• Remember the beginning of quarantine when everyone was like, “Ugh, all the movies about quarantine are going to suck?” As a sometimes contrarian, I was one of the few dissenters that couldn’t wait to see what art would emerge from this odd historical moment. What we make now will be an artifact of what it was like to live through probably the oddest year of all of our lives. This is the stuff our grandkids will be curious about. That’s why I was especially excited to hear my good friend/stand up comic/filmmaker Belton Delaine-Facey was making a documentary about comedy during the pandemic. Man, I’d love to see a doc about comedy during the Spanish Flu (Anna Paone once told me that the Marx Brothers did shows where audience members wore masks way back when but that’s all I know) but I’ll settle with Belton’s doc. He’s interviewing a number of comics about how their performances have changed from those who perform outside to those who prefer to make sketches inside. I was honored to be one such talking head and I can’t wait to see this on Netflix someday. If you’re interested in being a part of this doc and sharing your story, reach out to Belton. Future generations may download this to their memory chips someday and you don’t want to miss out.
• My little quarantine business continued chugging along these past seven days as A Profile About You hit its milestone 50th profile. I said, “Whoo” to myself as I hit publish on my computer and kept it to myself until now. Anyhow, this wouldn’t have happened without all the kind people who took a chance on an untested profile writer. It’s amazing to me that this little project keeps going. I have no idea how people keep finding it but folks from Indonesia and Australia hit me up for write-ups. Yeah, it’s a little braggy but I’m jazzed about it. Anyhow, back to this week’s pieces. The first profile I completed was about good friend, hilarious comic and comedy entrepreneur Matt Hyams. Here’s a quick excerpt:
For the most part, Matt said he had the classic comedian upbringing. He outlined it for me as 1.) abandoned by father, 2.) a loving but absentee mom who was working to provide for her sons and 3.) left alone to watch TV. Lots of TV.
Also, Matt has a call to action embedded within his story. He’s looking for comedy writers for his site. Read the piece, get to know a bit about him and then reach out. You might have a new writing gig alongside him.
The second profile I wrote this week was about accomplished playwright, producer and podcaster Anthony J. Piccione. We haven’t met but I instantly became a fan of Anthony’s. A ‘Fanthony” if you will. Excited for his plays, theater festivals and everything he has planned. Here’s a quick tidbit from his piece that I’m especially fond of:
I asked Anthony if he had a favorite story and he coyly replied, “I do. The ones I write and produce.”
The links to read both of these profiles are found in the comments. It’s kind of my thing. I’ll be honest. I invented links in comments. You heard it here first.
• Yeah, I watched movies this week and listened to a podcast. I feel compelled to let you know what they were because I genuinely enjoy writing little blurbs. Here goes:
“Dave Made A Maze” (2017): Every so often, a movie comes along that inspires me so wholly that I close my laptop after finishing and can’t stop thinking about how I want to make something just like it for days. This is one of those movies. The story is breathtakingly simple- a 30-year-old guy Dave (played by “aww shucks average dude” Nick Thune) made a maze out of cardboard in his apartment that looks fairly basic from the outside. However, the inside is labyrinthine and he can’t figure out how to escape. Is it a metaphor? Probably. I didn’t care. It was too fun to notice. Dave’s girlfriend, best friend and a camera crew enter to try and help him escape but the story is besides the point here. This is a movie that has the DIY homemade aesthetic that you so rarely see in movies post-2010. The maze they traipse through is made entirely of cardboard, string, colored paper; we see the characters morph into stop motion, animated versions of themselves; there’s a deceptively clever shot where the titular Dave and his girlfriend transform into different versions of themselves that made me wonder “How have I never thought of that” and above all else it feels like if Michel Gondry directed an episode of “Community.” Sure, this thing is a bit heavy-handed in places but at just 80 minutes, it breezes by. GET LOST IN THIS MAZE (Streaming on Amazon Prime).
“Heartbreakers” (2001): Yeah, I had a crush on Jennifer Love Hewitt as a kid, teen and adult. As a result, I’d always wanted to rent this movie as a kid at Blockbuster but I thought my parents would know just why I wanted to see it (my Hewitt fandom) so I always put it on hold and rented something dopey like “Celtic Pride” with Dan Aykroyd instead. Well, I’m an adult now and can watch whatever I damn well please. So, over the past two months of doing dishes and laundry, I I watched this charming movie on my phone. For context, it’s your classic rom-con (yeah, I just invented that) wrapped into a studio-friendly package. Sigourney Weaver and Hewitt play conniving seductresses who marry wealthy men like Ray Liotta (leaning into his Jersey persona), Gene Hackman (wheezing through the old cigarette mogul role) and Jason Lee (the wholesome bartender that Hewitt can’t decide if she really has feelings for!). The movie has a nice three-act structure but our leads really aren’t that sympathetic even as antiheroes. A lot of the story is resolved easily, certain threads make the viewer suspend disbelief (why is Weaver SO awful to everyone?) AND they waste Zach Galifiankis and Sarah Silverman in dopey friend roles. Painful to see two of the funniest people on the planet say stock lines like, “I liked her. She was right for you” to Jason Lee about Hewitt. Nora Dunn was hardly used at all in a thankless role too which was a shame. There is a fun Kevin Nealon cameo though. Despite it all, this movie has its charms and seeing Sigourney put on a Russian accent to swindle Hackman for half the movie is worth it. Above all, YOU CAN’T GO WRONG WITH LOVE-HEWITT (Streaming on Netflix).
“Vivarium” (2020): Amazon has been pushing this one hard. When you log in, it’s at the top of the Prime page with Jesse Eisenberg staring practically into your soul saying, “Watch this movie!” I caved. It’s an odd duck of a film. Very British social satire that half connects and half confounds. We start with Imogen Poots, Eisenberg’s wife, a schoolteacher teaching her kindergarten class about wind and then all of a sudden, she and Jesse E. are buying a home out in the burbs from an eager real estate agent. We don’t know anything about them other than they’re married and she teaches. Zero other backstory. This thing morphs into an odd dystopian take on the sameness of life outside the bustling city where they have to raise a child that’s delivered to them in a box. Said child they raise is this weird demon thing that ages rapidly and speaks with unsettling affectations. It’s the stuff of nightmares. I don’t know exactly what this movie is trying to say other than the suburbs are...bad but it is deep and emotional in places. Surprisingly amazing reggae soundtrack that didn’t fit this at all but I did love it. I would call this A GOOD HEAD SCRATCHER TO SEE WITH A TON OF PEOPLE AND ASK WHAT THE HELL DID I JUST SEE (Streaming on Amazon Prime).
WTF with Martin Short: Yeah, Martin Short is undeniable. If you like comedy, you like Martin Short. I can’t imagine anyone disliking him. Still, he’s one of those personalities I feel like I know so little about and rarely shows up on podcasts or anything where he speaks candidly so this was a treat (just learned he has a memoir; def gonna read that shizz). Here, the interview begins with his clock sounding. It goes off every hour, he said. Love that quirkiness. Stories about the infamous “Godspell” production he was a part of in the 70s (featuring Victor Garber, Eugene Levy, Andrea Martin, Gilda Radner, Dave Thomas, and Paul Shaffer. Seriously, WTF), how he wanted out of the infamous 84-85 season of SNL and how he lives near his SCTV friends like Catherine O’Hara to this day followed soon after. Love the comedy history. On top of that, some standout moments from the chat include 1.) this Lorne Michaels quote, “Canadians look like Russian spies trying to be American,” 2.) a story about Dan Aykroyd pretending to be Gilda Radner’s father at her birthday party, and 3.) Short’s joke that he’s “10% Jewish on my agent’s side.” The only major letdown is they didn’t cover my all-time favorite Martin Short creation: Jiminy Glick. We could all use more Jiminy.
• This week, I have something going on! My one act micro-play “Just Jokes” about Comedy Fight Club is being featured as one of Dragonfly’s short plays put on by Catherine Lamoreaux and Anna Paone. Yes, it features Matt Maran acting as Matt Maran. Of course, there’s a link in the comments to where you can see it Tuesday night at 8:00 PM EST. Got a feeling it’s gonna be pretty divisive. See where you fall!
Signing off for the week, pals. See you in the future
01.) Matt Hyams Profile: https://medium.com/@aprofileaboutyou/matt-hyams-is-ego-baby-and-ego-baby-is-matt-hyams-d14ed47c5af7
02.) Anthony J. Piccione Profile: https://medium.com/@aprofileaboutyou/anthony-j-piccione-will-not-stop-writing-8fe381db4f91
03.) Martin Short on WTF: http://www.wtfpod.com/podcast/episode-1156-martin-short
04.) Dragonfly’s Tuesday night plays: https://www.facebook.com/events/380830916263507
