Hello again. How are we all doing? “Ups and downs” seems to be the standard answer to that, at the moment. As if the tides of our moods have become more frequent and the tidal pulls stronger, now that we perhaps have less structure forced onto each day. Important to make your own routines, lest your life starts to blur. I hope, then, that my weekly playlist is becoming part of yours.
Same mission statement every week - about an hour of personally chosen fun stuff from the worlds of comedy, variety, TV and various other flotsam and jetsam of culture and entertainment.
If my choices manage to make you forget about more distressing things for a while, then please do share this page. And bearing in mind that every possible source of income for the year is vanishing in front of my eyes at the moment, if you want to click here and donate me the price of a cup of coffee, then I’d be more than grateful.
That said, let’s go…
It’s Wrestlemania this coming weekend, and it’s going to be the oddest one ever. I’m a wrestling fan, but I’m also a aficionado of strange live TV things that only happen once. This means that I’m perversely excited about a show, split over two days, performed in empty venues, in front of no fans. When creative people are faced with having to find short term solutions to massive problems, interesting things often happen. Not always good things, but usually interesting.
So with that in mind, here’s The Rock being inappropriate.
This is one of those old school circus acts that I remember seeing on TV as a kid, and have seen various different people do, in various different ways, a lot, over the years. Not sure if Ray Dondy was the originator of the gimmick - probably not - but he does it as well as anyone, and who doesn’t like to watch slapstick that looks like it could genuinely kill you?
This is what happens when you deprive and attention-reliant variety idiot (me) of an audience for a few weeks. I apologise.
David Letterman’s comedy sensibilities - shaped and informed by the wonderful work of Merrill Markoe - are perfectly summed up in a segment like this. There’s no reason behind it, not much of a punchline, but it’s playful and stupid and goofy as hell.
Tom Waits did a dog food advert. I’m going to say that again. Tom Waits did a dog food advert.
And since we’re in the neighbourhood of strange matches of celebrity and advert subject…
I’ve been lucky enough to make a modest living out of mid-level showbusiness for all of my adult life. I have a brain full of happy memories of travels and friends and audiences and moments. But I know that this will always have a place in my top ten of “Remember when we did that?”. From the first season of Mat Ricardo’s London Varieties. We tap danced.
The glorious Animaniacs here, with their brilliant version of “Who’s On First”
Parks and Recreation is one of those shows that I go back to when I need something that I’ve seen twelvety times before, but know will bring me comfort for another dozen watches at least. Here’s Amy Poehler and Rashida Jones mucking around with a lie detector.
How have we got this far into this deliberate effort at timewasting without seeing some Jackie Chan. Let’s rectify that right now with a scene from the excellent “Miracles”. Fun fact, my wife has seen him sing live. I’m forever jealous of that.
Lena Horne. Kermit The Frog. Yes, please.
And finally, this week, lets have a spooky story, well told, by the magnificent John Hodgman. Who just this week, convinced me that a hot dog is not, in fact, a sandwich.
Hope you enjoyed this weeks little collection of stuff. Don’t forget to follow me on instagram, twitter and facebook to see all the other content I’m making and sharing while we’re all hiding out at home.
And one more time, if I wasted some of your time in a pleasant way, and if the pandemic hasn’t affected your financial situation, go over to ko-fi and buy me a coffee to say thanks.
Keep safe and sane, and come say hi. See you next week.