The past year has had at least one prominent thing going for it: the full-fledged return of film festivals after an extended lockdown-related hiatus. The 2024 version of the San Francisco Silent Film Festival opened earlier this week at the Palace Of Fine Arts Theatre, in San Francisco's Marina district. Do we seek a Star Trek teleportation device that would make attending these screenings a breeze? Yes.
The Laurel & Hardy Show - Saturday, April 13 at 10:00 a.m.
Buster Keaton in Sherlock Jr - Saturday, April 13 at 7:00 p.m. The Gorilla 1927 version starring Charlie Murray - Sunday, April 14 at 10:00 a.m.
Harold Lloyd in The Kid Brother - Sunday, April 14 at 12:15 p.m. Live music by Mont Alto Motion Picture Orchestra.
Sunday, April 14, 2024 at 3:00 p.m. Roxy Cinema NYC, 2 Avenue of the Americas (lower level) and Cartoons On Film presents Peculiar Puppets vol. V (16mm) The press release elaborates: Roxy Cinema hereby presents a fifth retrospective screening featuring various peculiar examples of puppet films from the 1920s through the 1950s. Warning: You may find some of the offerings to be rather unsettling, possibly even creepy!
This event is programmed by early animation archivist and historian Tommy José Stathes, and prints are hand-selected from his personal 16mm film archive. The 90 minute film program with intermission will be followed by a live Q&A session with Stathes. Click here for more info & advance tickets.
On April 18-21, 2024, TCM Classic Film Festival returns to the Holly-woods. Venues include the Egyptian Theatre, the Chinese Multiplex House 1-6, and, of course, Club TCM at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel. It is the 15th edition of this epic festival and features lots and lots of classic movies along with more recent fare which, by this point, April 2024, were definitely long time ago. . . make that a very long time ago. Many special guests, still living movie stars and various favorite scholars and historians we know will be on hand. Still miss Robert Osborne! For way more on past TCM festivals, check out the TCM YouTube channel.
Still thinking of the late, great Joe Flaherty, who did excellent William F. Buckley and Kirk Douglas impersonations and whose fellow SCTV cast members were also incredible mimics, Way Too Damn Lazy To Write A Blog now turns to the topic of impressionists. Rang in 2024 on the blog with a January 1 post largely devoted to old school impressionists - John Byner, Bobby Darin, Sammy Davis Jr and Australia's best, Keith Scott, included.
Those of us who have long since passed retirement age, such as this "ok, boomer" blogmeister, remember seeing impressionists regularly on TV. Such popular and ubiquitous stand-up comedians of the day - Jack Carter, Shecky Greene, Guy Marks - featured impersonations prominently in their acts.
The Ed Sullivan Show, The Hollywood Palace, The Tonight Show With Johnny Carson and The Dean Martin Show featured superlative impressionists.
Way back in the 1950s and 1960s, it hadnt been that long since arger-than-life movie stars - Humphrey Bogart, Mae West, W.C. Fields, Jack Benny, Greta Garbo, Edward G. Robinson, Peter Lorre, Jimmy Cagney, Groucho Marx, Bette Davis, Katharine Hepburn, Cary Grant and Robert Mitchum - dominated both the silver screen and the cathode ray tube. Many of the aforementioned Hollywood stars were very much still with us then and could either love or despise the impressions. Johnny Carson and Dick Cavett would book the likes of Jack Benny and Groucho Marx on their late-night shows whenever they could.
Along with The Ed Sullivan Show and The Dean Martin Show, it was arguably the last TV variety program to provide mimics a showcase. The late 1970's On Location series by HBO did at least gave impressionists an extended opportunity to do their standup comedy acts.
And, speaking of The Dean Martin Show, how this blogmeister actually forgot to include the aforementioned Guy Marks (1923-1987), one of the very best and funniest of the old school impressionists back in the 1960's, we'll never know! Let's rectify that error now!
Since the demise of the TV variety program and such showcases as The Ed Sullivan Show in the 1970's, the last place where actual impressionists could be found is late night TV: SCTV (a.k.a. Second City Television), Late Night With David Letterman, Saturday Night Live and to a lesser degree Fridays, In Living Color and Mad TV. Frank Caliendo was the impressions guy on Mad TV.
Saturday Night Live has explored that "improv meets impressions" space from John Belushi's Marlon Brando as The Godfather impersonation to Gilda Radner's Lucy to the dead-on mimicry and comedy acting genius of Eddie Murphy, uncrowned and unheralded king of celebrity and politician voices Darrell Hammond - and the "micro-impressions" of the great Dana Carvey.
The Saturday Night Live casts have featured numerous stand-up comedians who do impressions over the decades - the infamous Season 6 featured three, Eddie Murphy, Joe Piscopo and Gilbert Gottfried - and a favorite 21st century SNL stalwart and new school impressionist is Bill Hader.
Sometimes Jimmy Fallon's musical impressions make it into The Tonight Show; we would also occasionally get a glimpse of them, along with very funny music-related sketches, during his SNL stint in the early oughts. He's a musician who happens to be an improv comic and clearly most at home with a guitar in his hand. Jimmy Fallon's impressions of Neil Young and Bruce Springsteen are my favorite bits of his.
Fellow SNL alum Melissa Villaseñor is also an amazing new school impressionist.
As is the case with Maya Rudolph, we have the impression that Melissa Villaseñor has many, many more impressions yet to be heard.
Melissa's celebrity impersonations (musical and otherwise) are a highlight of the current version of The Tonight Show, especially the Wheel of Musical Impressions feature. Now, has anyone gotten Melissa and Dolly Parton together?
The current SNL cast features two bonafide impressionists in James Austin Johnson and Chloe Fineman.
While eating a delicious sandwich on National Grilled Cheese Sandwich Day and checking Ebay daily for Star Trek teleportation devices in good condition (even knowing it's likely that Bill Shatner and Patrick Stewart have cornered the market on them), the gang at Way Too Damn Lazy To Write A Blog also yearn to see more showcases for comedians and comediennes with the gift of mimicry - and the gift of gab.
Cannot overstate how thrilled and delighted this blogger is to be still here, reasonably awake, drawing breath and guzzling coffee on January 1, 2024!
Of course, ringing in the new year means a few generous slugs of More Coffee, my favorite brand!
We shall start today's "OMG we made it through another year - yippee ki-yo ki-yay" post and kick off the new year with some classic cartoons! Here's a favorite of mine that I generally must explain to folks under a certain advanced age. It's a spoof of the very popular Information Please radio program (check 'em out on archive.org), which aired on NBC from 1938 to 1951, and features a caricature of the brilliant pianist, composer, recording artist, author, raconteur and supporting player in MGM musicals, Oscar Levant.
To this aficionado of Incredibly Strange Cartoons, The Herring Murder Mystery presents the answer to the question of whether the Screen Gems studio, between the constant churning of personnel and general upheaval, presented anything remotely resembling an original style? YES - it's in this cartoon!
As close to a noir-toon as they ever got at Disney's, this classic turned up a few months ago in Charles Gardner's splendid Animation Trails series on Cartoon Research. Noted in the Guide to the Virgil Partch Cartoons and Artwork, this Donald Duck opus features an imaginative story by reknowned comics artist Virgil "VIP" Partch and Dick Shaw. Jack Kinney, who helmed some of the greatest cartoons and sequences ("Pink Elephants") ever made by Walt Disney Productions, directed Duck Pimples with his usual panache.
Arguably the closest thing to a "cartoon noir" would be Frank Tashlin's brilliant 1937 Looney Tune THE CASE OF THE STUTTERING PIG.
Many attempted to make "noir-toons" but didn't quite pull it off. Back to the surreal sensibility of Screen Gems, THE VITAMIN G MAN, directed by Paul Sommer & John Hubley (yes, THAT John Hubley), is too way-out and incoherent even for the most dyed-in-the-wool animation buffs, with the exception of this writer, who is fine with utter incoherence and extreme suspension of disbelief in an animated cartoon.
Continuing today's post, a topic near and dear to us at Way Too Damn Lazy To Write A Blog is impressionists, both old school and new school. This is due to the passings at the tail end of 2023 of Tommy Smothers and Shecky Greene, two outstanding comedians who were not known as impressionists but could do amazing impressions. Tommy's impersonation of Johnny Carson is the best!
Those who saw Shecky at his peak considered him the epitome of the post WW2 era standup comedian, a master of songs, dialects, improvisation, showbiz stories and, of course, Hollywood and recording star impressions, all delivered with linguistic prowess. Alas, we have not been able to find complete sets of Shecky in his 1950's and 1960's heydey as King Of The Vegas Lounges. A contemporary of Johnny Carson, Jerry Lewis, Don Rickles and Jack Carter, he did appear semi-regularly on The Hollywood Palace, The Dean Martin Show and The Match Game.
The closest thing to a Shecky standup set - unfortunately, his December 16, 1977 episode of the HBO series On Location is M.I.A. - would be his extended appearance on the The Tonight Show With Johnny Carson on November 7, 1975. No doubt Shecky had Johnny ROFL through rehearsal and after the show!
Two impressionists the gang here never tires of are Sammy Davis, Jr. and Bobby Darin, two all-time showbiz greats.
Love Bobby Darin's impressions of Hollywood stars, especially Jimmy Stewart, Clark Gable and W.C. Fields.
Almost as ubiquitous on TV as The Smothers Brothers in the 1960's was impressionist and cartoon voice ace John Byner.
Here he is on Late Night with David Letterman.
Last but not least in today's New Year's post will be the multi-talented impressionist Keith Scott.
He is also quite the historian and expert on all things voice-over.
In closing, shall note that Keith penned Way Too Damn Lazy To Write A Blog's favorite cinema-related book of 2023.
Thankfully, during lousy 21st century times, 20th century comedy heroes are, at long last, getting some love in several recently released (or soon to be released) movies. The Great Buster: A Celebration, on the festival circuit now, was covered in last weekend's post.
A movie about Stan Laurel & Oliver Hardy's 1940's touring years will be out in January. Love, Gilda, remembering the most endearing of comediennes, Gilda Radner, was released last weekend.
Love, Gilda profiles the life and times of the actress-comedienne-singer and stalwart activist on behalf of those suffering with cancer. For more about Love, Gilda, listen to Alan Zweibel, her friend and frequent writing partner on Saturday Night Live, discussing the film on a memorable and highly recommended episode of Gilbert Gottfried's Amazing Colossal Podcast.
It is unfortunate that Gilda's husband Gene Wilder, who passed in 2016, did not live to see this film.
Tough to pick a single favorite Gilda sketch (for this writer, that would be The Judy Miller Show). There are lots of very funny sketches both from her five SNL seasons and in the Gilda Live show from 1980.
Another memorable appearance was one of her last, on Late Night With David Letterman in 1986. Gilda's megawatt personality and impromptu musical comedy mojo light up the proceedings - and she brings her neighbors from Connecticut there to Studio 8H to share in the fun.
To be shown at the British Film Institute in October and to be released by Entertainment One UK across the pond in January, Stan & Ollie, about the post-moviemaking touring days of Laurel & Hardy. Film historian Trav S.D. has penned a post about the film, The Buzz on Stan & Ollie.
John C. Reilly and Steve Coogan star as the comedy team of comedy teams. Here's the trailer.
While Laurel & Hardy fans and dyed-in-the-wool classic comedy buffs are not thrilled with the bit in the trailer regarding Zenobia, which is totally inaccurate, the scuttlebutt from those who have seen Stan & Ollie remains that, for the most part, the film is historically on point. L&H and Hal Roach Studio experts Richard L. Bann and Randy Skredtvedt were consulted in the making of the film. We'll see Stan & Ollie, hopefully on the big screen, when it gets an official theatrical release in the states.
In Stan & Ollie, the leads clearly do their best to get beyond impersonation and into the hearts, minds and souls of two iconic actors of a previous generation. This, and the recent passing of comedian-actor Will Jordan, got the pop culture vultures at Way Too Damn Lazy To Write A Blog thinking about professional mimics and impressionists, many of whom were hilarious.
Those who are soon approaching retirement age in 2018 will remember seeing impressionists and stand up comics regularly on such programs as The Ed Sullivan Show, The Hollywood Palace and The Tonight Show With Johnny Carson. Impressionists were all over TV in the halcyon 20th century days of olde, as were WB cartoons featuring Hollywood caricatures!
Mimicry is rapidly becoming a lost art, due to such 21st century realities as a conspicuous lack of larger-than-life movie stars - Humphrey Bogart, Mae West, W.C. Fields, Jack Benny, Greta Garbo, Edward G. Robinson, Peter Lorre, Jimmy Cagney, Groucho Marx, Bette Davis, Katharine Hepburn, Cary Grant and Robert Mitchum - as were found from the 1930's into the 1960's. Now those who remember these 20th century entertainment icons are dwindling in numbers - unless they watch Turner Classic Movies and/or have a strong interest in movies, music and books created before their birth.
One of the best mimics, Will Jordan, known for, among dozens of impressions, his very funny take on the not larger-than-life Ed Sullivan. Alas, his routines were so good that other comedians were known to "borrow" material from Will, as noted in Kliph Nesteroff's book The Comedians. As much of Jordan's living was made performing his act for sales meetings and corporate events, there's not that much footage of his impressions, other than Ed Sullivan.
Another one of the greatest of impressionists - when he wasn't singing, dancing, acting, playing the piano, drums and vibes - was entertainer Sammy Davis, Jr.
Also in the old school showbiz universe, Bobby Darin, who used the Sinatra concert staple One For My Baby and One For The Road as a framework for his movie star impressions. His Clark Gable is tops, even better than George Clooney's Gable-inspired performance in Brother Where Art Thou.
At one point, those who did dead-on impersonations got their own TV show, The Kopykats. Beginning as an offshoot of Kraft Music Hall, the impressionist-packed variety program ran from 1970 through 1972 and featured a rotating cast of extremely talented mimics.
Among the last impressionists standing would be John Byner and (Jay Ward Productions historian) Keith Scott, who keep coming up with new celebs and politicians to impersonate, and are as funny as ever.
