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Google, which seems to exist simply to cater to my every whim, now houses the entire archive of LIFE magazine photos. Millions of photos – published and not – at our fingertips just by visiting Google Images, pluggin’ in your search, and following it with “source:life”.
Clear your schedule, because one comedy-related search leads to another and another and another. You may take an occasional wrong turn and run into a frightening snapshot of Susan Powter at the 1994 American Comedy Awards, but once you’re back on course with, say, a search for Buster Keaton, life is good again.
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Given the theme of recent entries, I think it’s as good a time as any to cover the topic of intent & comedy.
I’ve long been fascinated with the “why” of comedy. What motivates someone to be a comedian, and do those reasons change over time? Should any of those reasons be more highly regarded than others? And does knowing a performer’s motivations change the way you view them?
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The past day has been a whirlwind, starting out positively yesterday when the Huffington Post offered to reprint my blog entry regarding election night, and ending negatively when I woke up this morning to find that a hack at Gawker made the decision to write a borderline-libelous characterization of me as “crazy”, “obsessed”, and “enraged”. They went into my website to yank content to use as “support” of my supposed lack of balance, and god knows what else.
Doing the right thing – and expecting others to do the right thing – should never be punished. Those who know me personally know how often I have been punished for that very thing. The Daily Show fucked up. And I’m being punished — not just with what happened a week ago, but now with having my name dragged through the mud for daring to ask for accountability.
This week has been a rollercoaster of faith. Losing faith in the decency of people to do the right thing and not allowing what happened last Tuesday to happen. Gaining faith in the commonality of my experience when so many strangers found this blog and commented or sent me messages privately. And again losing faith in people’s ability to feel empathy.
Go read the Apiary! My recap of the Potentially Regrettable Evening with the Daily Show is right there in shiny blogtastic form.
One quote I didn’t include, because it’s only amusing to me, was when J.R. Havlan mentioned his Writing for the Daily Show class at the PIT:
“I don’t do it anymore. I don’t like it.”
He says this with one of his students from the last class (ME) sitting right infront of him. Interestingly enough, being told I’m just a tiny bit responsible for ruining a man’s love of teaching is some of the least harsh feedback I’ve received from the guy. (I do love ya, J.R.)
Late Night writers Dan Cronin, Berkley Johnson, Brian McCann, Matt O’Brien, Guy Nicolucci, Brian Stack, Andrew Weinberg, and head writer Mike Sweeney joined moderator Sarah Vowell for “Deconstructing Conan” at the Paley Center for Media on Nov. 8, part of the New York Comedy Festival.
Vowell started her questioning off with a request for the writers to discuss their biggest failures on the show. It turned out to be brilliant, prompting story after story of flat jokes and cut sketches.
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I began this blog intending for it to never be personal. I may have given up my print and radio gigs recently, but I am still a journalist, and not the type to assume my personal opinions are of interest to the masses. Today, I hope you’ll all indulge me as write a post that is intensely personal.
