I don’t know why everyone has a sale on Labor Day, other than that it’s a holiday, so more people are off – and in the old days would go shopping in physical stores? But now that you can get most of what you need on the web… why can’t you just sit at your desk and look around for online stores that are having a sale and pick up what you need?
Anyway – it’s 20% off, and end at midnight (oooh spooky) Monday. Who was it that always did that (ooooh scary). Oh yeah, second city t.v.
“Now that blew up real good.”
And the guy that would dress as vampire… yeah… he was the one that would pretend it was in 3-D (don’t get me started on that gimmick) – and say, “Ooooh, scary” with a very bad Eastern European accent.
I think everyone in that show went on to star in at least one movie, (Uncle Buck?) ; and some are still popping up in bit parts, and still funny.
I’d love to read a book about Second City… they have just turned out one great comedian after another.
And speaking of comedians – I’m just hear to remind you that there’s a Labor Day Sale that just started. Don’t worry, it doesn’t mean that you have to do any labor to get the discount. It’s just a celebration that summer has ended (why celebrate that) and that for the whatever generation we’re up to now – school starts. Man oh man – did I hate that feeling that school was starting again. The summers seemed so long. And the idea of going back to school, whether it was a new school where I knew people, or even worse, a new school, like Junior High where I didn’t know anyone – that gave me what I used to call – and maybe people still do – The Sunday Night Blues. Butterflies in the stomach. A floating anxiety. It was just never something I looked forward to until I was in my late 20′s!
I think my biggest problem in school was that I simply wasn’t athletic, and definitely not tough; at least not for the schools I was going to. That was my downfall. I can imagine an entirely different life, if I had been taller and athletic. There’s no way I would have ended up sitting here writing a blog about (sometimes) photography. I’m certain that if I had fit in socially, and been popular, and well-liked by the guys and the girls – I would’ve had a tremendous amount of self-confidence – and would’ve gone off into an occupation that involved selling things. Maybe I would’ve been a humorous car salesman. Yes, I can easily see myself selling high-end sports cars, and importing them from Italy and one day I’d find out that I had a long lost brother who was autistic and take a cross country trip with him… ooops…. sorry ’bout that…
But even if I had still gone into the arts – it would’ve been as a producer or something like that. Or maybe I would’ve done what I really wanted to do and get into show business. I can remember thinking about going to Chicago to apply for Second City Improv. I’ve always been able to start rambling (proof is in this post) about just about anything. And sometimes I could make it funny. So maybe I would have ended up in Second City, and that would’ve brought me to Saturday Night Live… from there as a vocation, something to relax with, like say Richard Gere, or Kenny Rogers – country singer and I’d pick up a camera and be famous at the same time… ah… that would be the life. Then I wouldn’t even have to worry about sales. People would buy my stuff because I was famous as a singer or a clown (ever see Red Skelton paintings of clowns) or Richard Gere – blurry shots in Tibet. But beautiful.
And that’s how these posts go. Start with the sale and end up talking about Richard Gere and Kenny Rogers. Doesn’t seem possible – but there it is.
Second City TV, which ran from 1976-1984, was the funniest show ever, even more consistently hilarious than SNL. People suffering from depression should be prescribed a daily dose of three episodes of the show instead of drugs. Terrorists and leaders of belligerent states should be kidnapped and compelled to watch every show.
John Candy and Martin Short were the most well-known comedians to come out of the show, but they weren’t even the funniest or most talented of the cast members, which included Rick Moranis, Eugene Levy, and Joe Flaherty, who played Count Floyd in “Monster Chiller Horror Theater.”
If you ever need to have your spirits lifted, spend an afternoon watching a few episodes on YouTube.
Are telling me that monster chiller horror theater is on YouTube? That segment kept me in stitches every time.
Wow. Just found 2nd city. There’s nothing funnier than this except for the great Monty and also did you ever see Peter cooke and Dudley Moore together.
They are as good as Mel Brooks and carl Reiner as a team.
DB
There was a Peter Cook and Dudley Moore show that ran on Broadway a bit, called ‘Good Evening’ (if I recall). A good friend and I went to a preview close to opening night, and, we believe, we in the audience when the recorded the ‘cast’ album. We both sat in the front row of the mezzanine, and we both laughed very loudly. When the cast album came out, we were both pretty sure we could hear the two of us laughing from the front of the mez on the album, (along with the rest of the audience). They did a routine, the name of it escapes me now, where Moore was auditioning for a part in a movie and Cook was the casting director. Moore’s character in the skit had only one leg, and the part called for a two-legged actor. Moore thought he should be cast in the part, while Cook insisted that Moore, a “uni-dexter,” was unfit for the role. Hilarious as Moore hopped around the stage on one leg.
Chris. The movie was okay – Bedazzled. But really, I had seen every skit I could get my hands on – they were hysterical together. Moore did have a real club foot btw.
The other guys that I loved when I was in my 20′s were Bob and Ray (on the radio). Yes, intelligent and funny. I like to think that they’re still trying to sell buggy whips somewhere on another astral plane.
Favorite Bob and Ray Skit was the fast talker and the slow talker at a convention.
If you dig SCTV, check out Kids in the Hall back episodes on YT!
Greg, that’s pretty funny stuff! I had never even heard of those guys before. I guess because they are Canadians. But the funniest excerpts I ran across last night while browsing YouTube were from Sid Casar’s early 1950s TV show “Your Show of Shows”,with a cast including Carl Reiner, Howard Morris and Imogene Coca and writers including Neil Simon and Mel Brooks. That naturally led me to excerpts from “Young Frankenstein”, which is most likely the funniest movie ever made. I’ll gladly put up any number of performing animal videos on YouTube to be able to see pieces from these old shows and movies. It’s like old-time vaudville on YouTube, animal acts followed by off-tune vocalists followed by slapstick comics, but the advantage of the web is that you can turn off the bad acts and just watch the gems.