Monthly Archives: November 2014

This excerpt from Martin Short's autobiography is headlined, "My Saturday Night Live Hell." I don't think he gave it that title because it doesn't sound all that hellish to me.

Will Durst on the threat of Ebola. It's sounding more and more to me like the bigger threat is people who want to benefit from scaring others about it.

We set the clocks back an hour last night and I was so immersed in writing something that I got confused. I looked at the clock in my computer taskbar, saw it said 1:25 AM and had to wonder, "Is this the first 1:25 AM today or the second?" I had to look around the house until I found a clock that didn't automatically update itself to realize it was the second.

Tonight, of course, is the gala Stan Freberg Tribute at the Egyptian Theater. I'm not sure if any tickets are still available — there's no one I can call at this hour — but if you want to be there, you might try this link and see if it'll sell you a seat.

I'm co-producing the event with two great guys named Howard Green and Arthur Greenwald, and I'm amazed at how much there was (and still is) to do. I think Arthur and I talked on the phone twenty times yesterday. Howard and Arthur have both done a lot of these and their wisdom is invaluable but, as I'm learning, wisdom and experience are essential but so is the commitment to just plain doing the work.

I'll probably write a long post about the process next week. I'm less interested in telling you folks about it than I am in having a written reminder to myself. Next month when someone asks me to get involved with a tribute to Gallagher, I want to be able to re-read that piece, remember how much time 'n' attention the Freberg evening required and then say, "No, I don't think so…" I'd do it for Stan but not too many other people.

One friend of mine once told me something about organizing an event of this sort. He said, "Something will go wrong that you can't possibly anticipate. You can sit down and make a list of 100 things that might go wrong and what does will not be on that list." Can't wait to see what it'll be. I'm thinking the projectors will blow up and we'll have to simulate the clips from Stan's career with hand shadows. I'm going to go practice doing the Lone Ranger commercial…

A handful of remaining tickets are at this moment available for the Stan Freberg Tribute tomorrow night at the Egyptian Theater in Hollywood. Fandango handles the ticket sales for the Egyptian and right this second, you can order tix via the Fandango app for iPhone or Android phones. The Fandango website does not seem to know about them. I have no idea why this is. However, you can access the mobile app page from your computer by clicking here. Once these are gone, there will be no more.

Hey, remember that play I saw the other night? The one I liked a lot? Well, here's a little sample of it. Tickets can be obtained here.

A dozen or so tickets have become available for the Stan Freberg Tribute tomorrow evening at the Egyptian Theater. Check back here in a little while and I should be able to tell you how to get one or more of them. I don't know yet if they'll be going up on the online ordering site.

Mark Binelli on the disaster that has resulted since Kansas tried the old "supply-side" theory of trickle-down economics. It's never worked anywhere but that won't keep certain folks from fighting for it.

I have a theory that years ago, a bunch of rich folks hired an unscrupulous economist and said, "We need an argument we can advance to poor and middle-class people that they'll somehow be better off if we don't pay taxes." He thought for a while and came up with this.

They said to him, "Won't that harm the economy?" and he answered, "Yeah…but what will you care? You'll be richer than ever."

Tomorrow evening, of course, is the big Stan Freberg Tribute…and I don't mind telling you that an awful lot of hours have been spent planning it. More will be spent today, mostly on finalizing video and prepping the Egyptian Theater. My co-producers are Howard Green and Arthur Greenwald and we've divvied up what has to be done. I, the non-green co-producer, don't have to deal with installing lights, testing audio, coordinating with the theater's staff, etc.

This is a wise division of labor because I'm a ninny at that kind of thing. If you left it to me, we'd wind up running the whole evening off one Kenner Give-a-Show Projector. Stan and his work deserve better than that.

One hard part has been deciding which of his work won't get in. We have only so much time and Stan has done oh so many things. I suspect that one big "takeaway" from the evening will be that folks will be amazed at the man's versatility. Shortly after it's over, I may have to begin slapping people who come up to me and say, "Why didn't you show my favorite thing of his?" Because we didn't have nine hours, you cloth-head!

We are, of course, sold out. There seems to be a slight chance that about ten seats will become available. If that happens, I'll tell you about it here and you can all mud-wrestle for them. We have at least one person who is flying over one thousand miles to be there and to get Stan to sign a couple of his treasured Freberg records.

I would tell you about other things going on in my life lately but there don't seem to be any of them. Look for other topics to resume on Monday, though I will have a long Tale of Something or Other for you tomorrow. You'll like it. It involves a TV star and a stripper.