For the rest of today and maybe some of tomorrow, I'm hunkering down to finish a script. I probably won't post here. If you write to me or call, I probably won't respond. In life, there are some things a man's just gotta do and I just gotta finish this script.
When my pal Frank Ferrante is not touring the globe with his tribute to a certain Marx Brother, he can often be found in the guise of Caesar, the somewhat self-absorbed (but always entertaining) host of certain productions of Teatro ZinZanni pictured above.
Now, I can hear some of you wondering: What the heck is Teatro ZinZanni?
It's a dinner show. It's a full evening of entertainment. It's comedy, jugglers, acrobats, singers, dancers and audience participation. You could wind up in the show along with the many talented folks who entertain and feed you in lush, magnificent surroundings. Here's a thirty second promo reel that will give you just a taste…
These are scenes from the Chicago production of Teatro ZinZanni. There's one in Seattle but it closed for Pandemic Reasons and has yet to announce a reopening date. There was one in San Francisco but it closed in 2011 for Real Estate Reasons and its new location is currently being built. Its opening is planned for next year or maybe the year after or the year after. Hopefully, it will occur some time this century…
Chicago opened in 2019 and closed when the world closed for those same Pandemic Reasons. But it's recently reopened to glorious reviews with Caesar presiding over the festivities. That's what Caesar does when he's onstage: He presides. He is an expert presider. And yes, you have to show proof of vaccination to go be part of those festivities over which he presides.
In 2010, I took a lady friend to the one in San Francisco and we had a great, great time. From our arrival to departure, it was close to four hours but we still both said, "You mean it's over?" and wished there was more. My main memory is of how happy everyone was. The wait staff was happy, the performers were happy, the guests were happy. The lady with me lived in San Francisco and she told me she'd always wanted to visit Teatro ZinZanni and it didn't disappoint in the slightest. Frank was, of course, wonderful…but so was everyone else.
I have no financial interest in this enterprise. I just want everyone to know it's there and that I wish I could jump on a plane and go see this but I've decided not to get on airplanes for a while…for Pandemic Reasons. But if I was there, I'd go see it and it you're there (or close), here's more info. Tell Caesar I said, "Hail!"
A recurring theme in posts here is my amazement at the lack of common sense from people who really oughta know better. The other day, I said I didn't understand why people are willing to risk getting COVID-19 but not risk vaccinations which almost all doctors recommend and which have been administered to millions without much apparent problem. So now we turn to someone like New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, who usually struck me as a pretty smart guy and savvy politician.
I don't think even the people who don't want him in office thought he was a dummy. Most of those who dislike his politics were the opposite. They wanted him out because he was too skilled at making things happen that they didn't want to have happen. But now it looks like his political career is kaput because of multiple allegations of sexual misconduct.
The number one reason to not do those kinds of things to women is sheer decency as a human being. But a close second is that if you get caught, you're going down hard. I've never robbed a bank because I'm not dishonest…but a perfectly fine reason also to not rob banks is that if you get caught, you go to prison. It's a stupid thing to do.
If Cuomo's alleged affronts were all many years ago — as some of them were — that might make a little sense. Careers weren't ending twenty years ago because powerful men treated women inappropriately. But some of the charges against the soon-to-be ex-governor are since the "Me Too" movement became as powerful as it's become. And he just should've known better…known it would hurt him, known it would hurt others, known it would hurt everyone, even his own brother, the newsman.
Assuming the gov can't prove all the charges are false — and it would sure be surprising if he could — he oughta be out of office for being a boor and a molester. But, not to trivialize those reasons, I'd also throw "fool" in there too. We need and deserve smarter people than that in our government.
Hey, here's another rendition of "The Rhythm of Life." This one's from the students at Wexford Collegiate School for the Arts in Toronto. I really like these ZOOM performances, though I can imagine how much coordination and editing goes into them. I hope that after The Pandemic is history, people will still do them. And yes, I am optimistic that The Pandemic will be history one of these days…
More and more businesses and theatres and public places are announcing that they will admit no one who is unable to show proof of vaccination. Some will accept proof of a recent negative test or some form of medical excuse. Some will not.
If you ain't been jabbed, you ain't getting into a lot of places you might want to go. For all the attempts by state and local governments to encourage or bribe people into getting vaccinated, this may be the thing that motivates a lot — maybe the majority of the hesitant — to comply.
On a couple of websites this morning, I read some interesting debates — one or two that were even calm and rational — about this. I can't link you to the most compelling one because it was on a "members only" forum but basically, one guy was saying that if you'd had COVID, you didn't need a shot because you now had "natural immunity." And another participant — an actual, for-real doctor — took that assertion apart, explaining that whatever antibodies you built up that way were less predictable and less enduring than what you got from vaccines.
He linked to this article and this article to which I can link you. Note that neither is from an anonymous "expert" or someone who may not have a whole lot of medical training and expertise. I'm getting quite tired of anti-vaxxers who say "I've researched this" when all they've done is found some clown on the Internet who thinks he knows a lot about medicine and who shares their fears.
I understand the folks who are leery because the vaccines are new and haven't been "approved" to quite the same levels as vaccines that have been around longer. I don't understand — and I may never understand — being afraid to gamble on them but being willing to gamble on not getting SARS-CoV-2. A friend of mine recently said, with regard to a "vaccine-hesitant" acquaintance we both know, "My God, he finally found a drug he's not willing to put in his body, sight-unseen."
Hey, here's a bargain and I have no idea how long it will last. Amazon is selling two volumes of our Complete Pogo series — Volumes 5 and 6 — in a slipcase for $35.63. Usually, these sets sell for close to double that and right now, if you order those two books individually from Amazon, they'll run you $48 without the slipcase.
I have long thought that Walt Kelly's Pogo was the finest newspaper strip ever done and there are plenty o' folks who agree with me. I also think this series of reprint volumes — the first ever to be complete and in chronological order — do Mr. Kelly's work proud. True, I'm one of the editors of this series but if you've been in the world of publishing for any amount of time, you've learned the simple truth: That editors never lie. Ever.
If you've been thinking of starting a collection of these books, here's the perfect starter set. Order it right here before Jeff Bezos fires whoever did it and raises the cost. They probably slashed its price when he wasn't on this planet, figuring he wouldn't notice.
In this video, I spoke with my great and sadly late friend Steve Sherman and we talked about a trip we made to New York in late June of 1970. There was some confusion about the flight that got us there and, yes, I know it really doesn't matter. Didn't matter then, doesn't matter now, But I'm going to tell it anyway. Feel free to skip on to the next item here or click onward to some other website. You won't hurt my feelings.
Back then, there was this thing called "student stand-by" and I'm not sure you even had to be a student to stand-by. These were cheap tickets that didn't guarantee you a seat on any particular flight; just that if there was space on a flight, they'd put you on it and if there wasn't, you'd wait for the next flight to that destination and maybe the flight after that and maybe the flight after that and so on. Eventually, they'd get you there…I suppose. In the meantime, any luggage you checked would go on the first flight for which you were standing-by even though you might not be on that plane.
At the time, the big thing in aviation was the new, massive 747 airplanes that had recently been introduced and everyone wanted to fly on one. I don't recall who told us but we went to the airport that day with the knowledge that there probably wouldn't be two seats open on a certain New York flight that was on a 747 but there'd be plenty on the next New York flight (not a 747) an hour or so later. That was how it worked out for us.
Flying on a 747 was a huge deal at the time and there was one very conspicuous, hard-to-ignore gent who had genuine tickets (not stand-by) for himself, his wife, his daughter and the family dog. We referred to the gentleman as "C.B." because he was taking 8mm home movies of their trip with the seriousness of the legendary director Cecil B. DeMille staging a massive crowd scene in a Biblical Epic. He had apparently already filmed the dog being "checked in" in one of those doggie-travel carriers along with their luggage.
Now, he was at the gate with his wife and daughter, filming them walking up to the counter, showing their tickets and receiving their boarding passes. Something about it wasn't right so he had them do it again. And again. And again. He was ordering other travelers to wait until he got the shot he wanted. Then he filmed his ladies walking over to a newsstand and buying some magazines and candy bars…again, in multiple takes. Then there were shots of them sitting down in the waiting room to await the call to board.
This all took a while, especially because he had to keep opening the camera. 8mm cameras used reels of film that could only hold four minutes of material — and after two, you had to stop, open the camera and flip the film over. Then after two more minutes of filming, you had to put in a new reel. And every time you opened the camera, you had to find a spot to do it where no light would get in, which in his case meant throwing his coat over the camera and then flipping or changing the film by sheer touch. That, as I well knew from shooting my own 8mm flicks, could take a while, especially when you were "on location."
You kids today with your cell phones…you don't know how good you have it.
At some point, they asked all passengers holding boarding passes to get on the plane. This did not apply to Steve and myself. We had no boarding passes and already knew we were waiting (hopefully) for the next flight. This also did not apparently apply to C.B. and his family. He was too busy making his little silent film masterpiece to pay attention to multiple announcements.
Finally, there came a moment when he was at one of the big windows, filming the majestic 747 aircraft as it taxied away from the gate and headed for the runway from which it would take off…
…and it was a good hundred yards from the gate when it suddenly dawned on C.B. that he, his wife and his daughter were not on the plane. But his dog was.
He began yelling to stop the 747, bring it back, etc. They don't do that…or at least they don't do it when you're too dumb to board when they tell you. "My dog is on that plane," he kept hollering — and the hundred-or-so people waiting at the gate were all laughing and saying to one another, "How nice of that man to let his dog ride on the 747."
C.B. and his family wound up on the next flight to New York, which is the one Steve and I got on. We heard him explaining to its flight crew and to other passengers how he'd had seats on the 747. I still don't know what he expected anyone to do because of that.
Not much was heard from C.B. until we were a few hundred miles from New York, at which point he and his family gathered their belongings and came down the aisle like this was a bus and they were getting off at the next stop. The flight attendant — we called them stewardesses then — explained to them that they had to be in their seats and fastened-down during landing. He argued that he had to be the first one off because of his dog. He lost that argument and grudgingly led his spouse and kid back to their seats.
Then the pilot announced that due to congested skies, there was no runway open and we'd have to wait until they found one for us. So our plane circled Manhattan and the surrounding areas for an extra forty-five minutes. Personally, I think they did that just to torture C.B. He sure was loud complaining about it.
As we landed, we were asked to remain in our seats if we weren't making connecting flights so that passengers who were could exit the plane first. C.B. and Company were already in the aisles and he was yelling about his dog and announcing that no one — no one!!! — was getting off before he and his family did. Somehow, it all got settled, we all deplaned (to use that silly verb) and when Steve and I were down in the Baggage Claim area claiming our waiting baggage, we saw C.B. with his dog.
We resisted going over and asking the dog how he enjoyed riding on the 747. But then when we passed C.B. with our suitcases, I asked him, "How's the movie coming along?" He shook his head and said, "This is not the ending I planned for."
Anyway, Steve was wrong in the video when he said we flew there on a 747. Steve flew home on a 747. I didn't. I flew on normal-sized planes — first to Baltimore (for reasons that wouldn't interest you) and then the next day back home to Los Angeles. I'm not sure I ever did ride on a 747 but if I did, it was many years later. See? I told you this was a trivial posting.
Sutton Foster is starring in a production of Anything Goes in London — though not indefinitely. That production of The Music Man starring her and Hugh Jackman opens for previews in New York just before Christmas. But here are some clips from the show she's doing in England…
I have thirty e-mails here asking what I think of Jellystone, the new cartoon series that redesigns a lot of classic (to me) Hanna-Barbera characters and changes a few genders and…well, my answer is simple: I haven't seen it yet. When I do, I'll let you know. This applies to a lot of things people write to ask me about like Schmigadoon and Hacks.
I'll get to 'em. Maybe not all this decade but I'll get to them.
Last August, I was playing around with webcasting. Apart from recording panels for things like Comic-Con@Home, I gave it up. I kinda realized that if there was anything the world didn't need, it was one more guy doing webcasts. Nothing against those of you who have them but you have to admit: There isn't exactly a shortage of you.
But I was glad I gave it a shot and very happy with some of them, especially a 95-minute chat I recorded with my old friend/partner Steve Sherman. As you probably know, Steve passed away a little over a month ago. He was a splendid, creative human being and I'm glad I have that conversation to remind me of that; not that there's any chance I would ever forget.
There was a lot of comic book history in there and for the record, I think I need to correct/clarify a few minor things. For instance, discussing our 1970 trip to New York, Steve said we'd visited the offices of Warren Publishing, which was the company that put out Creepy, Eerie, Vampirella and Famous Monsters of Filmland. He did. I didn't. I took one day of the trip to take the train up to Hartford to see my grandparents and Steve went to Warren on that day…I think with Mike Royer, who was then drawing for the company and rooming with us.
In the video, Steve and I talked about our visits to the Marvel offices and somehow left out the person we spent the most time talking with…Marie Severin. What a charming, affable, funny lady. And there was another person working in the office we forgot to mention: Stu Schwartzberg, who ran the photocopy machine and did other production chores. We also should have mentioned how much time John Romita (Sr.) and Herb Trimpe gave us.
I also had a nice, long conversation one of those days with Larry Lieber, who dropped by. I told a funny story about that day here. And I told a story about our time with Stan Lee on that trip on this page.
Steve and I reminisced about our visit to the offices of MAD and I mentioned how on the way in, we passed the great artist Wally Wood coming out and I wondered, "What's he doing here?" Someone wrote in to tell me — like I might not know this — that Mr. Wood was one of the mainstay artists in MAD beginning with issue #1. True, of course. But at the time of that visit, he hadn't worked for MAD for six years. (One last Wood art job — a two-pager — turned up in MAD the following year. I don't know when it was done.)
At the comic convention we attended a few days later, I got to sit and talk with Mr. Wood for about 45 minutes and I found out why he was up at MAD that day. He had a presentation for a magazine he wanted to do…a publication more or less in the format of Creepy or Eerie but with some color inside and several regular strips featuring women without a lot of clothing…or in most cases, any.
He showed me a few pages of it. Everything was, of course, magnificently drawn and I remember wondering why some publisher hadn't grabbed it up yet. If there was anything that was commercial in 1970, it was naked women drawn by Wally Wood. Some of that material did see print in various places but I still find it hard to fathom that the magazine itself never happened.
He had been to MAD to show it to MAD's publisher, Bill Gaines, just in case Gaines was interested in publishing a new magazine. Gaines was not and according to Wood, not because this one was risqué. He quoted Gaines saying, "I'm very happy publishing MAD. I don't need the aggravation of publishing anything else." That seems to have been Gaines' reaction to every chance he had to expand his empire.
Also, we left dozens of names out of the list of comic book writers, artists and editors we met during that trip, either at some publisher's office or at the 1970 New York Comic Art Convention. They include Wood, Gene Colan, Al Williamson, Gray Morrow, Jim Steranko, Bob Brown, Howie Post, Denny O'Neil, Sal Amendola, Byron Preiss, Joe Kubert, Robert Kanigher, Jack Adler, Nelson Bridwell and I'll probably think of ten more after I post this list. It was quite a week for meeting people whose work we'd followed for years.
Steve and I also did a bad job telling the quite-unimportant story of our flight to New York. I'll write a separate post about that soon not because it's important — it couldn't be less so — but because it'll be easier for you to skip it in its entirety if I give it its own post.
And there were probably a few other places where one or both of us misspoke. I know we left out lots of good stories. I'll watch it again in a week or two and see if anything else cries out for correction or amplification.
I'm not quite sure why I put certain songs on my mixtape. It was always a two-second decision without much thought behind it. "The Mighty Quinn" by Manfred Mann was one of those songs. I think I was intrigued by how little sense it made to me at the time with lyrics like "Let me do what I want to do / I can't decide on my own."
I had no idea what any of it meant…which in 1968, often meant drug references. I almost never got them, as opposed to some kids at school then who could find drug references in any song ever written, including instrumentals. I did not know at the time that Bob Dylan had written "The Mighty Quinn" and had described it as just a "fairy tale" he made up, perhaps inspired by Anthony Quinn's role as "…an Eskimo in the 1960 movie The Savage Innocents," as I just learned on Wikipedia.
Fine. Whatever. It's kind of nice now to read that listing and find out that it probably never meant anything. Which just leaves me with the riddle of why I put it on my mixtape since I never liked it that much. Here — see if you do…