Monthly Archives: June 2003

An odd twist in the war between Disney and Stephen Slesinger Inc., the company suing The Mouse for royalties on Winnie the Pooh. I don't know what, if anything, this means.

I haven't read Hillary Clinton's newly-released autobiography and as far as I can tell, neither have about 90% of the folks who are now reviewing it. Fox commentator Tony Blankley even nakedly admits he hasn't read it and then proceeds to trash the book, and he may be on to something. (At least, give the man some points for beings honest about it.) Even those who have actually turned some pages seem to have only done so to pull a few quotes they can use as evidence to shore up the opinions — pro or con — they were already going to write. If you want to see some real clumsy lying, go over to the page on Amazon where folks who've read the book (or claim so) can post reviews.

You'll see long-time Hillary-haters pretending to be unbiased observers who just happened to have gotten hold of a copy, read it and found it so boring and/or incredible that they just have to advise you to save your money.And you'll find the opposite faction: Pro-Clinton people pretending they came to the book with no opinion of Senator Clinton and her hubby and were overwhemingly convinced of their virtue. At the moment — it could change if one or two people become determined to change it — the vote is pretty much split. The average reviewer gives it two-and-a-half stars out of five, which is roughly the split that polls tell us Hillary inspires in Americans. It intrigues me that Amazon has become this barometer of political spirit in much the same way activists feel they've won something if they can bombard an online poll with thousands of faux votes and see their side win a victory. It's becoming painfully obvious to me that a lot of online polls are deliberately configured to inspire such manipulation. If I ever need to get my "hit" count up here, I'll install one and ask some hot button questions.

I don't know that having a best-selling book everywhere, let alone just on Amazon, means that the author is growing more powerful or is winning over America — a country where few read books, and most who do read books favor those that confirm what they already believe. But since there seems to be no other way to vote for or against Hillary at the moment, it's getting turned into a kind of referendum. Her book — briefly — fell from #2 to #3 on Amazon and when I visited a few of the conservative chatboards I surf, I saw cheering and the proud proclamation that the U.S. was catching on to her and that the book would be on the remainder table by next week. (Uh, couldn't it also have meant a brief surge in Harry Potter sales?) When Hillary quickly returned to #2, we got the conspiracy theories: Amazon is lying, Barbra is buying up tons, etc. The folks trying to spin this as Hillary's comeback are no better.

Sometimes, a hot dog is just a hot dog. Sometimes, book sales are just book sales. I don't think the tons of volumes that Michael Moore and Michael Savage were simultaneously selling prove that the country was moving in any direction, much less both at the same time. I don't even think it proves that any significant number of people have a favorable opinion of either Michael. If anything, it proves that those men were good at exploiting political sentiments in order to sell some books. Hillary and her publishers have obviously learned the trick.

Here's the transcript of a recent public appearance by the outspoken writer. It rehashes a lot of things he's said in other interviews and I'm really only posting this because I finally figured out how to link to articles on the Writers Guild website.

Alex Ben Block over at Television Week explains that "The Fix Was In."

Dirk Deppey over at The Comics Journal's ¡Journalista! site has been serializing a very pointed, on-target (I think) assessment of what's wrong with Marvel in their current approach to publishing. It's mostly about distribution and comic shops and if that kind of thing interests you, I recommend it. He's just collected it all in one place. Of course, it doesn't begin to tackle the most burning question of the comic book industry, which is what the hell I'm doing up at this hour.

Writers should receive a bonus on scripts based on how late they stay up working on them.

Best wishes to Jerry Beck (of Cartoon Research) and Marea Boylan who are today tying the knot, getting hitched, becoming one…pick the cliché of your choice. They're getting married is what they're doing. To help finance the union, Jerry is selling some special wedding postcards designed by the splendid graphic designer, Leslie Cabarga. You can help the newlyweds go out and buy more cartoon stuff by purchasing a set of these cards here.

And while I'm at it, I'll mention that you can see Leslie's fine work — and buy some of his elegant fonts — over at his website. Check out his article and illustrations of the comely Ms. Boop.

And since we're talking about Kevin Meaney…well, we'll make him our comedian link of the day. Put on your big pants, wipe that puss off your face and hustle over to his website. One of the funniest things I saw during the last presidential election — and as you well know, there were plenty of contenders — was a spot on Comedy Central where Kevin talked with children about the Gore-Bush contest. He kept asking three-year-olds, "Are you better off than you were four years ago?"

E-mails are asking me about what I described as his "sadly-underdistributed CD." It was called Shelley Berman Live Again, Recorded at the Improv and no, I don't know where you can get a copy, except that it turns up occasionally on eBay. But then, what doesn't? It was recorded at the Improv in Hollywood on February 9, 1995 in front of a star-studded (well, me aside) audience. If you can find a copy, it's really quite wonderful.

Berman did about an hour, not all of which made it to the CD — but all of it was good enough to have been on there. It was a nice mixture of new and old material, all of it delivered with enormous expertise. Harvey Korman was sitting next to me and he was laughing so hard, I don't think he heard half of what Shelley said.

Which reminds me of the one truly funny line of the evening that didn't come from Shelley Berman. When he finished, the audience (mostly comedians) stood and cheered him and then almost everyone began to file out to join Shelley in the bar area and compliment him. But a few people stayed for the next act (at the Improv, there's always another comedian going on) and the guy who was stuck with following Shelley that night was a funny guy I've worked with a few times named Kevin Meaney. He gets up on stage as most of the crowd is leaving and yells towards the bar: "Hey, Shelley! Thanks for opening for me!"

Frank Rich talks in The New York Times about the recent scandals that have enveloped The New York Times. In particular, he discusses the media frenzy and makes some points that are more important than who edits The Old Gray Lady of Journalism. Here it is.

While you're over at Shelley Berman's website, read the story about the little soaps. It's better when you hear him perform it but it's still wonderful to read.

A lot of once-great comedians wind up running on fumes: You laugh, if you laugh at all, not because they are funny but because they were. An exception to this is Shelley Berman, who practically invented the modern stand-up comedy act…in part, by not standing-up. He'd sit on a stool, pretend his fist was a phone and draw you into hilarious, insightful little scenes.

The last few years, I've been fortunate enough to see him live about a half-dozen times and I was in the audience when he recorded his recent, sadly-underdistributed CD. Even doing material off his classic record albums — material I know by heart — he makes me laugh as hard as anyone. He also has an amazing repertory of new, non-recorded monologues…and you know what's really neat? He actually answers questions on the message board over at his website.

Joe Bevilacqua ("Joe Bev" to his friends) is a voice performer — one of the many who studied with the late, great Daws Butler. As mentioned here, Joe has recently co-assembled a book of scripts by Daws. Tomorrow morning (Father's Day) on National Public Radio, Weekend Edition is airing a ten-minute segment on Daws, Joe Bev and how the former inspired the latter in the creation of his series, "Willoughby and the Professor." For example, it'll be heard on KCRW radio in Los Angeles some time between 8 and 10 AM. You can find out more about Joe Bev and hear some of his work, including "Willoughby," over at his website.

Jeff Smith. Bone. Doesn't get much better than this.

Wendy Liebman is a very funny lady. If you haven't seen her live, there's a list of upcoming appearances over at her website. If she comes near you, go. You'll have a good time.