Well, dear readers, after several days of no cramping at all, we just had a bout of hand cramping, hence the lateness of the notes. But let me talk about what I meant to talk about yesterday, but which would have made yesterday’s notes endless. What I wanted to talk about yesterday can be summed up in two words: Red Skelton. I ran across a clip of him on Johnny Carson from the 1970s and he was so funny and warm and unique, and Carson clearly loved him dearly. When Skelton would do a joke, and he did many in this segment, with Carson setting him up subtly and perfectly, there was such joy in the jokes and he’s the only person I’ve ever seen who would howl at his own jokes and make that work and double his laugh. I frequently tell actors in the shows I direct that if they laugh after a laugh line the audience won’t. And I stick to that theory because I’ve watched it happen over and over again. But Skelton is so infectious with it and his eyes sparkle. Interestingly, he was, at the time of the Carson appearance in 1975, still bitter about his TV show being cancelled by CBS. He was doing live appearances, but you could tell he really wanted to be back on TV – he also did a Merv Griffin show that year. But nothing happened. The year before, he’d done a screen test for The Sunshine Boys, to play opposite Jack Benny. Apparently, Neil Simon, who wanted Jack Albertson to reprise his Broadway role, was impressed with Skelton’s test and said yes, but Skelton ultimately turned it down for money reasons and because he didn’t like some of the vulgar lines, Walter Matthau was cast, Benny died, and his best friend, George Burns did the part. I think Skelton would have been great as Willy Clark. So, why am I going on about Mr. Skelton? Because back in 1962 when I was fourteen, I used to see tapings of shows – I’d write in for tickets and I’d go by myself to CBS Television City and while I’d seen Divorce Court and Art Linkletter and one or two other shows, Skelton’s was the biggest variety show I’d ever seen. I think I must have gone four or five times – it was, of course, my dream to be in a show at Television City and a mere fourteen years later that dream came true. Seeing the Skelton tapings was amazing – he was hilarious, had great guests on, and it was illuminating to watch the expert way he both played to the camera AND the studio audience. Two or three years later, I saw the same number of tapings of The Danny Kaye Show and those were fun but not as much fun as Skelton because Kaye wasn’t as out there as Skelton was between segments. Anyway, I loved Red Skelton back then and I will deep dive to see what’s on the Tube of You.

Yesterday was certainly yesterday. I got five hours of sleep, got up, answered e-mails, put out an ask for someone I really want to do the recording, had some cottage cheese to tide me over until dinner, shaved and showered, relaxed, and then moseyed on over to the mail place, hoping to pick up the scores for Applause. But that wasn’t the package that arrived – the package was my order of new checks. But the replacement AFTRA pension check was there and so was a little residual for The Faculty, so that was nice. Then I went to Vitello’s to sup with Kay Cole. I hadn’t been there for three years. We both had Caesar salads, she had some salmon and I had penne with pink sauce and one meatball – very good. We had lots of fun yakking, and she finished Richard and Me are really loved it and found it very moving. We discussed a couple of things she wants to do and would like advice and help on, and I told her I would be more than happy to do whatever she needed. She’s also going to read for the role of Karen in Applause. We were there for just under two hours. Then I came right home. Later in the evening, I had some nuts. I’d ordered a variety of nuts from an online place because they were cheap and having a sale – I’d ordered from there two years ago and the nuts were of high quality. So, I had an assortment for my evening snack. I didn’t really have time for a movie, so I watched some wonderful clips of one of my favorite choreographers, the underappreciated but brilliant Danny Daniels.

Today, I’ll be up when I’m up, I’ll have me a ME day, start to finish, soup to nuts. I’ll just relax, eat something fun, and then I’ll watch some movies.

Tomorrow, I may have a phone meeting – I honestly can’t remember – but mostly I hope I get the galley and covers to approve, I hope the Applause charts arrive and if they do I’ll go retrieve them, I’ll continue the hunt for an ENT I can get to sooner than later, and then the rest of the week is preparing to announce the new CD release, wrap up the casting for the recording, and do whatever needs doing.

Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, be up when I’m up, have me a ME day, eat something fun, and then watch, listen, and relax. Today’s topic of discussion: It’s free-for-all day, the day in which you dear readers get to make with the topics and we all get to post about them. So, let’s have loads of lovely topics and loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, happy to have reminisced about Red Skelton.