The Trial

Thanks to my grandfather–who didn’t care if I listened to his comedy records as long as I didn’t scratch them, I got to hear Pigmeat Markham, Jackie Moms Mabley, and Redd Foxx before I was old enough to get most of the jokes.  🙂  It would all be considered tame by today’s standards but my young baptist ears knew something sinful was happening! For example, The Trial (the actual comedy bit starts in at 2:40–but listen to the whole thing if you want to hear one of the forefathers or rap…)

Anywho, there was also Effie Smith–she had a comedy album called “Dial That Telephone”.  The sketches showcased the characters Ruby Lee and Henry (her husband). They shared a party line with some of her friends, so a lot of the fun revolved around gossiping and eavesdropping. The bits here weren’t really jokes per se, but comedic situations.

New! From Apple….

The iPATCH

You will be assimilated hip!

To Die For

To Die For (1995) is a fantastic, dark comedy* starring Nicole Kidman and (the book on which it’s based) was inspired by the Pamela Smart murder case. It’s about one woman’s quest to be a tv star…

Beyond being a funny, well acted fim–To Die For is like a time capsule. There was a time when being on tv–even just a weather girl for a national news program–would have been seen as a major accomplishment. It took that kind of monumental exposure to be a household name.

Now, with the rise of the internet, social network, blog, share-it-all, world of today everyone has access to their own camera and can broadcast from their own channel. Millions of fans can be all over your video because it’s magically gone viral–and the crowd can disappear as quickly as it came.

I wonder what a woman like Suzanne would do today to get leverage over all of the other wanna-be celebs jockeying for bandwidth or a space in your download queue…

*Don’t believe me? Siskel & Ebert gave it 2 thumbs up.