Isn't Life Terrible? » Uncategorized

The Right Honorable Bob and Ray

Don — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 21:31:00 +0000

Here’s the audio from a 70’s appearance on David Letterman’s Late Night NBC series. Letterman mentions their recent Carnegie Hall appearances. I was at one of those shows and remember being stunned by the applause that greeted obscure character names. “With me is Dr. Daryl Dexter,” Ray would say, and the audience would burst into wild applause… knowing full well that Dr. Daryl Dexter was “The Komodo Dragon Expert.”

Listen or download.

Sundays With Snyder – Number 16

Don — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 02:51:00 +0000

Gosh – I had forgotten that Tom was also broadcast on WABC-AM from New York City. (I was actually closer to WICC, which was and is right across the Long Island Sound in Connecticut). It was a source of annoyance to Tom that during the summer, WABC bumped him – frequently – for Yankees baseball.

I mention this because Tom’s guest is Curt Smith, author of “Voices of The Game,” about the great radio broadcasters who called the play-by-play. It’s Tuesday, June 30, 1992.

You can hear lightning making lots of noise in the AM band… I guess there was no Yankees game that night.

Listen or download.

The Best Call In Talk Show Radio History

Don — Mon, 13 Apr 2009 20:49:00 +0000

… If you ask me.

[2021 note: Unfortunately, the audio widget which Don embedded no longer works.]

Thanks to Lee Hartsfeld for working some MAGIX on my original file!

Remember, On Television, We Can’t Hear You Smile

Don — Sun, 13 Apr 2008 16:37:00 +0000

Those of you who have attended the taping or filming of a television show have been part of an “audience warm-up” before the show begins. No one questions the necessity for these “warm-ups,” since we’ve recently seen how pathetic things can get when an actor comes on without being preceded by a warm-up artiste.

David Letterman’s “warm-up man,” Eddie Brill, at left, performs the difficult task of warming up an audience truly in need of warming up… since The Ed Sullivan Theater is cooled to 50 degrees by two 120-ton Multistack Modular chillers by the time the audience is seated. Things warm up a bit when the stage lighting comes on, but the temperature at a Letterman taping never exceeds 60 degrees.

Warm-ups seek to build a base of excitement and enthusiasm by convincing the audience that they are, in a very real sense, performers on the program. In the words of the great Hank Kingsley, “… the better you are, the better Larry is.” This is exciting, isn’t it?

Blogger Connie Wilson wrote an interesting piece about Letterman’s pre-warm-up warm-up, delivered to her group as they waited to enter the theater:

“I’m going to say a punch line and I want you to laugh. The punch line is ‘Donald Trump’s hair.’” We all bellowed like idiots on cue. He said to try again, only louder this time…

…The young man continued, “Now, if Dave makes a joke, I want you to think, ‘Oh, boy, this is hilarious!’ Laugh in the theater; think about it on the way home. …We want you to really give back raw enthusiasm… Dave feeds on your energy…”

The better you are, the better Larry is.

What made me start thinking about audience warm-ups was the viewing of a great sketch by Peter Cook and Dudley Moore.

Most episodes of the team’s TV series Not Only… But Also are missing, believed “wiped” by the BBC. This sketch somehow survived, but for some reason did not make it into The Best Of What’s Left Of Not Only But Also. It’s interesting because the casting is counterintuitive – usually Peter Cook is the strong, take-charge character, but here, Dudley’s in charge… as both stage manager and warm-up man.

And, like all of their work, it’s very, very funny.

Damn, I’m busy that night

Don — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 21:32:00 +0000

Starts at 11 p.m.
It’s not listed on their schedule (shh!) The Cutting Room, NYC

Don — Sat, 23 Feb 2008 21:32:00 +0000

Please Wait.
You have attempted to connect to this page
while a web history tour is in progress.

TourGuide: Here’s a typical abandoned blog. Take a look around.
Fusion50: When was it abdomened
TourGuide: early 21st century.
Fusion50: why
TourGuide: it should have been destroyed in the Google purge
TourGuide: The owner left and never came back
Fusion50: good move
Fusion50: but its not distroyed
TourGuide: When they shut down the blogosphere, they didn’t bother to erase them all.
Fusion50: why borther
Fusion50: bother
Fusion50: i dont see what so special
Hstrygrl: Fusion50, all surviving blogs were declared protected historic sites
TourGuide: Right, content plays no role in preservation. The only thing that’s ’special’ is that it survived.
Hstrygrl: It’s the retro templates, the drop shadows, that stupid header and things like counter styles etc that are interesting
TourGuide: This is one of three surviving Blogger sites that used TicTac (Blueberry).
Hstrygrl: It screams Dan Cederholm from 8 miles away
Fusion50: so its like an art thing they kept it
Hstrygrl: Tictac blue was less popular than Tictac green :-0

Fusion50: omg
artgeek: lol! Where’d you get that
Fusion50:so like thousands of people had blogs that looked exactly the same -what the point
artgeek: i think it’s hysterical!!!!
TourGuide: The other tictac templates that survived are this one and this one.
artgeek: you’re making my head spin
TourGuide: Any other questions? If not, meet me here and I’ll answer any additional questions.

The Curse of the Broken Lever

Don — Mon, 14 Jan 2008 01:51:00 +0000

Think of [your blog's] readers as laboratory animals in an experimental cage that’s equipped with a bunch of levers. If the lever you control dispenses a tasty morsel each time it’s pushed, the animals will keep coming back for more. If you forget to provide a treat for the animals’ effort, the animals will stop pressing your lever and look for a more reliable source of nutrition. That’s why it’s good to post at least one blog entry a day, because people will get used to the idea that your blog will deliver a treat each time they visit.

- Tip Number 4 for running a popular blog, from Rule The Web, Mark Frauenfelder’s guide on ‘How to do anything and everything on the internet – better, faster, and easier.’

Long ago, I recommended Mark’s book to anyone and everyone who uses the internet, giving it the highest possible praise by suggesting its title could have been, and should have been, The Junior Woodchuck’s Guide to the Internet. It was nice to read that this pleased Mark.

Mark’s very first blogging tip says that:

…I’m surprised at the number of people who post things just because they think they will attract more readers to their site… if you aren’t passionate about the things you’re writing about, readers will quickly become bored and never return.

And there, fellow lab animals, lies the problem. I think Mark Frauenfelder is exactly correct, and up until quite recently, I’ve tried to provide a morsel per day.

Future morsels will be just as tasty, but new ones will probably appear on a less-than-daily schedule. I expect that the ones that do find their way here will be all the more tasty, given the added prep time.

Please come and press the lever every so often, even though I admit defeat in balancing Mark’s first and fourth tips on a daily basis.

Spencer Tracy characterized Katherine Hepburn once by saying “There ain’t much meat on her, but what’s there is cherce [sic].” Less posts here, but what goes up will be cherce, and that’s a promise.

Busted for an Illegal Right Turn

Don — Mon, 02 Jul 2007 13:53:00 +0000

Another Larry Zeiger story (6m) as told by Larry himself.