Also, penalize the hell out of them for their over-exaggerated injury performances when someone barely touches them. That alone is a big turn-off. As a hockey fan, I find it comically pathetic. That would never fly in hockey.
This is a terrific biography of the legendary Canadian comedy troupe of Dave Foley, Bruce McCulloch, Kevin McDonald, Mark McKinney, and Scott Thompson. It goes back to their early comedy roots (McCulloch and McKinney in Calgary, Foley, McDonald, and Thompson in Toronto) and traces their hard-fought rise through the ranks, culminating in their popular sketch comedy TV show and beyond. It also looks at their often traumatic childhoods and how these experiences shaped them personally and in how they used comedy to move beyond these upbringings.
There were two major things I took away from this book: One, these guys worked incredibly hard to become successful. They never waited around for fate to choose them. They were constantly writing, performing, and hustling. They earned everything they eventually achieved, and even after the show, when their tours easily brought out adoring hordes who would have been happy to just revel in classic sketches and characters, they continued to write new material and mixed it with the old. Two, I was impressed by the absolute admiration with which their comedic peers express for the Kids. They are uniformly held in high regard by other comedians as well as generations that came after them and viewed them as inspirational.
Author Myers takes us through their rise
in clubs, through the five seasons of the Lorne Michaels-produced TV show that made them famous, the brutal Brain
Candy days (when the troupe was at its most fractured), and through the
touring years that served not only to promote them, but also to heal the
rifts that had formed. He also looks at their non-KITH projects,
including NewsRadio (Foley), McKinney's Slings & Arrows (an
absolutely hilarious look at theatre people and a personal favorite),
and Thompson's ground-breaking role (described as openly gay and openly Canadian) on Garry Shandling's The Larry Sanders Show. We also get a look at the production of Death Comes to Town (which I loved), a difficult period as this is when Thompson was receiving treatment for lymphoma.
Myers also devotes a lot of time to the behind-the-scenes crew that helped propel the Kids to immortality. When staffing their show, the guys enlisted a number of people they had come up through the ranks with and many of those excelled beyond the Kids in the Hall - Norm Hiscock in particular - as well as the band Shadowy Men on a Shadowy Planet, whose instrumental "Having an Average Weekend" became the show's theme music. We also get to learn how many of the popular sketches and characters were developed.
Because the book was published in 2018, it doesn't include their 2022
"sixth season", but it is still the definitive history of the Kids in
the Hall. Required reading if you're a fan.
The book's subtitle comes from McDonald's comment, "I always say that individually, we're all smart guys, but collectively, we're really just one dumb guy."
Andrew Garfield - Dude, relax. No one in the real world cares what you watch. Watch something, don't watch it, we don't care. It doesn't affect us. It's yours. We have ours. The whole reason for this story is he doesn't want to be canceled in the industry for watching something by an author that the so-called tolerant industry hate right now because she won't walk in lockstep with their beliefs and won't be silenced. Which leads us to...
Josh Duhamel - "Because I respect their views on things but I'm not going to preach to them." Holy moly, this guy gets it. But wait, there's more! "They can believe what they want to believe. I'm just here to, you know, make cool stuff." Nailed it, but I wonder how much of a backlash he's going to get within the industry for not sticking to the script.
Going back to Garfield, referring to J.K. Rowling - author of the Harry Potter series and one of the most successful authors in the world - as "she who shall remain nameless" isn't as clever as he thinks it is. How about this take, Andrew: Are you not saying her name because of her opinions on certain topics (which, whether or not you agree, she's entitled to have)? Or are you belittling a woman? Are you a misogynist? Down with your patriarchy!
Or are you dismissing the writer as beneath you because you're a big Hollywood star and don't have to acknowledge the little people? Are writers just schmucks with Underwoods to you, big shot?
Also, did Hollywood ever give back the billions of dollars they made off
Rowling's creations? Come on, show up how outraged you really are about
her opinions and cleanse yourself of her filthy money!
Laura Benanti (Who? Yeah, me too) makes an ass of herself when a group of teen theater kids didn't recognize her on a plane flight. Apparently she's trying to walk it back as down to earth self-mocking, but if she's such a great actress wouldn't that have come across in the first place? In her defense, she's a successful (if not recognizable) actress, with tons of credits and a Tony Award. Unfortunately, it's now her performance as a big shot who gets pissy over not being hailed by the little people is what a whole lot of people find the most memorable.
There have been a lot of memorable responses to the original video, but this was my favorite:
I remember reading something where the question of why not convert abandoned malls into housing, and a lot of it had to do with plumbing not being in place, because the places were set up as stores, not homes with sinks, showers, and toilets.
Having said that, I still think this is a cool idea, especially with the classic films and food courts. I'd consider it.
Forget karma, procrastination is the real bitch. And yet, I've had this experience before and I will have this experience again and no, I will not learn. I will probably never learn. I'll do the same damn thing the next time.
I admire and envy efficient people who just seem to have the ability to effortlessly get stuff done. I really do. But some of us have the gift of making everything more difficult than it needs to be. Yes we do.
Los Angeles Kings legend Anze Kopitar is calling it a career after this season and although he's currently injured and not playing (which is making the Kings worse than usual, they just dropped two in a row to Anaheim) the Ducks organization presented him with this honor:
I thought it was nice of them, although no matter how long this team is in existence apparently they'll never learn that Mickey Mouse ears just don't go with hockey. But it's the thought that counts and Kopi is (and always has been) a class act, so they got that part right.
I am still under the impression that there is nothing alive quite so beautiful as a horse. (John Galsworthy)
Some cause happiness wherever they go; others whenever they go. (Oscar Wilde)
Don't waste time on anything that doesn't thrill you or bring you love. (Gil Gerard, RIP)
I still remember the days of sitting at book signings, playing with my pen when no one would come, and still I even then thought I was living the dream, because I had a book out. (Harlan Coben)
The bigger the issue, the smaller you write. Remember that. You don't write about the horrors of war. No. You write about a kid's burnt socks lying on the road. You pick the smallest imaginable thing, and you work off the resonance. (Richard Price)
Belated news as this week was finals week of English 2 for me, so I haven't weighed in on this yet. But as of 4pm today, my fall semester final essay was submitted and another semester in the books! I am free of school assignments until Spring semester begins in mid-February! And so now, da entertainment industry newz.
An oldie but goodie from I Can Has Cheezburger. Remember them?
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences was apparently thrilled to announce that YouTube will be airing the Oscars beginning in 2029.
Time will tell if this is a win. ABC has aired the Oscars for decades and viewership has dropped dramatically over the years as Hollywood holds less and less sway over the masses. It will be interesting to see if YouTube can reignite interest in the ceremony or if they inherited an albatross that ABC will be glad to be rid of.
