Did you know that Sid Caesar once PUNCHED A HORSE IN THE NOSE? I had no idea.
Enthralling interviews with humor writers from many generations--some who...moreDid you know that Sid Caesar once PUNCHED A HORSE IN THE NOSE? I had no idea.
Enthralling interviews with humor writers from many generations--some who are quite young and one who was in his nineties. It's a pleasure to read because Sacks is a skilled interviewer who is very knowledgeable about the topic.
"It's easy to write for someone who's already established a persona. . . . It's the hardest thing to develop a persona. That's why movies and plays about fictional comedians are almost never truly convincing. Because it takes years for the audience to help a comedian shape a comic persona. . . . You have to get out there and do a variety of material. Over time, certain things, statistically, will continue to work, and other things will drop away, and the audience will tell you what seems correct for you--for what you project onstage as a personality." --Marshall Brickman
"Advertising is a conscienceless industry, populated by cowards and idiots, that warps and drains everyone. It eggs on the worst in all of us. If I could eliminate either advertising or nuclear weapons, I would choose advertising." --George Meyer
"I don't like to be rewritten, and I don't like to write for characters I didn't create. [Saturday Night Live] is probably one of the few shows where a staff writer can achieve that freedom. Maybe it's changed somewhat now, but Lorne was always very good about protecting writers and giving them creative freedom. And it was very smart of him too, because he knew that writers would really dig deep and work hard if they controlled their own work." --Jack Handey
"[Sid Caesar] had a temper. . . . He once threatened to pull a taxi driver through the cab's window. Sid asked him, 'Remember how it felt when you were born?' " --Larry Gelbart
"You know, some people in Hollywood treat me like I'm a monument. They just want to drive around me and take a closer look--maybe even have our picture taken together. But I'd much rather have less of that type of respect and more of the other kind: the kind where they leave your work alone." --Gelbart again(less)
Incredible stories of love, death, romance, heartbreak, baseball, steelmaking, rotten mangoes, the Great Depression, segregation, the Holocaust, World...moreIncredible stories of love, death, romance, heartbreak, baseball, steelmaking, rotten mangoes, the Great Depression, segregation, the Holocaust, World War II, 9-11, Hurricane Katrina, and wet woolen mittens on a radiator.
After recording over 10,000 40-minute oral histories of ordinary and extraordinary Americans, the people at StoryCorps chose 49 excerpts and put them in a book. Here's a sample, complete with animation:
About 95 percent of participants agree to allow a copy of their interview to be stored in the Library of Congress. So someday researchers will have a window on 21st-century life. The interviews selected for this book have been fact-checked, so urban legends don't sneak in.
"These interviews remind us that, contrary to what we might infer from the media, we are not just a nation of celebrity worship and consumption but, rather, a people defined by our courage, character, and heart."
The only thing I don't like about this book is the title, which sounds kinda squishy to me.(less)
These love stories from the oral history project Storycorps are divided into three sections: Found, Lost, and Found at Last. Here's my favorite: http:...moreThese love stories from the oral history project Storycorps are divided into three sections: Found, Lost, and Found at Last. Here's my favorite: http://storycorps.org/animation/to-rp...
Also noteworthy:
* The woman who fell in love with her tollbooth attendant
* The man who fell in love with his elevator operator
* The three-day courtship and 20-dollar honeymoon that turned into a 57-year marriage
* The MS patient who fell in love with another MS patient (they met at the gym, he admired her scooter, and they traveled the world together)
* The daughter who read the personals ads and picked out a husband for her widowed mother
* The couple whose mothers arranged their marriage ("I said, 'Call him up and disinvite him! You're not setting me up!'")
* The identical twins Hunny and Bunny who married identical twins Danny and Elliot
The most interesting stat in this book: About $4 of every monthly cable bill in the country goes to ESPN . . . even if the customer never watches ESPN...moreThe most interesting stat in this book: About $4 of every monthly cable bill in the country goes to ESPN . . . even if the customer never watches ESPN.
"If you never cried when your team lost, you really shouldn't work at ESPN. You just won't get it." --Jean McCormick
"This place is really like an island of misfit toys, like who else would employ these people? What would they do?" --Steve Berthiaume
"Ted Williams was actually setting up snacks for us because he was afraid we would be tired, hungry, and thirsty after listening to him for an hour and twenty minutes. That was amazing." --Peter Gammons
"If we hire [Keith] Olbermann back, he first has to stand in the reception area and everybody who wants to, gets to come up and punch him in the stomach." --Rece Davis, quoting a coordinating producer
"Why are you ruining my life?" Tony Kornheiser, in response to being offered Monday Night Football
Oh, and Steve Jobs makes a brief appearance in this gigantic book . . . when he insults the guy who runs ESPN by telling him, "Your phone is the dumbest f---ing idea I have ever heard." (The ESPN Phone was a disaster.)
This is an extremely entertaining and well-sourced book, although I wish the structure was clearer. The "Those Guys Have All the Fun" title sounds less fun when you read the authors' coverage of the many sexual harrassment suits filed against the company.(less)
I didn't know that it's possible to get divorced entirely by email (at least in New York state). And I didn't know that the Khmer Rouge used to round...moreI didn't know that it's possible to get divorced entirely by email (at least in New York state). And I didn't know that the Khmer Rouge used to round up young people and marry them off to each other randomly, and anybody who complained about it got killed. I learned a lot from this book, which is an oral history that focuses on love, romance, dating, and heartbreak.
"He scooped out my heart like a cantaloupe." --Celia Menendez, age 17
"I never know what Nick is going to be thinking or reading or wondering about, and it's intoxicating." --Cate Carvajal, age 58
"If there's such a thing as an afterlife, I hope I can spend it with her." --Paul Pesce, age 83
"My first marriage, it was just circumstantial." --Kelly Cumberland, age 30
"Love that grows out of something like what we have is stable and deeper than love at first sight." --Dina Kohler, who met her second husband when he showed up at her home to tell her that his wife was having an affair with her husband
"He said he was leaving. And I said, 'Oh?' And I said, 'When?' " --Dory Spence, age 66, who divorced and remarried her husband
"I remember the day--this was years after we divorced--my daughter called me and says, 'I know you don't care, but Clyde had a heart attack and died while he was out jogging.' And honest to God, I thought, 'Son of a bitch, I'll never be able to run him over.' "--Betty Anne May, age 80(less)
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