TBS

Just for Laughs Chicago: Lisa Lampanelli vs. HollywoodChicago.com

PatrickMcD — Sat, 27 Jun 2009 02:46:56 -0600

CHICAGO – Two intrepid HollywoodChicago.com reporters – Patrick McDonald and Alissa Norby – faced off against the “queen of mean” – comic Lisa Lampanelli – with the help of ace HC photog Joe Arce. Who will come out of this pit morally alive?

Lisa Lampanelli in Chicago, June 20, 2009. READY: Smiling and greeting
Photo credit: Joe Arce of Starstruck Foto for HollywoodChicago.com

The following is the actual transcript – with notable dirty words slightly altered – in the exchange between Lampanelli and McDonald and Norby, while camped into the queen’s dressing room in the Chicago Theater on June 20th. The photographs and descriptions are Joe Arce’s.

Patrick McDonald: It was said I’d get one question.

Lisa Lampanelli: F**king f*ggots, always have questions.

PM: I was born around the same time (names year) as you…

LL: (Quickly corrects me with the year after I mentioned), don’t even f**king start it, you dirty f*ggot.

PM: …what do you think people of our generation lost out on, and gained at the same time, in this particular moment in social history?

LL: I just want to murder you in your f**king sleep, lucky you missed out on the death penalty because that is what I would give you for that friggin’ question.

AIM: Pondering
Photo credit: Joe Arce of Starstruck Foto for HollywoodChicago.com

That’s awful, but I like you, and I’m not the same generation, I’m a year younger.

No, I like you, didn’t we talk?

PM: No.

LL: What’s your name, f*ggot?

PM: Patrick McDonald, HollywoodChicago.com

LL: F**king jag-off.

FIRE: Lethal Barrage When Comic Sharks Attack
Photo credit: Joe Arce of Starstruck Foto for HollywoodChicago.com

Lisa is now very depressed that she didn’t see “Jimmy”. It is now HC theater critic Alissa Norby’s turn to ask the one question.

Alissa Norby: How do you transition from journalism to stand-up, and who were your influences that helped in the process?

LL: Well, I have to tell you when you’re doing journalism, it’s really hard and you earn about 12,000 dollars a year. So I said to myself, listen, why don’t I earn more by saying the word c*nt, comedy was the only thing to do.

Transitionally, that’s what happened. And I was a DJ in between. I don’t like to brag but I did weddings and karaoke. I like karaoke, so f**king step off, I will sing the f**king rings around you, ‘Paradise by the Dashboard Lights’. Best karaoke singer in the world!

AN: I won’t challenge it.

LL: Yeah, don’t.

It was time to leave the queen’s dressing room.

Patrick McDonald: Say random things and I’ll make up a question.

Lisa Lampanelli replied to that favor. The following is the question and her answer…

PM: Given the internal and external strife that is manifested within our short, desperate existence, what is your opinion on the question of the supreme being?

LL: Eat my box.

Just for Laughs Chicago can be seen on TBS all weekend, June 27th and 28th. Check TV listings for times and programming. Lisa Lampanelli’s website may contain an edible box.

By PATRICK McDONALD
Staff Writer
HollywoodChicago.com
pat@hollywoodchicago.com

Just for Laughs Chicago: Martin Short on His Own Character

PatrickMcD — Sat, 20 Jun 2009 16:21:23 -0600

CHICAGO – Martin Short, the classic comic performer of SCTV, Saturday Night Live and film, came to Chicago as part of Superstation TBS “Just for Laughs” Festival, hosting and performing in the “Let Freedom Hum” revue on June 17th.

Martin Short (as Lawrence Orbach) and friend as part of ‘Just for Laughs’ Chicago
Photo credit: ©2009 Jeremy Freeman for TBS ‘Just for Laughs’ Chicago

Dusting off some of his famous characters, like inept talk show host Jiminy Glick, Short also introduced some of the top comedy stand-up talent in the country, including John Pinnette, Tom Papa, Greg Giraldo, Jeremy Hotz and Kathleen Madigan.

HollywoodChicago.com caught up with Short right after the taping of the special, which will air June 26th on TBS (check listings). He spoke about the Canadian sensibility of comedy, the two second cities and some memories of then and now.

HollywoodChicago.com: How did being born and raised in Canada inform and help develop the comedy that came out of your particular early era (the one that evolved into SCTV)?

Martin Short: I think in Canada we got a lot of other sensibilities, while getting the American comedy sensibility. We got ABC, NBC, CBS…but also BBC 1&2 and CBC and CTV. We got shows like Benny Hill before America and the Pythons right when they started. And that did influence people like Mike Myers, Phil Hartman, my SCTV colleagues and myself. The absurdity was more of the common strain, rather than, for example, political satire.

HC: What, in your experience, was the main difference between Chicago’s Second City troupe and Toronto’s version in your early career?

MS: I always thought Chicago’s Second City was politically more astute and there were more characters and insanity going on at the Second City in Toronto.

Martin Short in Chicago on June 17, 2009
Photo credit: Joe Arce of Starstruck Foto for HollywoodChicago.com

HC: How did it feel to do some of your old characters in “Let Freedom Hum”?

MS: This was fun, there were a lot of characters I hadn’t done in a long time. Lawrence Orbach, insecure stand-up comedian, is a character I haven’t done in 20 years, so that was kind of cool.

It’s the Day in the Life of a Stand-up, we see Lawrence at home. And then when we tried his material at a club, it was expected to bomb, but it didn’t so we had to change the tone of the whole piece (laughs).

HC: When you did your character of talk show host Jiminy Glick, is it more fun to do that with comedians, because they are into it?

MS: All characters are different, some are written and structured, Jiminy Glick is a weird one for me, I just talk. I look back at the playback later and think, ‘what the…’, did I say that? I use expressions I’ve never used before, it’s all very perverse.

HC: Peter Sellers once said that he didn’t know where his characters ended and he began. You are known for getting completely immersed in your characters. Do you ever have the same feeling as Sellers had and why?

MS: I would never even try to put myself in the same camp as Peter Sellers.

I do think that sometimes you can hopefully get so lost in a character that your improvising within that character and staying with it through the character.

I never have problems shaking a character. I’m not that good (laughs). Peter was different at that.

HC: What are your favorite memories of Gilda Radner and John Candy, now that it’s been awhile since they’ve unfortunately passed?

MS: Gilda and John were two very close friends of mine, and they are the same memories that you would have with any close friends. A million laughs, a million funny dinners and hysterical moments. Great times.

I can see them walking through that tent (pointing) right now. Sometimes when you so saturated with people they never leave you. That is what is great about them.

Martin Short’s “Let Freedom Hum” will air Friday, June 26th on Superstation TBS. Check listings for show time. ‘Just for Laughs’ Chicago runs through June 21st, 2009. Click here for tickets and details.

By PATRICK McDONALD
Staff Writer
HollywoodChicago.com
pat@hollywoodchicago.com

Just for Laughs Chicago: Wrangling the Free-Wheelin’ Andy Dick

PatrickMcD — Sat, 20 Jun 2009 15:43:24 -0600

CHICAGO – Andrew R. “Andy” Dick is one of the most brilliantly infamous and misunderstood comic forces in the last twenty years. Appearing at Superstation TBS “Just for Laughs” Festival in Chicago, he combined farce, music and pure Andy in his show.

Andy Dick is very, very calm in Chicago on June 19, 2009
Photo credit: Joe Arce of Starstruck Foto for HollywoodChicago.com

During a rollicking interview with HollywoodChicago.com, Dick went over his career and philosophy, between bouts of singing Edie Brickell songs (”Where is she now?” he wondered, before speculating about her work on a part of Paul Simon’s anatomy).

HollywoodChicago.com: Your bio indicates that you moved around a lot as a kid. What area of the country most influenced your ever-evolving style of performance?

Andy Dick: Besides the first one, from Connecticut to Pennsylvania, which hurt and was emotionally jarring, the one that cracked my head open like an egg was moving from the United States to Yugoslavia. It was horse and buggies and a farmer’s market. It was a silver bullet train that went to the big city. I lived outside Zagreb for a whole year, and opened my mind up on every level. It was fantastic.

HC: Do you think some of your more notorious circumstances are merely performance art in real life that others simply don’t get?

AD: Let’s say that. I love that, and yes.

To be honest with you, I don’t know what percentage it is and over the years my real life took over and bled into my performance art. We can flash back all the way to the Aspen Comedy Festival, where I did a pre-planned vomit routine. I’m infatuated with vomit.

They thought it was all real and I’ve never been asked back to that Festival. So there are some things I do, and do well, that people don’t get.

HC: Is your character of “Queen of Pop” Daphne Aguilera based on anyone?

AD: It’s loosely based on on my Mom, because not really, because my mother wasn’t a whore (laughs). Daphne is a lush, and my Mom drank a lot. My Mom was a great woman, but she was married until she died. I love Daphne.

Andy Dick in Chicago on June 18, 2009
Photo credit: Joe Arce of Starstruck Foto for HollywoodChicago.com

HC: Where does the influence come from, family or performance experience, in your ability to step over the line sometimes?

AD: I think it comes from the fact that my Dad was a Lieutenant Commander on a submarine in the Navy and he ran his family like a tightly run ship. And I felt like I was on a sub under nine miles of water. And I couldn’t breathe.

I needed to get out and break the bubble. And I did. I got out and did my thing and ninety percent of my career is in retaliation against my Dad. I did love and respect him, who died before my career took off and I do wish he were here to see it.

HC: Since you were involved in the 1995 spin-off of the concept, what was it about “Get Smart”? What was your weirdest experience on that show?

AD: When I did the spin-off – it only lasted seven episodes – I was the son, Zach Smart, of Don Adams’ Maxwell Smart. I worked with Don Adams, and he was great, it was working with a legend.

He was getting older, and couldn’t remember his lines. There was one time, when all he had to say was ‘picky, picky’ in that Maxwell Smart voice. He forgot picky, picky and it came out as ‘ticky tacky’. I fell on the floor laughing.

HC: Didn’t you also do an episode of Star Trek:Voyager?

AD: Yeah, and I couldn’t remember those lines to save my life. You can’t improvise the names of phaser guns. You can’t say, ‘hand me the ticky tacky, Lieutenant Picky-Picky.’ You couldn’t do that on Star Trek:Voyager.

I was a hologram doctor, so I posted my lines on post-it notes, like Marlon Brando, all around the consoles, because we were on a space ship. But I wasn’t wearing my glasses, so I couldn’t see them. I was literally crying, saying I couldn’t do this. Beam me up, ticky-tacky (laughs).

HC: What type of scripts or roles are you offered now and do any of them make you wonder what the industry thinks of you?

AD: Precisely. I just got offered a role as a guest star in a pilot and they want me to play a Joe Francis type [Girls Gone Wild]. He’s a guy who goes around trying to get girls to take their tops off. I’m like, guys I don’t want to do that!

HC: Have you recorded the songs with your band [Andy Dick and the Bitches of the Century]?

AD: I have four albums on iTunes. The recordings are good, but the live version is better, because every show we do I add a new little ‘ticky-tacky’.

HC: Were you advised to change your name, like Tim Allen did, because he was originally Tim Dick?

AD: When I got to Los Angeles, my agent at the time said, ‘first things first, we’re changing your name!’ And I said, no we’re not, that’s like giving the middle finger to my family. So then I spent the next twenty years defacing the name anyway (laughs). I should have changed my name, they we’re right (laughs).

HC: Finally, how would you categorize yourself as a performer?

AD: I call myself a provocateur, not a comic. I use my acting skills to adjust the equalizer between emotion and action. To provoke an audience and get them to believe in something that is not happening. I also call myself a performance artist.

There is one bit I do where we freeze at the end, and there is about 3 minutes of silence. The audience is digesting it, in their mind and body and soul, they’re processing it. And that silence is not uncomfortable to me, I like it. I live in that silence.

TBS ‘Just for Laughs’ Chicago runs through June 21st, 2009. Click here for tickets and details. Find out all about Andy Dick here.

By PATRICK McDONALD
Staff Writer
HollywoodChicago.com
pat@hollywoodchicago.com

Harold Ramis Interview: A Lifetime of Achievements With a Chicago Look at ‘Year One’

Ebeth — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 16:21:39 -0600

CHICAGO – Kicking off the Chicago-based “TBS Presents A ‘Very Funny’ Festival: Just for Laughs” on June 17, 2009, Harold Ramis presented his film “Year One” at the Music Box Theatre. Starring Jack Black (“High Fidelity”) and Michael Cera (“Juno”), “Year One” touts itself as a comedy of the ages – the dark ages – as it follows Zed (Black) and Oh (Cera) on their accidentally religious quest.

At the opening, “Just for Laughs” presented its first-ever lifetime achievement award to the humble and well-deserving Ramis in honor of the awe-inspiring career of this actor, writer, director and producer. A Chicago-native Ramis said: “It’s so nice that this is happening at home.”

Writer, director and actor Harold Ramis strikes a pose for his hometown HollywoodChicago.com
lens before being honored with the Just for Laughs lifetime achievement award at the Chicago
premiere of his latest film “Year One” on June 16, 2009 in Chicago.
Photo credit: Joe Arce of Starstruck Foto for HollywoodChicago.com

Best known for his role as Egon in the “Ghostbusters” series, the list of Ramis’s accomplishments on and off screen is plenty. He’s the writer and director on classics like “Caddyshack,” “Groundhog Day” (which he also produced), “Analyze This” and “Analyze That”. He’s a writer of films such as “Animal House,” “Stripes,” “Back to School” and the “Ghostbusters” series (among others).

In this week’s HollywoodChicago.com interview with Ramis, he glided in – with a paper cup of coffee in hand – and his cosmic-calming smile while bestowing a personal greeting to all around the table. He sat back and relaxed in anticipation of the casual conversation that was to come.

This writer began with discussion of “Year One”. When asked about the seemingly dangerous cast of characters joining Ramis for the film (humorously including Michael Cera’s wig), Ramis responded with stories about the animals on set.

“You’re warned as a director to avoid the “ABCs” of directing – animals, boats and children – and I’ve done them all. But in this movie, animals were gonna be a big part of it. We hired a wrangler, Bobby Colorado, and she’s quite a character. She lives in Texas with about 500 animals of her own. And we rented a boar. In Los Angeles, you can rent a boar.”

Jack Black stars in Columbia Pictures’ comedy “Year One”.
Photo credit: Suzanne Hanover, SMPSP

This writer responded, laughing: “What’s the boar’s day rate? Does he have his own trailer?”

Ramis responded: “I said we needed a cougar, and it was like: ‘Well, we got you the cougar from ‘Talladega Nights’’. This cougar worked with Will Farrell. Even I haven’t worked with Will Farrell! And then the cougar wouldn’t do anything we wanted it to do. We had to animate the cougar with CG. It turns out the cougar was constipated.”

This reminded Ramis of his days filming “National Lampoon’s Vacation”. He said: “I had a camel. We were ready to shoot the scene and I said: ‘Cue the camel. Where’s the camel?’ They said: ‘Eh. The camel won’t walk on sand. He’s not comfortable on sand. He was raised in Burbank.’”

Though Ramis says Michael Cera didn’t mind the animals on the “Year One” set, Jack Black was “terrified of them all. There’s a young lion and tiger. He (Jack) said: ‘I’m not walking by them cause what if they, like, turn on me?!’ I said: ‘We couldn’t even get the cougar to jump on a stunt man. They’re not gonna turn on you.’ Same with the python. Jack was terrified of that albino python at the beginning of the movie.”

Actor Matthew Willig up close just before greeting fans on the red carpet at the
Chicago premiere of “Year One” on June 16, 2009 at the Music Box Theatre.
Photo credit: Joe Arce of Starstruck Foto for HollywoodChicago.com

Continuing discussion about the “Year One” cast, this writer referenced Harold’s acceptance speech the night before: “You said last night when you accepted your award that you often recommend to people that they ‘identify the most talented person in the room and – if it’s not them – go stand by that person’. On set, when you weren’t standing alone, who did you tend to be standing near?”

“Well, you know, I can only think of one comedy director who does it all. That’s Woody Allen. He trusts his own instincts totally. I come from the kind of comedy where it’s only funny and as good as the people around you. People think directors tell actors what to do, but essentially a big part of the job is hiring the person who’s already doing it right or already doing it better than you even imagined it.”

Ramis continued: “We hired Jack and Michael because they’re brilliant. My quote is true. In this case, I hire the most talented people around and then I go stand next to them to try to get them to embody the script as best we can do.”

Moving to his partner, he went on: “Judd (Apatow) was a juggernaut already when I started this project. He had become rightfully famous for television work that wasn’t quite successful but was really respected and then his films just started to produce. It kind of echoed something we’d experienced 20 years before. I didn’t have any alliances like that any more. I don’t ‘hang out’ with Ivan Reitman and Bill Murray and Dan Aykroyd any more. We don’t make many movies together, but Judd is now in the prime of that.”

Olivia Wilde stars in Columbia Pictures’ comedy “Year One”.
Photo credit: Suzanne Hanover, SMPSP

“I was one draft into this movie when I thought: ‘I can’t do this alone.’ I thought I need a partner – a real strong producing partner – someone with a lot of studio credibility and a lot of connection into the contemporary comedy world. And who better than Judd?”

Observing the fact that “Year One” relies strongly upon religious humor and citing previous statements made by Ramis regarding “looking at religion more philosophically than in fundamental ways,” Ramis was asked about his views on religion as comedy.

“There’s all kinds of laughter. I don’t believe in laughing with contempt at things. I don’t think anything I’ve ever done has been cruel in that sense,” Ramis said. “I try not to make fun of people. Can I say this? (laughs) Maybe I make fun of people all the time.”

Ramis continued: “I want for the audience what I want for my own sons. I want my own kids – even though they’re growing up way over-privileged – to think critically about the things they’re told and what they’re being sold by this culture and by our government. I think it’d be a better world if people were more aware and thought and functioned more independently.”

Michael Cera (left) and Jack Black star in Columbia Pictures’ comedy “Year One”.
Photo credit: Suzanne Hanover, SMPSP

“I read a lot of history,” Ramis said. “I’m a keen observer of what’s going on. I see that fundamentalism and orthodoxy just lock people into these ideological positions. There’s no common ground. It’s like: ‘This is what I believe, and if you don’t believe it, you are wrong. You are the devil. You are Satan.’”

Harold addressed the issue of “chosenness” in “Year One”: “For Jews, chosenness is a big issue. I had my rabbi come to the New York screening of the film. He embraced me after saying: ‘Thank you for deconstructing the notion of chosenness!’ He was thrilled with it in that sense.”

“But the movie’s post-denominational and post-ideological,” Ramis said. “It just says whatever you believe, have your belief, but it doesn’t absolve you from acting responsibly. If you’re gonna make meaningful social change, it’s not going to be because of or through ideology or orthodoxy. It’s going to be because you’re willing to take action and do the right thing. It’s simple.”

Ramis was then asked about his concerns regarding technology’s influence on the experience of watching movies and particularly on viewing movies at home as opposed to in the theatre.

Director Harold Ramis on the set of Columbia Pictures’ comedy “Year One”.
Photo credit: Suzanne Hanover, SMPSP

“There’s a kind of sociological component to it,” Ramis said. “Older people don’t like to go to the theatre. It’s a hassle. A lot of older people see serious films (i.e. foreign films, independent films and art films). And those experiences can be solitary. But young people aren’t staying home.”

“My kids have an 80-inch screen. They don’t say ‘come on over and let’s watch a movie’. In the first run of movies, young people want to come out and see a picture and have the whole experience of laughing with a group of their friends and then trading lines on the way out. Later when people revisit movies, they carry with them whatever that experience was and they can laugh alone. Maybe even now they hear the stuff they couldn’t hear when people were laughing. In all our best films, hopefully there were lines the audience misses because they were still laughing at previous moments.”

To close, this writer asked the question on most of the minds of our readers: “Do you have any little ‘Ghostbusters 3’ tidbits?”

“I don’t know,” Ramis said. “Has there been a formal studio release or was I the release? (laughs) I decided I wasn’t going to be coy any more. The studio has hired two writers – my co-writers Gene Stupnitsky and Lee Eisenberg – who are writers and producers on “The Office”. Together we wrote a story for a potential sequel. Ivan Reitman and Dan Aykroyd are consulting and Bill Murray has said he’d be in it. And we’re going to introduce three new Ghostbusters. At least three…”

Jack Black (left) and June Raphael star in Columbia Pictures’ comedy “Year One”.
Photo credit: Suzanne Hanover, SMPSP

When asked about a release date, Ramis responded: “It’ll never come out if the script isn’t really good or if there isn’t a real strong group will to do it because no one needs to do it. The beauty of it is that – as much as there are people in the audience who would want to see it – we don’t want to embarrass ourselves. We know there’s affection for it, but it’s whether we want to do it or not.”

Here’s hoping “there’s something strange in the neighborhood” in the near future.

Ramis – currently a resident of Glenco, Ill. – closed with conversation about the Chicago area and humored this writer by swapping stories about mutual affection for Taylor guitars. He left as casually as he’d entered and was off to another round of promotion for his new flick.

“Year One,” which stars Jack Black, Michael Cera, Oliver Platt, David Cross, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Hank Azaria, Vinnie Jones, Juno Temple, Olivia Wilde, Matthew Willig and Horatio Sanz, opened on June 19, 2009 in theatres across the U.S. The film is rated “PG-13” for crude and sexual content throughout, brief strong language and comic violence.

By ELIZABETH OPPRIECHT
Staff Writer
HollywoodChicago.com
elizabeth@hollywoodchicago.com

TBS Just For Laughs: Robert Smigel Brings Bozo Circus Parody to Chicago

PatrickMcD — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 18:05:47 -0600

CHICAGO – Wednesday, June 17th, marked the beginning of Superstation TBS “Just for Laughs” festival in Chicago and it kicked off with the comic genius of Robert Smigel, best known now as Triumph the Insult Comic Dog.

Smigel’s early career took a turn through Chicago in the mid-1980’s, and when he joined Saturday Night Live as a writer/performer in 1985 he helped develop the now iconic “Da Bears” sketch, where he played Superfan Carl Wollarski.

Dino Stamatopoulos and Robert Smigel at the Lakeshore Theater Chicago in TBS ‘Just for Laughs’
Photo credit: Patrick McDonald, HollywoodChicago.com

During his Chicago days, he also became fascinated with WGN’s legendary “Bozo’s Circus” starring Bob Bell as Bozo The Clown. Years later, when he was developing programming on Comedy Central’s “TV Funhouse”, he and his Chicago native partner Dino Stamatopoulos filmed “The Unaired Bozo Circus Parody” with “Prozo” the Clown, a dead-on spoof of the familiar eccentricities of that one-of-a-kind Chicago kid’s show.

Just for Laughs sponsored the Smigel and Stamatopoulos event at the Lakeshore Theater in Chicago to present the never-seen pilot, and Smigel touched upon other aspects of his fruitful career, including the “TV Funhouse” cartoons on Saturday Night Live and a special guest appearance of Triumph the Insult Comic Dog.

Bob Bell as Bozo the Clown on ‘Bozo’s Circus’
Photo credit: WGN-TV

“I wanted to do the Bozo parody as close to the real thing [Bob Bell] as possible,” Smigel said in the Q&A after showing the pilot. “I didn’t want to do the angry clown thing.”

In comparison, Smigel showed a clip from the original Bozo’s Circus, and the subsequent parody was so much like it, that is was hard almost to distinguish the two. While the original Bozo did a “Three Bears” sketch, Prozo and company did a pie-throwing takeoff of the Israeli-Arab summit.

Next up was Saturday Night Live’s “TV Funhouse” cartoons, which Smigel has produced for close to ten years. Controversial airings included “Conspiracy Theory Rocks”, a takeoff on the popular “Schoolhouse Rocks”, but regarding the corporate ownership of TV networks. It aired once on SNL, and it was removed from the reruns.

“Don Ohlmeyer, who was running NBC at the time, recognized it as parody, but he also wanted me to change it a bit, since it referred too much to General Electric [NBC’s parent company),” Smigel recalled. “Their reason for pulling it was they thought it wasn’t funny.”

Robert Smigel and Patrick McDonald, in Chicago on June 17, 2009
Photo credit: Patrick McDonald, HollywoodChicago.com

A TV Funhouse cartoon of Michael Jackson, prompted this response from the singer.

“Jackson’s lawyers contacted Saturday Night Live with a ‘ceast and desist’ on Monday morning,” Smigel said. “Their opinion was he had been cleared of the charges involving underage kids.”

The highlight of the night came at the end, when Smigel’s most famous character, Triumph the Insult Comic Dog, popped (or should it be pooped) through a makeshift puppet stage. The resultant sketch was made more hilarious by the constant technical problems, which inspired Triumph to say in frustration, “is there any bit that won’t be ruined.”

Triumph, through comedian Robert Smigel, loved coming back to Chicago, to quote “poop on it.”

TBS ‘Just for Laughs’ Chicago runs through June 21st, 2009. Click here for tickets and details. Highlights of the 5-day event will air on Superstation TBS from June 26-28.

By PATRICK McDONALD
Staff Writer
HollywoodChicago.com
pat@hollywoodchicago.com

‘10 Items or Less’ Misses Checkout Lane With Third Season Premiere

BrianTT — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 15:33:35 -0700

CHICAGO – The largely improvised “10 Items or Less” returns for a third trip to the grocery store on Tuesday, January 6th, 2009 on TBS with what looks like another hit-and-miss season of occasionally inspired humor surrounded by generally boring characters in an overall mediocre show.

More “Sorta Funny” than the one-time TBS slogan of “Very Funny,” “10 Items or Less” is a reasonable diversion, a series that has more chuckles than some of the lackluster comedies on television this season but never delivers on the potential displayed by its talented star, John Lehr. Like an improvisational troupe with only one real star, every time that Lehr leaves the screen, the show falls apart.

Even without his favorite turkey, Leslie still continues bowling
Photo credit: Alan Markfield/TBS

“10 Items or Less” is cut from the increasingly common cloth of the improvised comedy like “Reno 911!” or “Curb Your Enthusiasm,” where the cast is given a basic plot set-up that is usually ridiculous enough that they can go off within its structure. When the very-talented Lehr finds something funny to riff on, he alone makes the show worth watching.

The cast of 10 Items or Less, premiering January 6th, 2009 on TBS.
Photo credit: TBS

Lehr plays Leslie, the goofy manager of Greens and Grains, a small grocery store trying to deal with the corporate mega-store known as Super Value Mart that is constantly stealing their business. Leslie is one of those kind-hearted but generally moronic bosses so common in television, kind of like a more blue-collar Michael Scott from “The Office”. Of course, the crew at Greens and Grains is filled out by the quirky personalities you only find in sitcom television, including the sweet Ingrid (Kirsten Gronfield), sassy Yolanda (Roberta Valderrama), rough Todd (Chris Payne Gilbert), goofy Carl (Bob Clendenin), stuck-up Richard (Christopher Liam Moore), and, well, kind-of-boring Buck (Greg Davis Jr.).

The first two episodes of season three of “10 Items or Less” are perfect examples of the one strength and many weaknesses of the TBS show. In the premiere, “Turkey Bowling,” Leslie makes the mistake of ordering way more frozen turkey than the store actually needs and the crew has to come up with an interesting way to use the extra poultry. Long store aisles plus frozen turkeys plus grape soda equals turkey bowling. It’s a funny idea and Lehr almost makes it work but like a “Saturday Night Live” bit that goes on a little too long, it barely fills the 22-minute running time of an episode.

The second episode, “Eye Can See Clearly,” which features a blind Leslie after laser-eye surgery goes wrong follows exactly the same formula with the exact same results - a generally funny concept that Lehr does his best to turn into comic gold but ends up pretty mediocre.

The first and second seasons of 10 Items or Less was released by Sony on December 30th, 2008.
Photo credit: Sony Pictures Home Video

The reason “10 Items or Less” is always going to be a bit mediocre is simple - the rest of cast is simply not as good as its lead. Clendenin and Valderrama occasionally hit some funny notes, but imagine if no one on “The Office” was nearly as interesting nor as talented as Steve Carell. It wouldn’t be half as successful without Dwight, Jim, Pam, and the rest of the talented ensemble.

It also sometimes feels like the improvisational format is more of a hindrance to a show like “10 Items or Less” than it is for a show like “Curb Your Enthusiasm”. To be blunt, there are scenes in the season premiere that would have been rewritten with a more scripted format. The increasingly ridiculous behavior and goofy characters make for a show that often feels like it’s trying too hard with a focus on physical humor instead of actual human behavior.

If the blend of workplace humor and improvisational comedy in the third season premiere of “10 Items or Less” works for you, go back and check out the first two seasons of the show, recently released on a two-disc set from Sony. The 13 episodes are presented in 1.78:1 anamorphic widescreen with just a stereo track on season one and a 5.1 surround track on season two. The lackluster special features include “10 Items or Less: A Look Behind-the-Scenes,” “Notes From the Casting Couch,” a blooper reel, and internet viral videos.

‘10 Items or Less,’ which airs on TBS, stars John Lehr, Kirsten Gronfield, Roberta Valderrama, Chris Payne Gilbert, Bob Clendenin, Christopher Liam Moore, and Greg Davis Jr. The premiere of season three airs on January 6th, 2009 at 9PM CST.

‘10 Items or Less: The Complete First and Second Seasons’ is released by Sony Pictures Home Video. It was released on December 30th, 2008.

By BRIAN TALLERICO
Content Director
HollywoodChicago.com
brian@hollywoodchicago.com

Interview: ‘My Boys’ Stars Michael Bunin, Kyle Howard, Reid Scott Kick Off Season Two on TBS

HollywoodChicago.com — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 01:31:45 -0600

CHICAGO – “My Boys,” which is a set-in-Chicago television comedy series on TBS, recently began its second season. The popular comedy stars Jordana Spiro as P.J. Franklin. She’s a Chicago Sun-Times sports writer who filters her life through bonding with her male buddies.

Three of the “boys” – Michael Bunin (Kenny in the show), Kyle Howard (Bobby) and Reid Scott (Brendan) – were recently interviewed by HollywoodChicago.com. They discussed the similarities of the show to the life of creator Betsy Thomas, the Chicago connections and their perspective on being part of the hit TV show.

“My Boys” on TBS stars Jordana Spiro, Kyle Howard, Reid Scott, Michael Bunin, Jim Gaffigan, Jamie Kaler and Kellee Stewart.
Image credit: TBS

HollywoodChicago: The ensemble comedy has a long tradition in the history of the show. What template or show did the creators have in mind for “My Boys”?
Reid Scott: Out the chute, TBS wanted to pair us with “Sex and the City”. They felt it was that sensibility and demographic. More and more in interviews, though – and it’s incredibly flattering to be compared to the show – it is “Friends”.
Michael Bunin: Betsy Thomas wrote it because she is a huge Chicago Cubs fan, loves her scotch and basically wanted to capture the flip side of “Sex and the City” with a different kind of girl.

HC: What do you think has been the most authentic Chicago experience for your cast and crew?
MB: Wrigley Field – by far the most impressive thing – on so many different levels. Most of our writers and producers are from Chicago or went to Northwestern University, so they want to keep it authentic. But to be on the grass at one of the hallowed halls of baseball was a big treat.

I had a shot where I had to go into the ivy. Betsy Thomas came up to me and said: “You really have to go into the ivy on this take – really hard.” I said OK and went flying into it. Suddenly, it was like the secret service and all this security was right on me.

Betsy said: “I’m sorry, Mike. Why did you do that?” She laid it on me. Then she came up to me later and told me she thought we’d only get one chance to do it like that because of the security.

HC: Which Chicago bar is the fictional Crowley’s upon which your show is based?
MB: It’s modeled after Guthrie’s on Addison. If you look closely, the floor in both places are the same. They originally wanted to call our bar Guthrie’s, but I didn’t know if it was a right’s issue. Betsy Thomas loves Guthrie’s.
Kyle Howard: After doing several scenes on the set of Crowley’s, the writers took us over to Guthrie’s. We walked in and said: “There’s the game cabinet. Look at the tablecloths. Look at the floor.” It was like walking into the set.
RS: In the Crowley’s set, there is a picture of Betsy Thomas, her husband (Adrian Wenner) and Eric Gilliland (an executive producer of the show). All three of them are playing Jenga at Guthrie’s.

HC: Is Jordana Spiro actually like her P.J. character?
RS: Actually, she’s very “P.J.-esque”. She’s a nice girl who likes to hang with the boys, which is a daunting task.
MB: When we shot the pilot and everyone was nervous anyway, you could kind of tell that she was wondering about being in the boys’ club and how this was going to play out. By day four, she was so at ease that you knew she liked her character and liked hanging with the boys.

Jim Gaffigan, Jamie Kaler and Michael Bunin in “My Boys” on TBS.
The show also features Jordana Spiro, Kyle Howard, Reid Scott and Kellee Stewart.
Photo credit: IMDb

HC: Like the characters in the show, do you guys actually play poker together?
MB: Yeah. We have a game at Betsy Thomas’ house. It’s a game that has been going on for years, but now people from the show actually stop by and play.

When I spend the day on the set and react in character to Reid’s character (Brendan) during a poker scene, what’s really surreal is that I always say “Brendo!” Then when we play at Betsy’s house, in comes the real Brendan – who Reid’s character is based on – and we say “Brendo!” So some days I’m yelling “Brendo” for 14 hours.

HC: Do you create back stories for your characters, or because the show hasn’t been on that long, do you let it evolve through the writing?
RS: It has been a little bit of both. Because the characters are based on real people who are actually involved with the show, a lot of situations and inside jokes (which add to the ease and reality of the show) will be explained to us. But as we’ve gone on, our characters have become their own characters and rely less on the characters upon which they are based. Then we do the background work.
KH: There have been days where we read a joke, say “that would never happen” and then Betsy will say “actually, it has” and then go on to explain why.

HC: Kyle, regarding the cliffhanger from last season, when did you know your character was the one who was going to Italy?
KH: Nobody knew until a week before we shot it. I didn’t know until Reid sent me a text with “you’re on the plane, you son of a bitch”.
MB: I was in the office several times telling them exactly why I know it was going to be the Chicago Cubs character. He was the good-looking guy who dated P.J. for a few months. I was giving them the whole storyline and they were nodding their heads along with it. You saw how right I was.

Jim Gaffigan plays the character of Andy Franklin in “My Boys” on TBS.
Photo credit: IMDb

HC: Is there a different pacing between working a show with a laugh track versus one like “My Boys” without one?
RS: Yes. It’s not like I prefer one over the other because they are very different things. I did a sitcom called “It’s All Relative” and the three-camera method made it more like a play. You would get all jacked up for taping night. It was like a party.

But that is why I categorize “My Boys” as a comedy rather than a sitcom. It doesn’t rely on the broader humor of sitcoms, the pacing and even the lighting is different. But you get multiple stabs at bits because of the way it’s taped. It’s more a cerebral type of comedy that way.

HC: How much ad-libbing do you do on the show?
MB: A lot by TV standards, but when you count the actual lines, it’s more of a show that’s scripted as is. The stories are there, the characters are there and the lines are there. Sometimes at the end of a scene the camera will run and the improv coming out of it will make the show. There is a decent amount technically, but overall, it’s a small percentage.

HC: What’s it like working with comedian Jim Gaffigan?
MB: Jim Gaffigan’s autobiography would be titled “My Character Would Sit” because that’s what he directs himself to do in every scene.

HC: Are lines sometimes switched between characters depending on how a scene works?
RS: Actually, yes. It will come at the request of the actor or the producer. You hear the stories of the selfish actors, but we’re willing to pass the ball a lot. I will get a line and say: “Hey, this is a funny joke and I get it, but it will be better coming out of the other character’s mouth.”
MB: We’ve all done that on one or two occasions.
KH: I’ve never done that. (laughter)

New episodes of the second season of “My Boys” premiere every Tuesday on TBS. See here for more details. “My Boys” stars Jordana Spiro as P.J. Franklin, Kyle Howard as Bobby Newman, Reid Scott as Brendan Dorff, Michael Bunin as Kenny Morittori, Jim Gaffigan as Andy Franklin, Jamie Kaler as Mike Callahan and Kellee Stewart as Stephanie.

By PATRICK McDONALD
Staff Writer
HollywoodChicago.com
pat@hollywoodchicago.com

Hookup: 10 Passes to VIP Chicago Party, Screening For ‘The Bill Engvall Show’ on TBS to Meet Tim Meadows

HollywoodChicago.com — Mon, 19 May 2008 21:09:41 -0600

CHICAGO – In the inaugural edition of HollywoodChicago.com Hookup: TV, 10 admit-two VIP passes will be given away to the exclusive Chicago opportunity to meet Tim Meadows (“Saturday Night Live,” “Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story,” “Semi-Pro”) for the return of “The Bill Engvall Show” on TBS.

“The Bill Engvall Show” on TBS is back this summer with all-new episodes.
Image credit: “The Bill Engvall Show”

This giveaway is for an invitation-only, VIP party and screening of two episodes of “The Bill Engvall Show”. The event will take place at the Hollywood Blvd. Cinema in the Chicago suburb of Woodridge on May 29, 2008 beginning at 7 p.m. Winners are strongly advised to arrive early as the event will be overbooked and seating is not guaranteed. This is a description of the TV series:

Tim Meadows is featured in the second season of “The Bill Engvall Show” on TBS.
Image credit: IMDb

The TBS hit family comedy “The Bill Engvall Show” (No. 1 among households and people 25 to 54) is back this summer with all-new episodes. Comedian Bill Engvall (who has won over audiences with his hilarious stand-up show) brings his unique take on family and parenting to TBS for a sitcom the whole family will love.

Engvall stars as Bill Pearson: a family counselor, loving husband and father of three kids whose own family could use a little dose of counseling. Bill’s wife, Susan (played by Nancy Travis from “Becker” and “The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants”), tries to keep the clan in line.

Their three children (Lauren, Trent and Bryan) definitely know how to manipulate them. With a humorous perspective on family life, this comedy series shows the authentic yet playful side of parenting and portrays a father who’s the heart of the family.

To secure your VIP tickets now, make sure you’re logged into your HollywoodChicago.com account. If you don’t yet have one, you can quickly register here. Next, click “Add new comment” below. In your comment, you must include an answer to this simple question:

What makes you burst into laughter?

This HollywoodChicago.com Hookup: TV is simple: The first 10 people to comment below win! We will be in touch with the 10 winners with digital passes.

By ADAM FENDELMAN
Editor-in-Chief
HollywoodChicago.com
adam@hollywoodchicago.com