Purely funny
NPR’s Sarah Vowell tells about ‘Wordy Shipmates’ at All Saints
Think of warring factions within a religion, and the strife in Iraq between Sunni and Shia Muslims might come to mind. Unless you happen to be Sarah Vowell, best-selling humor essayist and star contributor to NPR’s “This American Life.”
Vowell has just released her fifth book, “The Wordy Shipmates,” in which she reveals the internecine (and sometimes humorous) conflicts that existed between the disparate factions of Puritans who helped found our own nation. Illuminating the battles over separation between church and state that were carried out via dramatic court trials, vicious pamphlet wars, and even orders of exile, Vowell also takes time to show the strange and surprising ways that Puritan culture affects our lives to this day (including via a Puritan-themed water park).
Speaking by phone from her New York City apartment before launching a promotional tour that brings her to Pasadena’s All Saints Church tonight for a reading and signing event sponsored by Vroman’s Bookstore, Vowell readily admits that the similarities between Puritan factions and Iraq’s Muslim factions helped light the fire for her new work.
“I wrote about this for a lot of different reasons. One of them is just simply that I have an illustration in the book — the seal of the Massachusetts state colony, with an Indian saying ‘Come over and help us,’” Vowell explains. “This is the official seal the Puritans brought with them from England, and it shows the ironic vision of how they saw themselves: they’re here to help, whether anyone wants their help or not. I feel that — and their notion of themselves as God’s new chosen people as always right, the city on the hill — I find that to be just a really enduring component of the American DNA.
“But also just in terms of the whole intricacies of Islam — there were so many days I’d put down the newspaper about all these squabbling theological factions over there and get back to work on my squabbling theological factions that were here. Every era has them.”
American history’s dark and quirky underbelly is a continuous source of fascination for Vowell, whose previous book, “Assassination Vacation,” detailed an extensive trip she took across America, visiting the sites of famous assassinations and digging up odd forgotten facts about the killers and their victims that have been otherwise scrubbed from our official historic texts. She developed her passion for history when she and her sister drove along the notorious Trail of Tears that cost the deaths of 4,000 displaced Cherokee Indian ancestors back in 1838. The audio documentary that resulted changed the course of her life.
“I had started out writing about music and books, but at ‘This American Life’ I started doing stories about music and family. That trip made me fall in love with history and the process of discovering it,” Vowell recalls. “The documentary wasn’t just about the Trail of Tears, it was also about our driving on it, so there were all types of off-topic shenanigans. I guess part of it is that I write about American history for Americans, which is to say a bunch of amnesiacs who don’t care about history.”
Ironically, Vowell’s stop at All Saints Church comes even as she admits to being a secular atheist. Some might think she is not the ideal candidate to write about one of America’s founding religions, but she says her earlier childhood upbringing in a Pentecostal church has maintained its influence on her in many ways.
“I have an incredibly classic evangelical background, and while I’ve thrown off the trappings of the mythological aspects of Christianity, I’m still influenced by the teachings of Christ, I guess,” says Vowell. “Also, religion was my entry into scholarship basically. In the town where I lived until I was 11 years old, almost no one had gone to college and almost the only scholarly facet of life was Bible study. I think that kind of childhood was enormous influential to me becoming a quasi-scholar/writer. Religion was the only way you got to spend your life in a library, and the thing I love most about the Puritans is their love of words and knowledge and learning, scholarship and intellect.” — Carl Kozlowski
Wednesday, October 15, 2008
Wednesday, September 17, 2008
FROM "STINKFIST" TO FINE WINE SCENTS: the story of Tool singer Maynard James Keenan
Taste in the making
Tool’s Maynard James Keenan shifts his focus from writing dark lyrics to creating zesty wines
By Carl Kozlowski 09/11/2008
As lead singer and songwriter of the rock bands Tool, A Perfect Circle and Puscifer, Maynard James Keenan has crafted some of the loudest, most inventive and disturbing music of the past two decades. Yet the author of such tunes as “Prison Sex” is also a man of unexpected contradictions; a guy who prefers to live amidst the desert atmosphere of small-town Wilcox, Ariz., where he oversees a burgeoning winery called Arizona Stronghold.
On the one hand, Keenan writes lyrics that can make one’s stomach turn, such as this couplet from the tastefully titled “Stinkfist”: Knuckle deep inside the borderline.This may hurt a little but it’s something you’ll get used to.Relax. Slip away.On the other hand, he’s capable of discussing the more refined scents of fine wines for hours, speaking with passion about the meticulous processes he follows to put out a product he can be proud of. He’s already sold 13 million CDs and sold out stadiums around the world, but now Keenan wants to take over your wine cellar.
To accomplish this, Keenan is kicking off a tour of a dozen Whole Foods stores with an in-store appearance Tuesday night at the Pasadena location on South Arroyo Parkway, where he plans to sign bottles for fans.
While he says the events will likely be straightforward affairs, they nonetheless offer his rabid fan base (which includes multiple stalkers he’s had to chase from his Arizona farm with paintballs) a rare chance to meet one of rock’s most reclusive frontmen.
Keenan developed his almost-obsessive love of privacy — protected for years by wearing masks and disguises onstage — as an only child who spent a nomadic youth moving across Michigan and Ohio. While overseeing his annual grape harvesting season, which runs from August through November, Keenan spoke by phone from Wilcox to explain just how he manages to keep up with it all.
“I come from a small-town background and did a little farming for summer jobs as a kid. For me it’s an extension of the art form. I’ve been collecting wine since the early ’90s but as far as breaking ground and getting involved in making it, that was around 2001-02,” Keenan explains. “It’s a generalization that California is a good spot to grow grapes. It’s a very easy spot to grow grapes and it produces fantastic wine, but it also is a comfortable place to produce it. Arizona is seen as a hostile environment, but because of that it should create spicier wines.”
Keenan considers his wines to be “a lot more European in their structure, with a lot of mineral structure and long-aging wines that are not California style.” His world travels as a rock star have greatly influenced his approach to winemaking, due to the exposure he’s had to flavors from all over the planet.
“I’m traveling around the world seeing places like Spain and Italy, and some of my favorite wine is from those places or in France. There are so many nuances to the wines in those regions because of the landscape and the culture,” he says. “As Americans we want things very palatable and safe and we need things sold in a consistent manner, versus the regional manner found in Europe.
“You’ll have a great flavor in a town in Italy and you’ll never encounter it again unless you move there,” he continues. “There are definitely little winemakers throughout California that are doing fantastic things, but overall they’re very safe.”
Keenan, 44, entered the Army after high school in order to raise the funds to attend Kendall College of Art and Design in Grand Rapids, Mich. He moved to Los Angeles after graduation in 1988 and wound up working in interior design and set construction.
Keenan specialized in redesigning pet stores, due to a love of animals that is surprising considering he’s the author of songs with titles like “Disgustipated” and “Killing You.” He teamed up with fellow LA musician Adam Jones to form Tool in 1990 and within two years they were releasing their first CD.
Despite the drive he felt to get signed quickly, Keenan still felt a need to develop side projects and has consistently taken about five years between the release of Tool CDs. Though busy with his bands, Keenan found time to develop his own California wine label as well, called Caduceus. “For Caduceus, it’s very small, low production and high quality. With Stronghold, we want to take it as big as we can. We purchased about 60 acres of vineyards in Wilcox, outside of Tucson, with the intention to have a large venue to cherry-pick the best grapes for our wine,” says Keenan. “With our other grapes, we’re putting $19 bottles of Arizona wine in front of people to expose them to what Arizona wine will do — and eventually they’ll find their way back to Caduceus and Page Springs Cellars,” the label run by his wine business partner Eric Glomski.
These days, most of Keenan’s non-alcoholic creativity is being organized and released under the Puscifer banner. While he promises the group will eventually perform live, he’s first opening a store named after the band in Arizona, with various merchandise, paintings, art and limited-edition stuff. He also owns three tapas restaurants.
“It’s always been a multifaceted, multi-medium project. I’ve worked with different chefs, filmmakers, designers, and it’s gonna be quite a large project. I’ve been working on this project since the early ’90s, and it took a long time to pull together,” says Keenan. “For the music, it’s not about the individual — so the more you let the music speak for yourself, the more powerful the music will be. With food, it’s more about the recipe. I just like different flavors, and I can’t sit still. I have different ideas that don’t fit the personalities in different groups, and I have to stretch my legs.”
Tool’s Maynard James Keenan shifts his focus from writing dark lyrics to creating zesty wines
By Carl Kozlowski 09/11/2008
As lead singer and songwriter of the rock bands Tool, A Perfect Circle and Puscifer, Maynard James Keenan has crafted some of the loudest, most inventive and disturbing music of the past two decades. Yet the author of such tunes as “Prison Sex” is also a man of unexpected contradictions; a guy who prefers to live amidst the desert atmosphere of small-town Wilcox, Ariz., where he oversees a burgeoning winery called Arizona Stronghold.
On the one hand, Keenan writes lyrics that can make one’s stomach turn, such as this couplet from the tastefully titled “Stinkfist”: Knuckle deep inside the borderline.This may hurt a little but it’s something you’ll get used to.Relax. Slip away.On the other hand, he’s capable of discussing the more refined scents of fine wines for hours, speaking with passion about the meticulous processes he follows to put out a product he can be proud of. He’s already sold 13 million CDs and sold out stadiums around the world, but now Keenan wants to take over your wine cellar.
To accomplish this, Keenan is kicking off a tour of a dozen Whole Foods stores with an in-store appearance Tuesday night at the Pasadena location on South Arroyo Parkway, where he plans to sign bottles for fans.
While he says the events will likely be straightforward affairs, they nonetheless offer his rabid fan base (which includes multiple stalkers he’s had to chase from his Arizona farm with paintballs) a rare chance to meet one of rock’s most reclusive frontmen.
Keenan developed his almost-obsessive love of privacy — protected for years by wearing masks and disguises onstage — as an only child who spent a nomadic youth moving across Michigan and Ohio. While overseeing his annual grape harvesting season, which runs from August through November, Keenan spoke by phone from Wilcox to explain just how he manages to keep up with it all.
“I come from a small-town background and did a little farming for summer jobs as a kid. For me it’s an extension of the art form. I’ve been collecting wine since the early ’90s but as far as breaking ground and getting involved in making it, that was around 2001-02,” Keenan explains. “It’s a generalization that California is a good spot to grow grapes. It’s a very easy spot to grow grapes and it produces fantastic wine, but it also is a comfortable place to produce it. Arizona is seen as a hostile environment, but because of that it should create spicier wines.”
Keenan considers his wines to be “a lot more European in their structure, with a lot of mineral structure and long-aging wines that are not California style.” His world travels as a rock star have greatly influenced his approach to winemaking, due to the exposure he’s had to flavors from all over the planet.
“I’m traveling around the world seeing places like Spain and Italy, and some of my favorite wine is from those places or in France. There are so many nuances to the wines in those regions because of the landscape and the culture,” he says. “As Americans we want things very palatable and safe and we need things sold in a consistent manner, versus the regional manner found in Europe.
“You’ll have a great flavor in a town in Italy and you’ll never encounter it again unless you move there,” he continues. “There are definitely little winemakers throughout California that are doing fantastic things, but overall they’re very safe.”
Keenan, 44, entered the Army after high school in order to raise the funds to attend Kendall College of Art and Design in Grand Rapids, Mich. He moved to Los Angeles after graduation in 1988 and wound up working in interior design and set construction.
Keenan specialized in redesigning pet stores, due to a love of animals that is surprising considering he’s the author of songs with titles like “Disgustipated” and “Killing You.” He teamed up with fellow LA musician Adam Jones to form Tool in 1990 and within two years they were releasing their first CD.
Despite the drive he felt to get signed quickly, Keenan still felt a need to develop side projects and has consistently taken about five years between the release of Tool CDs. Though busy with his bands, Keenan found time to develop his own California wine label as well, called Caduceus. “For Caduceus, it’s very small, low production and high quality. With Stronghold, we want to take it as big as we can. We purchased about 60 acres of vineyards in Wilcox, outside of Tucson, with the intention to have a large venue to cherry-pick the best grapes for our wine,” says Keenan. “With our other grapes, we’re putting $19 bottles of Arizona wine in front of people to expose them to what Arizona wine will do — and eventually they’ll find their way back to Caduceus and Page Springs Cellars,” the label run by his wine business partner Eric Glomski.
These days, most of Keenan’s non-alcoholic creativity is being organized and released under the Puscifer banner. While he promises the group will eventually perform live, he’s first opening a store named after the band in Arizona, with various merchandise, paintings, art and limited-edition stuff. He also owns three tapas restaurants.
“It’s always been a multifaceted, multi-medium project. I’ve worked with different chefs, filmmakers, designers, and it’s gonna be quite a large project. I’ve been working on this project since the early ’90s, and it took a long time to pull together,” says Keenan. “For the music, it’s not about the individual — so the more you let the music speak for yourself, the more powerful the music will be. With food, it’s more about the recipe. I just like different flavors, and I can’t sit still. I have different ideas that don’t fit the personalities in different groups, and I have to stretch my legs.”
Tuesday, July 15, 2008
EIGHT MINUTES WITH LEWIS BLACK
EIGHT MINUTES WITH LEWIS BLACK
For those who don't know, I've interviewed dozens of comedians in my years as a reporter. You can find the profiles in my "Famous and Funny People" blog section on my site, www.americasfunniestreporter.com. This interview was with Lewis Black at Vroman's Bookstore in Pasadena, CA on Friday, June 20, 2008 after he did a hilarious Q&A with the audience at a book signing for his new collection of essays, "Me of Little Faith." This interview hasn't appeared anywhere but here so enjoy...
America's Funniest Reporter: Nobody seems as crazy as they did in the Bush elections about religion, but the fringe keeps saying that Obama’s a Muslim. So how do you feel religion is playing out in this election? Is it a factor?
BLACK: I think it’s playing out a little less, but it just gets stupid. It’s playing out stupid. Before it was idiotic and now we’ve moved to stupid. They say Obama is a Muslim because they can’t say bad things. They can’t use the other words they’d like to say, so they come up with that as the excuse.
AFR: Do you think we’re moving past this permanently?
BLACK: Yeah, I think so. I think most Americans are tired of it. Once you have a president who says he’s religious, but people see he’s just insane, they pick up on it. I think people are sick of it. You see it even with the born-agains, saying these people have got to just stop it. I think it’s the end of it. And a lot of that outpouring had to do with 9/11. That’s how people respond when the shit hits the fan.
AFR: Do you think that when things calmed down and saw more trouble wasn’t coming they backed off from it?
BLACK: Yeah, I think so and they’re sick of it. Look – you can be on your hands and knees all you want but you gotta know how to fix things. Look there’s a flood now in the Midwest and they’re still putting up sandbags. No amount of prayer, you can pray whatever, but we ended up in the position where they didn’t do the basics. Look that was in ’93 that the place flooded. They were told in ’93 to build a larger embankment, and they didn’t. We have to start doing things when they do something and go, yeah now we gotta get it done.
AFR: So this is a problem that goes across other administrations.
BLACK: It goes across all of ‘em. This country’s never dealt with its problems, always fooling around with other crap.
AFR: Some people act like Obama is the Messiah. What is your reaction to that?
BLACK: I think the kids are reacting to something they’ve never heard, which is hope.
AFR: Do you have faith in him?
BLACK: I don’t have that much faith anymore. Hope is a great thing if you’re 22. I’m 60. Hope’s not that big a deal. Hope to me is that the hotel I stay in will have a breakfast buffet tomorrow. That would be nice. I think what he’s doing is great. I think what’s really amazing is that people go “God he speaks so well.” Like there’s something wrong with that. How do we know he can do anything? Well if he can speak that way he can focus people. That’s the important thing. Whether he gets anything done with the idiots wandering around is another thing. I don’t think it’s that difficult. It’s just here’s what the liberals think, here’s what the conservatives think, let’s meet in the middle and move on. Something’s gotta give.
AFR: Gay marriage is fresh in the news, and All Saints Church here is the most liberal church in America and has said they'll crank out gay weddings as fast as they get asked. So how do you think gay marriage will play out in relation to faith? Are people chilling out about it?
BLACK: In a sense it’s – it’s a hell of a thing to compare it to, but abortion. States allowed abortion, and eventually it became the law of the land. It’ll take a number of years because it has to do with ignorance. If people don’t spend time with gay people, they don’t get it. It’s a concept and a concept that weirds them the shit out. All you have to do is get out in the country 20 minutes to see that they’re not exposed to it. Compare this to parts of the country, it’s like 10 years ahead out here. They just got cable!
AFR: Has there been any presidential candidate ever that didn’t let you down?
BLACK: No! No, not really. Look all that had to happen, all my generation had to do was legalize pot and they couldn’t do it. It’s that simple. I mean really, that was it. They couldn’t even do the basics. I was reading an article by a friend of mine today. Hemp can’t be grown in this country. You’ve gotta be kidding me. Not even cannabis – hemp! It’s a law that’s 40, 50, 60 years old
AFR: What do you want to be doing next?
BLACK: Next? Lying down.
AFR: No, your next big project?
BLACK: I do the show, it goes back on the air July 30. I go back on tour, the CD comes out August 5 and then I do a run in New York but after that I don’t know. I may do a movie this summer but it doesn’t look like it.
For those who don't know, I've interviewed dozens of comedians in my years as a reporter. You can find the profiles in my "Famous and Funny People" blog section on my site, www.americasfunniestreporter.com. This interview was with Lewis Black at Vroman's Bookstore in Pasadena, CA on Friday, June 20, 2008 after he did a hilarious Q&A with the audience at a book signing for his new collection of essays, "Me of Little Faith." This interview hasn't appeared anywhere but here so enjoy...
America's Funniest Reporter: Nobody seems as crazy as they did in the Bush elections about religion, but the fringe keeps saying that Obama’s a Muslim. So how do you feel religion is playing out in this election? Is it a factor?
BLACK: I think it’s playing out a little less, but it just gets stupid. It’s playing out stupid. Before it was idiotic and now we’ve moved to stupid. They say Obama is a Muslim because they can’t say bad things. They can’t use the other words they’d like to say, so they come up with that as the excuse.
AFR: Do you think we’re moving past this permanently?
BLACK: Yeah, I think so. I think most Americans are tired of it. Once you have a president who says he’s religious, but people see he’s just insane, they pick up on it. I think people are sick of it. You see it even with the born-agains, saying these people have got to just stop it. I think it’s the end of it. And a lot of that outpouring had to do with 9/11. That’s how people respond when the shit hits the fan.
AFR: Do you think that when things calmed down and saw more trouble wasn’t coming they backed off from it?
BLACK: Yeah, I think so and they’re sick of it. Look – you can be on your hands and knees all you want but you gotta know how to fix things. Look there’s a flood now in the Midwest and they’re still putting up sandbags. No amount of prayer, you can pray whatever, but we ended up in the position where they didn’t do the basics. Look that was in ’93 that the place flooded. They were told in ’93 to build a larger embankment, and they didn’t. We have to start doing things when they do something and go, yeah now we gotta get it done.
AFR: So this is a problem that goes across other administrations.
BLACK: It goes across all of ‘em. This country’s never dealt with its problems, always fooling around with other crap.
AFR: Some people act like Obama is the Messiah. What is your reaction to that?
BLACK: I think the kids are reacting to something they’ve never heard, which is hope.
AFR: Do you have faith in him?
BLACK: I don’t have that much faith anymore. Hope is a great thing if you’re 22. I’m 60. Hope’s not that big a deal. Hope to me is that the hotel I stay in will have a breakfast buffet tomorrow. That would be nice. I think what he’s doing is great. I think what’s really amazing is that people go “God he speaks so well.” Like there’s something wrong with that. How do we know he can do anything? Well if he can speak that way he can focus people. That’s the important thing. Whether he gets anything done with the idiots wandering around is another thing. I don’t think it’s that difficult. It’s just here’s what the liberals think, here’s what the conservatives think, let’s meet in the middle and move on. Something’s gotta give.
AFR: Gay marriage is fresh in the news, and All Saints Church here is the most liberal church in America and has said they'll crank out gay weddings as fast as they get asked. So how do you think gay marriage will play out in relation to faith? Are people chilling out about it?
BLACK: In a sense it’s – it’s a hell of a thing to compare it to, but abortion. States allowed abortion, and eventually it became the law of the land. It’ll take a number of years because it has to do with ignorance. If people don’t spend time with gay people, they don’t get it. It’s a concept and a concept that weirds them the shit out. All you have to do is get out in the country 20 minutes to see that they’re not exposed to it. Compare this to parts of the country, it’s like 10 years ahead out here. They just got cable!
AFR: Has there been any presidential candidate ever that didn’t let you down?
BLACK: No! No, not really. Look all that had to happen, all my generation had to do was legalize pot and they couldn’t do it. It’s that simple. I mean really, that was it. They couldn’t even do the basics. I was reading an article by a friend of mine today. Hemp can’t be grown in this country. You’ve gotta be kidding me. Not even cannabis – hemp! It’s a law that’s 40, 50, 60 years old
AFR: What do you want to be doing next?
BLACK: Next? Lying down.
AFR: No, your next big project?
BLACK: I do the show, it goes back on the air July 30. I go back on tour, the CD comes out August 5 and then I do a run in New York but after that I don’t know. I may do a movie this summer but it doesn’t look like it.
Thursday, March 27, 2008
JIM GAFFIGAN: SURVIVING CATHOLIC LIFE THROUGH LAUGHTER
JIM GAFFIGAN
BY CARL KOZLOWSKI
Growing up as the youngest of six kids in a Catholic family in Indiana, Jim Gaffigan found out early on that being funny was one sure way to get some attention in a boisterous household. And when he eventually became one of America’s top standup comics, he found that his faith not only provided plenty of good-natured joke material, but also a source of strength amid some of the hardest moments of his life.
Through it all, he has built his tremendous success as a comic – with sold-out shows in front of thousands, and multi-night stands in cities such as Minneapolis and Washington, DC – on a reputation for comedy that’s clean as well as clever. He’s also become a frequent presence as an actor in TV, film and commercials, having starred in his own sitcom “Welcome to New York” on CBS and a currently hot string of appearances as the creator of “Pale Force” cartoons that are frequently shown on NBC’s “Late Night with Conan O’Brien” – depicting himself and O’Brien as pale-white superheroes who have to stumble into victory each time.
Most impressive in a field where comedic elder statesman George Carlin has morphed his career into a seemingly never-ending diatribe against the Catholic Church, Gaffigan wears his faith so proudly that his Myspace profile even lists Pope John Paul II as his top personal hero. Speaking with OSV by phone from his New York City home, the father of ___________ shared the ways in which being Catholic has been just as important as being comical to him.
“As a comedian, you’re looking at the things that make you who you are. I’ve been pursuing it 18 years and what makes me are my Midwestern upbringing, being Catholic and my obsession with food and my desire to do as little work as possible,” explains Gaffigan. “I find that Catholics have a sense of humor about the Catholic experience, but I never go superdark or heavy. My style of comedy is the lazy guy’s perspective and it works from the perspective of a lazy Catholic. I am practicing, but a lot of that is a greater function of being married to a woman who is what I call Shiite Catholic.”
Gaffigan is just joking about the differences between his own personal practice and the highly devout practice of his wife, but the small divide parallels that of the differences he sees among audiences in different parts of the country.
“In secular places like New York City or Los Angeles there’s definitely a little ‘Is this guy a religious freak?’ or in places down South there’s sensitivity about ‘Is he making fun of Jesus?’ And the answer is I’m not, I’m making fun of human beings and how they respond to religion,” says Gaffigan, whose dream project is to star and produce a comedy script he wrote about the Catholic American experience. “It’s interesting being Catholic because I’ve gone through the rebellious experience and now I’m defensive of it.”
Indeed, that Catholic pride shines through in his appreciation for Pope John Paul II, whom he almost named his son Jack after. He saw the late pontiff not only as a great Catholic leader, but as a historic figure who was a “citizen of the world.” Most importantly, Gaffigan related to him because of John Paul’s own background as a performer in his early adulthood, and he’s used that fact to draw inspiration for his own career.
“I feel being a comedian is not that different from communicating what a priest might do at a Mass, in that it is kind of putting things in perspective. There is a performing thing to being a priest and a little theater in Mass, you gotta get people’s attention,” says Gaffigan. “I think God has a sense of humor and it’s an interesting day and age we live in in which we live in such a secular world. It’s kind of fun to walk that line, because if you do a joke that makes both religious people and secularists laugh I think it’s kind of exciting.”
Gaffigan is quick to note, however, that as a Catholic he’s not as big an anomaly as one might expect amid the TV and movie industry. He notes that “there’s tons of people who are Catholic in Hollywood,” and points out that he sees Brooke Shields at his parish in New York City, and that he’s run into Comedy Central star Stephen Colbert when Colbert taught Sunday school there.
Yet he recalls the many lonely times in his initial move to New York City during the ‘90s, when he came from Indiana and its slower-paced life and found himself overwhelmed by his new metropolis. It was his faith and prayer that carried him through to the success he is today.
“I aspire to be a better Catholic and I think my material is helping me find my way through it. I’m definitely an oddball observational guy and people will bring 15 year olds to my show because it is clean,” says Gaffigan. “I’m clean because it’s an artistic thing. Most comedians will throw in occasional curse words to get more mileage out of the joke, but I made an effort to throw that out seven years ago. But the topics I talk about - escalators, Hot Pockets and bacon – don’t require language. I love the challenge of making ketchup funny and dealing with issues like camping and having a fresh angle on that.
“I do love the fact that at my show the goth kids are next to the youth ministers, I really get a kick out of that,” he says.
To learn more about Jim Gaffigan and his work, visit www.jimgaffigan.com.
BY CARL KOZLOWSKI
Growing up as the youngest of six kids in a Catholic family in Indiana, Jim Gaffigan found out early on that being funny was one sure way to get some attention in a boisterous household. And when he eventually became one of America’s top standup comics, he found that his faith not only provided plenty of good-natured joke material, but also a source of strength amid some of the hardest moments of his life.
Through it all, he has built his tremendous success as a comic – with sold-out shows in front of thousands, and multi-night stands in cities such as Minneapolis and Washington, DC – on a reputation for comedy that’s clean as well as clever. He’s also become a frequent presence as an actor in TV, film and commercials, having starred in his own sitcom “Welcome to New York” on CBS and a currently hot string of appearances as the creator of “Pale Force” cartoons that are frequently shown on NBC’s “Late Night with Conan O’Brien” – depicting himself and O’Brien as pale-white superheroes who have to stumble into victory each time.
Most impressive in a field where comedic elder statesman George Carlin has morphed his career into a seemingly never-ending diatribe against the Catholic Church, Gaffigan wears his faith so proudly that his Myspace profile even lists Pope John Paul II as his top personal hero. Speaking with OSV by phone from his New York City home, the father of ___________ shared the ways in which being Catholic has been just as important as being comical to him.
“As a comedian, you’re looking at the things that make you who you are. I’ve been pursuing it 18 years and what makes me are my Midwestern upbringing, being Catholic and my obsession with food and my desire to do as little work as possible,” explains Gaffigan. “I find that Catholics have a sense of humor about the Catholic experience, but I never go superdark or heavy. My style of comedy is the lazy guy’s perspective and it works from the perspective of a lazy Catholic. I am practicing, but a lot of that is a greater function of being married to a woman who is what I call Shiite Catholic.”
Gaffigan is just joking about the differences between his own personal practice and the highly devout practice of his wife, but the small divide parallels that of the differences he sees among audiences in different parts of the country.
“In secular places like New York City or Los Angeles there’s definitely a little ‘Is this guy a religious freak?’ or in places down South there’s sensitivity about ‘Is he making fun of Jesus?’ And the answer is I’m not, I’m making fun of human beings and how they respond to religion,” says Gaffigan, whose dream project is to star and produce a comedy script he wrote about the Catholic American experience. “It’s interesting being Catholic because I’ve gone through the rebellious experience and now I’m defensive of it.”
Indeed, that Catholic pride shines through in his appreciation for Pope John Paul II, whom he almost named his son Jack after. He saw the late pontiff not only as a great Catholic leader, but as a historic figure who was a “citizen of the world.” Most importantly, Gaffigan related to him because of John Paul’s own background as a performer in his early adulthood, and he’s used that fact to draw inspiration for his own career.
“I feel being a comedian is not that different from communicating what a priest might do at a Mass, in that it is kind of putting things in perspective. There is a performing thing to being a priest and a little theater in Mass, you gotta get people’s attention,” says Gaffigan. “I think God has a sense of humor and it’s an interesting day and age we live in in which we live in such a secular world. It’s kind of fun to walk that line, because if you do a joke that makes both religious people and secularists laugh I think it’s kind of exciting.”
Gaffigan is quick to note, however, that as a Catholic he’s not as big an anomaly as one might expect amid the TV and movie industry. He notes that “there’s tons of people who are Catholic in Hollywood,” and points out that he sees Brooke Shields at his parish in New York City, and that he’s run into Comedy Central star Stephen Colbert when Colbert taught Sunday school there.
Yet he recalls the many lonely times in his initial move to New York City during the ‘90s, when he came from Indiana and its slower-paced life and found himself overwhelmed by his new metropolis. It was his faith and prayer that carried him through to the success he is today.
“I aspire to be a better Catholic and I think my material is helping me find my way through it. I’m definitely an oddball observational guy and people will bring 15 year olds to my show because it is clean,” says Gaffigan. “I’m clean because it’s an artistic thing. Most comedians will throw in occasional curse words to get more mileage out of the joke, but I made an effort to throw that out seven years ago. But the topics I talk about - escalators, Hot Pockets and bacon – don’t require language. I love the challenge of making ketchup funny and dealing with issues like camping and having a fresh angle on that.
“I do love the fact that at my show the goth kids are next to the youth ministers, I really get a kick out of that,” he says.
To learn more about Jim Gaffigan and his work, visit www.jimgaffigan.com.
Tuesday, February 26, 2008
MYSTERY MAN (Stephen J. Cannell story)
The story of the man behind 40 of our most beloved TV series includng "The A-Team" and "The Rockford Files" - and his new career as a best-selling author
By Carl Kozlowski
Stephen J. Cannell writes in a concentrated rush, his pen stabbing the page as he sits behind the desk in his tastefully appointed office six stories above Hollywood Boulevard. His rapid strokes belie the thoughts racing through his head, of another tense scene in yet another thriller of his own creation. He asks a new guest to wait just a moment, but the words keep flying onto his notepad for another ten minutes before he unfurrows his famous eyebrows and declares himself finished.
The moment comes as a surprise, for as a TV producer who created more than 40 series including the blockbusters “The Rockford Files” and “The A-Team,” Cannell ensured that the public knew what the man behind the writing looked like. Each week, every episode of every series he produced ended their credits with a shot of Cannell typing briskly at a typewriter before flinging a completed page into the air. To see him turn even more retro by handwriting his next novel is a revelation, and a symbol of how the media giant has fully reinvented himself as a crime novelist whose books have proven to be as successful as his small-screen work.
In fact, just as 13 of Cannell’s series hit the blockbuster benchmark of five seasons on the air, so too have all 12 of his novels thus far managed to hit the New York Times best-seller list. His likely lucky number 13 is the new novel “Three Shirt Deal,” the sixth novel following another investigation in the adventurous life of Shane Scully , a rule-breaking and quick-witted LAPD Detective who uncovers a massive wave of corruption that ties together murderous cops, gang bangers, an LA mayoral candidate and the son of a powerful lawyer. While six of his novels have followed Scully’s adventures, the six others were stand-alone thrillers.
“Sorry, but you’ve gotta write it all the moment inspiration hits,” he says, bounding out of his chair and across the room filled with awards from his nearly 40-year writing career to offer a handshake that’s surprisingly strong for a 67-year-old.
That strength comes from both an inner focus that has driven the lifelong Pasadena resident to the heights of the television industry and from the daily 4 a.m. workouts that have propelled him through both his career and an unusually well-balanced private life that includes a 49-year marriage to his high school sweetheart Marcia and three thriving adult children (a fourth died in an accident at age 15 in 1981). It also comes from the core moral principles he learned from his father, who owned a successful furniture and interior design business but more importantly invested his son with bedrock moral principles that helped lift him head and shoulders above the stereotypically scandal-plagued denizens of Hollywood.
“My dad was my best friend, the most powerful and important relationship in my life with the exception of my wife. This guy taught me how to think, behave and be the right kind of person and I constantly try to live up to the high standards that he lived and he set for me,” recalls Cannell, who settles down to a daily five-hour writing regimen even before he heads to the office. “I had severe dyslexia and school was a really hard thing for me, but the idea of being a writer was something I really cherished and did well at in school.”
He’s done well with writing his entire life since then, reinventing the cop show formula of tough and stoic heroes solving cookie-cutter mysteries to incorporate characters whose quirks made them pop-culture standard-bearers rather than two-dimensional drones. But after building a TV empire by creating his own studio – taking on all the risks and rewards of his hits and failures rather than just drawing a nice salary from the big studios like David Kelley (Ally McBeal, Boston Legal) and Aaron Sorkin (The West Wing) – Cannell chose to sell his studio in 1996 and reinvent himself as a novelist.
“I think novels are much more fun to write and the reason for that is you have the wonderful omniscient tool where you can go into a character’s thoughts, while everything in a screenplay has to come out of characters’ mouths,” explains Cannell, who developed his affinity for the crime genre because it was the easiest way to break in at his first studio, Universal. “The process is still the same, writing five hours a day. I draw my ideas by trying to make connections in real events that nobody else might catch, and weave those together into the fictional crime plots of my novels.”
Despite his using longhand to craft some of his writings, Cannell’s approach to marketing his novels is cutting-edge. At his websites, http://www.cannell.com/ and http://www.threeshirtdeal.com/, he has launched a four-part series of webisodes – short scenes that tie in with the novel and are intended to bridge the events of his previous novel ______ and the new one. Amid an age in which teens and twentysomethings are launching their showbiz careers with similar short episodic tales that can be viewed globally online, it shows that Cannell is still maintains a cutting-edge rather than curmudgeonly mindset.
Another site feature, “Shane Scully’s Tour of Duty,” features minute-long videos plus photos of prominent locations from each of the previous five Scully novels. The idea is to give readers an extra layer of entertainment while also offering a realistic setting for the tales as they unfold. In keeping with that spirit of always staying new, he names his fellow mystery novelists such as T. Jefferson Parker, Joseph Wambaugh, Dennis Lehane and especially Janet Evanovich rather than a list of dead authors when asked whose work he regularly reads and admires.
“I’m not a guy who goes on the Today Show and when Matt Lauer asks who else he’s reading only lists dead authors so they won’t knock me off the New York Times bestseller list,” laughs Cannell.
Just as Cannell doesn’t begrudge giving his competition an endorsement, his sense of loyalty extends far beyond his marriage and into the lives of his employees. For instance, he has had the same boat captain for his Mediterranean-based yacht for 23 years, and also kept his first secretary with him for 28 years prior to her retirement. But perhaps his closest employee is Michael Potter, who has served as Cannell’s personal assistant and chauffeur for 24 years and offers an inside glimpse of the producer’s private character.
“He started needing a driver because in those days he had six or seven shows on the air, and his wife suggested having a VCR in his car with a driver would save him 90 minutes a day as he watched dailies to and from home instead of stuck in the office,” recalls Potter. “It was born out of functionality, to reduce time away from his family, rather than a show of status. I believe that what happens in the limousine stays in his limousine, but I’m 56 and I’ve met five great men in my life. Stephen’s one and his father was another.”
Cannell’s desire to help others learn from his success even spills over into the interview, as he animatedly spells out the specific steps he would advise aspiring actors to take in launching their career and offers fascinating examples of others he has seen break the usual Hollywood career mold, including Oscar-winning actor Richard Dreyfuss.
“Over-preparing is the key to everything in life,” he says, when asked for his core philosophy. “You have to be so good and so much better than everyone else that no one can turn you down.”
That philosophy has paid off in spades throughout his novel-writing career, with reviews that have been appreciative beyond the confines of his genre. The Los Angeles Times stated about his first novel, “The Plan”: “Sharp dialogue, tight pacing…the work of a pro who hasn’t forgotten any of his old tricks” and the Cleveland Plain Dealer noted “Cannell certainly knows how to tell a story…You’ll probably read the entire book with a smile on your face.”
The novels are driven by the same strong moral codes that suffused his TV series and all his subsequent novels: most cops are good and the good ones will root out the bad ones through the system. Yet overall in Cannell’s TV series and books, America’s justice system still works and the people who work for it engage in truly heroic efforts, and the heroes like Scully who are married always stay true to their spouses. .
“I was raised Episcopalian and was confirmed at All Saints, but really my moral code comes from my parents. It’s one thing to have religious examples, it’s another to watch a man you respect and love live morally and see it works to be straightforward, not to lie, to live the Golden Rule,” he says, referring to his father. “I’m certainly not perfect in this regard at all, nobody is, but I try really hard in my own life to live by those same principles.
“Life’s all about choices. I also believe in prioritizing. Most people aren’t good at it. But if I decide I want to accomplish this goal, I will accomplish it.”
Cannell’s new novel “Three Shirt Deal” is in bookstores everywhere.
By Carl Kozlowski
Stephen J. Cannell writes in a concentrated rush, his pen stabbing the page as he sits behind the desk in his tastefully appointed office six stories above Hollywood Boulevard. His rapid strokes belie the thoughts racing through his head, of another tense scene in yet another thriller of his own creation. He asks a new guest to wait just a moment, but the words keep flying onto his notepad for another ten minutes before he unfurrows his famous eyebrows and declares himself finished.
The moment comes as a surprise, for as a TV producer who created more than 40 series including the blockbusters “The Rockford Files” and “The A-Team,” Cannell ensured that the public knew what the man behind the writing looked like. Each week, every episode of every series he produced ended their credits with a shot of Cannell typing briskly at a typewriter before flinging a completed page into the air. To see him turn even more retro by handwriting his next novel is a revelation, and a symbol of how the media giant has fully reinvented himself as a crime novelist whose books have proven to be as successful as his small-screen work.
In fact, just as 13 of Cannell’s series hit the blockbuster benchmark of five seasons on the air, so too have all 12 of his novels thus far managed to hit the New York Times best-seller list. His likely lucky number 13 is the new novel “Three Shirt Deal,” the sixth novel following another investigation in the adventurous life of Shane Scully , a rule-breaking and quick-witted LAPD Detective who uncovers a massive wave of corruption that ties together murderous cops, gang bangers, an LA mayoral candidate and the son of a powerful lawyer. While six of his novels have followed Scully’s adventures, the six others were stand-alone thrillers.
“Sorry, but you’ve gotta write it all the moment inspiration hits,” he says, bounding out of his chair and across the room filled with awards from his nearly 40-year writing career to offer a handshake that’s surprisingly strong for a 67-year-old.
That strength comes from both an inner focus that has driven the lifelong Pasadena resident to the heights of the television industry and from the daily 4 a.m. workouts that have propelled him through both his career and an unusually well-balanced private life that includes a 49-year marriage to his high school sweetheart Marcia and three thriving adult children (a fourth died in an accident at age 15 in 1981). It also comes from the core moral principles he learned from his father, who owned a successful furniture and interior design business but more importantly invested his son with bedrock moral principles that helped lift him head and shoulders above the stereotypically scandal-plagued denizens of Hollywood.
“My dad was my best friend, the most powerful and important relationship in my life with the exception of my wife. This guy taught me how to think, behave and be the right kind of person and I constantly try to live up to the high standards that he lived and he set for me,” recalls Cannell, who settles down to a daily five-hour writing regimen even before he heads to the office. “I had severe dyslexia and school was a really hard thing for me, but the idea of being a writer was something I really cherished and did well at in school.”
He’s done well with writing his entire life since then, reinventing the cop show formula of tough and stoic heroes solving cookie-cutter mysteries to incorporate characters whose quirks made them pop-culture standard-bearers rather than two-dimensional drones. But after building a TV empire by creating his own studio – taking on all the risks and rewards of his hits and failures rather than just drawing a nice salary from the big studios like David Kelley (Ally McBeal, Boston Legal) and Aaron Sorkin (The West Wing) – Cannell chose to sell his studio in 1996 and reinvent himself as a novelist.
“I think novels are much more fun to write and the reason for that is you have the wonderful omniscient tool where you can go into a character’s thoughts, while everything in a screenplay has to come out of characters’ mouths,” explains Cannell, who developed his affinity for the crime genre because it was the easiest way to break in at his first studio, Universal. “The process is still the same, writing five hours a day. I draw my ideas by trying to make connections in real events that nobody else might catch, and weave those together into the fictional crime plots of my novels.”
Despite his using longhand to craft some of his writings, Cannell’s approach to marketing his novels is cutting-edge. At his websites, http://www.cannell.com/ and http://www.threeshirtdeal.com/, he has launched a four-part series of webisodes – short scenes that tie in with the novel and are intended to bridge the events of his previous novel ______ and the new one. Amid an age in which teens and twentysomethings are launching their showbiz careers with similar short episodic tales that can be viewed globally online, it shows that Cannell is still maintains a cutting-edge rather than curmudgeonly mindset.
Another site feature, “Shane Scully’s Tour of Duty,” features minute-long videos plus photos of prominent locations from each of the previous five Scully novels. The idea is to give readers an extra layer of entertainment while also offering a realistic setting for the tales as they unfold. In keeping with that spirit of always staying new, he names his fellow mystery novelists such as T. Jefferson Parker, Joseph Wambaugh, Dennis Lehane and especially Janet Evanovich rather than a list of dead authors when asked whose work he regularly reads and admires.
“I’m not a guy who goes on the Today Show and when Matt Lauer asks who else he’s reading only lists dead authors so they won’t knock me off the New York Times bestseller list,” laughs Cannell.
Just as Cannell doesn’t begrudge giving his competition an endorsement, his sense of loyalty extends far beyond his marriage and into the lives of his employees. For instance, he has had the same boat captain for his Mediterranean-based yacht for 23 years, and also kept his first secretary with him for 28 years prior to her retirement. But perhaps his closest employee is Michael Potter, who has served as Cannell’s personal assistant and chauffeur for 24 years and offers an inside glimpse of the producer’s private character.
“He started needing a driver because in those days he had six or seven shows on the air, and his wife suggested having a VCR in his car with a driver would save him 90 minutes a day as he watched dailies to and from home instead of stuck in the office,” recalls Potter. “It was born out of functionality, to reduce time away from his family, rather than a show of status. I believe that what happens in the limousine stays in his limousine, but I’m 56 and I’ve met five great men in my life. Stephen’s one and his father was another.”
Cannell’s desire to help others learn from his success even spills over into the interview, as he animatedly spells out the specific steps he would advise aspiring actors to take in launching their career and offers fascinating examples of others he has seen break the usual Hollywood career mold, including Oscar-winning actor Richard Dreyfuss.
“Over-preparing is the key to everything in life,” he says, when asked for his core philosophy. “You have to be so good and so much better than everyone else that no one can turn you down.”
That philosophy has paid off in spades throughout his novel-writing career, with reviews that have been appreciative beyond the confines of his genre. The Los Angeles Times stated about his first novel, “The Plan”: “Sharp dialogue, tight pacing…the work of a pro who hasn’t forgotten any of his old tricks” and the Cleveland Plain Dealer noted “Cannell certainly knows how to tell a story…You’ll probably read the entire book with a smile on your face.”
The novels are driven by the same strong moral codes that suffused his TV series and all his subsequent novels: most cops are good and the good ones will root out the bad ones through the system. Yet overall in Cannell’s TV series and books, America’s justice system still works and the people who work for it engage in truly heroic efforts, and the heroes like Scully who are married always stay true to their spouses. .
“I was raised Episcopalian and was confirmed at All Saints, but really my moral code comes from my parents. It’s one thing to have religious examples, it’s another to watch a man you respect and love live morally and see it works to be straightforward, not to lie, to live the Golden Rule,” he says, referring to his father. “I’m certainly not perfect in this regard at all, nobody is, but I try really hard in my own life to live by those same principles.
“Life’s all about choices. I also believe in prioritizing. Most people aren’t good at it. But if I decide I want to accomplish this goal, I will accomplish it.”
Cannell’s new novel “Three Shirt Deal” is in bookstores everywhere.
Monday, January 14, 2008
SEVEN MINUTES WITH FLEA OF THE RED HOT CHILI PEPPERS
SEVEN MINUTES WITH FLEA OF CHILI PEPPERS
Give it away
Through the Silverlake Conservatory of Music, rock bassist Flea offers musical opportunities to everyone
By Carl Kozlowski
When Michael Balzary was a self-proclaimed "wild child" growing up in LA in the late 1970s, he found much-needed direction and inspiration through the music education programs at Fairfax High School. It was there that he also found his lifelong best friend, Anthony Kiedis, adopted the nickname of "Flea" as his public moniker and started his life's work as rock's premier bassist when the two teamed up to create the mega-selling rock band Red Hot Chili Peppers.
But when Flea, who's now 45, went back to speak to Fairfax High students several years ago, he made a discovery that shocked him.
"They used to have a marching band, orchestra, jazz band and all sorts of student productions to play in, but now they had basically no music program at all, just a volunteer teacher and a few instruments," Flea recalls. "They used to give you the instruments and teach you how to play, and now it was all gone. Then I read a book called "Songs of the Unsung" by Horace Tapscott, a great musician who started a music school in South Central in the '60s. I was really inspired by him and, after reading it, decided to start a school."
Thanks to the fact that the Chili Peppers have sold well over 40 million albums, Flea had the wherewithal to put his intentions into action. He put up the money and oversaw the planning for the Silverlake Conservatory of Music, and even personally knew and enlisted the teachers before it opened in 2001. And for the past three years, he's recruited the Chili Peppers along with some of rock's biggest names — from Patti Smith to Tracy Chapman to this year's special guest, Eddie Vedder of Pearl Jam — to perform a fiery fund-raiser called Hullabaloo to raise most of the school's annual budget.
This year's Hullabaloo is being held Saturday night at the Henry Fonda Theatre in Hollywood, offering fans the chance to see one of the best live bands on the planet rock it out in a venue that holds just 1,400 people. The prices range from $250 for regular admission to the show and an open bar and appetizer spread beforehand, to $500 for VIP tickets that entitle buyers to attend an exclusive rooftop after-party at a Hollywood hotspot with a special performance by popular local scenester Mickey Avalon.
All the money goes to a great cause, as the Silverlake Conservatory of Music currently teaches 600 Angelenos of every age and background among the six studios that rotate users all day long, including free lessons for those who can't afford them. Keeping with Flea's old public school tradition, the Conservatory also provides the instruments for the students to use — "that's why we need a fund-raiser," Flea says, laughing.
"We just ask that you take care of the instrument we give you and that you show up on time," says Flea. "I don't know if music programs are coming back to the schools. I would hope that would be a priority in a kid's education, but who knows? Maybe if we get a decent leader in this country."
The Conservatory doesn't just focus on rock music. Emanating from its studio walls on a recent Tuesday afternoon were piano riffs from famous classical pieces, the squawk of a tuba and assorted other jazz instruments. While it may seem surprising, the mix of sounds is totally apropos for a school run by Flea, who also is a proficient trumpet player. He studied the trumpet as well as bass guitar at Fairfax High, but also was heavily influenced by his stepfather, acclaimed jazz musician Walter Urban, Jr.
"I just love music, period," says Flea. "Jazz is one of the most sophisticated forms of music in terms of harmonics, covering the spiritual and emotional as well."
And with that spirit of musical adventure helping guide the Chili Peppers to ever more sophisticated albums and critical acclaim — including a Grammy nomination for Album of the Year for their 2006 double-CD "Stadium Arcadium" — Flea can look toward his own future with excitement, but, more importantly, can see the futures of a new generation of musical talent blossom.
"I was a street kid out of control. Having music was the one thing that was a discipline that was essential to me. It gave me something to do and something to believe in," he explains. "School music programs were everything to me; they gave me a path away from self-destruction and toward giving good energy to the world. There are a lot of kids like me who need this. I just wanna give back. That's the whole thing."
Give it away
Through the Silverlake Conservatory of Music, rock bassist Flea offers musical opportunities to everyone
By Carl Kozlowski
When Michael Balzary was a self-proclaimed "wild child" growing up in LA in the late 1970s, he found much-needed direction and inspiration through the music education programs at Fairfax High School. It was there that he also found his lifelong best friend, Anthony Kiedis, adopted the nickname of "Flea" as his public moniker and started his life's work as rock's premier bassist when the two teamed up to create the mega-selling rock band Red Hot Chili Peppers.
But when Flea, who's now 45, went back to speak to Fairfax High students several years ago, he made a discovery that shocked him.
"They used to have a marching band, orchestra, jazz band and all sorts of student productions to play in, but now they had basically no music program at all, just a volunteer teacher and a few instruments," Flea recalls. "They used to give you the instruments and teach you how to play, and now it was all gone. Then I read a book called "Songs of the Unsung" by Horace Tapscott, a great musician who started a music school in South Central in the '60s. I was really inspired by him and, after reading it, decided to start a school."
Thanks to the fact that the Chili Peppers have sold well over 40 million albums, Flea had the wherewithal to put his intentions into action. He put up the money and oversaw the planning for the Silverlake Conservatory of Music, and even personally knew and enlisted the teachers before it opened in 2001. And for the past three years, he's recruited the Chili Peppers along with some of rock's biggest names — from Patti Smith to Tracy Chapman to this year's special guest, Eddie Vedder of Pearl Jam — to perform a fiery fund-raiser called Hullabaloo to raise most of the school's annual budget.
This year's Hullabaloo is being held Saturday night at the Henry Fonda Theatre in Hollywood, offering fans the chance to see one of the best live bands on the planet rock it out in a venue that holds just 1,400 people. The prices range from $250 for regular admission to the show and an open bar and appetizer spread beforehand, to $500 for VIP tickets that entitle buyers to attend an exclusive rooftop after-party at a Hollywood hotspot with a special performance by popular local scenester Mickey Avalon.
All the money goes to a great cause, as the Silverlake Conservatory of Music currently teaches 600 Angelenos of every age and background among the six studios that rotate users all day long, including free lessons for those who can't afford them. Keeping with Flea's old public school tradition, the Conservatory also provides the instruments for the students to use — "that's why we need a fund-raiser," Flea says, laughing.
"We just ask that you take care of the instrument we give you and that you show up on time," says Flea. "I don't know if music programs are coming back to the schools. I would hope that would be a priority in a kid's education, but who knows? Maybe if we get a decent leader in this country."
The Conservatory doesn't just focus on rock music. Emanating from its studio walls on a recent Tuesday afternoon were piano riffs from famous classical pieces, the squawk of a tuba and assorted other jazz instruments. While it may seem surprising, the mix of sounds is totally apropos for a school run by Flea, who also is a proficient trumpet player. He studied the trumpet as well as bass guitar at Fairfax High, but also was heavily influenced by his stepfather, acclaimed jazz musician Walter Urban, Jr.
"I just love music, period," says Flea. "Jazz is one of the most sophisticated forms of music in terms of harmonics, covering the spiritual and emotional as well."
And with that spirit of musical adventure helping guide the Chili Peppers to ever more sophisticated albums and critical acclaim — including a Grammy nomination for Album of the Year for their 2006 double-CD "Stadium Arcadium" — Flea can look toward his own future with excitement, but, more importantly, can see the futures of a new generation of musical talent blossom.
"I was a street kid out of control. Having music was the one thing that was a discipline that was essential to me. It gave me something to do and something to believe in," he explains. "School music programs were everything to me; they gave me a path away from self-destruction and toward giving good energy to the world. There are a lot of kids like me who need this. I just wanna give back. That's the whole thing."
JON LOVITZ'S SECOND ACT
JON LOVITZ'S SECOND ACT
'SNL' alum takes a shot at career reinvention with his Laugh Factory residency
By CARL KOZLOWSKI
You may think you know Jon Lovitz, but you don't. Maybe you think of him like most people do, as one of the prime performers in the Saturday Night Live renaissance of the late '80s, who played a wide array of deceitful yet ultimately lovable characters, ranging from Mephistopheles himself to Tommy Flanagan the pathological liar to the sonorous-voiced Master Thespian. Or perhaps you recall him for the distinctively paunchy, hilariously nasal characters he portrayed in more than a hundred TV and film roles following his stint with the late-night powerhouse. He's one of those rare performers whose mere appearance signals laughter on the way.
Yet that impression is far too limiting, for Lovitz is also a man who can tell a vivid tale of the harrowing days he spent trapped in New York City after 9/11. He can also amaze you with a candid, impassioned defense of his friend Michael Jackson. (Hell, it's stunning to think of Jon Lovitz and the King of Pop being friends in the first place.) And now, he's making a bold leap by opening up his life onstage, taking a swing at standup-comedy success with a weekly Wednesday-night showcase at the Laugh Factory.
He decided to take this creative turn because, at 46, he was growing tired of playing the same types of roles and had experienced occasional dry spells between films. Eager to shake things up for himself, he approached Laugh Factory owner Jamie Masada last June. Lovitz's initial performance was so enthusiastically received, Masada instantly urged him to work up a full routine.
Lovitz's performance rests squarely on his shoulders, and for a guy who's built a career on playing insecure losers, he steps up to the challenge in surprisingly strong fashion. Veering from topic to topic on a recent Wednesday – politics to bizarre childhood tales to ridiculously overstated complaints about the state of television advertising – he conveyed a childlike spirit that won over two consecutive crowds, no matter how conservative their politics or stringent their morality. But most of all, his appearances are another example that, in showbiz, it's never too late to reinvent yourself.
"I've seen plenty of comics become actors, developing their persona and career and image through standup before signing a TV sitcom or movie deal," says Masada, who has watched literally thousands of the comedy hopefuls who wander through his club's doors. "[Lovitz] has one-in-a-billion timing that has taken him farther in the past six months than I've seen people go in 20 years of trying. I can see him taking this show to Broadway by the time he's finished here." Masada has given Lovitz an unheard-of yearlong commitment. "Like very few people – Jim Carrey, Adam Sandler, and Chris Rock – he can make anyone of any age and any background laugh hard."
Lovitz's journey to the standup world began with what he recalls as an idyllic childhood as the only boy among five kids growing up in Tarzana, where he says his doctor father helped spearhead the construction of the suburb's main hospital. Friends star Lisa Kudrow was a neighborhood friend of his, and Lovitz's father was also the family physician for the Jacksons – as in Michael, Janet, and the rest.
Those experiences helped Lovitz hone a sense of the absurd at a very young age, as well as a fierce loyalty to his friend Michael. One of the funniest bits in his show comes when he recounts the difference between growing up "not a Jew, but Jewish" and the disparities he perceived between his upbringing and that of a macho kid in Texas: "Most boys at 12 go hunting with their fathers, kill a deer, and then learn how to gut them and skin them. I had the same experience with a bagel. My father would come in screaming, 'You're cutting it wrong! Look at all the dough you're wasting!'"
Yet it was around that time, at age 13, that Lovitz saw Woody Allen's classic 1969 film Take the Money and Run and decided he wanted to be just like him.
"I heard his routine and performed that and other Jewish comics like Lenny Bruce's routines in my college dorm, and when I graduated I took comedy workshops on Saturday nights at the Comedy Store," he recalls. "I always wanted to do it but didn't have the guts to take the stage on my own like that, until [fellow SNL alums] Dana Carvey and Dennis Miller told me I should do it, and I heard how much Dana was making at it. Right away, I started hosting shows for [fellow SNL-ers] Kevin Nealon, Victoria Jackson, and Norm MacDonald. I did 10 minutes first; then they asked if I could do 30."
Lovitz was able to work at getting into SNL because of his father's thorough emotional support. Despite his success as a doctor, the senior Lovitz had really wanted to be an opera singer, and so the patriarch encouraged his children to follow their hearts careerwise. Thus, young Jon headed off to UC Irvine to pursue acting – a professor there served as the inspiration for the Master Thespian – and soon afterward began performing with the legendary Groundlings comedy troupe, where SNL producer Lorne Michaels discovered him.
During Lovitz's five-year run on the late-night powerhouse, he recalls upsetting only one celebrity with a stinging impersonation: iconic gay playwright/actor Harvey Fierstein. Lovitz pretended that Fierstein was hosting a talk show from his boudoir, desperately hustling attractive male guests for physical affection while always being thoroughly rebuffed.
"Harvey didn't like it, and he came in to the show to complain about it," says Lovitz. "His point was that he was getting more famous as me than as him. Watching him, I realized I was doing him quite well. He thought I was doing a gay stereotype," laughs the comedian. "But I only played him one time after that. If it hurts someone, it's not worth doing."
That surprisingly gentle philosophy is rare among today's generation of notoriously mean-spirited humorists, but it allows Lovitz to get away with poking extensive fun at all types of politicians and pop culture. Even when the admittedly staunch Democrat calls on the Republicans in the Laugh Factory crowd to raise their hands and "out" themselves, they do it joyfully and wind up laughing harder at his take on Bush than even the Democrats in the house. And when Lovitz fires off his best riff of the show, complaining about celebrities like Bob Dole or Tony Bennett making ads for penile dysfunction medications, it's hard to find an audience member who isn't doubled over with laughter.
At the end of the night, Lovitz surprises the crowd one more time by sitting at a portable keyboard and pounding out jazz-pop tunes he's written. But even these are childishly dirty and absurdly off-kilter in the best way, as they revolve around another unlikely friend of his – squeaky-clean TV dad Bob Saget of Full House fame – and Lovitz's unfounded impression that Saget is gay. As he spells out one incredibly deluded allegation after another in a voice that could lull an infant to sleep, Lovitz tickles the ivories with fast-jazz fury, transformed by the moment into the all-around entertainer he's always dreamed of being. As the audience bursts into a final round of applause, one senses Masada is right: This is career reinvention at its most exciting, and could very well signal the rebirth of a star.
'SNL' alum takes a shot at career reinvention with his Laugh Factory residency
By CARL KOZLOWSKI
You may think you know Jon Lovitz, but you don't. Maybe you think of him like most people do, as one of the prime performers in the Saturday Night Live renaissance of the late '80s, who played a wide array of deceitful yet ultimately lovable characters, ranging from Mephistopheles himself to Tommy Flanagan the pathological liar to the sonorous-voiced Master Thespian. Or perhaps you recall him for the distinctively paunchy, hilariously nasal characters he portrayed in more than a hundred TV and film roles following his stint with the late-night powerhouse. He's one of those rare performers whose mere appearance signals laughter on the way.
Yet that impression is far too limiting, for Lovitz is also a man who can tell a vivid tale of the harrowing days he spent trapped in New York City after 9/11. He can also amaze you with a candid, impassioned defense of his friend Michael Jackson. (Hell, it's stunning to think of Jon Lovitz and the King of Pop being friends in the first place.) And now, he's making a bold leap by opening up his life onstage, taking a swing at standup-comedy success with a weekly Wednesday-night showcase at the Laugh Factory.
He decided to take this creative turn because, at 46, he was growing tired of playing the same types of roles and had experienced occasional dry spells between films. Eager to shake things up for himself, he approached Laugh Factory owner Jamie Masada last June. Lovitz's initial performance was so enthusiastically received, Masada instantly urged him to work up a full routine.
Lovitz's performance rests squarely on his shoulders, and for a guy who's built a career on playing insecure losers, he steps up to the challenge in surprisingly strong fashion. Veering from topic to topic on a recent Wednesday – politics to bizarre childhood tales to ridiculously overstated complaints about the state of television advertising – he conveyed a childlike spirit that won over two consecutive crowds, no matter how conservative their politics or stringent their morality. But most of all, his appearances are another example that, in showbiz, it's never too late to reinvent yourself.
"I've seen plenty of comics become actors, developing their persona and career and image through standup before signing a TV sitcom or movie deal," says Masada, who has watched literally thousands of the comedy hopefuls who wander through his club's doors. "[Lovitz] has one-in-a-billion timing that has taken him farther in the past six months than I've seen people go in 20 years of trying. I can see him taking this show to Broadway by the time he's finished here." Masada has given Lovitz an unheard-of yearlong commitment. "Like very few people – Jim Carrey, Adam Sandler, and Chris Rock – he can make anyone of any age and any background laugh hard."
Lovitz's journey to the standup world began with what he recalls as an idyllic childhood as the only boy among five kids growing up in Tarzana, where he says his doctor father helped spearhead the construction of the suburb's main hospital. Friends star Lisa Kudrow was a neighborhood friend of his, and Lovitz's father was also the family physician for the Jacksons – as in Michael, Janet, and the rest.
Those experiences helped Lovitz hone a sense of the absurd at a very young age, as well as a fierce loyalty to his friend Michael. One of the funniest bits in his show comes when he recounts the difference between growing up "not a Jew, but Jewish" and the disparities he perceived between his upbringing and that of a macho kid in Texas: "Most boys at 12 go hunting with their fathers, kill a deer, and then learn how to gut them and skin them. I had the same experience with a bagel. My father would come in screaming, 'You're cutting it wrong! Look at all the dough you're wasting!'"
Yet it was around that time, at age 13, that Lovitz saw Woody Allen's classic 1969 film Take the Money and Run and decided he wanted to be just like him.
"I heard his routine and performed that and other Jewish comics like Lenny Bruce's routines in my college dorm, and when I graduated I took comedy workshops on Saturday nights at the Comedy Store," he recalls. "I always wanted to do it but didn't have the guts to take the stage on my own like that, until [fellow SNL alums] Dana Carvey and Dennis Miller told me I should do it, and I heard how much Dana was making at it. Right away, I started hosting shows for [fellow SNL-ers] Kevin Nealon, Victoria Jackson, and Norm MacDonald. I did 10 minutes first; then they asked if I could do 30."
Lovitz was able to work at getting into SNL because of his father's thorough emotional support. Despite his success as a doctor, the senior Lovitz had really wanted to be an opera singer, and so the patriarch encouraged his children to follow their hearts careerwise. Thus, young Jon headed off to UC Irvine to pursue acting – a professor there served as the inspiration for the Master Thespian – and soon afterward began performing with the legendary Groundlings comedy troupe, where SNL producer Lorne Michaels discovered him.
During Lovitz's five-year run on the late-night powerhouse, he recalls upsetting only one celebrity with a stinging impersonation: iconic gay playwright/actor Harvey Fierstein. Lovitz pretended that Fierstein was hosting a talk show from his boudoir, desperately hustling attractive male guests for physical affection while always being thoroughly rebuffed.
"Harvey didn't like it, and he came in to the show to complain about it," says Lovitz. "His point was that he was getting more famous as me than as him. Watching him, I realized I was doing him quite well. He thought I was doing a gay stereotype," laughs the comedian. "But I only played him one time after that. If it hurts someone, it's not worth doing."
That surprisingly gentle philosophy is rare among today's generation of notoriously mean-spirited humorists, but it allows Lovitz to get away with poking extensive fun at all types of politicians and pop culture. Even when the admittedly staunch Democrat calls on the Republicans in the Laugh Factory crowd to raise their hands and "out" themselves, they do it joyfully and wind up laughing harder at his take on Bush than even the Democrats in the house. And when Lovitz fires off his best riff of the show, complaining about celebrities like Bob Dole or Tony Bennett making ads for penile dysfunction medications, it's hard to find an audience member who isn't doubled over with laughter.
At the end of the night, Lovitz surprises the crowd one more time by sitting at a portable keyboard and pounding out jazz-pop tunes he's written. But even these are childishly dirty and absurdly off-kilter in the best way, as they revolve around another unlikely friend of his – squeaky-clean TV dad Bob Saget of Full House fame – and Lovitz's unfounded impression that Saget is gay. As he spells out one incredibly deluded allegation after another in a voice that could lull an infant to sleep, Lovitz tickles the ivories with fast-jazz fury, transformed by the moment into the all-around entertainer he's always dreamed of being. As the audience bursts into a final round of applause, one senses Masada is right: This is career reinvention at its most exciting, and could very well signal the rebirth of a star.
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