Hosts Phil Rosenthal and David Wild are joined by one of Phil’s best friends and one of the original "Everybody Loves Raymond" writers, Lew Schneider. As they write, the writer, producer, director, comedian and actor “joins Phil and David for a freewheeling conversation about food, comedy, television writers rooms, great music, terrible vacations, Rick Springfied, Don Rickles, good times and even terrible timeshares.
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In the news -- So, Trump is now selling the Bible. A practice that doesn’t seem viable. He’s incredibly flawed. Been found guilty of fraud. And for rape he was also found liable. For the finale, we have one more of the better “Strike Force Five” podcasts. They were all wonderful, but a handful stood-out, and this is one of them. It's a fine way to go out. For those new to Strike Force Five, the five hosts of talk shows – Stephen Colbert, Jimmy Fallon, Jimmy Kimmel, Seth Meyers and John Oliver – teamed up during the recent Writers Guild strike to do a weekly podcast. The point was to raise money for each of their staffs. As I’ve mentioned with the others I’ve posted, what stands out from the podcasts is how much the hosts seem to truly like and respect the others – though being comedians have no trouble ridiculing the others, at times mercilessly, including relentlessly bringing up past derision from previous weeks, not letting foolish misdeeds be forgotten. And that’s precisely where this fits it. The first of the podcasts I posted was when Jimmy Fallon hosted and decided to try to turn it into a sort of Newlywed Game-type episode, having asked question of the host’s wives, and seeing how their husbands’ answered matched up. The problem was that he kept repeatedly screwing up the questions and games so horribly, that the show went far off the rails. And he was so mercilessly ridiculed by the other hosts that he never had a chance to finish all the questions. This is the long-awaited sequel to that. (And I mean that literally. As they discuss at the beginning of the episode, the most email that the show received – and personal comments the hosts each got from others – the most-asked question…by far…was when would they be doing the Fallon follow-up. This is Episode 11, what they call “The Return of Strike Force Wives.” The WGA strike is over at this point, but the hosts felt they still had some unfished business to clear up, and so did three final ones. This is the penultimate. And if it isn’t as screwed up as the first Fallon attempt at a Newlywed-type game, that’s only because the bar was set so impossibly high – and it’s still great fun. I can’t embed the podcast – it was done for Spotify – but here's a link to the episode on the Strike Force Five website. If you didn't hear the original "Strike Force Five Wives" episode that preceded this and sets it up, I heartily recommend listening to it first. It's just too funny. You can find it here. This Episode 11 follow-up stands fine on its own, but the two together are a special joy. Although the movies and plays that Mike Nichols and Elaine May directed, wrote or acted in separately -- and even on occasion, together -- are what they're likely best-known for among the largest part of today's audience, it's their time together as comedy team that began their fame, including an acclaimed Broadway production. This is on the list of among my favorite Nichols & May sketches, and may have been the first one of theirs that I ever saw. I don’t think it gets seen (or heard) as much of their other classic pieces. In some ways, it’s a precursor to Lily Tomlin’s Ernestine telephone operator character. Here’s it’s Nichols is trying to make an important call on a pay phone (which were then far more prevalent than today…), but has to call the Bell Telephone company operator to resolve an issue. It’s not just that the sketch is so funny – and filled with such angst for a comedy sketch – but the acting of each is seriously impressive for a comedy sketch. (It’s worth noting that the two actually starred in a 1980 limited-run production of Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? at the respected Long Wharf Theater, to rave reviews -- and May won a Tony Award in 2019 for Best Actress in a Play, The Waverly Gallery. And in 1996, Nichols starred in Wallace Shawn’s play, The Designated Mourner, in a limited run in London, to rave reviews.) Hosts Phil Rosenthal and David Wild are joined by internationally-touring comedian Alex Edelman whose one man show, Just For Us opened off-Broadway in 2022 before premiering on Broadway in 2023; it was named New York Times Critic’s Pick both times and has already won an Obie. As Phile and David write, “While performing the wildly timely Just For Us before sold out crowds at the Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles, Alex broke bread -- okay, Courage Bagels -- at Phil's house. Please note: this free-flowing and fun conversation -- in which Norman Lear is discussed -- was recorded shortly before Lear's recent death.”
One oddity. Throughout the conversation, almost whenever Phil or David refer to Alex as being Jewish, he keeps replying that he’s not Jewish. Apparently, he finds this hilarious – since his one-man show is specifically about being Jewish (he grew up Orthodox) and attending a White Nationalist meeting. For me, it was funny the first few times, but eventually just became strange. It's been a long while since we've had a Mean Tweets video from Jimmy Kimmel Live! So, here's a new one -- though it's actually pretty old, from back in 2014. Among the celebrities here reading pretty obnoxious tweets about them are Julia Roberts, Ashton Kutcher, Courteney Cox, Kit Harrington, Emma Stone, Gary Oldman and more. |
AuthorRobert J. Elisberg is a political commentator, screenwriter, novelist, tech writer and also some other things that I just tend to keep forgetting. Feedspot Badge of Honor
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