IJBFC Chat - December 12, 2010

(Name of message originator in [] brackets at the beginning of each line)

[ed kienzler] hi boss

[Laura Leff] Hi folks

[MikeAmo] Jello LL

[ed kienzler] i bet it's nice in California

[Brad from Georgia] Hi, Laura. Hey, our graduation was yesterday. I carried the gonfalon.

[Laura Leff] It's getting dark in California

[ed kienzler] but no snow

[Laura Leff] Brad - Did you have to wash your hands afterwards?

[Brad from Georgia] Nope. I march proudly. An I carries the gonfalon. (Pogo reference)

[Laura Leff] It's actually been very misty and gray today, but that's OK with me. Atmospheric is fun if it isn't that way all the time.

[Laura Leff] Brad - And I don't know Pogo well enough and will have to wait for Kay to come and get the reference.

[Brad from Georgia] We've got snow, high winds, and twenty degrees. Just dropped one degree.

[Laura Leff] I finished the Times a little over an hour ago!

[ed kienzler] our winds are gusting 41 mph

[Laura Leff] Brad - BS, BA, MS, MA or PhD?

[Laura Leff] OK, I'd rather be where I am than where you are.

[Brad from Georgia] Bunrab, a rabbit by trade, served with the Okefenokee Glee and Perloo marching society and fire house. He carried the hose. LL--BS and BA; we're a four-year school, not a university.

[Laura Leff] Mike - You there? Or just phantoming?

[Brad from Georgia] When they told me I was carrying the gonfalon, I had to go look it up.

[MikeAmo] I'm here...boooooo ==={:oO

[Laura Leff] Brad - Ah, sorry. I didn't know how far people could go with you.

[Laura Leff] Brad - And what did you find?

[Brad from Georgia] Huh. The Simpsons are doing the mirror bit from "Duck Soup." Oh, a gonfalon is a banner with the name of the school on it. No big deal.

[Laura Leff] And "I Love Lucy"

[Laura Leff] Brad - Got it. I learned something new today.

[Laura Leff] So how is everyone tonight other than staying warm?

[Brad from Georgia] One of Kurt Vonnegut's books was called "Wampeters, Foma, and Gonfalons."

[Laura Leff] That's very bespoke of him.

[MikeAmo] Trying to stay warm, planning for a big trip, mutitasking, Merry Christmas, ho ho ho

[Laura Leff] So what did folks think of the show for tonight?

[Laura Leff] I'm personally quite fond of it, but then again, I'm strange.

[Brad from Georgia] Good show, but so many of the gags were later recycled for Christmas shows, it seemed oddly familiar.

[Laura Leff] Although not Barbara Whitney

[Brad from Georgia] Whoosh--big blast of wind just rattled our storm windows!

[MikeAmo] All of the gags get recycled, but it's always good

[Laura Leff] It struck me as funny to hear Mary delivering lines in her higher, more nasal voice that would come off just slightly differently with her 40s voice.

[Brad from Georgia] Her early voice makes the barbs seem harsher, I think.

[Laura Leff] Brad - Perhaps somewhat akin to Terry Pratchett's Big Bang Theory.

[Laura Leff] Brad - Interesting. I was thinking the opposite, because her delivery later is much more deadpan and sounds almost serious.

[Brad from Georgia] Early voice just sounds...I guess "catty" is the word--to me.

[Laura Leff] There's a line I heard her say on a couple of shows in the 40s+, something like, "OK fine, (something happened). Why don't you just take a gun and kill yourself?"

[Laura Leff] I can't quite see that line fitting for her 30s character. Way too harsh.

[Brad from Georgia] Yeah, but try telling the traffic cop who stopped you for going five miles over the speed limit that these days....

[Laura Leff] Of course, I don't like the line in the 40s either, but it got on the air.

[Laura Leff] Ed - We lose you?

[Brad from Georgia] It's been a week since I listened to the show, and I've listened to others in the meantime...so I may get things mixed up.

[MikeAmo] I'm in 3 directions, like Jack

[Laura Leff] I love Andy Devine's blooper

[Brad from Georgia] Remind me of the blooper....

[Laura Leff] He gives Jack a salad fork and backscratcher, and Jack notes "there a comb on there too"

[Brad from Georgia] Oh, yes!

[Laura Leff] Then Devine stumbles on the line, and Jack has to feed him the cue again

[Laura Leff] See, that's the kind of stuff you never hear in the 40s

[Brad from Georgia] It was something like, "Yeah, you can comb your hair on the way fback."

[Brad from Georgia] back, I mean.

[Laura Leff] Or "You can comb your hair as you pass by"

[Brad from Georgia] That's it.

[Laura Leff] I can't remember it exactly because the blooper is funnier

[MikeAmo] listening again now

[Laura Leff] brb

[Brad from Georgia] Like "the Jelly show."

[Brad from Georgia] I can't decide whether "grass reek" or "chiss sweeze sandwich" is the funnier blooper from Mary.

[Laura Leff] I'd have to listen to them side by side again

[Laura Leff] She giggles on chiss sweeze sandwich, so grass reek may be better.

[Laura Leff] Ed - You still there?

[Brad from Georgia] Did Mary ever try an ad-lib that Jack called her on?

[Laura Leff] Brad - Ever feel like Abbott and Costello?

[MikeAmo] I can't see Mary ad libbing

[Laura Leff] Brad - Well.................

[Brad from Georgia] Who? Zone first?

[Laura Leff] There is a story, but I don't know that I buy it.

[Brad from Georgia] Tell it.

[Laura Leff] I think it's been embellished over time.

[Brad from Georgia] Everything has been.

[Laura Leff] In fact, I think Eddie used to tell it in Laughter in Bloom.

[ed kienzler] yes i am still here just watching the game while online

[MikeAmo] which game is still on?

[Laura Leff] In short, that in vaudeville after they got married, Mary would be "planted" to heckle Jack from the audience.

[ed kienzler] phllie at dallas

[Laura Leff] And Jack would say something like, "If you want to entertain, why don't you come up here [on stage]?"

[Laura Leff] Then one day...she did.

[MikeAmo]  

[Laura Leff] And she became an onstage part of the act.

[Laura Leff] But I don't think I buy that.

[Laura Leff] Jack had a very, very tight rein on Mary for the performance, and would give her lots of instructions on how to say her lines.

[Laura Leff] I don't see her having the confidence to go off-script, even a little.

[Brad from Georgia] Didn't Jack keep his hand on her arm to give her a squeeze now and then to kepe her timing accurate?

[Laura Leff] Brad - That's right. That was Dick Lane's recollection.

[Brad from Georgia] keep...

[Brad from Georgia] Who was Jack harshest with for ad-libbing? I'd guess Phil.....

[Laura Leff] And sometimes when she'd blow a line, you can hear Jack being a bit harsh in his response. Obviously not overly so since they were on the air.

[Laura Leff] Brad - Well, so few people did it, that there wasn't much chance. You could even say Larry Adler, but that happened only once on air.

[Brad from Georgia] Yep, Jack would say something like, "And it was such a GOOD joke, too."

[Brad from Georgia] I listened to the Adler bit recently, and though Jack sounded exasperated, he didn't come across as exactly furious."

[Laura Leff] Phil was probably the worst offender, and was the target of the one time I heard Jack sound like he was genuinely irked on air at an ad lib.

[Laura Leff] Brad - No, he knew better than that. He might have given him a rant off air, but not on air.

[Brad from Georgia] Of course, Phil had the ideal excuse of being "illiterate."

[Laura Leff] Gisele had a story about Jack coming back to her dressing room angry that she had been a TENTH of a SECOND off in a line delivery.

[Brad from Georgia] Wow.

[MikeAmo]  

[Laura Leff] Brad - Well, his character did. But once you ad lib, it's 52 pick up.

[ed kienzler]   

[Laura Leff] Gisele said back to him, "Come on Jack, a tenth of a second? That's nothing."

[Brad from Georgia] I remember Phil blurbed Milt Josefsberg's book on Jack with something like "I enjoyed this book so much I'm going to have Alice read it to me again."  

[Laura Leff] And Jack said something like, "Well, *I* felt it!" and slammed the door. I'd have to go back to the interview to get the exact exchange.

[Laura Leff] Anything else from the show?

[Brad from Georgia] Rochester was underused....

[MikeAmo] Just the fibber mCgee Xmas tree collapse

[Laura Leff] Rochester was still evolving as well. I guess they all were to some degree.

[Laura Leff] Pop quiz!

[Laura Leff] Who said, "Hello nut!"

[Laura Leff] ?

[Brad from Georgia] Keefe Braselle.

[Laura Leff] No running for 39 Forever.

[ed kienzler] i do not know

[MikeAmo] I thought it was the guy at the door

[Laura Leff] Brad - Yeah right.  I got to tell the James Aubrey story at SPERDVAC last month.

[Laura Leff] Mike - Right. And his name is?

[MikeAmo] yay Brad

[Laura Leff] No, it's not Keefe Braselle

[Laura Leff] Mike's on the right track

[MikeAmo] Dreer Pooson?

[Brad from Georgia] Keith Brazil, then.

[Laura Leff] No more guesses?

[MikeAmo] lol, I dunno, guess I have to replay it again  

[Laura Leff] Poor Harry.

[Brad from Georgia] Jeese, now The Simpsons is doing "Goodfellas."

[MikeAmo] Just a shortage of contestants tonight, LL

[Laura Leff] His name is Harry Baldwin. He was Jack's secretary before Bert Scott.

[Brad from Georgia] And we're all distracted. Now our lights are flickering, and we may lose contact. Wind in the wires, I guess.

[Laura Leff] Say folks...I don't want this to sound like sour grapes or anything. Since everyone's got something going on and I've got some client work to do yet tonight...

[MikeAmo] Aww

[Laura Leff] should we call it good? I decided to let it go to the bottom of the hour and see if we got more people.

[Brad from Georgia] Yeh, I think I'll call it a night before the power fails for true.

[Brad from Georgia] Good night, all~

User Brad from Georgia has logged out.

[Laura Leff] OK, thanks for stopping folks! We'll talk more in January. Have a wonderful holiday!