Thursday, February 27, 2003

Props to Comedian Larry Miller
or
No One Other Than Me Will Give a Crap About This.

Thanks to the Ali G lead in, I caught Larry on a re-run of the new Bill Maher thingamahoobie last night.

Maher's new HBO show is called Real Time. "Real Time" is a good name and an even better idea than their working title, "Politically Incorrect with Cursing Allowed also Attempts to be The Daily Show with a reconditioned Dennis Miller Live Set." Whatever. It's brand new. Shouldn't and can't judge yet.

There was a panel of three guests plus Bill. Politically Incorrect had four guests plus Bill.

This stands to reason as back when Maher created PI, he was a comedian and host, not a political pundit.

[insert 1 pissed cat noise here]

As I was not saying and to make a short story not long...

Larry impressed me. When he could get a word in edgewise, he was intelligent, strong, yet never resorted to cheap attention getting tactics. If aliens dropped in from another planet (a planet that also liked to watch premium cable channels after a few glasses of wine) and you asked them who the comedian on that panel was, betcha Larry would be their last choice. And aliens have superior intelligence, as we all know, so go know.

For Miller was neither loud nor zany. When he was giving his views on Iraq, I turned to my man and said, "That's really brave for a guy in Hollywood." I've noticed people in entertainment are either dead against any action towards Iraq or they are dead silent for fear they will be labelled Bush-lovers (me?), war-mongers (what?!) and the like. Sure enough, a few minutes later Miller made a joke saying something to the effect of, "I'd say more, but the people speaking out against the war are making the movies I want to be in."

If you don't know Larry, you know Larry but you just don't know it. He's been in and voiced a bazillion different things. Had he a website, I'd link to it, but I couldn't find one. But thanks to searching around today, I found he also writes really interesting articles for The Standard.

I know, "interesting" is such a flaccid word. Do I agree with him? Totally disagree with him? Neither one?

Well this ain't a political blog. In a pathetic little venue like this here thingamayab, I just can't get it up to spew my opinions on any one of the world's manifold horrors. There are so many people dying to tell you what they believe on their blogs and I delight in the fact that they do.

I'm not one of them. OK? Can we still be friends?

But check this: share a glass of grog with me and maybe a plate of wings. Then if you're very unlucky, between bawdy banter I'll bore your socks off with what I think.

No this is about the fact that I've always respected Larry as a comedian -- especially as a comedian who turned his talent into a diverse and long-lived career. Right on. And so herein are my props to Larry Miller for taking chances and showing off more of them there fancy multi-facets.

Hey, I warned ya you wouldn't be interested.