I'm still very busy so I'm going to refer you to some other folks…

I'm not writing political stuff these days because I'm not reading as much political stuff as I usually do because the political stuff I do see is running madly off in all directions. However, if I wrote a post about Joe Biden pardoning his son, it would say pretty much the same things that Kevin Drum says here. And while you're there, Kevin's remembrances about what was said about COVID match mine.

I never knew (or knew much) about screenwriter Marshall Brickman, who just left us. So I'll send you over to what my pal Paul Harris had to say ahout him.

And folks keep asking me I know what Laraine Newman felt about the Saturday Night movie. I haven't spoken to her lately but I did read this article and so can you.

I shall return…and by that, I mean I shall return to posting more on this blog, not that I shall return some of the odder things I've bought on Amazon lately, though I'll probably do that too.

The great Broadway director-producer Hal Prince died in 2019. The last show he directed for Broadway was a retrospective of his work called Prince of Broadway featuring scenes from previous shows of his including Fiddler on the Roof, Company, Phantom of the Opera, Sweeney Todd and many others.

Despite a terrific cast and (of course) terrific material, Prince of Broadway only ran for 76 performances. It was a show that had great trouble being properly funded and it looked…well, cheap. That was the main problem with it. But my lovely friend Amber and I saw one of those performances and we both liked it a lot.

One thing I liked a lot but didn't mention in the above-linked diary entry was a song that was not from one of Mr. Prince's past successes but was written for Prince of Broadway by the fine Broadway composer Jason Robert Brown. It was called "Do the Work" and it was made up of directives from Hal Prince…advice he'd given over the years to (mostly) writers. I liked it as a song and I liked its message. It's somewhat inspirational to people who do what I do for a living. If you're a writer and you find yourself losing the urge to write, give it a listen.

Below are not one but two videos of it, neither from the cast of Prince of Broadway. If you'd like to hear how it sounded in that show, you can hear the number from the cast album here. I'm giving you three versions of it because if you're a writer or you want to be a writer, it's something you ought to hear many times. It's something I sometimes hear in my head when I'm sitting down to tackle or even re-tackle a script…

So it's like a game on YouTube now. They upload full, uncut movies and specials (like the Caesar's Writers) video and they're free to view…and then suddenly, it costs money or they have ads…and then they're free again…and I'm sure they'll switch back. The last few days, Caesar's Writers went from without ads to with ads and at this moment — maybe not three minutes from now but now — it's without ads, at least on my feed. So watch it when you can and you can decide for yourself if you want to pay or sit through commercials.

Here — on the same basis, I assume — is the 1971 movie version of Fiddler on the Roof, a very good adaptation of what may be the most often produced stage musical in history. That was quite an achievement for a show which, when first announced, everyone said of it, "It'll only appeal to Jews." And then when it opened, they said, "It'll only attract an audience while Zero Mostel is starring in it." One of the folks who reportedly said that second thing was Zero Mostel and to add to all the things he was outraged about in his world is that after he left, it went on and on and on without him. It also defied predictions that it would never mean anything in other countries.

This is a good (though a bit too lonnnnnngggg) movie and it probably would have been even better with Mr. Mostel playing Tevye…but Chaim Topol only suffers from that comparison. Otherwise, he and everyone else in it are quite fine. The whole magilla was produced and directed by Norman Jewison, who was not Jewish, and I think it's funny that he also gave us The Russians Are Coming, The Russians Are Coming, which could have been an alternate title for this film…

One of my favorite a cappella groups, Voctave, performs one of the best songs from Wicked…

I am in receipt of quite a few messages from people who loved the Caesar's Writers video which I linked to here the other day. Some of them have questions like…

Is that video the entire event? No. Some things were cut but not much.

What happened to Danny Simon?If you look carefully, you might be able to notice that Danny Simon disappears from the panel at some point. Mr. Simon was feeling and ill and without explanation, suddenly walked off the stage. His brother Neil followed to go check on him and after a few minutes, Neil returned but Danny did not. We later heard he was okay but he needed to go home. The folks who edited the show did some clever cutting and you may not have noticed Danny's departure.

Did these men really have the same respect for each other as it would appear in the video? I think so. All of them were men of considerable accomplishment, awards and wealth, although obviously some of them had more of those things than others. There was a subtle undercurrent of some past feuds or fights here and there but any of that was pretty much set aside while they were on stage and even before and after the event.

And finally: You say you were in the audience…are you visible in the video? Briefly, yes. Around 12:30 into the video, Mel Brooks introduces Howie Morris in the audience and Howie stands up and takes a bow. I was sitting next to Howie wearing a tan coat which, by coincidence, was the exact same color as the one Larry Gelbart was wearing. Larry said to me, "I see you got the memo about the dress code for tonight!"

Okay, I'm back…with another real great video link. One of the all-time great stand-up comedians, in my opinion, is Robert Klein. In fact, back when I was hanging around the Comedy Store and the Improv and places like that, you could see a lot of new comics trying to be George Carlin or Richard Pryor but it seemed to me, most of 'em wanted to be Klein. The early Jay Leno sure did.

And Klein inspired other comics in another way: In 1975, he did the first-ever HBO stand-up special. That was back when no one thought those new "cable channels" would never be anything more than an interesting, short-lived alternative to CBS, NBC and ABC. This is that special and while Klein's later ones were even better, this is a pretty solid hour of comedy. Back then, the ultimate goal of most of the new comedians was to get their own situation comedy. Some years later, it was to have a deal to do specials like this…

I'm not really back yet but I wanted to put this video link up because they may take it down, begin charging for it or insert commercials any day.

In 1996 at the Writers Guild Theater in Beverly Hills, there was an event taped for TV called Caesar's Writers. Sid Caesar was there and so were a bevy of men (all men) who'd written for his TV shows and all gone on to great success. Along with The Great Caesar, the dais was Mel Tolkin, Carl Reiner, Aaron Ruben, Larry Gelbart, Mel Brooks, Neil Simon, Danny Simon, Sheldon Keller and Gary Belkin, and it was hosted by a pal of mine, Bob Claster. I've featured this before here but it's either been a truncated version or it was taken down.

This is a good quality version of this one-time gathering of some incredible comedy writers and of course, not counting my friend Bob, only Mel Brooks is still with is. I felt privileged to be there. (I was in the second or third row seated next to my "date" for the evening, Howard Morris.)

If you've never seen this, grab this opportunity to watch it before they take it down or begin charging for it. Come to think of it, I may leave it up if they insert advertising or begin charging to view it. It's really good…

It's another one of those days, folks. Nothing bad…just a lot of things that have to get done.

When I joined the Magic Castle in 1980, one of the treats was to sit and talk — actually, sit and listen — to Dai Vernon, one of the greatest magicians of all time and a great teller of stories. "The Professor," as some called him, invented a lot of tricks that are carried on by others and one of them is a card trick called "Triumph." Here, Daniel Roy takes us through ten levels of this trick — and at the end, he explains why it might be the greatest card trick of all time…

I have so many things to do today that I'd better put up the soup can to caution followers of this blog that there may not be much here for a while. But I shall return. I always return.

Badges for Comic-Con International 2025 reportedly sold out yesterday morning in under two hours. It took a little longer than it has in some past years but that's almost certainly a function of the software and computer delays, not a diminished demand.

Naturally, a lot of folks who didn't get what they wanted are complaining but that's what happens when you have an event that is that popular. There are a zillion-and-a-half fan conventions out there but I don't know of a single one that sells out that quickly…and without even announcing a single guest or event.

I have nothing to suggest for those who were disappointed except that in early December, it will be possible — and a lot easier — to get badges for WonderCon Anaheim, which takes place March 28-30 at the Anaheim Convention Center. It's run by the same folks who run its big brother in San Diego and while it's smaller, there's still more than enough there to see, do and purchase.

A lot of folks who go to Comic-Con in San Diego only see about a tenth of the exhibit hall. Well, the WonderCon exhibit hall is a lot bigger than a tenth of the San Diego exhibit hall and there are plenty of programs and cosplayers and the parking is just as bad. I expect to be at both of these conventions next year and probably no others.

When we speak on this blog of "Old Vegas," we're talking about a lot of things but the entertainment of the day was a biggie. Here from 1987 is a half-hour of a special celebrating entertainers from "Old Vegas," none of whom are still around to perform in "New Vegas"…

I've received several messages about the Saturday Night movie. Here's one from Graeme Burk…

Long time reader, probably first time commenter…Your opinion of Saturday Night pretty much tracks with mine. While I don't have any TV industry experience, I went through a real deep dive about the history of early SNL 20 years ago or so and read everything about it… and I have probably (mostly by accident) seen the first episode of Saturday Night Live 7 or 8 times. I was really skeptical about seeing the film and its depiction of the first SNL broadcast.

But while I completely agree with everyone that the correlation to what actually happened on October 11, 1974 is less than 15%, I loved it. It's brilliantly shot and realized and absolutely captures the chaos and overall feel of "being there" in the early years that was described through books like Live From New York. The performances are brilliant and totally capture all the principals (every line Tommy Dewey says as Michael O'Donoghue is gold). By the end credits (which are done like the original opening titles of SNL with the old version of the theme) I was cheering — even though nothing in that climax happened at all in real life. Saturday Night might well be my favourite film of 2024 and I certainly wasn't expecting that going in.

Yeah, it won me over too. And I found myself wondering if somewhere, in some ethereal plane, Michael O'Donoghue isn't watching and realizing that he'd badly underestimated people like George Carlin and Jim Henson back then. Or that Milton Berle isn't wondering, "Don't the people of 2024 know anything about me other than that I had a big dick and liked to show it off?"

Some of the historical distortions were a bit too distorted for me — like Franken and Davis trying to insert a new, never-rehearsed or blocked (or I think, even written) sketch into a seriously-overlong live show twenty minutes before air. Or Lorne deciding minutes before air to give Weekend Update to Chevy Chase. Or Lorne hiring Alan Zweibel and using one of his jokes at the last minute. Or Lorne waiting as long as he did in the film to decide which segments to drop. Or — well, you can list those things just as well as I can.

But I liked the way it all came together, semi-fictional though it may have been, in the end. And I liked that the movie didn't hit us over the head telling us about the seismic shift that occurred in show business as a result of that program. The film presumed we knew all that. I would have liked to have seen more of the ladies and less of Lorne's wife trying to decide what her last name was…and I suspect the real Lorne Michaels was a lot more in command that night than the film depicted.

Still, it's the best movie I've seen this year…which is not much of a compliment, I know. Because I think it's the only movie I've seen this year.

I just, like half an hour ago, took out time from work to watch the Saturday Night movie on Amazon Prime. I didn't like it at first. I have a problem with movies where actors impersonate recognizable people. As I watched the movie in which Renée Zellweger played Judy Garland, I sat there noting all the moments when she did and didn't act or sound like Judy Garland. Saturday Night is filled with dead-on impressions that could not possibly be deader-on…but in a way, that made me more aware of the few that weren't.

I also, I guess, know too much about how TV shows are made and the history of Saturday Night Live. For the first half of the movie, I sat here thinking, "That couldn't happen on a network TV show…that didn't happen on SNL until the third season…that wouldn't have been written fifteen minutes before air time…"

But then about halfway through, something clicked in for me: This was a fantasy, not a documentary. I started accepting the film on its own terms and enjoying it a lot. One of these days when I can do so without paying Amazon Prime another twenty bucks, I intend to watch the movie again with the proper mindset from the beginning. I'll stop thinking, "They couldn't have been deciding that or that or that an hour before a live broadcast" and I'll enjoy it a lot more then. I think.