Monthly Archives: December 2011

No, I haven't been neglecting you, dear Blog Audience. I've been working on a script but, more important, I've been configuring the software for the new version of this blog which will debut around or about the time they drop that big ball in Times Square. What's here won't change much from your vantage point — a slight redesign for cosmetic purposes — but the new software will make life easier on my end. None of the old postings will go away, though they may be offline for a week or two during the transition.

Yesterday (well, Saturday), I had to go out to the valley and my route took me past Hollywood Boulevard and Highland Avenue, one of the great bottleneck traffic-jamming intersections on this planet. Making things more snarly than usual was a huge protest demonstration with people yelling and waving signs.

What were they protesting? I haven't the foggiest. Though the glacier-like flow of autos past them enabled me to watch the protest for three or four minutes, I have no idea what their crusade was about. The chanting was unintelligible. The signs were either illegible or hopelessly vague. One said, "Action now!" Another said, "We Won't Take It Any Longer!" If not for the fact that the signs had 3rd grade penmanship, I'd have suspected someone had ordered a set of generic picket signs, guaranteed to fit any strike, outburst or demonstration.

I felt bad for them. They were out there all day making a passioned effort for their cause, one I wholeheartedly support…

…or not. I have no idea. Maybe I should be glad they weren't getting their message across.

Here's an article that asks the musical question, "Is the Internet transforming — or destroying — the magic of magic?" I'll write more on this topic when I don't have such a busy day…but I think the answer is a little of each. And one of the interesting aspects to all of this is this odd situation: People write websites and post YouTube videos that purport to "expose" how David Copperfield does this trick or Criss Angel does that trick and at least half the time it seems, the explanations are bogus…but they satisfy the curious.

Years ago, I went to see Penn & Teller back when they were at Bally's and Penn did a rather basic (but still impressive) fire-eating trick. As my companion and I were exiting, we overheard a conversation between two other audience members — a blonde in her twenties and a guy desperately wanted to impress her. She wondered aloud how Penn did that trick with the fire.

The gent said, "Oh, that's easy. They use a thing called Cold Fire. It's like dry ice…you know, ice that isn't really cold. Cold Fire flames like real fire but it's harmless and not at all hot. It's a chemical you can buy in any magic shop. I used to play around with it when I was a kid." And then he told this story of how he once set himself seemingly on fire and ran into his mother's tea party screaming and caused everyone to pass out and/or spill their orange pekoe. Sounds like fun, doesn't it?

The photo of Jerry Robinson below is the one the Associated Press supplied to its client news outlets along with their obituary…and no, I didn't get it from them. They got it from me. I was amused that many of those news sites captioned it something like, "In this undated photo provided by Mark Evanier, artist Jerry Robinson is shown. — Photo by AP." That's their way of saying, "If it turns out that this isn't Jerry Robinson, it's because that Evanier guy lied to us."

I took the photo at the big National Cartoonists Society bash in Scottsdale, Arizona in 1993. I believe the gent in the yellow shirt behind Jerry is Bil Keane…another past president of the N.C.S. who left us recently.

Registration is now open for WonderCon, which is being held at the Anaheim Convention Center — a hoot and a holler from Disneyland — from March 16, 2012 through March 18 of the same year. I've been to an awful lot of WonderCons and always had a good time. I expect the trend to continue.

WonderCon was founded in 1987 and held in Oakland, California until 2003 when it relocated to the Moscone Center in the heart of San Francisco. The migration coincided with the acquisition from the convention by the same non-profit organization that runs the annual Comic-Con International in San Diego. It and A.P.E. (the annual Alternative Press Expo) are what the staff there does when they're not working on Comic-Con. Traditionally the last few years, WonderCon has had somewhere around a fourth the attendance of Comic-Con (still a helluva lot o' people) and it's a bit more oriented towards comic books than to Hollywood and videogaming…though there is plenty for those interested in those areas.

The con is always well-run and enjoyable, and I love the location. I'd much rather it be there than in Anaheim but due to renovation work, the Moscone Center was not available for '12. I gather that the current thinking is to go back to S.F. in 2013, assuming the venue is available…but who knows? Maybe Anaheim will be such a smashing success that they won't want to go back. We shall see, we shall see.

I will be a guest at WonderCon and you may be surprised to learn I'll be hosting a mess of panels there. More guests have been announced and you can read what's up and register to attend over at the WonderCon website.

Several folks have alerted me that GSN (formerly Game Show Network) has reruns of What's My Line? and I've Got A Secret back in their late night lineup next week and at least the week after. These come and go from time to time and I'm curious as to the thinking here…

Are they contractually obligated to run these X weeks per year or lose the package? It would not be unprecedented for a TV network to keep paying for a show they no longer want to broadcast. Stations do that all the time, especially with a show that like these old Goodson-Todman programs, probably cost them little more than pocket change. For years, one Los Angeles TV station kept paying for (but not airing) the Roach Laurel & Hardy features. An assistant to the Station Manager told me they had no plans to run them — they didn't fit into current programming concepts — but "You never know when we might change our thinking and wish we had them." A more likely thought process was that they didn't want some other station to get the library and maybe figure out how to schedule and promote it into a success.

Or does GSN have some advertiser who wants them on, figuring it's the perfect demographic to sell scooters to seniors or some other such sales campaign? For the right sponsor, it might be cheaper and more effective than paying to run infomercials.

Or did someone at GSN just say, "Hey, let's give those another shot. They're so damned cheap that if we can get nineteen people to tune in, we can make money"?

I don't know why they're back…nor do I know where GSN is starting in the run or how long they'll leave them on this time. All I know is I have my TiVo set so I can watch whatever they put on for as long as they leave them on this time.

A little over a year ago, I attended one of the best shows I've ever seen. Teatro ZinZanni is a combination of Dinner Theater and a smaller version of Cirque du Soleil. It's about a 3-4 hour experience during which you eat and watch incredible performers performing around and above you…and if you drink, there's plenty there to drink. Frank Ferrante — oft-touted on this weblog for his must-see Groucho replication — was the Master of Ceremonies that visit in his non-Marx identity as Caesar…but the whole cast was splendid and I have a hunch it's even a great way to spend an evening when Frank isn't in the show.

I mentioned in my report that there was an outpost of Teatro ZinZanni in San Francisco (where we went) and also one in Seattle. That was true then but it won't be true for long. The one in S.F. is losing its venue at the end of the year due to real estate problems. This came as bad news to many, including those of us who often get to San Francisco but rarely to Seattle. Happily, this is not a permanent condition. It has just been announced that ZinZanni has secured a new home in S.F., not far from the old base of operations. Unhappily, it may be some time before it's up and open for business…but I'm pleased to hear that branch is not gone forever.

Stu Shostak has a great guest today on Stu's Show. It's my buddy, Willie Ito…truly a legend in the field of animation. How many other people do you know who worked with Bill Hanna and Joe Barbera, Chuck Jones, Bob Clampett and Walt Disney? Willie started in the business as an in-betweener on Lady and the Tramp. He then moved over to Warner Brothers and worked in layout on Looney Tunes. Then he worked with Clampett on the Beany & Cecil cartoon show. Then he went to Hanna-Barbera where he was one of the key designers of their shows from 1962 through 1977, starting (I believe) on The Jetsons. And then he went back to Disney and worked on their comic strips…and at various points in there, he drew comic books for Western Publishing and…

Well, a pretty impressive career, wouldn't you say? Bet Stu doesn't get through half of that, especially if he starts by discussing Willie's childhood, some of which was spent in an internment camp during World War II. (December 7 is a good day to discuss that.)

As if that weren't enough, Willie will be joined in Stu's studio by another great animation artist, Jerry Eisenberg. But I told you about Jerry the last time he was on the show. There will also be call-ins from audio wiz Joe Bevilacqua to talk about his new audio book on the life of Alan "Fred Flintstone" Reed, and I think I'm going to be on briefly to note the fifth anniversary of Stu's Show. Like just talking to Willie isn't enough.

Wanna hear all this? Of course you do so I'll remind you again how to do that. You have two choices…

1. Listen live for free! Stu does his show Wednesdays starting at 4 PM Pacific Time. That's 7 PM Eastern Time and if you live in other zones, you can probably figure out what time it starts on your computer. It runs two hours. Sometimes, it runs more than two hours. Go to the Stu's Show website at the proper time and click where they tell you to click. Then you can minimize that window on your computer and listen as you do other things.
2. Listen later for 99 cents! Shortly after the live webcast, each show becomes a podcast and you can download it as an MP3 file from the Stu's Show website and hear it at your convenience. This is a great bargain and while you're over there, browse around. You'll probably find plenty of other shows in the archives that you'd enjoy hearing.

So tune in today…and if you miss it live, remember that Stu's running a sale at the moment. Go to his archives, place four shows in your online shopping cart…and when you check out, you'll be charged for three.