Blog

Dave, Chris, Jay and Jay

8/22/2019

I came across this video the other day, and it's definitely offbeat, but quite amusing, I think. It's offbeat because at the heart of it is Chris Elliott on the Late Late Show with David Letterman. (This is not his late night program that was opposite Jay Leno, but when he had his show on NBC after Johnny Carson.)

Just saying "Chris Elliot with David Letterman" should give a sense of weird enough, which is fine by me since I love his humor. But it's also offbeat because of the topic and how that relates to what came later. I don't want to give all of it away, but will just say that at the heart of it is Jay Leno. Yes, that should be clear from the image and graphic below, but it swirls in many different directions from that.

Though this is one 9-minute video, it's actually several related segments from different shows edited together. The first segment may not seem to be part of it, but it all comes around in the end.

Last Week Tonight Last Night

8/19/2019

If you didn't get to see Last Week Tonight with John Oliver last night, he had an interesting main story on bias in medicine, focusing on gender and racial bias. Some of it historic, much systemic. Like all his pieces, it's pretty funny, though more than that what stood out is how the bias manifests itself and the impact of it all. And like my favorite of his shows, he has a fun twist towards the end. Less grandiose than some of their best, but enjoyable nonetheless.

A Small Glass of Burgundy

8/17/2019

On this week's podcast, Will Ferrell again returns as Ron Burgundy, and he and Carolina get advice about how to navigate the dark web from cybersecuity expert RIchard Greenberg. Cybersecurity is a serious issue of hacking and misinformation, so this episode is a particularly good thing given how much Ron gets very, very, very wrong. Happily, Richard Greenberg knows what he's talking about, so he helps make it pretty interesting. And Ron at least does his best, making sure that listeners understand that when he refers to "passwords" he doesn't mean the old TV game show.

By Jiminy

8/15/2019

Let's head out and about with Jiminy Glick who we haven't had around here for much, much too long. I've never quite understood the long-lasting popularity of Regis Philbin. I don't dislike him, I just find him "there." So, when I saw that Jiminy Glick had an interview with him, I was going to pass it by -- but then I realized that if anyone would be a ideal foil for Jiminy, it just might be Regis. I was right -- he is.

Last Week Tonight Last Night

8/12/2019

If you didn't get to see last night's Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, we're here to help feel that gap in for you. The main story was about Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov. And no, that wasn't the desktop equivalent of accidentally pocket-tweeting, nor did I suddenly have a muscle spasm when typing. That's the president of Turkmenistan.

This is a weird story -- and that's as much John Oliver's words as mine. It's not particularly substantive, and it's pretty light-hearted, which is quite an achievement given that this fellow is a despot, and Turkmenistan has been called the "worst place to live in the world" -- which is quite an achievement on its own.

Anyway, yes, it's weird, but there's it's amusing and has one of those fine Last Week Tonight twists, as well.

A Small Glass of Burgundy

8/11/2019

Will Ferrell has brought back his character of Ron Burgundy and returns with The Ron Burgundy Podcast for a second season. And bizarrely, his first guest is U.S. Senator and presidential candidate Kamala Harris. And it's not a quick few minutes, but the show runs for 40 minutes.

There's a bit of chatting beforehand with his co-host Carolina Barlow, and then they get into the interview, followed by some wrap-up chat at the end. It's actually a bit straightforward (and as you might imagine, fairly softball, particularly since there's next to no follow-up on questions), though it's amusing throughout. For instance, when Ron asks about getting rid of the Electoral College -- and then wonders if we do that, would we then have to get rid of all colleges? (He's relieved to hear that the Ivy League will be able to stay.) And he wants to know about when she goes to the Iowa State Fair what her favorite food-on-a-stick are.

Last Week Tonight the Other Night

8/7/2019

If you missed Last Week Tonight with John Oliver on HBO this past Sunday, fear not, for we have it for you. It's a look at prison labor. I didn't find it one of their better efforts, but then the standard is so high, so it's still pretty good, often quite funny, and occasionally there are some very interesting angles, most notably when it comes to third-party businesses.

More Mean Tweets

8/6/2019

Okay, let's head back to the Jimmy Kimmel Show for some more mean tweets, which we haven't had here for a while.

Capsule Reviews

7/31/2019

I've seen a bit of theater recently, so I thought I'd catch up with some of it briefly

Over the weekend, I went to see the British farce The Play That Goes Wrong. It's presented as if it's an amateur company putting on a murder mystery, and everything that can possibly go wrong does. The show is very thin -- the storyline is this is dismal drawing room mystery -- but a lot of fun. Oddly, I didn't laugh much (though the audience was in hysterics), yet I enjoyed it, greatly admiring the non-stop inventiveness of the stagecraft. (At one point, for instance, the lead actress gets knocked out, so the female stage manager has to take over carrying around the script. Then she gets knocked out -- and the regular actress has recovered enough to jump back in...but when the stage manger recovers she wants back in the place, so the two women stay on stage the rest of the evening competing with one another in the role. Believe it or not, it's even more convoluted than that, but it would be too much to describe...)

I also liked that they carry the concept into the Playbill – with double credits: one for the show, but also one for the 3rd-rate show within the show. So, they have a title page for that show with its fictitious production credits (most of which are the same person in charge of almost everything), and also bios for everyone in the cast, which are quite amusing. My favorite line was subtle, but wonderful – “Robert’s next performance will be as Godot in a newly self-written sequel to Beckett’s classic.”

Normally, I'd post a trailer of the production, which I was loathe to do with this particular play since I doubted it would give a sense of the evening. As luck would happen, at the 2015 Royal Variety Performance they performed almost 10 full minutes from the opening of the play! It's somewhat edited -- for example, when they knock on the door to come in, it's jammed, and for a minute or so they can't get on stage, until eventually the actors sneak on from around the wings. That's left out here, along with some other stage business and dialogue. But for the most part, it's all intact. Also, know that the play gets even more manic in the third act. This is just the "slow" set-up. And because the audience isn't there for the show, but rather for the Royal Variety eveyt, they don't get some of the gags going on, but overall it's a pretty good presentation of what takes place during the production. One final note -- only for the Royal Variety Performance there are several cameos that are not part of the actual show. But you'll see brief gags with Kylie Minogue, Josh Groban and a British comedian/actor I like, Jack Whitehall, who drops "snow flakes" at the end..

Moving on to other theater --

Two years ago, I wrote here about going to a play at the Will Geer Theatricum Botanicum. This is a wonderful outdoor venue in the forest around Topanga that was the home of the actor who, among many things, most famously played the grandfather on The Waltons.

There were two shows in their repertory season that interested me, but didn’t know if I wanted to make what is a bit of a drive twice – however I found that there was a Saturday both were being put on, one at 4 PM, the other at 8 PM, so I made a sack dinner and went to see them together, a couple weekends ago.

Note: I don't recommend this unless you have a seat cushion or perhaps one of those portable seat-backs that you can place on a bench. It was okay without either, but at the end of a long day sitting on what's basically a bench, I was nearly my comfort limit.

The two shows were Moby Dick – Rehearsed” adapted by none other than Orson Welles and Thonrton Wilder's classic The Skin of Our Teeth.” The first was well-done, but the play was just fair. It starts out like a rehearsal of a production of Moby Dick which was quite interesting and sort of fun, but then after about 10 minutes it just largely became a production of Moby Dick and was just okay. Well-staged and nicely acted, but I missed the clever "rehearsal" overlap and found the straight-forward adaptation only interesting at best. The other play was very enjoyable, not a great production, but again with very good acting and absolutely worth seeing. Actually both were.

I don't have a video of their production of either, but did track down a video from the Acting Company of Moby Dick: Rehearsed.

(Side Note: As it happens, I saw one of their plays in their first year of existence, at the Ravinia Music Festival, where they were in repertory. The Acting Company began life as the first graduating class of the Julliard acting school. The program's director -- and initial artistic director of the Acting Company -- was John Houseman, who -- to take this full circle -- had been partners with Orson Welles. And for that matter, Will Geer worked with Welles. Last Fun Fact: the show I saw that Acting Company do was the musical The Robber Bridegroom. It starred two graduates -- Patti LuPone and Kevin Kline. They are not in this video, which is from only a decade ago.)

Last Week Tonight the Other Night

7/30/2019

On this past Sunday's Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, he had a detailed, blunt (needless-to-say) and very funny look at the new British Prime Minister Boris Johnson.