* * * 1/2 (out of 5)
I grew up with a kid I'll call Sunshine. Sunshine was one of the funniest people I have ever been friends with. He had expressions that would make you laugh, jokes, one liners. He had a great many ways of making you laugh and they would never be pre-planned, always off the top of his head. But Sunshine had one problem that too many of us suffer from. When you say something that gets a big laugh, you should always let it stand alone and hang back. It will have way more impact. Sometimes the best way to handle it, is to just walk away, so it is the last thing people have on their minds about you. George Costanza understood that on Seinfeld. But Sunshine couldn't do that. Addicted to the laughs, the way many of us are, he would try to pour on more jokes or act sillier to keep the laughter rolling. But then he became guilty of one of the worst crimes in comedy. Not knowing when to stop. He started Mugging for laughs. That's when you cross over from being a very funny person to being a clown and no one respects a clown.
Throughout his career going back to Saturday Night Live, Dana Carvey has been guilty of mugging. Which is so unfortunate, because if he could just pull back and let laughs come organically, he would be considered a much greater comic. There's no denying his talents. His impersonations are some of the best in the business. Sometimes what he says with the impersonation is a little weak, but other times he knocks the performance right out of the park. On HBO recently, Carvey had a one-hour live standup show that revealed him for all his talents and all his miscues. With live comedy on TV, I'll allow 5 minutes of no laughter if I get a big laugh after. But if more than 5 minutes goes by without a chuckle I'll change the station. Carvey made me pee as much as made me shake my head, but that's still a good ratio.
Perhaps my favorite pseudo impression he ever gave on SNL was of Carsenio, a blending of Johnny Carson and Arsenio Hall. He nailed it and Carvey nails various moments on this show, as well. His Al Gore impression as not of old Al Gore but this new Al Gore, who Carvey says, "sounds like a gay Forrest Gump" was dead on. "I'm doing my best for Global Warming. I even turned down the air condtioning on my private jet." Carvey said that Barack Obama looked like a cross between "Alfred E. Newman and Urkle." Even the name "Barack Hussein Obama" had to be the hardest name hurdle a presidential candidate ever had to cross. It was like being named "Charles Manson Hitler." The campaign ad would go, "Charles Manson Hitler is worried about our children. He's wants to initiate universal health care and improve the economy." The opponent's commercial would say, "Charles Manson Hitler is nothing but a tax and spend liberal. My name is OJ Scott Peterson and I approve this message."
His take on modern parenting is also on target. "My father was a former Marine, he'd yell at us, 'get in the car!' But nowadays I see a father in the park bending down, pleading, 'Greggers, didn't we decide we were going to go home now?' " "One time I had a glass of milk and was walking across the living room carpet. My father said, 'You spill one drop of that and I'll break every bone in your body.' " So Carvey shows the most careful display of milk carrying you ever saw until he reaches his stool and places it down. With a heavy breath, he yells, "I'm alive." And everyone from his age group and older laughed knowingly and exulted. Maybe Carvey's career is alive again. Hope so. I'd hate for his legacy to be know as Mike Myers sidekick, like Dan Ackroyd he deserves much more than that.
He jokes about his heart problems, but they were very serious. The man's artery was blocked more than "a port a potty at a construction site." He had five angioplasties and surgery on the blocked artery. He won $7.5 Million in a lawsuit because the doctor worked on "the wrong artery." If this is his big comeback it's a worthy one.
The Freditor
I grew up with a kid I'll call Sunshine. Sunshine was one of the funniest people I have ever been friends with. He had expressions that would make you laugh, jokes, one liners. He had a great many ways of making you laugh and they would never be pre-planned, always off the top of his head. But Sunshine had one problem that too many of us suffer from. When you say something that gets a big laugh, you should always let it stand alone and hang back. It will have way more impact. Sometimes the best way to handle it, is to just walk away, so it is the last thing people have on their minds about you. George Costanza understood that on Seinfeld. But Sunshine couldn't do that. Addicted to the laughs, the way many of us are, he would try to pour on more jokes or act sillier to keep the laughter rolling. But then he became guilty of one of the worst crimes in comedy. Not knowing when to stop. He started Mugging for laughs. That's when you cross over from being a very funny person to being a clown and no one respects a clown.
Throughout his career going back to Saturday Night Live, Dana Carvey has been guilty of mugging. Which is so unfortunate, because if he could just pull back and let laughs come organically, he would be considered a much greater comic. There's no denying his talents. His impersonations are some of the best in the business. Sometimes what he says with the impersonation is a little weak, but other times he knocks the performance right out of the park. On HBO recently, Carvey had a one-hour live standup show that revealed him for all his talents and all his miscues. With live comedy on TV, I'll allow 5 minutes of no laughter if I get a big laugh after. But if more than 5 minutes goes by without a chuckle I'll change the station. Carvey made me pee as much as made me shake my head, but that's still a good ratio.
Perhaps my favorite pseudo impression he ever gave on SNL was of Carsenio, a blending of Johnny Carson and Arsenio Hall. He nailed it and Carvey nails various moments on this show, as well. His Al Gore impression as not of old Al Gore but this new Al Gore, who Carvey says, "sounds like a gay Forrest Gump" was dead on. "I'm doing my best for Global Warming. I even turned down the air condtioning on my private jet." Carvey said that Barack Obama looked like a cross between "Alfred E. Newman and Urkle." Even the name "Barack Hussein Obama" had to be the hardest name hurdle a presidential candidate ever had to cross. It was like being named "Charles Manson Hitler." The campaign ad would go, "Charles Manson Hitler is worried about our children. He's wants to initiate universal health care and improve the economy." The opponent's commercial would say, "Charles Manson Hitler is nothing but a tax and spend liberal. My name is OJ Scott Peterson and I approve this message."
His take on modern parenting is also on target. "My father was a former Marine, he'd yell at us, 'get in the car!' But nowadays I see a father in the park bending down, pleading, 'Greggers, didn't we decide we were going to go home now?' " "One time I had a glass of milk and was walking across the living room carpet. My father said, 'You spill one drop of that and I'll break every bone in your body.' " So Carvey shows the most careful display of milk carrying you ever saw until he reaches his stool and places it down. With a heavy breath, he yells, "I'm alive." And everyone from his age group and older laughed knowingly and exulted. Maybe Carvey's career is alive again. Hope so. I'd hate for his legacy to be know as Mike Myers sidekick, like Dan Ackroyd he deserves much more than that.
He jokes about his heart problems, but they were very serious. The man's artery was blocked more than "a port a potty at a construction site." He had five angioplasties and surgery on the blocked artery. He won $7.5 Million in a lawsuit because the doctor worked on "the wrong artery." If this is his big comeback it's a worthy one.
The Freditor
No comments:
Post a Comment