violence and despair, he manages to remain bubbly. Here, Cavett is somewhat placating, he appears unsure of how to refer, if at all, to Wonder’s blindness. The format of the traditional talk show, demanding some sort of acknowledgement of the obvious, is something Cavett would rather ignore, and I got the feeling that there many questions that went unspoken.

Finally, the series concludes with the quiet Beatle, George Harrison (Cavett’s interviews with John Lennon and Yoko Ono comprise a separate series on Shout!). Harrison performs anonymously as a guitarist with Gary Wright. The interview with him is all-encompassing. He and Cavett talk about the Concert for Bangladesh (and what a hassle it was to manage the money), why the Beatles broke up (he was tired of his “quota” of one or two songs per album and wanted to perform his own material), drug use and Ravi Shankar. Harrison mocks the convention of talk shows by reading from the commercial cues before Cavett. Cavett groans at every station break like a child being told to go to bed on Christmas Eve. “Commercial??? Can’t you see I’m talking to George Harrison!!!”

Whatever his frustrations, he is clearly enjoying his time with Harrison (and later, Shankar) so much so that he seems sincerely disappointed when Harrison compares his appearance on the show to a performance. “Do you really look at this as a conversation or a performance?” he asks. When Harrison assured him it’s the former, I felt Cavett’s relief. And that really was why Cavett endured. He understood that smart people respond to other smart people and a smart audience would understand and appreciate that. While he never garnered the audience of Carson, the devotion of his fans has never faded.

I’ll admit I was skeptical when CBS announced Craig Ferguson as the new host of The Late Late Show a few years ago.

Mr. Wick?

From The Drew Carey Show?

The fey Scotish guy?

Really?

Okay.

It didn’t help that our local CBS affiliate pushed the show back half an hour to air Frasier reruns and now continues the trend with Jeopardy.

Then a strange thing happened.  I’d catch bits and pieces of the show and to my surprise, Ferguson was really good.  His rambling monologues and mugging for the camera worked.

I became a fan.

Then, last night, Ferguson aired what may be his magnum opus.

This was BEFORE the opening credits.

It was positively Kaufmanesque.

Enjoy.

The life of Andy Kaufman sure is strange.

Jim Carrey gives the performance of his career as the insanely inventive comedian Andy Kaufman. Best known as lovable mechanic Latka Gravas on the 1970s sitcom “Taxi,” Kaufman shocked audiences with his caustic, off-the-wall routines that often crossed the line from comedy to performance art.

Director Milos Foreman does a great thing with the film and that is that he doesn’t make the mistake of turning the story into comedic conventional pattern. With Kaufman, you never knew what was real and you never knew what was really a fraud, and the film really does show this. The great thing about this movie is that we always keep on questioning.

Most of the praise really does come from the performance from the great Jim Carrey. In this film he is not Jim Carrey he is Andy Kaufman. Carrey does not use his usual funny faces and crazy freak-outs as in his other ones, instead he totally embroils the life, soul, and the mind of Andy Kaufman. Jim Carrey does a better Andy Kaufman than Andy Kaufman and its surely a sight to see. You look at Carrey in this movie and you don’t see Carrey you see Kaufman.

The problem with this film though is that we don’t get a sense of what Kaufman really wanted in his life. Yes we hear and see a lot of his jokes play out but fully we don’t understand what he was gunning for. This film also seems like too much of a lover’s pool for Andy Kaufman as almost everything he did was great and he was viewed as the nicest guy ever. I heard many thought he was horrible behind the scenes and this film doesn’t show that it shows a point of view from the people who truly loved the most.

DeVito and Love I think were totally miscast and didn’t really have to be in this film. I wish that the film focused a little bit more on the romance between him and Love and they don’t. The one thing I liked is how all the stars Kaufman met in his life all reprised their roles and I thought this was especially a sight to see.

Consensus: Jim Carrey is amazing in this film and fully pulls it all together, but this film only shows the ups in Kaufman’s life and we never fully understand his intentions.

6/10=Rental!!

AM, DJ – MTV’s new reality television show Gone Too Far, which focuses on the day-to-day activities of DJ AM, only netted a paltry 500,000 viewers during its Monday night premiere — but it’s probably because everyone has already figured out the ending.

Link: DJ AM’s “Gone Too Far” Disappoints (The Live Feed)

Anderson, Wes – The L.A. Times reports that Anderson — the visionary director behind Rushmore, The Royal Tennenbaums and Bottle Rocket – directed a large portion of his upcoming stop-action flick The Fantastic Mr. Fox via email from Paris as it shot in London. This is actually a fairly common occurrence in the motion picture industry. In fact, The Cider House Rules was directed remotely by carrier pigeon and Rush Hour 3 was written in its entirety on a bathroom wall in human feces.

Link: Fur Flies on “Mr. Fox” (L.A. Times)

Kaufman, Andy — Attention edgy comedians of today: you will never supersede the mind-bending meta-awesomeness that Andy Kaufman pulled on his unsuspecting fans. December 1 sees the release of a book entitled Dear Andy Kaufman, I Hate Your Guts! which will compile the angriest fan letters Kaufman received during his stint as a “professional wrestler.” Ooh ooh, I hope my letters make it into Dear Gallagher, I Hate Your Guts!

Link: Andy Kaufman’s Wrestling Career Put to the Printed Page in “Dear Andy Kaufman, I Hate Your Guts!” (Paste)

Kid, Karate — Twenty-five years later, The New York Daily News catches up with the cast of The Karate Kid. Unfortunately, Johnny Lawrence no longer trains with the Cobra Kai dojo after a leg-sweeping mishap in 2002 resulted in a broken hip.

Link: The Karate Kid: Where Are They Now? (New York Daily News)

Monday, Freaky — A sequel to the Disney film Freaky Friday, which was itself a remake of a prior Disney film, is apparently in the works. The sequel, Freaky Monday, follows the long tradition of only barely tweaking the formula of the original, as seen in past sequels A Few Great Men, There Will Probably Be Some More Blood, and Internet Cafe Rwanda.

Link: Get Ready for Freaky Monday (Total Film)

News, Weekly World – The perpetually unbelievable supermarket tabloid has actually inked a deal with the Creative Artists Agency to bring some of the newspaper’s characters to the television screen. Reportedly, Lou Dobbs is being courted to play Bat Boy, and the show will regularly feature WWN stalwart “The space alien who predicts that Matt LeBlanc will continue to fail.”

Link: Weekly World News Signs with CAA (Hollywood Reporter)

Swinton, Tilda — The Michael Clayton actress is currently counted among the 15,000 Scottish protesters fighting the advancement of a multi-million dollar Donald Trump golf resort in Edinburgh, Scotland. To be fair, though, she has good reason to hate golf courses ever since she was once mistaken for a five iron.

Link: Tilda Swinton Fights Donald Trump’s Golf Resort (AndPOP)

This would explain the puzzled
feeling one gets from most of the current “comedies.” Product CategoriesYou know you’re supposed to laugh, but watching Norman Fell roll his eyes isn’t really all that funny. Now, if he were to shove a stuffed owl up Suzanne Somers’ joy trail… ah, Widescreen Flat-Paneldream on.
The ‘78 model sitcoms are generally useless although there may be a couple that can turn it around. Audio SystemsTaxi, which was being hyped as this year’s biggest shit before it was even shown, has old spitmark-face Andy Kaufman and a bunch of frozen Mousketeers driving cabs off bridges and other fun stuff, but threatens to grow overt poignancy tendrils. Mork & Mindy is another possible winner if you. don’t mind single-gimmick shows & la / Dream Of Jeannie. Mork, who’s the Ralph Malph of the planet Ork and has a voice like the soundtrack to a childbirth film run backwards, comes to Earth and moves in with Mindy, a thoroughly sickening Coloradoid with a solar-powered mind. Robin Williams’ Mork is a pretty funny guy though, whether he’s reverting to hatchling state or just practicing auto-face-sitting. When Mindy tells him that it’s not nice to sit on his own face, he replies simply, “Then why did God put it there?” Answer that, mountain-queer!
A pair of longshots that could work out are Apple Pie, a Norman Lear weirdo where Rue McClanahan (Maude’s Vivien) constructs a family out of the hoof-cuts and donkey wax in an old can of FDA-rejected welfare chow, and WKRPIn Cincinnati, an MTM computer turd about a radio station with x number of drugola-snorting yak jockies and a weather girl who carries two baskets of Crisco under her t-shirt. The dialogue here is strictly concrete-fed, however, as is the case with remaining stinkers like The Waverly Wonders (Joe Namath teaches his jock cup to roll over), 7n The Beginning (last round-up for McLean Stevenson before he’s enlisted as a buzzer on Family Feud) and Who’s Watching The KidsPForget the kids, who’s watching the programmers?

Andy Kaufman had all the behavior patterns of an ENTP. I think these patterns can be partially summed up as ‘buy in.’ If he can get you in a lather, if he can get you to take his tricks seriously, he wins. He’s shown (himself) how easy you are to manipulate. A few appearances, and you’re hooked. It’s Socrates meets Bugs Bunny, which is where a well-developed ENTP lives.

More comfortable than you think!

Yes, this photo depicts my lodging this morning when I showed up at Caroline’s for the Andy Kaufman awards.  I assumed I’d be waiting with throngs of other folks, but, as Chevy Chase says in National Lampoon’s Vacation “FIRST ONE’S HERE, FIRST ONE’S HERE!”

I had some good time alone to think, obviously. (The call started at 11am and I was there at 6.)   Times Square, though always lit with garish lights, was almost peaceful when there was no one around, save for the early-bird Midtown trader or motivated runner getting in some final mileage before the NYC marathon.  The world seemed to be moving in slow-motion clips; adding people in twos or threes as the sun came up.  Of all the times I’ve walked by people sitting on the street, I’ve never really thought about why they’re there (besides the fact that they’re homeless).  Maybe they’re waiting for someone.  Maybe they’re in character.  All I could think was – STOP staring at me everyone.  I’m normal!!  Haven’t you ever pursued a dream?  So finally I figured if I was going to be stared at I may as well ask for some spare change.  I received 50 cents and a gum wrapper.  Not bad for a first-timer, methinks.

Around 7:30 a.m., the kind cleaning staff came out and let me inside (read: they opened the glass doors, knocked me over, and were likely a little taken aback at some random white woman dozing on their perch.)  I got an additional two hours of sleep on the comfy booths inside Caroline’s and then some other comics showed up, along with the judges of the award (Michael Kaufman (Andy’s brother); Al Parinello (the first man ever to pay Andy for playing), and a woman from Finland who had been following Andy’s life posthumously, runs a website to his memory and had flown to the US to travel around and see all the areas in which he played, etc.  Really incredible.)

We all sat around and talked about comedy, talked about what we each connected with from Andy Kaufman’s legend and performances, and talked about what our own personal challenges are on stage.  There were moments when I almost felt like I was watching myself from one of my cubicle’s at my former jobs thinking “that can’t be your life now.  You’re too lucky.”  I’ve written before about God giving me signs – not that I’m majorly religious – and I believe He does so on a bi-monthly basis.  Every time I feel down, or stressed about the path I’m on, I find myself in a situation where I’m newly motivated and reminded of why I got into this in the first place.  Today was one of those days.

Michael, Andy’s brother, said something to all of us that I will never forget, and that I think applies past comedy, to all ventures in life. 

“You’re in a tunnel,” he said. “It’s long, and it’s dark, and you’re in there alone, and it can feel impossible to know if you’re even moving forward, and sometimes you may even think you’re moving back.  But just remember that just because you can’t see the progress every day doesn’t mean it’s not happening.”

A tunnel.  Yes!  I love that analogy.  And as I walked home, I thought: the best I can do is keep driving my train forward and hope that other people (industry, fans, etc) want to get on the ride with me because they enjoy and believe in what I’m doing. 

As for the audition itself, I was nervous but I had a good time and they fostered a very welcoming and warm environment.  To all my comic friends, I urge you to submit to http://theandykaufmanaward.com/ and be a part of this!

…right here:

“A Very Brave Witch… And More Great Halloween Stories For Kids!” (Scholastic)
Fall is my favorite season, Halloween my favorite holiday. So what better way to gear up for that most wonderful time of the year than by enjoying a few Halloween-themed children’s classics. All eight of the stories on this disc are worthy of being there, but my favorite is a tie between Tomi Ungerer’s “The Three Robbers” and the absolutely classic Robert Bright tale “Georgie.” Ungerer’s illustration work on “The Three Robbers” is an art school nerd’s dream, and Bright’s sweet tale about a ghost looking for a new house to haunt in “Georgie” is children’s book storytelling at its best. Kids will enjoy each of this set’s eight tales, but these two stories in particular will resonate with both the children of today and the kids of yesterday.

“Chicka Chicka 1-2-3… And More Counting Fun!” (Scholastic)
If you grew up in the early eighties, chances are some of the first books you cracked open were written by Bill Martin, Jr. We may be adults now (reluctantly), but we can pass on the writing of Martin with DVDs like this. Collected here are four stories about numbers and counting, starting off with Martin’s “Chicka Chicka 1-2-3″ (which is illustrated by Milwaukee-based artist Lois Ehlert). Also included are Rosemary Wells’ “Emily’s First 100 Days Of School” and David M. Schwartz’s “How Much Is A Million?” and “If You Made A Million.” Still, I have to play favorites here and admit that Martin’s story is the best, mostly because of its nostalgia.

“Bad Boy Bubby” (Blue Underground)
If you’ve never heard of this movie its premise alone should be enough to grab your interest: After spending 35 years locked in an apartment by his deranged mother, the “demented man-child” Bubby has finally broken free of his prison and is ready to discover the “wonders of sex, crime, rock & roll, and pizza.” Christ, that describes the life story of some people I know. Anyway, the end result is as demented as you hope it to be, so if you’re looking for something you’ve never seen before (If you have seen something like this before, WHERE?!?), give it a try.

“Circle Of Iron” (Blue Underground)
Did you know that Bruce Lee co-wrote a screenplay with James Coburn shortly before his death in 1973? Yeah, me neither. But he did, and the result is this marriage of martial arts and magic starring David Carradine, Christopher Lee and Roddy McDowall. Released in 1978, some five years after Bruce’s death, viewers definitely get a sense from the film’s style that we’re getting dangerously close to the 1980s, and away from the Golden Age of kung fu cinema. It’s definitely dated, but still holds up as a solid action film some thirty years later.

“Tokyo!” (Liberation Entertainment)
An anthology film that collects the work of three directors: French directors Michel Gondry (“Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind”) and Leos Carax (“The Lovers On The Bridge”), and South Korean director Bong Joon-Ho (“The Host”). All three directors used the city of Tokyo as the backdrop for their tales of transformation (Gondry’s “Interior Design”), anarchy (Carax’s “Merde”) and rebirth (Joon-Ho’s “Shaking Tokyo”). Similar in theme to films like “Four Rooms” and “New York Stories”, it’s not entirely fair to judge this movie in anything but its entirety. And, as a whole, the film does work. But, just as is the case with those earlier comparisons, some of the stories are stronger than others. Oddly enough, the segment I enjoyed the most was from the director I knew the least about: Leos Carax. Still, check it out for yourself; your favorite (and least favorite) story might surprise you.

“Billie Holiday: The Life And Artistry Of Lady Day” (Idem Home Video)
A fairly narrow history of Lady Day that seems to use more footage and audio of the era than it does of the woman herself. If you’re not familiar with Billie Holiday or her work, this will serve as a good 101 course to bring you up to speed. But if you’re a fan of her work and have even a general knowledge of her life story (fame/addiction/death), this disc might not be as essential to your collection. Extras include a discography and bibliography, as well as select lyrics from some of her more well-known songs. Also collected are a handful of scenes from the 1947 film “New Orleans” in which Holiday appears as a maid. Starring in a few scenes alongside Louis Armstrong and other jazz musicians, these extras were a nice addition that I hadn’t seen before. But if you’re a huge fan of Holiday and that era of jazz, chances are you already own “New Orleans” in its entirety.

“History On My Arms w/ Dee Dee Ramone” (MVD Visual)
Three separate documentaries are collected here to look into the life and times of late Ramones bassist Dee Dee Ramone (Douglas Glenn Colvin). The first is director Lech Kowalski’s 2003 documentary “Hey Is Dee Dee Home.” The footage was originally filmed in 1992 for Kowalski’s documentary “Born To Lose: The Last Rock And Roll Movie”, but after Dee Dee’s overdose in 2002, the director pieced together what footage he had of the bass player and released this hour-long documentary. More about his addiction than his music, the film is now merely documentation of what fate Dee Dee would face just a decade later. Next up is the half-hour “History On My Arms” short, which is essentially some of the more light-hearted segments that were taken out of the full-length. These 27 minutes concentrate more on the music than any other segment. And finally, the 22-minute short “Vom In Paris” is an interview with drummer Vom Ritchie about a night he spent with Dee Dee in Paris in 1989. Also included is an audio CD titled “Dee Dee Blues” which collects a handful of live blues recordings Dee Dee made himself with nothing more than a guitar and a microphone.

“My Breakfast With Blassie” (Video Service Corporation)
In 1983, less than a year before he succumbed to cancer, Andy Kaufman made a parody of “My Dinner with Andre” called “My Breakfast with Blassie.” Shot at Sambo’s restaurant in Hollywood, Kaufman meets with legendary wrestler “Classy” Freddie Blassie (who, of course, is “The King of All Men”) to discuss personal hygiene, fame, and why eating pancakes is bad for you. As incredibly boring as that may sound, you’d be surprised at how entertaining it truly is. It’s like sitting next to two insane men in a diner and listening in on their equally-as-insane conversation. Of course, I’m a fan of both Kaufman and Blassie, so I admittedly go into this review with a bit of bias. But the real shock for me was how Blassie steals the show from Kaufman, providing more hilarious one-liners and anecdotes than the comedian himself. At one point he refers to their Thai waitress as having come from “the Orient.” And he does it to her face! Blassie’s brash attitude plays along well with Kaufman’s attentive interest in all things wrestling, resulting in a bizarre mixing of the minds in a short film we’ll probably never see the likes of again.

“Porn Stars Of The 80’s” (Blue Underground)
There was seriously a late-night cable talk show about porn? Sadly, yes, and its name was “Midnight Blue.” Collected here are the “best” (?) clips of that show from the decade we’d all like to forget: the 1980s. Cameo “appearances” and interviews with well-known stars of the era (Ron Jeremy, Nina Hartley, et al.) are interspliced with smart-assed commentary from magazine publisher/TV host/porn czar Al Goldstein (who is as slimy a human being as you’d expect a porn czar to be). I have to be honest here: this disc left me feeling embarrassed for anyone who actually ever watched this show. Seriously, if you want porno, watch porno. Don’t watch some gold chain-wearing sleazeball interview ghastly gutter-hookers as he tries to justify the legitimacy of pornography. It’s sex, Al! It doesn’t need a commercial!

“Porn Stars Of The 90’s” (Blue Underground)
Exactly like the review above only with slightly better production quality, Christy Canyon, and a fatter (and even more disgusting, if you can believe that) Al Goldstein.

Integrating children’s books and pornography since 1976,

-Shady

"Table Legs", Wool Felt, Cloth and Found Wood.

Betsy Timmer
Clothed

6-9 p.m.
(First Friday Reception)

Cocoon Gallery at the Arts Incubator
115 W. 18th St.
Kansas City, MO
816.421.2292

Hours after First Friday: 11 a.m.-5 p.m. Thursday and Friday, and by appointment.
Runs through: Sept. 26

Artist’s site: http://www.betsytimmer.com
Gallery site: http://www.artsincubatorkc.org

One of the dangers of creating with tongue in cheek is that not everyone gets the joke. (See also “Kaufman, Andy“.)

Take the visual themes running through Betsy Timmer’s installation, Dressed:

Faceless woman as cleaning equipment. Faceless woman as furniture (Table Legs, today’s featured piece). Faceless woman as pillow. For all of its soft edges, Timmer’s work obviously has a point to make.

It would be easy to interpret the show, which opens tonight in the Arts Incubator’s Cocoon Gallery, as a screed against the way women are treated and the expectations that are placed on them — to clean, comfort and support, regardless of the cost to their own identities.

Timmer’s real targets, though, are the tasks and trials that beset all of us, even those with Y chromosomes. There’s always something that needs to be done … yesterday. And when that’s finished, there are an ever-increasing number of entries still to go on the to-do list.

Timmer, who will give an artist’s talk at 6:30 p.m. during tonight’s First Friday reception, describes the pace and demands of daily life as “text messaging while driving 85 miles per hour”. Don’t laugh … if you haven’t done it yourself, you’ve seen someone else doing it.

Instead of being strident or overly plaintive, though, Dressed takes a visually entertaining — lighthearted, even — approach to its serious subject. Her creations, while not exactly whimsical, are fanciful enough to draw a smile at first look. There’s a definite sense that Timmer had fun creating the pieces, which she assembled from recycled and found objects.

If she’s having a good time with the art, then, it’s more than okay for the viewer to do the same. But her work has a reflective element, too, that makes its case more strongly with each repeated viewing. And as engaging as the elements of Dressed are — think of them, if you will, as irony-enriched eye candy — those second, third and subsequent looks will be just as rewarding as the first.

But please, on the way there … slow down and skip the texting.

“I am not a comic, I have never told a joke…The comedian’s promise is that he will go out there and make you laugh with him… my only promise is that I will try to entertain you as best I can. I can manipulate people’s reactions. There are different kinds of laughter. Gut laughter is where you don’t have a choice, you’ve got to laugh. Gut laughter doesn’t come from the intellect. And it’s much harder for me to evoke now, because I’m known. They say, ‘Oh wow, Andy Kaufman, he’s a really funny guy.’ But I’m not trying to be funny. I just want to play with their heads.”

- Andy Kaufman

**************************************************************

Loose cannons left to their own devices make the world a better place to live.

It’s not about hoofing around campus wearing a traffic cone as a hat and dragging an i.v. drip pumping Coors into your veins. It is the truly gifted whack job who outshines them all, that foole who goes through the random piece goods trunk o’ laffs and melancholy and seamlessly welds them together to create a thought provoking narrative clad with his or her own personality, wit, and a kamikaze willingness to fail. Andy Kaufman always did that.

To know who Andy Kaufman was, to appreciate his style and sense of comedic chaos, is to love everything he stood for. Unconditionally. Equal portions of Living Theatre anarchy and Ernie Kovacs improvisational put on with the call and response mayhem feedback of the Velvet Underground.

Andy Kaufman was a comedian whom despised the standard conventions of stand-up comedy. He was a performance artist who would have given anything to throw a pie at Lenny Bruce. He was a comedic actor who hated sitcoms with a purple passion. Andy Kaufman hijacked these arts completely on his own terms, giving them a whole new meaning.

Did ya hear: Andy’s alive!

Yeah it’s true. Really.

Man on the moon and they still can’t commit to a reasonable expectation for cash flows?

Hey baby, Are we losing touch?

If you believe there’s nothing up my sleeve, then nothing is cool

Pseudos: from foolish stern to foolish bow.

Man on the Moon, R.E.M.

Mott the Hoople and the Game of Life. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah
Andy Kaufman in the wrestling match. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah
Monopoly, twenty one, checkers, and chess. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah
Mister Fred Blassie in a breakfast mess. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah
Let’s play Twister, let’s play Risk. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah
See you in heaven if you make the list. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah

Hey Andy, did you hear about this one? Tell me, are you locked in the punch?
Hey Andy, are you goofing on Elvis? Hey baby, are we losing touch?
If you believed they put a man on the moon, man on the moon
If you believe there’s nothing up my sleeve, then nothing is cool

Moses went walking with the staff of wood. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah
Newton got beaned by the apple good. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah
Egypt was troubled by the horrible asp. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah
Mister Charles Darwin had the gall to ask. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah

Hey Andy, did you hear about this one? Tell me, are you locked in the punch?
Hey Andy, are you goofing on Elvis? Hey baby, are you having fun?
If you believed they put a man on the moon, man on the moon
If you believe there’s nothing up my sleeve, then nothing is cool

Here’s a little agit for the never-believer. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah
Here’s a little ghost for the offering. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah
Here’s a truck stop instead of Saint Peter’s. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah
Mister Andy Kaufman’s gone wrestling (wrestling bears). Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah

Hey Andy, did you hear about this one? Tell me, are you locked in the punch?
Hey Andy, are you goofing on Elvis? Hey baby, are we losing touch?
If you believed they put a man on the moon, man on the moon
If you believe there’s nothing up my sleeve, then nothing is cool

If you believed they put a man on the moon, man on the moon
If you believe there’s nothing up my sleeve, then nothing is cool
If you believed they put a man on the moon, man on the moon
If you believe there’s nothing up my sleeve, then nothing is cool
If you believed they put a man on the moon, man on the moon
If you believe there’s nothing up my sleeve, then nothing is cool

…and this one had his title bestowed upon him by his accomplishments. He was, simply, The King. Unlike a later entertainer who made up his own titles, shamefully appropriating a royal moniker for himself. Hell, he even misinterpreted a birthday cake from MTV as an award for Artist of the Millennium. (If there were such an award, even Even Presley wasn’t that – I’d have to vote Frank Sinatra or Charlie Chaplin). But I’m not going to kick a man when he’s down.

If you don’t know much about Elvis Presley at this point, you probably don’t care enough to learn about him. So I provide the links below as a courtesy for those of you who wax nostalgic this weekend and want to pick up an old album or hit Netflix up for a movie. Hard to believe it’s been 32 years since Elvis died at 42; he’s gone but will never be forgotten.

But if you visit a certain donut shop in Minnesota, look closely…

This one’s for you, Al Kohler.

Elvis website.

Elvis filmography.

Elvis discography.

Elvis Wiki.

Kurt Russell played Elvis, and well.

Uhh…so did Andy Kaufman - amazing!

Not The King