“Frontline”: “The Choice” and “Heat”: Well, this’ll be short, as I was up in my room, writing blog posts when this panel was taking place. As to “The Choice,” you may have seen previous editions of this special in 2004 and 2000, as it’s become a regular tradition on PBS to provide a dual biography of the Democratic and Republican Presidential candidates, so if you’re a political junkie, you’re probably gonna want to check out the latest entry in the series of specials. “Heat,” as it happens, is produced by Martin Smith, who served as producer on an earlier edition of “The Choice,” but his latest work is all about global warning. with twelve countries from around the world participating in the special. That’s all I’ve got. Check it out if it sounds interesting to you.
“Nature: American Eagle”: Eagles are beautiful, beautiful creatures, and “Nature” is a gorgeously filmed program. Two great tastes that taste great together. ‘Nuff said. (Can you tell I was still up in my room for this panel, too?)
“Make ‘Em Laugh: The Funny Business Of America”: Even though the film buff in me is admittedly psyched about that Warner Brothers story doc, I’m way more excited about this series, which, per filmmaker Michael Kantor, “starts with Charlie Chaplin and ends somewhere in the Jon Stewart world.” I’ve been a huge fan of comedy for as long as I can remember – we’re talking TV, film, albums, and, God help me, I was even a dedicated “Dr. Demento” listener until his program stopped being aired in my area – and I positively foaming at the mouth with the clips they showed us. The breaking news came at the beginning – Billy Crystal has been signed to provide narration for this six-part series – and, from there, we were treated to some extremely funny comments from the panel, which included Richard Lewis, Anne Beatts (an original “SNL” writer as well as the creative mind behind “Square Pegs”), and Larry Wilmore (otherwise known as the Senior Black Correspondent for “The Daily Show”).
Richard Lewis on the appropriate use of profanity in comedy: “Listen, you know, when I would listen to a double album of Lenny Bruce at Berkeley, I mean, I had no idea I was going to become a comedian. I was about 18. But a bar was set, and it wasn’t the expletives that I was focused on. It was, like, these insanely brilliant routines in that double album, and it had a lot of his great bits. And once I, two years later, became a comedian and Pryor was already a star, basically, and he’s a genius. He’s arguably the greatest, to me, stand-up comedian. Lenny may be the most important, and Jonathan Winters in a lot of ways perhaps more spectacularly open-ended, hilarious human being I’ve ever known, but he was worked very, very clean…in fact, totally clean, Jonathan. The other two guys didn’t, but it was more street talk and character stuff for Richard. And for Lenny, the same. But, you know, there are a vast majority of comedians who use expletives almost as a punch line to get laughs at clubs or at a concert, and as a comedian myself…and I’m a little blue from time to time, it sneaks out, but it’s never a premise, or it’s never a punch line. Tragically, it cheapens the art form.”
Larry Wilmore on Bill Hicks: “He probably didn’t get a chance to really get into the mainstream, but all of the comics at the time during the ’80s respected Bill Hicks. I remember working with him in Houston, I think, in the mid-’80s, and I couldn’t believe how just raw and funny he was.”
Anne Beatts on Tina Fey: “She’s great, hilarious, wonderful, talented, pretty, good legs, everything. She’s terrific. But I did misguidedly tell her not to wear her glasses on television. I was so wrong.”
Larry Wilmore on Flip Wilson: “One of my biggest influences that I feel sometimes gets lost in the discussions sometimes is Flip Wilson. When I was a kid, Flip Wilson…he was the first black to have a
successful variety show on television. Nat King Cole had one, but that was canceled. (Flip’s) was in the top ten. Flip was dynamic. He was hilarious. I mean, he was so funny. And to see a black person on television that confident and just leading a show and just be a trailblazer was huge when I was a kid. I used to impersonate Geraldine and all of
that. He just had so much personality, and I couldn’t believe how funny he was. He was my biggest influence when I was a kid and I think has more to do influentially with getting blacks into the mainstream in comedy and television, especially. He really opened the door for Redd Foxx to have his show, ‘Sanford and Son,’ and some of the other shows to come after because he was…you know, he was just so good.”
Anne Beatts on her Mount Rushmore of female comedians: “I’ll only answer this if, after this, Larry
will tell us the four black people and (Richard will) tell us the four Jews. Probably two of those women should be Fanny Brice and…well, Sophie Tucker was another one, but maybe you would go either Fanny or Sophie, because they’re old. I would put Joan Rivers. And then you’ve got Lucy. And then what about Gilda Radner? She’s certainly on the Mount Rushmore Junior or something, anyway. So there you are. Does that work? Did I overthink it? Probably.”
Suggestions from the other panelists included Madeline Kahn (Richard), Imogene Coca (Larry), Moms Mabley (Richard), with Anne continuing to think of other possible inclusions, such as Whoopi Goldberg and Margaret Dumont. (“Without her, Groucho would not have been as funny as he was, because she was the perfect straight woman for him.”) Richard never did come up with a definitive “Mount Jewmore,” declaring that there were too many possible choices, but Larry settled on Bill Cosby, Richard Pryor, Dick Gregory, and Moms Mabley for “Mount Blackmore.”
Richard Lewis on George Carlin: “Approximately a little over three years before George passed on…and he truly did carry the torch in a tremendous way from Richard and Lenny, for sure…he was hooked on pain pills, and I reached out to him when he went into rehab. We knew each other, but we weren’t friends. We then began a three-year, wonderful (friendship). I’ve been sober almost 14 years, and I told him I’m there for him 24/7. And we started this tremendous library of emails. I said, ‘It’s the Jew. How are you?’ And he would call himself ‘The Gentile.’ It was really great to be able to be part of his recovery, which is something I’ll always cherish. But the one thing I want to just say, in terms of style, when I would talk to George when he was in the process even of putting together yet his thirtieth special or whatever it was last year, I’d say, ‘George, how’s it going?’ And he said, ‘I have a minute and eight seconds left.’ And he literally did his HBO specials like a play, and I found that to be, you know, remarkable. I mean, he really was — I mean, that’s how he worked, and it was totally antithetical to how I like to work. I was just amazed by his work ethic. I don’t think anyone has ever been more prolific than him in the history of standup nor had a work ethic like Mr. Carlin.”
Larry Wilmore on Barack Obama: “He was on (‘The Daily Show’) on satellite once while I was doing one of my bits. I think it was the VP thing, where I was saying who he should pick for VP and how difficult it’s going to be, and – using movies as analogies – said that he should just pick himself in a fat suit, like Eddie Murphy. You know, that would be the best thing. And apparently he was on the satellite feed and he was watching it and he was really laughing. And I said,
‘Did you guys tape it?’ ‘No.’ And then on Huffington Post, someone who was on the other side reported it and said, ‘Oh, Obama was laughing at Larry Wilmore.’ I said, ‘Hey, Obama! He knew it was me! He was laughing!’ And then I mentioned Reverend Wright, and he was, like, ‘That motherfucker…'”
