Shingles. An unfortunate truth. A suspected lie.

These are interesting commercials. I don't doubt for a moment that shingles is very painful, so I got the shingles shot even though I never had chickenpox. (My doctor assures me you can get it anyway.) So I feel comfortable knowing that's one less thing to worry about. What I don't believe is the claim on these commercials that 1 in 3 people will get shingles in their lifetime. If that were true, we would all know dozens of people who had shingles and, at 70-years old, I have only known three. So, I suspect this is a misleading claim by another greedy pharmaceutical company to increase their profits through the use of scare tactics.

You probably haven't seen the funniest comedians.

I have a very low opinion of most of the highly admired American comedians like Steve Martin,  Steve Carrell, and those not named Steve. And I have a super low opinion of the skits on Saturday Night Live. But maybe that's because I have such a high opinion of British comedians who seem to be far more brilliant than any of our stars and so admire their skit programs like The Fast Show and the Big Train.  The first salesman in these outtakes is Paul Whitehouse, who I think if by far more talented, versatile and funnier than any American counterpart. This is a regular bit from a popular past sketch program called The Fast Show. but it's just one of Paul's amazingly creative characters.  I would encourage anyone to look up The Fast Show on YouTube to see the wide variety of hilarious sketches, especially those featuring the absolutely fabulous Paul Whitehouse

Moments great and moments absurd.

As long as I am criticizing American theater, I will relate the worst moment of theater I have ever experienced.  Like many lovers of theater, my favorite play is Tennessee Williams'The Glass Menagerie. Like any true fan I wish I could could have seen the original 1944 production In Chicago with Laurette Taylor.  But without a time machine that's not possible, so I try to see as many new productions as possible. I was particularly excited when my friend Angie Radosh, a truly great actress, was scheduled to play Amanda Wingfield. She was superb, of course, but sadly in a production that was not worthy of her talents. Now, for that worst moment I mentioned.  If you know the play you know that Tom Wingfield is the dreamy and lost hero of this sad story. To open this production, the director had Tom coming down the main theater aisle flicking his Bic lighter and strutting with the same attitude as every gang member in West Side Story. It was the most ludicrous moment of theatrical direction I have ever seen, and a sacrilege to so corrupt this classic American masterpiece.

Note: the photo above of Laurette Taylor is a scene from what is arguably the greatest theatrical production in American theater history: the debut of The Glass Menagerie. Those who saw it, claim nothing can surpass it. Those who didn't more often than not put it at the top of the list of plays they would most like to have seen.

The plays the thing....the unread thing.

American theaters says they are looking for exciting new plays to produce. In many publications they plead for such exciting new plays, promising to respond in three to six months. That's a long time, but not really when you consider that most never respond at all. Why? Did they not read the play. Possible. Did they not like it? If so, why not send a quick rejection?  I think the answer is that most theaters are run by pretty ordinary people. The kind of people who wouldn't recognize an exciting new play. Or don't have the confidence to produce it. Or prefer to play it safe with all the endlessly performed tried and true productions of the past. Or are just too lazy and rude to even read many of the submissions they received. I am particularly annoyed by this because my play The Gray List is a proven crowd pleaser. It was done in New York twice by actors and producers who appreciated its value. And it was well-received both times. But I have sent it out to over 50 theater companies and have not received a single positive response, which suggests to me it went mostly unread. Our local theater, The Actors' Playhouse in Coral Gables has never read it, though I have sent it three times in ten years. Part of their mission is to support local playwrights. But it would seem they prefer to do tried and true Broadway musicals and plays, especially if there is a lead role for the Artistic Director. Bitter? Of course I am. I have a powerful play that isn't even being considered for production. And I, like hundreds of other playwrights in America, are spending my time and money to send out plays which are completely ignored. And, in most cases, we do not even receive the courtesy of the promised reply. On the few times when I have challenged this rudeness, I was told there are so many submissions, we can't read them all. I submit that you can tell in five pages if a play is any good. Thus one could review dozens a day.  I think this dismissal of playwrights speaks very badly for theater in America.

Note: The above photo is from the most recent New York production of The Gray List. The three brilliant performers are Kittie Hendrix, Thomas J. Kane, and Marilyn Duryea.

StUPid Pr0ggram

A CAPTCHA is a program that protects websites against bots by generating and grading tests that humans can pass but current computer programs cannot. For example, humans can read distorted text as the one shown below, but current computer programs can't:

This is absolute bullshit. Captchas are the most annoying and maddening "protection" I can imagine. More often than not once you have typed the damned distorted text, you are told you didn't do it right and another equally annoying captcha appears. Many times I just give up since there is no satisfying whoever has devised this idiotic test. Also more often than not, the captcha appears after you have typed your complaint, comment, or request. And when you don't get the captcha exactly right, your text disappears and you have to start all over again. I will never use another website that requires a captcha. Note: the two words shown here are relatively clear and nothing like the complex captchas you are more likely to be cursed with, 

Holy mackeral, that was funny.

Between 1951 and 1955, there were 78 episodes of the tv version of Amos and Andy. Like the earlier radio shows they were hilarious. In most cases Kingfish (Tim Moore) was out to bilk trusting and naive Andy (Spencer Williams) while good friend Amos (Alvin Childress) looked on and  Kingfish's wife Sapphire (Ernestine Wade) and her fiery mother (Amanda Randolph) added even more comic relief.  But somehow the censors and those who know better decided that this program was insulting to blacks, though Kingfish was the only less than honorable person on the show. At any rate, it was removed from the airwaves. What replaced it?  Even more exaggerated stereotypes in such shows as Good Times, Sanford and Son, and What's Happening. Oddly nobody complained about these programs or the many other series that have been shown since. I think The Cosby Show is the only program that didn't have at least one or two black stereotypes. What's the point of this rant? Just to remind everyone that the tv series Amos and Andy was damned funny and its removal wasn't fair to viewers or to the talented African American actors who made up the cast.

Give me a break!

I don't think any commercials are stupider than the ones like this. It's a snack food, not an aphrodisiac, not a vitamin supplement, not even a drug. The concept of people eating a mundane, ordinary food item that suddenly fills them with incredible enthusiasm, boundless energy and a coterie of new friends is so absurd that I marvel at how often it is used for pastries, soft drinks, and any number of other mundane items.