MARLYS
I envy other Femmes their lust for music and song. Unless it’s in a minor key, it’s torture for me. As a mom, I sat through flute, saxophone, piano, and band practice and performance with a smile on my face and teeth agrit. Sometimes tears on my cheeks weren’t all due to parental pride. On two-day car trips to visit grandparents, when the only noise came from savage disagreements in the back seat or whatever the car radio picked up, I discovered reading Steven King aloud stunned children into silence and kept the driver wide-eyed awake. We had some nightmare problems but . . . .
Within the last decade I’ve found my own addiction and I can drive others from the room. I enjoy a funny movie. yet rarely want to see it again. Through the wonders of the Comedy Channel, HBO, and DVD’s I can watch and hear the wizardry of Eddie Izzard and Lewis Black over and over again. Ellen DeGeneres (not enough of her on DVD and I’m not into daytime TV.) How the mood can switch from sincerely serious to sudden hilarity in a second. Talk about talented story telling! Just one person standing up there surprising, shocking, and lying to you in wondrous detail using only words and expressions and sometimes creative movements–these people are geniuses. I actually see the scenes they describe without actors and scenery. They don’t even need music. I stand in awe.
I’ve been wrestling with words a good part of the day. At the computer, chasing the cat, at the grocery store–you never know when a long-sought answer to a plotting problem will decide to present itself. (People stare at you furtively, avoid you on the next isle, while you panic trying to leave yourself the long sought answer on the back of the grocery list before it’s gone, mumbling key words over and over. Trust me, you don’t dare even smile at their children after that. Key words for a mystery can get you arrested or "under surveillance," as well they should.
My main complaint, you knew there’d be one, is it’s so hard to find these standup comics on DVD. And yes, I tape them when the Comedy Channel does a Presents but this is a serious addiction and those tapes get reused. I have the complete set of Monte Python, the sketches are great but I prefer the stand up standing alone. I quit smoking years ago, but this addiction is really scarey. I sleep better if I can laugh out loud. I’m a great fan of John Stewart and Steven Colbert. I have a collection of performances of the young comedians in the standup comedy clubs before they became icons (got their own sitcoms)–Sandler, Seinfeld, Romano, Tim Allen. I prefer the Redneck boys standing-up rather than doing sketches with supporting actors. I have some of the Latinos. I like the young Wanda Sykes. Much of black humor is too degrading to women, especially black women. It makes comedy sad. I’ve got a complete set of George Carlin (talk about word-play). If you can get it on Amazon, US or Brittan, I’ve got it. I just have the feeling there’s more and I’m googling wrong or something.
I guess what I want to know is--anybody else have this problem? What am I overlooking? It’s probably so obvious I can’t see it. You hear about these people touring. Once during each tour using the same material, isn’t it recorded for sale to standup junkies? And if not, why not?
Bullitin! Two Bill Hicks DVD’s just arrived from England! Of course he’s been dead for twelve years. So I still need help.
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