Ray Bradbury called his classic book about censorship Fahrenheit 451 because that's the temperature of burning paper. This department is called Fahrenheit 212 because that's the temp when human blood comes to a full, rolling boil. It's for items in the news like this one…
A white South Carolina man who managed a buffet restaurant near Myrtle Beach admitted in federal court this week that he had beaten and verbally abused an intellectually disabled black cook, forcing him to work over 100 hours a week without pay for about five years, according to the Justice Department.
In pleading guilty to one count of forced labor on Monday, the defendant, Bobby Paul Edwards, 53, said that he had used violence, threats, isolation and intimidation against the victim, John Christopher Smith — or "JCS," as he is identified in court documents.
Mr. Edwards, who could face up to 20 years in prison when he is sentenced, admitted that while he was in charge, from 2009 to 2014, he beat Mr. Smith with a belt, punched him, hit him with pots and pans and burned Mr. Smith's bare neck with hot tongs, according to a Justice Department statement released on Tuesday. He also used abusive language and racial epithets against Mr. Smith.
We interrupt our journal of that eleven-day trip that I took recently with my fine friend Amber to Las Vegas, Philadelphia and New York. Before we leave Philly and move on to New York, I have a few things to add, starting with this photo which I plumb forgot Amber took. It's me and Jake Tapper…
Note that Sergio Aragonés is behind me. Sergio is always behind me except when he's in front of me. Also note that for the rest of my life, this is about as good as I'm ever going to look. That's the reason you should never wear a tuxedo. If you don't, people can at least say, "Well, maybe if you put him in a tux…"
I should also have mentioned that Mr. Tapper gave a very nice speech at the convention about his love of cartooning and how he pursued that profession for a long time before turning to journalism. He was there as this year's recipient of the National Cartoonists Society's A.C.E. Award, the "A.C.E." standing for "Amateur Cartoonist Extraordinary." It's for someone who has distinguished themselves in the public arena but either cartoons on the side or once set out to become a cartoonist and changed careers. Past recipients have included Carol Burnett, Jonathan Winters, Jackie Gleason, "Weird Al" Yankovic, Orson Bean, Ginger Rogers, Al Roker, Denis Leary and Morley Safer. It's — and this is openly admitted — a shameless way to get a famous person to appear at an NCS awards ceremony.
Tapper spoke just before the intermission in a pretty long awards show. He was there with his father and I figured that when we took that recess, he'd seize upon the opportunity to get the heck outta there…but no. I think his father left but Jake Tapper sat there 'til the end and was on his feet applauding for the Reuben winner and at other appropriate moments. I was impressed with that.
He spoke about the award in this interview and this seems like a good spot to also insert this video of him with Garry "Doonesbury" Trudeau…
Several of you have written to ask me about the National Cartoonists Society and how one joins. I refer you to the NCS website which happens to be down as I write this but will probably be back online shortly. Basically, you have to be a professional cartoonist or someone who fits in well with them. The NCS has regional chapters that meet often and once a year, they have their Reuben Weekend gathering, which is both a party as well as a place where cartoonists learn from one another and address issues facing the profession.
Lastly, I've had a number of requests like one from Jim Guida who wrote to ask me for — and I quote: "Less stories about old television shows, more photos of Amber." Here are two more from the evening of the NCS Banquet. Click on the pics to see them larger…and if you think she looks good now, wait'll next month when the braces come off…
The Tony Awards are tomorrow evening and there are a lot of articles online where supposed experts are predicting who will win and sometimes also stating who should win. Often but not always, those are the same names.
I see in the predictions a consensus that Angels in America will absolutely, positively, no-doubt-about-it, bet-the farm win as Best Revival of a Play (and should) and that there is zero chance that Andrew Garfield, Nathan Lane and Denise Gough won't rightfully win for their work in it as Best Actor, Best Featured Actor and Best Featured Actress, respectively. The predictors are also so certain that Glenda Jackson will win for Best Actress in a Play for Three Tall Women that the other nominees should just send her their congratulations now and not bother coming to the ceremony.
Maybe those are locks but I see many a Broadway Nostradamus who is certain of some win where another disagrees. Depending on who you read, The Band's Visit, Mean Girls and SpongeBob SquarePants are all utterly certain to win for Best Musical. Barring the unlikely three-way tie, some folks who are absolutely certain are going to be absolutely wrong.
I saw but one of the nominated shows — the revival of My Fair Lady, 98% of which I thought was wonderful. I'll tell you about the 2% when I get around to that night in my trip diary. How well it will fare tomorrow evening I can't say because I didn't see the shows it's up against. But if the number that's performed from that show is "Get Me to the Church on Time," make sure you catch it. It probably won't be. They'll probably opt for something with Higgins and/or Eliza, perhaps "The Rain in Spain," maybe truncated to allow a segue into a few choruses of "I Could Have Danced All Night."
But Norbert Leo Butz performing the "Church" number was one of the most exciting things I ever saw on a stage — so much so that a lot of the seers are saying he will definitely win for Best Featured Actor in a Musical. And of course, a lot of them are saying that about other nominees.
We continue recounting the eleven-day trip that I took recently with my fine friend Amber to Las Vegas, Philadelphia and New York. Before you read about Day 6, you really oughta read about what transpired on Day 1, Day 2, Day 3, Day 4 and Day 5.
Sunday, May 27, 2018
I awoke Sunday morning feeling like I'd been away from home for six months, all the time reminding myself that we weren't yet at the halfway point of the trip. Amber felt the same way and we reminded each other to enjoy the leisurely pace of our last full day in Philadelphia. For the most part, we were (and still are) glad we decided to hit three cities in eleven days but there were moments when it didn't feel like the best idea I ever had.
I was moderating the MAD panel at 11 AM and before it, I caught the last half of a presentation that Charlie Kochman was doing in the same room about the great cartoonist Rube Goldberg. Rube has probably not received his due since he, unlike many of his peers, did not leave us with a truly iconic and legendary character; not the way Elzie Segar left us with Popeye or Charles Schulz left us with Charlie Brown and Snoopy.
Then again, Rube did get his name in many dictionaries as a noun or adjective referring to a very silly, elaborate invention…and the top cartooning award — the Reuben, which was presented the previous night to Glen Keane — was named for Mr. Goldberg. Those count for something. His work is often reprinted — though probably not as often and as much as it oughta be — and there are books like this one inspired by his work…
Charlie was the editor of Rube Goldberg's Simple Normal Humdrum School, written by Jennifer George and illustrated by Ed Steckley. It's a fun book to give a kid or to read if you are one or have ever been one. Here's a link if you wanna get a copy. In an ideal world, Amazon would deliver yours by having a pussycat knock a bowling ball off a shelf which would turn on a fan which would blow a kite across the room which would knock over a lit candle which would burn through the ropes of a catapult which would fling a copy of the book across the room into a FedEx box…
The Rube Goldberg presentation was followed by the MAD panel. I've moderated well over a dozen MAD panels over the years and most of them blur together in my memory. This one won't because though no one imagined such a thing at the time, this was the last MAD panel to feature Nick Meglin on it. A week later to the day, he was the late Nick Meglin and a lot of us are still reeling from that.
In the obit I wrote, I hope I made it clear how utterly vital Nick was to the creative and financial success of MAD. Most people are aware of its founding editor Harvey Kurtzman and his successor, Al Feldstein…and you all know of Don Martin and Mort Drucker and Al Jaffee and Sergio Aragonés and Dave Berg and everyone else in the Usual Gang of Idiots. Their contributions were credited and it was kinda obvious what they did. What Nick contributed is a bit harder to explain and once I came to fully understand it, I felt I had to do my part to help others to know. He was kind of the Vice-President in Charge of Funny.
Here's a photo from the panel. It was taken by Kevin Segall…
Click on the pic to get a better look at it.
Nick is the guy seated. MAD's recently-retired Art Director Sam Viviano is the man leaning on the chair next to Nick. From the left, the others are Ryan Flanders, Bill Morrison, Grant Geissman, Tom Richmond, Sergio and Yours Truly. Ryan was a designer and talent scout for the old MAD, Bill's the editor of the new MAD, Grant's a fine musician and the world's greatest expert on MAD not counting me, Tom is its star caricaturist and I have no idea what Sergio does. But I know what Nick did and I want the world to know.
Nick was the guardian of the magazine's sense of humor when it was growing up. And since that helped shape my sense of humor when I was growing up, I feel a great debt to him.
The MAD panel was the last seminar-type event of the weekend. Many NCS members then spent the afternoon at a nearby library giving drawing demonstrations but Amber and I went to eat at the Reading Terminal Market (where I did not have turkey) and packing The Box.
The Box was an idea I had to avoid having to squish eleven days of clean clothes into our respective suitcases. The previous Monday, I packed the clothes we'd need in Philadelphia and New York in a big crate and shipped it to myself at the Philadelphia Marriott. In our luggage, we took the clothes we'd need in Vegas. Then when we got to Philly, The Box was waiting for us and we had our clothes for that town (including my moth-eaten tux) and for the next town. Before leaving Philadelphia, we would pack our New York clothes in our suitcases and ship everything else back to Los Angeles.
This was a brilliant notion, especially since the Philadelphia Marriott has a 24-hour FedEx/Kinko's in its lobby. It turned out to have one teensy complication but we'll get to it.
That evening at the hotel, there was a Farewell Dinner and a chance to say bye-bye to everyone. Amber and I turned in early because we had a big day ahead of us. The next morning, we had to catch a train for New York, New York, a helluva town.
Before I close down this installment though, here's a little video with Nick Meglin in it. It's fuzzy but watchable footage from two New Year's Eve parties hosted by longtime MAD writer Dick DeBartolo. He's the one who stole his mustache from a member of the Village People. You'll briefly see MAD publisher William M. Gaines doing a magic trick, and you'll see two musical performances — a year apart — from Nick…
Josh Marshall says that if Russia had a wish list of what it wanted to see happen in the United States, it would look an awful lot like Donald Trump's agenda: "If candidate Trump and President Putin had made a corrupt bargain which obligated President Trump to destabilize all U.S. security and trade alliances (especially NATO, which has been Russia's primary strategic goal for 70 years) and advance the strategic interests of Russia, there's really nothing more remotely realistic he could have done to accomplish that than what he has in fact done."
Amy Davidson Sorkin on Rudy Giuliani's attack. I doubt there are very many people in this country who think Stormy Daniels' story of an affair with Donald Trump is false. There are, however, those who think they if they deny, deny, deny and attack, attack, attack, the story won't do their boy any real damage. And there is of course, Giuliani who will say anything he's told to say.
Trump is now claiming he's caused some major, for-the-better changes in Iran via the stance he's taken against them. Daniel Larison says this is an outright lie.
And Fred Kaplan tells us what to expect (and not to expect) when Trump sits down with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un this Tuesday in Singapore. Be afraid. Be very afraid.
This is another page in an after-the-fact diary of the eleven-day trip that I recently took with my wonderful friend Amber to Las Vegas, Philadelphia and New York. Before you read about Day 5, you really oughta read about what transpired on Day 1, Day 2, Day 3 and Day 4.
Saturday, May 26, 2018
Amber and I were somehow up early enough to hit the 8 AM NCS Breakfast Buffet which preceded the 9:30 AM NCS Business Meeting. Since I am a member and she is not, she could not attend the Business Meeting. I went and she headed back upstairs to bed or maybe out to get some makeup or accessories for the evening's gala formal dinner.
Would that I could have sent her to the meeting in my place. No insult is meant to the biz proceedings of the National Cartoonists Society but behind closed doors, we do not discuss the denuclearization of North Korea or the secret peace negotiations between Alex Jones and his marbles. We talk about Top Secret, hush-hush classified stuff like where the next NCS convention will be held and about where to get good deals on art supplies.
There were seminars and such all afternoon. I absented myself from some to go out to a CVS Pharmacy. My feet were now pretty much back to normal but I purchased a few items I thought might help keep them that way, given the considerable walking ahead of me on this trip. Then I went over to the Reading Terminal Market, which oughta be paying me out of their advertising budget to mention them on this blog.
Photo by Bruce Andersen from Wikimedia Commons
I decided that before I made my lunch selection, I would walk up or down every aisle, studying every booth. There are well over a hundred of them, some selling cooked food, some selling raw food and some selling things like books and housewares. It took about forty minutes, every second of which was fascinating, before I decided I would eat…wait for it…
…the same thing I had there the day before: The roast turkey from a stand there called The Original Turkey. Some things I saw looked good but nothing looked better except maybe at one or two stands that had long, long lines. I was just about to go buy a plate o' turkey when my cell rang. It was my friend and editor (yes, those things can go together) Charlie Kochman. He asked where I was. I told him. He said, "I'll be right over and I'm bringing Nick."
Charlie showed up with our mutual pal, Nick Meglin. I showed them both around and talked them both into having the turkey. If I ever take you there, I'll talk you into having the turkey and you'll thank me for it.
The tables where one consumes one's purchases seemed to be full so we took our meals back to the Philadelphia Marriott and took occupation of a deserted ballroom. We ate. Nick told stories about working with Bill Gaines on MAD. They loved the food. It was one of my favorite moments of the whole trip.
The cocktail reception began at 6 PM even for those of us who never drink cocktails. Amber and I spent the hour before getting dressed — me, donning my tuxedo with the tiny holes chewed by moths; her, doing her hair and putting on The Greatest Dress In The World. I have spent our entire relationship telling her she's beautiful without fancy clothing or any makeup whatsoever. I still believe that but maybe a bit less since I saw her all dolled-up and ready to hit the party…
There, we had a good example of what we in the magic world call Misdirection. When we walked into the party, no one noticed the moth holes in my tux. Hell, I probably could have been wearing no pants and no one would have noticed.
We mingled with well-attired cartoonists. One of them was former-cartoonist-turned-CNN-journalist Jake Tapper. Even a couple of cartoonists who don't like how his network covers Donald Trump — they deviously quote him in full and in context — found Mr. Tapper to be a very nice, intelligent man. He was genuinely impressed to be among so many cartoonists and very familiar with the work of many of them. (I wasn't even familiar with the cartooning of everyone on the premises.) He and I had a long conversation, much of it about Walt Kelly and Pogo.
As you may know, I am an editor, along with Eric Reynolds, of Pogo: The Complete Syndicated Comic Strips, a series from Fantagraphics reprinting my favorite of all newspaper strips. It turns out Jake Tapper is also a huge fan of it and a collector of original artwork from the feature. Volume 5 will be out around Halloween with a foreword by Mr. Tapper and we didn't ask him to do it. He asked us if he could…and, well, of course he could. It's a very enthusiastic, well-informed piece.
I thought the awards ceremony was too long…but then, I think every awards ceremony since the Early Middle Ages has been too long. Sergio Aragonés and I presented a couple of them. At the end of the evening, the biggie — the Reuben Award for Cartoonist of the Year — was presented to Glen Keane, who gave a touching and lovely speech. The audience seemed very happy with the choice and with what the winner had to say about it. That's the great thing about awards. Sometimes, they make everyone real happy.
Everyone mourning Jerry Maren today is mentioning how amazing it is that he was a part of The Wizard of Oz. But I was at least as impressed by another role he had on the same lot that same year…
Last week on Ken Levine's popular podcast, you could hear Part One of a two-part interview with me and we talked about my work in comics with Jack Kirby and how I broke into TV writing. Ken has just posted this week's episode, which is Part Two. On it, we talk about maybe the weirdest job I ever had — the infamous series, Pink Lady and Jeff — and about casting voices for cartoon shows.
And while you're over there, listen to some episodes of Hollywood and Levine that don't have me on them. Ken is very good telling stories from his own amazing careers (plural) and he's good at interviewing his talented colleagues who guest with him. Highly recommended.
We're going day-by-day reliving an eleven-day trip that I recently took with my great friend Amber to Las Vegas, Philadelphia and New York. Before you read about Day 4, you might do well to read about Day 1, Day 2 and Day 3.
Friday, May 25, 2018
The Philadelphia Marriott was crawling with cartoonist friends. Every trip through the lobby, I'd run into some. When we went up to pick up our badges, we ran into some. In the elevator, a woman who was not with our group asked me, "What kind of convention is this?" I told her it was a gathering of the National Cartoonists Society and she sighed and said, "I hope no one draws an insulting cartoon about me."
Amber and I had planned to do sight-seeing for part of the day today as there are many fine sights to see in Philadelphia and we saw only a few our last visit here. But I needed to do some foot repair and not walk a lot, and Amber still didn't have an appropriately fancy dress for the appropriately fancy dinner the next night — something that would look proper alongside me in my tux and divert attention from the moth holes in my tuxedo.
We brunched at the Reading Terminal Market. She had fried rice. I surveyed the countless offerings and decided on the same thing I had the last time I was there — the turkey at a stand called The Original Turkey. Terrific food, well worth traveling 2,718 miles from my home. Then she went off in search of The Greatest Dress in the World and I went back to my room to attend to sore feet and to finish up a script that should have been done by half-past Vegas.
I wrote for a while. Amber occasionally texted me a video from a Macy's changing room of her trying on a dress to get my opinion — certainly one of the reasons the Internet was invented. She picked out a great one.
The NCS had a casual-dress welcome party/dinner that evening and we all cheered as an award was presented there to veteran cartoonist Arnold Roth. I'm of the mind that every organization that gives out awards gives out way too many of them but this one made so many people happy (not just Arnold) that it seemed very right.
I spent a lot of time that evening and over the next few days with Nick Meglin. He was funny and altogether Nick-like and none of us, of course, imagined that soon there would be no more Nick Meglin. The time we spent together now seems very special and I'm very grateful for it.
Tune in tomorrow for the next installment of Amber and Mark's Excellent Adventure with our special guest, Jake Tapper.
Sigh. Another obit. Jerry Maren, who apparently was the last surviving actor to play a Munchkin in The Wizard of Oz, has died at the age of 98. Being in that film was an impressive credit but some of us are equally impressed that the same year, he appeared in At the Circus with The Marx Brothers.
And he worked his entire life, though you may not have always known it was him inside some rather odd costumes — like portraying denizens of McDonaldland in many commercials. Jerry stood 4'3" but he wasn't just hired for his height or lack thereof. He was a real good actor.
He was one of several "little people" who played the character of Little Oscar for the Oscar Mayer company. He was the main guy who played Buster Brown for the Buster Brown shoe company. He was a kind of mascot on the original Gong Show. He was in the famous film Superman and the Mole Men starring George Reeves. He really had an impressive career.
I met and talked with Jerry on several occasions, mainly when we both showed up for one of Frank Ferrante's performances as Groucho Marx. The last twenty years or so, Jerry was one of the few people you could meet who'd actually been in a Marx Brothers movie…but that was just one of hundreds of great name-drops he had. He'd worked with half of show business, being active in the business from around 1938 to 2010.
His career and life took a definite downturn in 2011 when Elizabeth Barrington, his wife since 1975, passed away. She was around the same height and often worked in films as a stand-in or stuntwoman for child actors. They were a delightful couple.
Thinking about Jerry reminds me of a moment at one of those Hollywood Shows where one can meet movie and TV stars and buy autographs. Mickey Rooney was a featured guest and he was behaving like Mickey Rooney, meaning that he was yelling and getting upset about nothing and yammering about things that no one else could understand. At one point, for reasons invisible to others, he announced he was leaving and stormed out of the hall. Someone said, "There goes the oldest, shortest great actor in the room."
And someone else pointed to Jerry Maren, barely visible behind a table where he was sitting and signing photos…and the someone else (who I think was me) said, "Wrong both times."
I just turned on my TV and caught a little of some show that amazingly did not have Steve Harvey on it. Is that even legal? I hope nothing's happened to him.
You're reading about an eleven-day trip that I recently took with my terrific friend Amber to Las Vegas, Philadelphia and New York. Before you read about Day 3, you might want to read about Day 1 and Day 2.
Thursday, May 24, 2018
Checking out of the Excalibur Hotel in Vegas turned out to be not much easier than checking in but we were somehow outta there and heading for the airport by 9:30 AM, just like it said on my schedule. We grabbed a bit o' breakfast at the terminal, hopped on an American Airlines flight for Philadelphia, landed, got a cab and were at the Philadelphia Marriott by 8 PM.
It's a very nice, well-run hotel though our bathroom had the same, admittedly-minor problem that the Excalibur had and that's been true of just about every hotel I've been in for the last few years. Why are folks who design showers so unaware that people who take showers need someplace to put their bar of soap, their little bottle of shampoo, their little bottle of conditioner, etc.? The hotel even supplies versions of these little condiments for your scalp but rarely gives you a place to have them at the ready when you're wet and naked and have soap in your eyes and you need to grope for them. Our hotel in New York would turn out to have the same failing.
Note To Every Hotel In The World: They sell these at WalMart, they sell these at KMart, they sell them at Target, they sell them everywhere and they cost under $20 and can be installed in under three seconds. I do not want your tiny soaps and your tiny bottles of lotion. I can bring my own big soap and my own travel size potions and I need someplace to put them, whereas I really can't pack my own shower caddy. Thank you.
My feet weren't up for a lot of walking that night in Philadelphia so we had dinner at a Maggiano's across the street. I'm not usually fond of Italian food as prepared by chain restaurants but Maggiano's is awfully good, especially when it's right across the street and your feet hurt.
One disappointment today. Next Wednesday in New York, I was supposed to record my second appearance on Gilbert Gottfried's Amazing Colossal Podcast. The first one (which you can hear here) was done with me in Los Angeles and Gilbert in Manhattan along with his co-host, Frank Santopadre. But Gilbert's wife Dara e-mailed me with more apologies than necessary that Gilbert had to go do a job out of town that week…so we'll have to do an in-person show another time, hopefully soon.
Have I explained why we went to Philadelphia? I'm a member of the National Cartoonists Society and every year on or around the Memorial Day weekend, the NCS holds its annual get-together, which used to always be in New York but now rotates around the United States. It's called the Reuben Weekend because its centerpiece is a fancy, black-tie banquet where cartoonists in formal wear present awards to one another and one person wins the society's highest honor, the Reuben Award. There are also parties and seminars and shop talk and an awful lot of cartooning camaraderie. And we're also here for another reason: To eat.
Last year: Amber and the Liberty Bell.
Last September when we were in Baltimore for the Baltimore Comic-Con, Amber and I and our pal Marv Wolfman made a one-day train trip to Philly to do some sightseeing, to see our pal Frank Ferrante in a play and to lunch at the Reading Terminal Market. As I explained here, the Reading Terminal Market may well be my favorite place to eat in this country. Here's another little video tour of the place for those of you into Serious Food Porn…
A few weeks later, Amber and I were at the New York Comic-Con and I ran into Bill Morrison, who is both the new editor of MAD and the current prez of the NCS. Bill told me he'd just signed the deal for the 2018 Reuben Weekend to be in Philadelphia. I instantly thought, "Gee, that would be an opportunity to eat again at the Reading Terminal Market." Then I thought how silly it would be to go all that way and spend all that money just to have a couple of great lunches.
I was thinking that as Bill said, "We're going to be at the Philadelphia Marriott."
I asked, "The Philadelphia Marriott that's directly across the street from the Reading Terminal Market?" He said yes and I said, "Amber and I will be there." Tune in tomorrow to hear how we were there along with Bill, Sergio Aragonés, Tom Richmond, Mike Peters, Sam Viviano and dozens of other fine cartoonists, plus the (now, sadly) late Nick Meglin. One of my last memories of Nick is showing him around the Reading Terminal Market.
Here's an oral history of The Bob Newhart Show. And if you have an hour and a half to spare, you might enjoy this video of Bob being interviewed by Conan O'Brien.
I'm reporting about an eleven-day trip that I recently took with my lovely friend Amber to Las Vegas, Philadelphia and New York. Before you read about Day 2, you might want to read about Day 1.
Wednesday, May 23, 2018
Amber and I spent the second of our two days in Vegas roaming the floor of the Licensing Expo. For much of this, we were joined by two sets of friends, which I'm listing here in order of appearance. One set consisted of Frank Ferrante and his exquisite companion, Dreya Weber. Dreya is a producer, director, performer and choreographer specializing in aerial (i.e., off-the-ground, dangling in the air) choreography. Frank is…well, if you read this blog, you know who Frank is.
Also roaming the floor with us were Charlie and Sherry Frye, who together form Charlie Frye and Company, one of the best acts I've ever seen — juggling, magic, physical comedy…
Here. Rather than tell you what they do, I'll show you a little of it, also (like this morning's early video clip) from an old Jerry Lewis Telethon. Charlie's the guy who does the heavy lifting. Sherry's the beautiful Company who makes him do it…
In addition to being able to do all that stuff, Charlie's also a pretty good cartoonist so he was excited when I introduced him to Jim Davis over at the Garfield booth. So was Frank, who did some voice work for me on The Garfield Show. We covered the hall but I occasionally broke off from the pack to complete the last of my scheduled meetings with certain folks about certain projects.
One tip: If you ever visit the Licensing Expo, it's a fun thing to browse but if you want to talk business with anyone, you need to make appointments with them weeks in advance. And if you want to go at all, you need a good, working pair of feet because there's an awful lot of walking involved.
That was my problem. A few weeks ago, I somehow fractured the little toe on my left foot. I haven't a clue how or when this happened but it got to hurting and when I went to my podiatrist, he did that x-ray thing, gave me the bad news and slapped a fracture shoe on that foot. A fracture shoe is like a rubber sandal with Velcro® straps. It prevents the injured toe from having any pressure put on it but it's not good for the foot in other ways, especially when you're walking all over Las Vegas. I applied some drugstore, over-the-counter remedies (mostly gel-pads) and was able to lessen the pain but it would remain a major distraction and problem for much of the trip.
That evening, Amber, Frank, Dreya and I journeyed to the Rio Hotel to see Penn and Teller's show and to meet those two men — and I guess I have to stop and tell a story here.
A few years ago, I was in talks with the CW Network about a possible show for them. In particular, I was dealing with a friend of mine, Kevin Levy, who is the Executive Vice-President of Program Planning, Scheduling, and Acquisitions. I was kinda hoping they'd buy a show idea from me and it would run longer than his job title.
It was kind of a game show targeted for a certain time slot on their schedule and at one point, the question arose as to who would be the host if it went forward. I suggested my pal Jonathan Ross, who is very big on TV in Great Britain…and he's also a huge fan of Jack Kirby, which in my book counts for a lot. Kevin wasn't all that familiar with Jonathan's work and asked where he and the others in his office might see Jonathan in his natural habitat — in front of a TV camera. I suggested they take a look at Penn & Teller Fool Us, a series that had a brief run in 2011 on ITV in the U.K. All the episodes, I told them, were up on YouTube.
Kevin and his crew checked them out and liked Jonathan — but they also liked the show he was hosting. Kevin called me and asked a whole bunch o' questions about it and said he was thinking of seeing if the rights to run those episodes in the U.S. were available. They were…and this kind of demonstrates why Kevin has a much longer title than I do. He knows what CW watchers want to watch on CW. The old episodes did well, they led to new episodes…and Penn & Teller Fool Us has recently completed taping their fifth season, which is their fourth for American television.
When I mentioned to Kevin that I was heading for Vegas, he offered to arrange for me (and however many guests I had) to be comped to their show and to go backstage before to meet the stars so they could thank me for my (minor) role in getting their show on the air here. I think it's been exaggerated but hey, free tickets are free tickets. Penn plays stand-up bass before the show until about twenty minutes before it starts, and the two of them linger outside after for photos and autographs…so they only had a brief window of time to give us.
The four of us were taken backstage to a place called The Monkey Room decorated with Penn & Teller memorabilia and almost immediately, Teller came in, all dressed to go on stage and curious about this person their manager (I think) had told them they oughta meet. I was impressed with what a smart, polite man he is…and how we quickly fell into talking about the show and the "rules" of presenting magic on television.
The directors and editors of any TV show are sitting there with dozens of ways to create magic that is not actually performed on stage, or ways to make a trick more impressive than it actually is. If in the midst of a trick, the magician makes a move he hopes the audience will not notice, the director can shoot it from an angle that guarantees the home audience will not see it. The editor can cut around it so it isn't even there. There are other tricks which can be done and it is not ethical to employ them, though some shows have.
This is an area that especially interests me. I've occasionally worked on shows where magic has been performed and once got into a huge argument with an Emmy-winning TV director who shall remain nameless (it was this guy) who wanted to "enhance" a magic trick by editing out the ten seconds when the magician did most of the sneaky stuff.
I've been involved in many discussions with magicians about this and about when you cross a line of honesty with a viewer. It is not dishonest for a performer to say "I'm putting the three of clubs in my pocket" when he in fact has already switched that card for another. It is dishonest for him to say "We are employing no camera trickery" when that's only true by a very odd, disingenuous definition of "camera trickery." Some shows have not only crossed that line but made it vanish altogether and I was pleased that Teller seemed to share my disdain for those who cheat that way. I wish we'd had more time to talk about it.
Penn came in. We only had a few minutes before he had to go don his stage wardrobe but I told the two of them the story of my tiny role in causing CW to bring Fool Us back from the dead. Everyone was introduced and shook hands and then we were gifted with Penn & Teller swag and escorted out to great seats in the Penn & Teller Showroom and we saw a very good Penn & Teller show with an impressive percentage of Penn & Teller bits I hadn't seen before. Amber — who had never seen them perform until that night — said, "I wish we'd gone backstage after because I would have been more impressed to meet them once I knew how good they are at what they do."
So that was Wednesday. Join us tomorrow as we fly to Philadelphia…and really nothing else happens except that Gilbert Gottfried flakes on me. Same bat-time, same bat-channel.
