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A Fan Letter to Emulsion Compulsion about Albert Brooks

August 29th, 2008 by Scott Marks

Albert Brooks directing MODERN ROMANCE

Ms. Leslie Gold from Hillcrest writes:

Dear Scott Marks,

I happened to hear you on KPBS this week — and I loved your views and comments! I love Albert Brooks’ work and it was great to hear you talk about him. I think even his ‘bit’ in the movie “Modern Romance” in which he “writes” (in the air!) someone’s phone number (even though no one can see him) is hilarious. I also think his movie, “Defending Your LIfe,” is not only very funny, but very touching and poignant. Also, re: Christopher Walken….he can make me laugh without even uttering a word. His scene in “Annie Hall,” in which he sits in his room and talks to Woody Allen about his thoughts while driving absolutely cracks me up every time.

I also love Jerry Lewis’s original “The Nutty Professor” — what a classic.

Just wanted to let you know how much I enjoyed your comments — I recently checked out your “Emulsion Compulsion” site for the first time…I’ll have to explore the site more when I have some more time.

Thanks again for your enthusiasm about good movies,

Ms. Leslie Gold
(Hillcrest)

You adore both Albert Brooks and Jerry Lewis?!?!? And you think Christopher Walken is funny? ALL RIGHT!!! Are you married? If so, do you fool around?

Thanks a bunch for the kind words. I was stuck for something to write about today, so in return for your marvelous letter, here are two or three things I know about Albert that didn’t make it to the air.

The first time I remember seeing him was on the 1971 PBS show The Great American Dream Machine. It was this satirical, pre-SNL sketch show that gave me my first opportunity to enroll in The Albert Brooks School of Comedy. I find it almost impossible to put into words just what effect this show had on me.  Only a crazed original could leave such an indelible brand by spoofing artless industrial films. I was at that point in my upbringing where I first began to seriously question the merits of many of the fleeting showbiz icons that I grew up blindly accepting as icons. Were Allen and Rossi really that funny? “Hello, Dere.” Okay, it was funny the first few times. The same goes for Wayne and Shuster. I used to wait for those two Canadian nuts on the Ed Sullivan Show. The W.C. Fileds Box Set Vol. 2 has a television “documentary” on the Lord of the Grappian Hills that’s hosted by W&S. Holy crap were these guys lame!

Albert saw (through) them all. He inverted the “serious” Jerry Lewis and played it for laughs. I didn’t know it at the time, but long before Dave Thomas “owned” Bob Hope, Albert was helping to interpret the violently insane thought transmissions emanating from Toulca Lake. This will comes as a shock to many EC regulars, but between the age of nine and fourteen I wouldn’t watch a Bob “For Amway” Hope special if the only program opposite it is was The Bishop Fulton Sheen Hour. Mind you, this was long before I embraced Frank Tashlin and some of Hope’s stronger pre-TV vehicles (The Ghost Breakers, Monsieur Beaucaire, The Big Broadcast of 1938) hit my radar. I found nothing funny about the man and it took several years before I realized just how funny the fact that he wasn’t funny was…is.I can’t tell you how many hours of Hope’s TV work I have in my collection. Hope was…is probably the single finest example of showbiz royalty flying on auto-pilot that ever scanned an idiot card. Once I tapped into this, I couldn’t stop taping, darlin’.

Albert knew it too, only it didn’t take him until his teens to figure it out. I had an audience with Albert in 1984 (more on that later) and I asked him (in my best Sig Sackowicz) to name some other comedians that might have influenced his timing. “Timing isn’t something your acquire or can be taught,” he quickly shot back. “You’re born with it.” After pausing for a moment he added, “unless you’re Bob Hope.”

All that I could find from THE ALBERT BROOKS SCHOOL OF COMEDY

The Albert Brooks School of Comedy marked Albert’s first foray into direction. The seven-minute short had “Albert Brooks” taking us on a personal tour of his school of comedy, the campus of which appeared to be located in an industrial park. There were visits to the Don DeFore Mall, The Danny Thomas Seminar on how to do an effective spit-take and the obligatory class on the best diseases for future comedians to embrace as their causes of choice.  It was so smart and hip and unlike anything I’d seen, it felt as though a thorn had been pulled from my paw.

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Filed Under Rants

Dig A Hole: Bernie Mac

August 9th, 2008 by Scott Marks

Of all the members of Ocean’s 11, who’d have thought that Carl Reiner would outlive Bernie Mac?

In February 2005, the comedian revealed that he had suffered from sarcoidosis since 1983. He said the inflammatory lung disease, that produces tiny lumps of cells in the body’s organs, had no effect on his daily life and that it had gone into remission. Earlier this month, he was hospitalized for pneumonia and rumors that Mac was in serious condition began swirling. His publicist, Danica Smith, said that he was expected to make a full recovery. Sadly, she was wrong.

Chicago Sun-Times columnist (and heiress to the Kupcinet throne) Stella Foster received calls early Saturday morning from a close friend of the Mac family. Bernie Mac died from complications of pneumonia at Chicago’s Northwestern Memorial hospital. He was only 50.

Bernard Jeffrey McCollough was born on the south side of Chicago on October 5, 1957. He was raised by his mother Mary who died of cancer when Mac was just 16. In an interview with freelance writer Khari Shabazz. Mac claimed that as a child he had been whipped with a belt by both his mother and grandmother.

While attended Chicago Chicago’s Vocational Career Academy, Mac began putting on shows for neighbor kids. In 1977, at the age of 20, he decided to turn pro. His first job as a stand-up comic was at Chicago’s Cotton Pickin’ Club. His career began building steam when he won the Miller Lite Comedy Search at the age of 32. A performance on HBO’s Def Comedy Jam brought him national attention and before long he was opening for Dionne Warwick, Natalie Cole and the inimitable Redd Foxx.

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