Hey, wanna hear an interview with this Mort Sahl guy I keep talking about here? Robin Diane Goldstein has this podcast thing called Schnauzer Logic or something of the sort. I don't understand it. But Robin has a nice Mort Sahl interview on this page. It cuts out now and then (Mort was on a cell phone) but there's some good stuff in there.
Also: On this page, Robin has some photos from the Sahl Tribute. And over here is the program booklet.
That's the dust jacket (front and back) of my forthcoming book on Jack Kirby. It's called Kirby: King of Comics and it'll be out well before Christmas, they tell me. It can be ordered from Amazon by clicking on this link. Please click on that link.
My e-mail suggests I've confused a few folks about something so let me explain…and in so doing, probably confuse the matter even more. I am involved with two (2) books about the great comic book creator, Jack Kirby. The second, which has no firm publication date or plans at present, is an exhaustive, long, trivia-laden, full-of-hitherto-undisclosed info biography. I'm still working intermittently on that one. Don't ask me when it'll be done. I don't know.
This year's book, which I hope will tide Kirby fans over for now, is an art book with a much briefer biography. The text in this one is around 40,000 words as opposed to the other book, which should easily top 250,000, thereby making Vince Bugliosi's J.F.K. volume look like a pamphlet.
Kirby: King of Comics is 224 pages in a 9" by 12" hardcover format, published by Harry N. Abrams, Inc. which is arguably the leading publisher of art-type books in the United States and maybe anywhere. The book is filled with illustrations from Jack's life, ranging from things he did as a kid (signed with his real name, Kurtzberg) to work as an adult. Many of the items have been seen before, though never with this quality of printing. Many have never been published. I have, for instance, a couple of unused Marvel covers from the sixties, one still in pencil, and a number of pencil commissions he did for people late in life. We're printing Jack's autobiographical story, "Street Code," right off the original negatives. We're printing a Fighting American story right off the original art. We have some of Jack's famous collages and a couple of pages where he took the art to some comic he'd done and hand-colored the original art. There are some amazing pieces.
I'm not going to do a lot of "selling" here because I figure if you're interested in Kirby, you're going to buy it and if you're not, okay, fine. Be like that. I just wanted to clarify the difference between the two books. I hope you enjoy one or both of them.
The last few days, I've been discussing the Mort Sahl event with friends, especially the hilarious appearance by Albert Brooks. I was privileged to see one of the last stand-up dates Mr. Brooks had before he abandoned that stage of his career and I don't think I've laughed more at anything in my life. I understand that he wanted to do other things and that for some, "stand-up" is merely a means to an end. Still, the other night reminded me of how good he was on a stage in front of a live audience and made me wish he was still doing it. There was a time when we eagerly watched for him to turn up on a talk show because he was always funny and, amazingly, he usually had something that was utterly fresh and original. I described my favorite in this posting some time ago here.
The last few days also got me to thinking: There's a videotape that makes the rounds of most of Brooks's talk show appearances when he used to do the rough equivalent of stand-up comedy. The original source of this tape is said to be Albert's own personal copy which he dubbed for friends who pestered him into it. All the copies I've ever seen are copies of copies of copies of copies, etc. They're so fuzzy that you can't even be sure it's Albert Brooks in there. It could be Myron Cohen.
Does anyone reading this have a decent videotape or DVD or anything of those appearances?
This one will take eleven minutes of your life but you may think it's worth it. It's a clip from a 1960 Sid Caesar special with Howie Morris, Audrey Meadows, Charlton Heston and frequent cameo appearances by the boom mike. The gent who introduces the sketch and plays the judge is Paul Reed, who many of you may recall as the Captain on Car 54, Where Are You? Enjoy.
