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June 11, 2013:

HOARY JOKES

Bruce Kimmel Photograph bk's notes

Well, dear readers, it is late and I must write these here notes in a hurry because the workers will be here all too soon in what will most likely be their final day (they’re doing a bit of extra painting so they could go till tomorrow, but that will be it).  Hence I have no time for preamble or frivolous frivolity or digression – but, I digress.  No, I must simply write these here notes and be done with it and get them posted so I can get as much beauty sleep as possible.  So, let me just say that yesterday was a perfectly acceptable day as days go.  I was up a little before eight, let the workers in and they began their day of work.  I answered e-mails then did a three-mile jog, after which I went to have some chicken tenders for lunch.  For the last several months if I arrive at Jerry’s Deli between 11:30 and 11:45 I have always gotten the exact booth I want – there is usually no one there because it isn’t until just after noon that the lunch people arrive.  But for the last week it’s like everyone has said, “Oh, BK, gets there at this time so now let’s all get there at this time because why should he get all these nice booths every day.”  I swear to you – EVERY SINGLE DAY the six front booths have been taken.  So, I sit elsewhere and I’m not all that happy about it.  And then, somehow around 12:05 most of those people disappear and those booths I like then remain empty for the duration of the “busy” lunch hour.  So, from now on, I don’t arrive before 12:05.  Of course, when these nincompoops catch on to THAT, then THAT’S the time they’ll arrive.

After my chicken tenders I picked up no mail but did pick up the tapes for an upcoming release, which will be a very exciting one for us as it involves a major film composer who will be making his first appearance on Kritzerland.  We will be reissuing the original LP presentation of the score, which has been on CD twice already – but the LP was a rerecording and the original film tracks have never been released in complete form, and we’ll be doing that for the first time ever.  I’m very excited about it.  Then I came home and made the decision about what the August Kritzerland show is going to be – and I’m really happy about it.  So, not only have I finally thought ahead one show, that show is almost fully cast already.  I’ll begin figuring out the songs shortly, although I already know what half of them are.  I shan’t mention the two composers involved because we have lots of little prying eyes here and I don’t want to suddenly read how someone else is doing the same show.  Then I did some edit road map work, had a few telephonic conversations and then it was time to mosey on over to the Alex Theatre to see the MTG Girl Crazy.

Last night, I attended the MTG version of Girl Crazy.  I cannot imagine that the original version of this show is ever done (it was adapted into Crazy For You), so it’s always fun to see one of these pre-Oklahoma chestnuts, especially one with a Gershwin score.  These were the days when the books for shows were little more than perfunctory characters in perfunctory plots with musical numbers that didn’t really function as storytelling in the way we’ve become used to, with perfunctory comical lines and bits, along with some dancing.  And that’s exactly what Girl Crazy is.  The jokes are hoary, the situations clichéd and not that interesting, the characters stick figures, but then suddenly we’re hearing Embraceable You and But Not For Me and Bidin’ My Time and I Got Rhythm and all is right in musical comedy heaven.  But I have to say I was rather taken aback by how mundane the rest of the score was – it was rather a letdown to know that George and Ira could be anything less than brilliant.  As to the humor, the actors gave it their all but in the end were left commenting on it more than even attempting to play it, not that much of it plays today.  There’s some of what today would be called politically incorrect and, of course, I liked all that stuff.  The cast did very well and Nick Santa Maria (The Leper in the Outside the Box Ben-Hur episode) got most of the evening’s laughs, sometimes by playing what was on the page, sometimes by commenting on what was on the page, and sometimes by going completely off the page.  Stan Chandler was also funny.  But it was a very long evening, with the first act clocking in at close to ninety minutes – in a Sondheim musical or a musical with substance, ninety minutes can be fine, but in a musical with nothing on its mind and no real plot to hang onto, ninety minutes can seem like an eternity.  In this particular show, a streamlined book might have worked better, but I think the mission of this particular company is to present the books “as written,” hoary jokes and all.

After the show, I went backstage and said hi to various and sundried friends, both in the cast and in the audience.  Several of our Kritzerland performers were there and I always adore seeing them.

After the show, Doug Haverty and I went to the Coral Café where I had a scoop of chicken salad and a scoop of egg salad – kind of nauseating but I needed to eat something.  In retrospect I should have had some poached eggs or something like that.  Then I had a rather irritating e-mail to deal with, and I dealt with it in I hope as irritating a fashion (calypso pants and a cashmere sweater) as it deserved.

Today, I shall do a jog, I shall write some liner notes, I shall hopefully pick up some packages, I’ll eat something light but amusing and I’ll watch the latest episode of Mad Men.

Tomorrow is more of the same, Thursday I have a lunch meeting and then I’m attending the opening night of Night Hawks, which is co-directed by our very own Barry Pearl.  Then I have other things to do, plus get ready for my brief trip to Washington DC on Sunday.  We should hopefully be shipping out the Waxman trio CDs on Friday.

Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, do a jog, write, hopefully pick up packages, eat, and relax, and perhaps tell some hoary jokes.  Today’s topic of discussion: Jokes – hoary or otherwise.  What are your favorites, both good and bad, and that includes knock-knock jokes.  For example: It was so cold this morning I fell out of bed and broke my pajamas.  That is a hoary joke.  Your turn.  Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland where I shall continue doing hoary jokes to my heart’s hoary content.

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