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'Pat Paulsen was a mournful-looking comedian who ran five tongue-in-cheek races for the Presidency. Mr. Paulsen became a household name in 1968 when he announced on The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour that he was running for President under the Straight Talking American Government Party, or the S.T.A.G. Party. He ran the supposed campaigns using obvious lies, double talk, and tongue-in-cheek attacks on the major candidates, and responded to all criticism with his catch phrase "Picky, picky, picky". His campaign slogan was "Just a common, ordinary, simple savior of America's destiny." His work on The Smothers Brothers' show earned Paulsen an Emmy in 1968. Early in 1970, Paulsen headlined his own series, Pat Paulsen's Half a Comedy Hour, which ran 13 weeks on ABC.' -- Pat Paulsen Official Website
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'Professor Irwin Corey, "The World's Foremost Authority," was born on July 29, 1914, in Brooklyn, New York. Perfecting his crazy professor shtick, who always appeared in an old-fashioned tuxedo with tails like Groucho Marx, Corey broke through as a stand-up comic at San Francisco's "hungry i" and New York City's Copacabana and Village Vanguard nightclubs. His lectures, characterized by a constant barrage of non-sequitors and double-talk, were rooted in the word-play epitomized by Groucho Marx and Chico Marx in such classic routines as "Why a Duck?" However, whatever "logic" The Marx Brothers might display was missing in the Professor's shtick. Theater critic Kenneth Tynan said of the Professor, "[Corey is] a cultural clown, a parody of literacy, a travesty of all that our civilization holds dear and one of the funniest grotesques in America. He is Chaplin's clown with a college education."' -- imdb
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'Godfrey Cambridge was an African American actor and comedian, one of the most unique comics of the 1960s and early 1970’s. He also appeared in a number of off-Broadway productions and won an Obie award for a 1961 role in the play The Blacks. As a comedian he appeared on The Tonight Show and many other variety hours through television. His material was very much his own style and was drawn off of the racial climate of the times. He played many dramatic characters, one of Cambridge’s most memorable roles was in the Hollywood film Watermelon Man 1970 in which he played a white man who turned black overnight.' -- African American Registry
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'Jo Anne Worley is an American comedian whose work covers television, films, theater, game shows, talk shows, commercials, and cartoons. She is best known for her work on the comedy-variety show Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In.In 1966 she appeared Off-Broadway in The Mad Show, a musical revue based on Mad Magazine. In 1967, her stint on Merv Griffin's show led to her discovery by George Schlatter, who soon cast her in Laugh-In. In 1970, she left Laugh-In to pursue other projects and has made guest appearances on several TV shows, including Hot Dog, Love, American Style, The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson, The Andy Williams Show, and different game shows such as Hollywood Squares.' -- Unofficial JW Webpage
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'The Smothers Brothers are American singers, musicians, and comedians. The brothers' trademark act was performing folk songs (Tommy on acoustic guitar, Dick on string bass), which usually led to arguments between the siblings. In the 1960s, the brothers frequently appeared on television variety shows and issued several popular record albums of their stage performances. Their own television variety show, The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour, became one of the most controversial American TV programs of the Vietnam War era. Despite popular success, the brothers' penchant for material that was critical of the political mainstream and sympathetic to the emerging counterculture led to their firing by the CBS network in 1969.' -- Wiki
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'Jackie "Moms" Mabley's career spanned vaudeville, night clubs, recording, film, and television. A pioneer of social satire, she has strongly influenced such contemporary African-American comedians such as Richard Pryor, Bill Cosby, and Whoppi Goldberg. Her comic character was that of cantankerous old woman (created when Mabley herself was still young) who wore a funny hat, had a big toothless grin, and uttered gags laced with folk wisdom. Mabley rose to national recognition as a standup comedian in the early 1960s. During her career Moms recorded more than twenty albums of her comedy routines and appeared on various televisions shows.' -- britannica.com
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'Though never less than side-splittingly funny on camera, Jonathan Winters was plagued by severe emotional problems in real life, not the least of which was his reliance on what he called "the sauce." After a highly publicized sanitarium stay, a clean and sober Winters returned to TV, though it would be 1967 before any network would take a chance on his headlining a regular weekly show. During the early '60s, Winters' recorded bits began frequently popping up on the NBC radio series Monitor, and in 1963, he made his movie debut in the all-star It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (1963). In answer to critics who felt that Winters was tied down by scripted material, the comedian starred in the two-season syndicated weekly The Wacky World of Jonathan Winters (1972-1973), which was completely ad-libbed. Many young comics of the 1970s and 1980s have declared that Winters was a prime influence in their choice of career.' -- starpulse
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'Shelley Berman's comedy albums earned him three gold records and he won the first Grammy Award for a non-musical recording. He was the first standup comedian to play Carnegie Hall. While performing improvised sketches in the late 1950s, Shelley began developing solo pieces, employing an imaginary telephone to take the place of an onstage partner. While watching Mort Sahl perform at Mr. Kelly's in Chicago in 1957, Shelley realized he didn't necessarily have to tell traditional jokes as other comedians of the day did in order to work in nightclubs, and went on to audition at the club performing his one-man monologues and telephone routines with great success. Berman went on to appear on numerous TV specials, and all of the major variety shows of the day. Comedic and dramatic acting roles on television began to come his way, including appearances on episodes of The Twilight Zone, Bewitched, Peter Gunn, The Mary Tyler Moore Show, Adam-12, Emergency! , Night Court, MacGyver, and Walker, Texas Ranger. ' -- imdb
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'Flip Wilson was the first African-American entertainer to host a successful television variety series when he headed NBC’s The Flip Wilson Show from 1970-1974. Actually, he was the also the last African-American entertainer to host a hit variety series. Mr. Wilson was best known for his portrayals of such outrageous, over-the-top characters as the Reverend Leroy of the Church of What's Happening Now and Geraldine, the sassy but proud black woman whose flamboyance, enthusiasm and screeching, high-pitched voice were recognized by millions of Americans. Her trademark quips -- ''When you're hot, you're hot; when you're not, you're not,'' ''The devil made me do it'' and ''What you see is what you get'' -- became national catch phrases, part of everyone's vocabulary in the 1970's.' -- NYTimes
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'Mort Sahl was the first comedian to record a live album and the first to perform on college campuses. He was on the cover of Time magazine in 1960 where they called him "the patriarch of a new school of comedians". Following Kennedy's assassination in 1963, Sahl's interest in who was behind it was so great that he became a deputized member of New Orleans District Attorney Jim Garrison's team to investigate the murder. As a result, Sahl's comedy began to reflect his politics and included readings and commentary on the Warren Commission Report. His earlier anti-Kennedy jokes and his onstage tirades against the Warren Commission, alienated much of his audience. He was effectively blacklisted and his shows were cancelled. Sahl's income dropped to US$19,000 a year. However, the rising tide of counterculture fueled his comeback.' -- Wiki
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p.s. Hey. ** FreeFox, Hey! Really nice to see you! I just clicked over to your blog and realized I haven't checked it in a while, and I see you have a whole lot of new writing up there. I've only dipped, but it looks really terrific, and the prose seems gorgeous! I'm going to have a deep read when I get done here. Anyway, fantastic! It's a novel? Is it something you're working on or have finished recently or ... ? I'd love to hear more about it if you feel like sharing anything behind or around the scenes. Everyone, writer and d.l. FreeFox is posting sections of what looks to be a novel by him over on his blog 'Mine for the Taking', and from what I've read so far, it seems pretty fantastic. I highly recommend that you go over there and see/read for yourself. Do that by clicking here. Kudos, FF. What a pleasure! ** David Ehrenstein, Hi, David. This will probably come as no surprise, but I found 'Tree of Life' completely overwhelming. The experience of watching it was intensely emotional and kind of profound for me. I still don't even know how to talk about it a day later. It has really shaken me up. Malick's work always speaks to me in a deeply penetrating way, but never more so than in 'ToL'. Its so amazing when art does that to you, and I haven't felt this effected by anything in a very long time. It made me want to be a much better artist than I am, and that's Holy Grail of reactions, at least for me. ** Empty Frame, Wow, hi, man! I've missed you, don't you know? What happened to the website is still a mystery. The host is not responding to repeated queries. Someone apparently hacked it, and I guess the site will end up needing to be rebuilt somewhere else at this point. You interviewed Lynne? Cool. Yeah, she's as great a person as she is a writer. I'm reading the new book now. It's a joy. Interesting that you spent time in Athens. Having only been there once years ago, I've been trying to imagine what it's like under the current circumstances. Some good reading you've been doing, obviously. I like Saramago quite a bit, yes. What did you read by him. I haven't read the latest Goytisolo, but I definitely will. Super trippy that Cave is your neighbor, and it was cool reading the back and forth about that between you, Wolf, and Schoolboyerrors. Yeah, sidle up to him. I met him once in the mid-80s, and he was cold and unfriendly, but I think he was strung out at the time. Welcome back, buddy! ** MANCY, Thanks, M! ** Schoolboyerrors, Hey. Ha ha, yes, the Radio City Music Hall thing was in there. Good eye. Yeah, apparently it looks really bad for St. Marks Bookshop. It's the usual: losing lots of money plus very high rent, and the owners are in their 70s now and are apparently tired of the fight to keep it going. I sure hope it gets turned around somehow. It's kind of THE independent bookstore to me, so great and with such an important history. Anyway, ugh. I'll give you the -- or rather my -- word on the Kapoor. I think I'll see it this week. ** Bernard Welt, Oh, Noe-like, hm, yeah, perhaps you're right. I was thinking 80s/90s 4AD album cover. ** Bollo, Hey. What is the work you're making for the next show like, if you can say? Country mode sounds nice. I need to go find me some country. ** Alan, I didn't know the last one was an Indian place on 1st Ave. Now that I revisit the image in that light, I think I was actually there once, and I also recall that once felt like enough. Would I have supported Strauss-Kahn? It's not something I had thought about, and since I'm just an eternal tourist here, support would be relative term in my case. But if what has happened to DSK hadn't happened, and if it had been Strauss-Kahn vs. Sarkozy and Marine Le Pen? Yeah, I'm pretty sure I would have been hoping he won, and you could have taken that yikes and shoved it, ha ha. ** Allesfliesst, I used to have a friend who proselytized on behalf of wine enemas and would use the word sublime in that regard a lot. You dance like a freak? Okay, that is a surprise. I like it though. I makes you more human. Oh, you were a beloved. Beloveds are very compelling. I used to get lost in their dynamic too easily. Interesting. If I ever get to meet you, expect to be queried about that. I find the phenomenon of the beloved very interesting, which I guess is kind of obvious from my writing. ** Wolf, Hey. Well, it may be that it's Hollande or Royal, although the Socialists just had this big emergency meeting yesterday to strategize about the election, so I assume they recognize the weakness there, and maybe they'll even try to do something about that. ** Jon Reiss, Hi, Jon! Oh, ha ha, 'Glamorama', yes, very nice. How are you? What's up? ** Steevee, It wouldn't be a Cannes Festival without Von Trier making some stupid, outrageous comment designed to draw as much attention to himself as possible and then waiting until the reporters filed their stories before trying to walk it back in some way that would create a secondary controversy and draw more attention. What a bore that guy is. Very smart, cogent point about TtC and Sara's response, or I think so. Here's hoping that anchor's bosses aren't control freaks. I'm really into the new Liturgy too. I mentioned that I met and talked with Hunter Hunt-Hendrix a couple of weeks ago. Really interesting, impressive guy. And finally, one more very happy birthday to you on your first full day as a 39er! ** JoeM, Hi, Joe! I tried to stay away from Xmas trees as much as I could because, yeah, I did a thing on them already, and the twinkling and tree connection seemed too literal or something. I'm hoping to see 'Midnight in Paris' this week. Sounds like it's going to be a sweet one. ** Chris Cochrane Hey. If the Paris thing works out, and it's not a done deal, so keep that in mind, it would be connected to the Festival that Gisele and I are co-curating, yeah. 7 pm on Saturday? I think that'll work. Let's confirm in the next day or so, but I think that would be fine on my end. Sandy Bull, yeah, but I haven't thought of him in ages. I always liked his name. He was kind of a biggie when I was young. Surfish but moody, I think. ** Mark Gluth, I don't know if they're sending me to Seattle. I think that's being figured out. It seems like they will, but it always seems to depend on whether and how much some bookstore there wants to do an event. I've never drawn much of a crowd when I read in Seattle, so I don't know how hot and bothered the stores there would be to have me. I hope so! ** Andrew, Okay, I don't know what ED is or else I'm spaced out. What is it? ** Sypha, I did a shitload of LSD and psychedelics when I was younger, and I've never had any health issues from it, but I might have one of those vaunted tough constitutions. Well, it was because US Christians were behind the Ugandan law that the online petition both made sense to do and worked to whatever degree it did. Also, the law was being debated, and the leadership was allowing arguments for and against it. So, it was not a situation where a policy was already in place or where the injustice was happening in a country with an 100% oppressive government and in a context where the opinions of people in Western countries mean nothing. It was a situation where one had an opportunity to do something practical that could potentially effect the outcome. If people are truly outraged that not enough people are outraged by injustices and bigotry around the world, then maybe they should do something more than rant to their internet friends about it, or, if there isn't anything practical they can do to solve an awful situation in a foreign culture, maybe they should try to make a difference in their own surroundings where they do have at least some degree of power to change things. I don't mean this in a personal way, it's just that, in general and to me, when people complain about other people's complaining or not complaining, it's like beating up a pillow. Why choose a battle if you're not going to fight it? That petition regarding the law in Uganda, for instance, offered an opportunity to at least start somewhere. ** Inthemostpeculiarway, Hey. The omelette was pretty fluffy and okay. Well, your day report may have been brief, but it was chock full. I liked all the motion in it. My day: So, I went to that meeting at the Pompidou. The guy who's managing the touring and stuff for 'Them' is in town, and the meeting was to try to get the Pompidou curator to book 'Them', 'cos he'd been interested but vague. Anyway, it went quite well, and it looks pretty good that 'Them' will play there early next year just so long as we can get some additional funding from somewhere or other European paying gigs that will make getting the show to Europe feasible. So, so far so good. Then I rushed back here, ate something quickly, and then Kiddiepunk, Oscar, and I metroed over to Odeon to see 'Tree of Life'. There was this camera crew standing in front of the theater and keeping an eagle eye on the people coming out, and we didn't know what was going on until the Interior Minister of France, who, just as an aside, is a disgusting scumbag, walked out after having watched, I guess, 'Midnight in Paris' because, I assume, Carla Bruni is in it, and the film crew swooped and trailed him up the sidewalk trying to get his opinion of the movie, I guess. Then we went in. As I said to David E, I found 'Tree of Life' absolutely amazing, and it effected me really intensely and put me in this strange head space and emotional state that made me feel kind of shaken up for the rest of the day. I think K&O liked the film, but we didn't really talk much afterwards. We came back here, and I just kind of dealt with my reaction and thought about it for the rest of the day. I didn't do much other than write some emails and work a little bit. My reveries were interrupted by some awful family stuff via email and phone that I don't really want to go into at the moment. And, lastly, I watched part of a documentary about Mahler on Arte. It was interesting, but I crashed before it was over. So, yeah, that was the gist of my day and, so, yeah, it's your turn in the spotlight now, my friend. ** Math, Hey, pal. Oh, yeah, I think you should have gotten something from Marc by now based on what I know. I'll ask him to get (back) in touch with you. Nice about LA's ongoing goodness in your regards. Enjoy your last few there. ** Misanthrope, I love you to death too, my man. Maybe for the same reason they're obsessed with hot chicks and bling? Keep hanging in there, G., and if there's anything I can do, ... well, you know. ** Okay. Yeah, I don't what got me remembering these comedians and wondering why and how some or maybe even most comedy gets dated and then coming up with ideas about that and wondering what others would say about that if they were interested. They being you if you want. That's all, basically. Of course I'll see you tomorrow.
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