She told the audience to shut up. That she was 56 and might never come back so they'd better let her talk.
It's not that they were rabble-rousing, lost in their own personal world, the assembled multitude was in thrall, shouting, interrupting, wanting to connect.
And you'd want to connect too.
The only other time I saw Alison Moyet in person was at a party in a backyard on the outskirts of London. She was standing alone, under a tent, sipping a drink, and I recognized her instantly, but I wasn't about to talk to her. You learn not to, unless you're introduced. You might get a warm hello, but you'll get no conversation, none of what you need. She seemed an iconic, untouchable beauty, living on a pedestal.
But that's not who she is at all!
I bought those records. That was the badge of honor, ownership. And you could not know the music unless you owned it. And your friends never did, nobody you knew was as into it as you. There were those Yaz albums, "Yazoo" in the U.K., and the solos, but then she disappeared, but I never forgot her, and neither did the rest of those in attendance.
That's why I love living in the city. The opportunities. The other people who got the memo. Live in the hinterlands, the suburbs, and you're a party of one, the only person in the know, alone, but move to the city and you find like-minded people and it's so reassuring, but I did not expect Alison Moyet's show to sell out, the hits were long ago, when was the last time she ever appeared here?
But the place was full. With a Gen-X demo, men and women, who remembered when. Not hipsters, there were some lumpy bodies, some people who'd sold out to the straight world, but when Alison opened her pipes they were in rapture.
So first and foremost it's the voice.
And then it's the charisma.
Everybody's faking it. They can't really sing. Your favorite acts have support, both live and recorded, and you go to the show and it's a facsimile of reality, not the real thing.
But this was positively the real thing. Who is born with a voice like this? Who can develop a gift like this? Who can still do it as they grow older? If Alison Moyet were an American she'd be a household name, she'd headline all those galas at the Hollywood Bowl and the Kennedy Center, because that's just how powerful and intriguing her vocalizations are. Husky and full. They're not from another world, but ours. It's like she embodies life. You're astounded.
And then there's her personality.
Some people don't talk at all.
Others squeak out a few words uncomfortably.
Then there are the people who do the same patter every night.
But Alison was comfortable in her own skin. In between numbers she'd tell us what she felt, maybe a short story, and it was so INTIMATE! Like a friend coming over and sitting on your couch. But really more than that, the girl you always had a crush on, the one you viewed from afar, who you were suddenly in the room with, who fulfilled all your dreams, who was not airy, but breezy, you'd swoon.
And so did we.
The show was very basic. Alison and two men on keyboards, with one occasionally playing guitar. Along with excellent lighting. But there was no production, no big screen, nothing other than...
The music.
Just when you think we've lost touch...
We reconnect.
With recorded revenue substandard, with so much money on the road, people play the biggest venues available, for the gross. It's a spectacle. And some music fits that paradigm, but most doesn't. Most music is personal. You want to connect with the performer, be taken away from the everyday world, so many shows are assaults, circuses where they're selling you stuff, notches on your belt documented on social media, but once upon a time music was just that, you went to the show for the sound, not the penumbra.
It was like that last night.
You're sitting in the audience trying to figure it out, what makes Alison Moyet so appealing. She's too old, her hits are behind her, why do she and her performance seem so positively NOW?
It's her identity. She's not stuck in the past. She's in the present. Just like us. As opposed to acts taking you on a nostalgic trip to when, looking like they once did as you inhabit your sagging body.
She exudes charisma, you can't take your eyes off her, as she dips, twirls and twists, but very subtly, sending the message she's moved by the music, but she's not dancing to impress you.
And she played all the hits. "Situation." "Only You." But the highlight was a song from the new album, "Lover, Go."
It's a slow march through the doldrums with a central power. We got it immediately. And you will too, when you listen now:
http://spoti.fi/2xABZIE
But I was waiting for one song, the opener from her debut solo LP "Alf." The show was going on and on, and then...
The synths started to pound, the hook was indelible and irresistible, this was LOVE RESURRECTION!
"What can I do to make light
Of this dull, dull day"
We'd get home, in that pre-portability era, and we'd drop the needle on our favorite LP. We had massive stereos, with enough power and throughput to make the walls shake and the floors pulse.
"What switch can I pull
To illuminate the way"
It's all so disheartening. Politics is fascinating, but endless retreads, nothing seems to change.
"Show me one direction"
And that direction is always art, we live for art, it's the special sauce of life. Sure, nothing is more powerful than sex, but you don't do it with the TV on, but you will put on your favorite record.
"We all need a love
Resurrection, just a little divine intervention"
God was shining down on the Fonda last night, intervening in this boring, overbearing, mixed-up, muddled world. He intervened in the audience's lonely life and lifted listeners up via his disciple Alison Moyet. I may not believe in God, but I did last night!
I got a warm injection that calmed the pain. What more can you ask for?
Chalk one up for music.
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Thursday 28 September 2017
Wednesday 27 September 2017
Dinner At Jake Udell's House
Moe pulled away in his Ferrari.
It's hard to explain the SoCal lifestyle if you don't live here. The warm fall evenings. The emphasis on out instead of in. But when you find yourself perched on a cliff in the hills, overlooking a sparkling San Fernando Valley, in your shirtsleeves on September 26th, you wonder how you got here, how so few know, and how life is exceedingly good.
I met Jake at EDMbiz a few years back. This twentysomething manager was the talk of the conference. Can I hang with twentysomethings? It's kind of like the Chris Rock line, about getting married, you don't want to be the oldest dude in the bar. I wonder if these cats don't think I've got something better to do. After all, baby boomers are notoriously self-centered, believing they have all the answers, and are all about lifestyle, fine wines, exotic vacations, they appear bulletproof, like they have all the answers.
I don't have all the answers. Sometimes I don't even know the questions. Especially in today's diverse world. So I'm curious to hang with the youngsters, it's so stimulating, and wavering I remembered that Irving will take a phone call from anyone, once. Because he's like MTV, continuing to stay young for if you don't, you eventually lose touch, and you're out of the game.
This is happening now.
First was streaming. The boomers hate it. The youngsters embrace it. And overnight, all the new stars are young acts. Hip-hop dominates and the oldsters are touring to decreasing audiences, unless they're on the verge of death, and the media keeps talking about the value of recordings when the truth is they're just a tiny piece of the pie. That's right, the internet has opened up so many other avenues of revenue. If you're willing to shut up about CDs and Spotify you can employ the new tools to make bank, like Marshmello.
He sold out three Shrines. That's 15,000 people people. And you've probably never even heard of him. I had, but I can't say I knew his music, that I was aware of his impact.
He was a struggling EDM artist, where you're confined to your lane, and he was making a different kind of music, and his manager, Moe Shalizi came up with the concept. Of an alias. Found someone on Instagram to make the first helmet. But I'm getting ahead of myself.
Moe broke up with his girlfriend because he's working all the time, he's the one who drives the Ferrari. He grew up in godforsaken Riverside, for heaven's sake, got a degree at the UC in that burg whilst living at home and hosting DJ parties in a bar. That's right, the only innovators, the only pioneers aren't in Silicon Valley, where the rewards are big but the work is often drudgery. And eventually Moe transferred to management, after some hair-raising affairs at the bar, where he was pulling down $1500 a night, net, and went to work for Red Light Management, where they thought they'd manage and he'd do the day to day.
But you can't keep a millennial down. They're competent, know how to work, despite the crybaby stories you read in the press. Hell, it's like the sixties all over again, the press is clueless.
And the pre-Marshmello Marshmello is making 80k a year, but then he becomes the character and... Skrillex makes contact. They get lucky, Marshmello gets to town and Moe makes him call Sonny and he's in the midst of an interview with Katie Couric, who Marshmello is clueless as to the identity of, and the end result is his call ends up in the final piece.
And fans find it.
It's a veritable web out there I tell you. All interconnected. You get lucky one place and people spread the word other places.
And now Marshmello has done a deal with Hostess, I mean come on, who wouldn't laugh about that, it's a match made in hilarity, and he's still sans major despite having eight singles with household names lined up and it's all been done slowly and under the radar and... Marshmello and Moe don't need the cash, do they even need a major?
It's unclear. Sure, a major can deliver terrestrial radio, but is that where Marshmello belongs, does his audience even care?
And Moe is relatively quiet. Get him going and he'll tell you his story. But he's not interrupting and boasting, it's only when you listen and hear the facts that you realize how successful he is.
Whereas Jeff Levin is just the opposite. He's selling from minute one, like a traditional manager. And I've heard it all and I take it with a grain of salt but when he showed me a video of pandemonium when his client Logan Paul opened a pop-up shop in Manhattan, it was impossible to be unimpressed. Everybody came out, everybody was cheering, for this guy most people have no idea of.
But he's got 3.6 million YouTube subscribers. And is in movies and on TV and this is a new star. Accessible. AND IN YOUR FACE EVERY DAY! Logan jumped from Vine to YouTube and has posted a new vlog, usually fifteen minutes in length, every single day for 380 days straight. God, no one else has the CONSTITUTION! Musicians are always bitching about doing the heavy lifting, they need someone to help, the system is against them, whereas this guy Logan is making the system work for him!
Now Jeff was an entrepreneur back in college, he started a laundry service. That's right, these guys didn't grind and then wake up and decide to be entrepreneurs, they were ALWAYS entrepreneurs. Then he paid his dues at ICM and at Awesomeness TV and now at the ripe old age of 31 is managing Logan. Hell, Moe is 27. Jake 28! Think about that, Jake and Moe weren't even 10 when Napster launched, they're not burdened by history, shackled to the past.
And Jeff talks about brand partnerships and advertising and the more you hear the more you're convinced that this couldn't all be true until you Google it and it is. Logan's video today was launched two hours ago and already has 472,555 views, hell, I doubt that's accurate, because YESTERDAY'S already has 4.1 million! Yup, the clips average 5 million views a day, and let's be clear, there are musicians accumulating this number of streams, but they're the ones ruling Spotify that the oldsters hate. But the joke is on the oldsters. The youngsters have tapped into the zeitgeist, and the oldsters are in the self-satisfied rearview mirror.
And now you're saying that social media stars fade. There's no there there. But Logan is selling story and has already been on "Law & Order" and "Stitchers" and has done a video with the Rock and even if it all ends tomorrow, he's made money, and proven the paradigm...the younger generation will embrace a new kind of star, one outside the traditional actor/musician paradigm. Hell, they think they KNOW Logan. Do we really know the people on the big screen?
And speaking of a younger generation, Jake manages 13 year old Grace VanderWaal, winner of "America's Got Talent" in 2016.
He pursued it. Was a joke in the competition. People wouldn't even take his phone calls. But after getting Grace a gig at the Special Olympics in Austria and hooking her up with Cirque du Soleil she ultimately signed with him.
Took six months. And when he finally flew to meet Grace herself, previously her attorney wouldn't allow it, she was bored and thought he wasn't big enough until...
He asked her what she wanted to do.
Everybody was TELLING Grace what she should do! She felt caged. She was unhappy with the choice of single, well Jake said they could make their own video of another track and put it online. WE CAN DO THAT? Yup, you can build your own website, communicate with your fans, she was afraid of the label, no one was on her side, and that's what a manager does, protect the interests of the artist whilst brainstorming opportunities.
And the truth is the oldsters are consumed with the old opportunities. Get a record contract and sign a deal with Live Nation or AEG. But there's so much more. And it's all online. And it's all data. And it's all incomprehensible to the old guard, their cheese has not only been moved, but stolen, and they don't like it, these youngsters running circles around them, debating the value of Facebook ads, leveraging the power of their stars in heretofore unseen ways.
It's exhausting just hearing about it.
But not every millennial is triumphing. Jake's old friends are becoming professionals, doctors and lawyers, they're playing it safe. Moe doesn't even talk to the guys he grew up with, who are now cops. Jeff knows some successes, but it's not everybody. That's right, we paint millennials with a broad brush, but the truth is they're individuals. And they're excited about the entertainment business and the opportunities. But they're not bitching and they're not confined by the system, they're doing it THEIR WAY! AND THEY'RE YOUNG!
If you're in your twenties you've got forty years ahead of you. They know all the players, Scooter, et al, and they're less into personal glory than power and money, changing the world.
And they are...
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It's hard to explain the SoCal lifestyle if you don't live here. The warm fall evenings. The emphasis on out instead of in. But when you find yourself perched on a cliff in the hills, overlooking a sparkling San Fernando Valley, in your shirtsleeves on September 26th, you wonder how you got here, how so few know, and how life is exceedingly good.
I met Jake at EDMbiz a few years back. This twentysomething manager was the talk of the conference. Can I hang with twentysomethings? It's kind of like the Chris Rock line, about getting married, you don't want to be the oldest dude in the bar. I wonder if these cats don't think I've got something better to do. After all, baby boomers are notoriously self-centered, believing they have all the answers, and are all about lifestyle, fine wines, exotic vacations, they appear bulletproof, like they have all the answers.
I don't have all the answers. Sometimes I don't even know the questions. Especially in today's diverse world. So I'm curious to hang with the youngsters, it's so stimulating, and wavering I remembered that Irving will take a phone call from anyone, once. Because he's like MTV, continuing to stay young for if you don't, you eventually lose touch, and you're out of the game.
This is happening now.
First was streaming. The boomers hate it. The youngsters embrace it. And overnight, all the new stars are young acts. Hip-hop dominates and the oldsters are touring to decreasing audiences, unless they're on the verge of death, and the media keeps talking about the value of recordings when the truth is they're just a tiny piece of the pie. That's right, the internet has opened up so many other avenues of revenue. If you're willing to shut up about CDs and Spotify you can employ the new tools to make bank, like Marshmello.
He sold out three Shrines. That's 15,000 people people. And you've probably never even heard of him. I had, but I can't say I knew his music, that I was aware of his impact.
He was a struggling EDM artist, where you're confined to your lane, and he was making a different kind of music, and his manager, Moe Shalizi came up with the concept. Of an alias. Found someone on Instagram to make the first helmet. But I'm getting ahead of myself.
Moe broke up with his girlfriend because he's working all the time, he's the one who drives the Ferrari. He grew up in godforsaken Riverside, for heaven's sake, got a degree at the UC in that burg whilst living at home and hosting DJ parties in a bar. That's right, the only innovators, the only pioneers aren't in Silicon Valley, where the rewards are big but the work is often drudgery. And eventually Moe transferred to management, after some hair-raising affairs at the bar, where he was pulling down $1500 a night, net, and went to work for Red Light Management, where they thought they'd manage and he'd do the day to day.
But you can't keep a millennial down. They're competent, know how to work, despite the crybaby stories you read in the press. Hell, it's like the sixties all over again, the press is clueless.
And the pre-Marshmello Marshmello is making 80k a year, but then he becomes the character and... Skrillex makes contact. They get lucky, Marshmello gets to town and Moe makes him call Sonny and he's in the midst of an interview with Katie Couric, who Marshmello is clueless as to the identity of, and the end result is his call ends up in the final piece.
And fans find it.
It's a veritable web out there I tell you. All interconnected. You get lucky one place and people spread the word other places.
And now Marshmello has done a deal with Hostess, I mean come on, who wouldn't laugh about that, it's a match made in hilarity, and he's still sans major despite having eight singles with household names lined up and it's all been done slowly and under the radar and... Marshmello and Moe don't need the cash, do they even need a major?
It's unclear. Sure, a major can deliver terrestrial radio, but is that where Marshmello belongs, does his audience even care?
And Moe is relatively quiet. Get him going and he'll tell you his story. But he's not interrupting and boasting, it's only when you listen and hear the facts that you realize how successful he is.
Whereas Jeff Levin is just the opposite. He's selling from minute one, like a traditional manager. And I've heard it all and I take it with a grain of salt but when he showed me a video of pandemonium when his client Logan Paul opened a pop-up shop in Manhattan, it was impossible to be unimpressed. Everybody came out, everybody was cheering, for this guy most people have no idea of.
But he's got 3.6 million YouTube subscribers. And is in movies and on TV and this is a new star. Accessible. AND IN YOUR FACE EVERY DAY! Logan jumped from Vine to YouTube and has posted a new vlog, usually fifteen minutes in length, every single day for 380 days straight. God, no one else has the CONSTITUTION! Musicians are always bitching about doing the heavy lifting, they need someone to help, the system is against them, whereas this guy Logan is making the system work for him!
Now Jeff was an entrepreneur back in college, he started a laundry service. That's right, these guys didn't grind and then wake up and decide to be entrepreneurs, they were ALWAYS entrepreneurs. Then he paid his dues at ICM and at Awesomeness TV and now at the ripe old age of 31 is managing Logan. Hell, Moe is 27. Jake 28! Think about that, Jake and Moe weren't even 10 when Napster launched, they're not burdened by history, shackled to the past.
And Jeff talks about brand partnerships and advertising and the more you hear the more you're convinced that this couldn't all be true until you Google it and it is. Logan's video today was launched two hours ago and already has 472,555 views, hell, I doubt that's accurate, because YESTERDAY'S already has 4.1 million! Yup, the clips average 5 million views a day, and let's be clear, there are musicians accumulating this number of streams, but they're the ones ruling Spotify that the oldsters hate. But the joke is on the oldsters. The youngsters have tapped into the zeitgeist, and the oldsters are in the self-satisfied rearview mirror.
And now you're saying that social media stars fade. There's no there there. But Logan is selling story and has already been on "Law & Order" and "Stitchers" and has done a video with the Rock and even if it all ends tomorrow, he's made money, and proven the paradigm...the younger generation will embrace a new kind of star, one outside the traditional actor/musician paradigm. Hell, they think they KNOW Logan. Do we really know the people on the big screen?
And speaking of a younger generation, Jake manages 13 year old Grace VanderWaal, winner of "America's Got Talent" in 2016.
He pursued it. Was a joke in the competition. People wouldn't even take his phone calls. But after getting Grace a gig at the Special Olympics in Austria and hooking her up with Cirque du Soleil she ultimately signed with him.
Took six months. And when he finally flew to meet Grace herself, previously her attorney wouldn't allow it, she was bored and thought he wasn't big enough until...
He asked her what she wanted to do.
Everybody was TELLING Grace what she should do! She felt caged. She was unhappy with the choice of single, well Jake said they could make their own video of another track and put it online. WE CAN DO THAT? Yup, you can build your own website, communicate with your fans, she was afraid of the label, no one was on her side, and that's what a manager does, protect the interests of the artist whilst brainstorming opportunities.
And the truth is the oldsters are consumed with the old opportunities. Get a record contract and sign a deal with Live Nation or AEG. But there's so much more. And it's all online. And it's all data. And it's all incomprehensible to the old guard, their cheese has not only been moved, but stolen, and they don't like it, these youngsters running circles around them, debating the value of Facebook ads, leveraging the power of their stars in heretofore unseen ways.
It's exhausting just hearing about it.
But not every millennial is triumphing. Jake's old friends are becoming professionals, doctors and lawyers, they're playing it safe. Moe doesn't even talk to the guys he grew up with, who are now cops. Jeff knows some successes, but it's not everybody. That's right, we paint millennials with a broad brush, but the truth is they're individuals. And they're excited about the entertainment business and the opportunities. But they're not bitching and they're not confined by the system, they're doing it THEIR WAY! AND THEY'RE YOUNG!
If you're in your twenties you've got forty years ahead of you. They know all the players, Scooter, et al, and they're less into personal glory than power and money, changing the world.
And they are...
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Tuesday 26 September 2017
Seinfeld On Stern
There's something wrong with him. We keep thinking Larry David is the odd one, but it's Jerry.
Used to be Howard had no friends. Now he hangs with the rich and famous. And to be honest, you want to too. Not to brag, but to hear the stories. When Stern laments being unable to go to dinner at McCartney's house you can hear the pain in his voice, the same pain you'd have if you had the opportunity. But you don't. That's what fame will deliver....opportunity. And that's what psychoanalysis will deliver...friends.
But Jerry refuses to go to the shrink. Believes it's a sham.
But he's happy all the time, thinks everything is great, and it pisses his kids off.
Now it's hard to explain 80s TV. Especially late night. When only Letterman was doing a comedy show, whereas Johnny was truly interviewing people. But you'd watch for the comedians, knowing that if they were good, Johnny would motion for them to take a seat, where they normalized. And this was before the goal was to have a sitcom, everybody was just doing their act.
And that's where I noticed Jerry Seinfeld. It was his routines and his delivery.
And it turns out those took a lot of work.
No one's willing to do the work. Sure, you've got to have talent, but you've got to WANT IT! And few do that badly, because of the sacrifices.
Jerry had no friends and stayed home watching television. Believing there was a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, if only he could get there. This is contrary to the ethos of the modern day parent, the one with means, it's all about enrichment and applying yourself so you can get into a good school and then go to a good graduate school. And I hate to say it, but it's true...they end up beating the creativity right out of you. That's one of the reasons so many of the greats are dropouts, not so much that they couldn't wait to go down the path of their career, but they knew school was holding them back. I went to an institution of grinders. I'd like to tell you my cohorts at Middlebury are household names, but that is not true, except for Eve Ensler, who wrote "The Vagina Monologues," they're all just stand-up members of society, and we need those, but life would not be worth living it were not for the comedic standups, and the rest of the entertainers.
That's what Jerry tells Howard. Instead of castigating himself over and over for his flaws, he should remember he's a ray of light in his audience's otherwise empty day, people live for entertainment, forget the haters, it's about their deficiencies. (Well, that was mine, Jerry seems oblivious to the haters. And that's how he's gone through his whole life, oblivious, according to him, but he is sensitive to the audience...)
So Jerry had a joke that didn't work. But then he twisted it around it got howls.
The essence is you're nobody, meaningless, irrelevant, why would someone be calling YOU? And that's the truth, none of what we do matters. You think it does, but it doesn't. And when we're reminded of this, we laugh.
And Jerry talks about the craft of a joke. How mixing up the words, getting it right, makes all the difference. And you can write a joke, but can you DELIVER IT? On stage? While waiting to see if it works? Jerry abhors comics who don't leave that silence, who go right into the next joke, you've got to find out if what you said is...FUNNY!
And Jerry never expresses remorse and is unafraid of making pronouncements. He seems unable to feel guilt, and is always thinking about punch lines. The goal is to be sharp, witty, he doesn't want to lay back and watch, he wants to PARTICIPATE!
And now he goes over to Howard's for lunch, and vice versa. And they talk for hours. And while you're listening, you realize that's what you want too. Listening to their conversation was the highlight of my day. Sure, they're both famous, but the way they played off of each other, explored, that's what friendship is all about. You don't want to talk about work, but feelings. You want to marvel at the absurdity of life. And every day Jerry calls his friend Barry and they do this for an hour or two. I used to have a buddy like this, but then his new wife and I didn't get along and that trashed that.
So you end up envious of Jerry, even though you don't want to be him and certainly are not him. Nothing fazes him. He lives in a tank of observation. And life is worth observing, because it's so bizarre. You want to tell someone about the quirks and experiences of your day. Which Jerry does to Barry, with all the profanity absent from his act, with the opinions that would ruin his career and marriage if known. But you remember privacy, don't you? And trust? Barry's not gonna reveal what they say, it's between them, and only them.
And when Jerry says it's a miracle that people get along at all, at first you doubt that. Then he asks if you've ever driven cross-country with someone for ten days, and says at the end of the trip YOU HATE EACH OTHER! Why is it we overload on people? Why is it we can never find someone like us we like 24/7? Why are we ultimately so alone? What is wrong with our lives that we're looking for insight from entertainers?
I don't know.
But I do know if you're servicing the public, don't think about what they want, but what you want. Sure, judge their reactions, but when you play to the norm people know, they don't have that heightened response, wherein their heart pitter-patters.
Larry David was the genius of "Seinfeld."
But Jerry Seinfeld is the genius of standup.
You realize while you're listening to this conversation. Larry thinks about situations, arcs, whereas Jerry thinks about insights. Which is why they were such a good team.
But the joke is they're as good separately as they were together.
But Larry can relax and have friends, be somewhat normal. Whereas Jerry is always one step away, pretending to be normal, because he's not.
And that's why we can't stop paying attention.
https://www.howardstern.com/show/2017/9/25/jerry-seinfeld-spills-wholl-be-riding-around-him-comedians-cars-getting-coffee-season-10/
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Used to be Howard had no friends. Now he hangs with the rich and famous. And to be honest, you want to too. Not to brag, but to hear the stories. When Stern laments being unable to go to dinner at McCartney's house you can hear the pain in his voice, the same pain you'd have if you had the opportunity. But you don't. That's what fame will deliver....opportunity. And that's what psychoanalysis will deliver...friends.
But Jerry refuses to go to the shrink. Believes it's a sham.
But he's happy all the time, thinks everything is great, and it pisses his kids off.
Now it's hard to explain 80s TV. Especially late night. When only Letterman was doing a comedy show, whereas Johnny was truly interviewing people. But you'd watch for the comedians, knowing that if they were good, Johnny would motion for them to take a seat, where they normalized. And this was before the goal was to have a sitcom, everybody was just doing their act.
And that's where I noticed Jerry Seinfeld. It was his routines and his delivery.
And it turns out those took a lot of work.
No one's willing to do the work. Sure, you've got to have talent, but you've got to WANT IT! And few do that badly, because of the sacrifices.
Jerry had no friends and stayed home watching television. Believing there was a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, if only he could get there. This is contrary to the ethos of the modern day parent, the one with means, it's all about enrichment and applying yourself so you can get into a good school and then go to a good graduate school. And I hate to say it, but it's true...they end up beating the creativity right out of you. That's one of the reasons so many of the greats are dropouts, not so much that they couldn't wait to go down the path of their career, but they knew school was holding them back. I went to an institution of grinders. I'd like to tell you my cohorts at Middlebury are household names, but that is not true, except for Eve Ensler, who wrote "The Vagina Monologues," they're all just stand-up members of society, and we need those, but life would not be worth living it were not for the comedic standups, and the rest of the entertainers.
That's what Jerry tells Howard. Instead of castigating himself over and over for his flaws, he should remember he's a ray of light in his audience's otherwise empty day, people live for entertainment, forget the haters, it's about their deficiencies. (Well, that was mine, Jerry seems oblivious to the haters. And that's how he's gone through his whole life, oblivious, according to him, but he is sensitive to the audience...)
So Jerry had a joke that didn't work. But then he twisted it around it got howls.
The essence is you're nobody, meaningless, irrelevant, why would someone be calling YOU? And that's the truth, none of what we do matters. You think it does, but it doesn't. And when we're reminded of this, we laugh.
And Jerry talks about the craft of a joke. How mixing up the words, getting it right, makes all the difference. And you can write a joke, but can you DELIVER IT? On stage? While waiting to see if it works? Jerry abhors comics who don't leave that silence, who go right into the next joke, you've got to find out if what you said is...FUNNY!
And Jerry never expresses remorse and is unafraid of making pronouncements. He seems unable to feel guilt, and is always thinking about punch lines. The goal is to be sharp, witty, he doesn't want to lay back and watch, he wants to PARTICIPATE!
And now he goes over to Howard's for lunch, and vice versa. And they talk for hours. And while you're listening, you realize that's what you want too. Listening to their conversation was the highlight of my day. Sure, they're both famous, but the way they played off of each other, explored, that's what friendship is all about. You don't want to talk about work, but feelings. You want to marvel at the absurdity of life. And every day Jerry calls his friend Barry and they do this for an hour or two. I used to have a buddy like this, but then his new wife and I didn't get along and that trashed that.
So you end up envious of Jerry, even though you don't want to be him and certainly are not him. Nothing fazes him. He lives in a tank of observation. And life is worth observing, because it's so bizarre. You want to tell someone about the quirks and experiences of your day. Which Jerry does to Barry, with all the profanity absent from his act, with the opinions that would ruin his career and marriage if known. But you remember privacy, don't you? And trust? Barry's not gonna reveal what they say, it's between them, and only them.
And when Jerry says it's a miracle that people get along at all, at first you doubt that. Then he asks if you've ever driven cross-country with someone for ten days, and says at the end of the trip YOU HATE EACH OTHER! Why is it we overload on people? Why is it we can never find someone like us we like 24/7? Why are we ultimately so alone? What is wrong with our lives that we're looking for insight from entertainers?
I don't know.
But I do know if you're servicing the public, don't think about what they want, but what you want. Sure, judge their reactions, but when you play to the norm people know, they don't have that heightened response, wherein their heart pitter-patters.
Larry David was the genius of "Seinfeld."
But Jerry Seinfeld is the genius of standup.
You realize while you're listening to this conversation. Larry thinks about situations, arcs, whereas Jerry thinks about insights. Which is why they were such a good team.
But the joke is they're as good separately as they were together.
But Larry can relax and have friends, be somewhat normal. Whereas Jerry is always one step away, pretending to be normal, because he's not.
And that's why we can't stop paying attention.
https://www.howardstern.com/show/2017/9/25/jerry-seinfeld-spills-wholl-be-riding-around-him-comedians-cars-getting-coffee-season-10/
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Sunday 24 September 2017
Colin Kaepernick
Does this mean he can play now?
Now that the athletes and the owners of the NFL have stood up to Trump, which team will break the logjam and sign Kaepernick?
That's how it happens folks. Someone decides to cross the line. Someone does the right thing.
I'm sick and tired of the right defining the debate and the left being pussies. If I have to hear one more nitwit say the NFL ratings are declining because Kapernick took a knee I'm gonna spread the canard that the Beatles ruined music. Yup, that's what they said back then. If you think the diehard blowhards who are spreading this fiction can give up their football, you probably don't believe in addiction. Come on, a league wherein the players get maimed for life and the games are rotten is failing because one man made a protest? If that was true, NFL ratings would have bounced back now that Kaepernicks's been excommunicated, but they haven't, they're declining further.
It's sad that it took the bloviations of the head of state to get the rest of the players to take a stand, but now they have, and the owners too, they've cooked their own goose, if that's possible, but the truth is the longer it takes you to do the right thing the longer it takes you to get back on the right path.
We keep sitting by. Thinking it will be okay. That someone else will do the work. That we have too much at risk to protest, to take a stand.
But that time has passed.
I lived through the sixties, which began with blacks in the back of the bus and ended with integration. And today African-Americans rule the culture. But the endangered whites want to put blacks in the back once again, want segregated schools, this time called "charters," while they want the government to pay for parochial schooling in a country founded upon religious freedom, and the truth is rust never sleeps.
Unless it's in the music business.
I don't want to work on Maggie's Farm no more, and neither do you.
First they came for our unions. That's why the NBA players are so strong, because of their union. Because the fat cat owners have all the money. That's right, you bitch about some athlete who makes millions without looking at the faceless owner who's got billions and is doing his best to keep players down.
But you can't criticize a corporate winner these days, not an entrepreneur, because they EARNED IT!
Oh yeah, right. Where would they be without us buying their products? Facebook is worthless without our participation. But we get bread and circuses at best.
I don't know where the breaking point is. We've been watching this Trump movie for half a year and the dam hasn't burst yet. And all we keep hearing is to forget Russia and let him rule. As if we can believe in the government after Russia invaded the voting booth and the right did its best to prevent people from voting. You can only push it so far before there's a reaction.
I'm frightened of what's happening with North Korea, but is the country we're now living in worth saving? Where science is ignored and we've seceded from the international landscape?
This is the event of your life, never forget it. It's not about Trump, but what he represents. A combination of the haves and the have-nots, fighting progress.
You remember progress, don't you? Where we're all in it together to put a man on the moon?
Now these same people want to hobble electric cars, want to preserve a way of life that's already in the rearview mirror.
Change happens one step at a time.
And what we've now learned is Colin Kaepernick was standing up for us all. Pointing out the injustice. You focused on him, he focused on the problem. Martin Luther King was imperfect. Curt Flood sacrificed his career to break baseball's treatment of players as serfs. Imagine if Wal-Mart workers had a union. Imagine if prices went up and you had the wherewithal to pay them. Imagine if the downtrodden and depressed were lifted up by you, the person with more. It's incumbent on the rich and powerful to make change. It's time to stop denigrating the youth and start putting yourself in their shoes, with a lot of debt and little future.
Today the NFL banded together and took a stand.
It's your turn tomorrow.
P.S. Ignore the haters. We had them in the sixties too. If we just rally the silent people on our side we'll overwhelm the vocal minority.
"No, I ain't gonna work for Maggie's brother no more
Well, he hands you a nickel
He hands you a dime
He asks you with a grin
If you're having a good time
Then he fines you every time you slam the door
I ain't gonna work for Maggie's brother no more"
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Now that the athletes and the owners of the NFL have stood up to Trump, which team will break the logjam and sign Kaepernick?
That's how it happens folks. Someone decides to cross the line. Someone does the right thing.
I'm sick and tired of the right defining the debate and the left being pussies. If I have to hear one more nitwit say the NFL ratings are declining because Kapernick took a knee I'm gonna spread the canard that the Beatles ruined music. Yup, that's what they said back then. If you think the diehard blowhards who are spreading this fiction can give up their football, you probably don't believe in addiction. Come on, a league wherein the players get maimed for life and the games are rotten is failing because one man made a protest? If that was true, NFL ratings would have bounced back now that Kaepernicks's been excommunicated, but they haven't, they're declining further.
It's sad that it took the bloviations of the head of state to get the rest of the players to take a stand, but now they have, and the owners too, they've cooked their own goose, if that's possible, but the truth is the longer it takes you to do the right thing the longer it takes you to get back on the right path.
We keep sitting by. Thinking it will be okay. That someone else will do the work. That we have too much at risk to protest, to take a stand.
But that time has passed.
I lived through the sixties, which began with blacks in the back of the bus and ended with integration. And today African-Americans rule the culture. But the endangered whites want to put blacks in the back once again, want segregated schools, this time called "charters," while they want the government to pay for parochial schooling in a country founded upon religious freedom, and the truth is rust never sleeps.
Unless it's in the music business.
I don't want to work on Maggie's Farm no more, and neither do you.
First they came for our unions. That's why the NBA players are so strong, because of their union. Because the fat cat owners have all the money. That's right, you bitch about some athlete who makes millions without looking at the faceless owner who's got billions and is doing his best to keep players down.
But you can't criticize a corporate winner these days, not an entrepreneur, because they EARNED IT!
Oh yeah, right. Where would they be without us buying their products? Facebook is worthless without our participation. But we get bread and circuses at best.
I don't know where the breaking point is. We've been watching this Trump movie for half a year and the dam hasn't burst yet. And all we keep hearing is to forget Russia and let him rule. As if we can believe in the government after Russia invaded the voting booth and the right did its best to prevent people from voting. You can only push it so far before there's a reaction.
I'm frightened of what's happening with North Korea, but is the country we're now living in worth saving? Where science is ignored and we've seceded from the international landscape?
This is the event of your life, never forget it. It's not about Trump, but what he represents. A combination of the haves and the have-nots, fighting progress.
You remember progress, don't you? Where we're all in it together to put a man on the moon?
Now these same people want to hobble electric cars, want to preserve a way of life that's already in the rearview mirror.
Change happens one step at a time.
And what we've now learned is Colin Kaepernick was standing up for us all. Pointing out the injustice. You focused on him, he focused on the problem. Martin Luther King was imperfect. Curt Flood sacrificed his career to break baseball's treatment of players as serfs. Imagine if Wal-Mart workers had a union. Imagine if prices went up and you had the wherewithal to pay them. Imagine if the downtrodden and depressed were lifted up by you, the person with more. It's incumbent on the rich and powerful to make change. It's time to stop denigrating the youth and start putting yourself in their shoes, with a lot of debt and little future.
Today the NFL banded together and took a stand.
It's your turn tomorrow.
P.S. Ignore the haters. We had them in the sixties too. If we just rally the silent people on our side we'll overwhelm the vocal minority.
"No, I ain't gonna work for Maggie's brother no more
Well, he hands you a nickel
He hands you a dime
He asks you with a grin
If you're having a good time
Then he fines you every time you slam the door
I ain't gonna work for Maggie's brother no more"
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You Don't Mess With The NBA
Because the players run the league.
Sometimes change has to come from the top. History repeats, but with a twist. In the sixties we were a homogeneous society, a middle class which could pay our bills and if you fell behind you were supported by a safety net. Today, it's every person for themselves and fear reigns, people are afraid of the corporation, but not basketball players.
Who live on Twitter.
That's right, basketball is the bleeding edge of sports. And the fastest growing. It's gonna eclipse football in your lifetime. You don't get CTE and the game moves fast and if you don't think the NBA rules, you're probably watching baseball, while your kids are talking about whether LeBron will leave Cleveland.
That's right, LeBron is squeaky clean. He's got tattoos, but no rap sheet. His childhood friends run his business, not Hollywood agents, he doesn't need the system, HE IS A SYSTEM!
Ditto on Steph Curry. He does his job best. He lets his work speak for him. But when you cross him...
They're unafraid of the consequences, they do what's right. Hell, LeBron handpicked his coach, this is not the NFL, where owners are in charge and the players are fungible as they work themselves to death, literally. Sans players, the NBA is worthless. They wouldn't even bother with replacements. The game would suffer too much.
And the NBA was on Twitter long before Trump put his finger to his phone. When you attack someone on their medium, you get attacked right back.
And we need heroes and people to learn from, now that politicians are sold out and CEOs are venerated who else are we to turn to other than sports stars and entertainers? I won't say you've got a responsibility so much as an OPPORTUNITY!
So Trump picked the wrong target. But ignorant people always do this. Unaware of the consequences of their actions.
It's great that football players are protesting. But the Warriors organization got behind Curry long before the NFL owners woke up. But waking up is good, even if it takes you a beat. We were for the Vietnam War before we were against it, we just needed to be educated.
Our country is divided in a way it hasn't been since the sixties. And you can denigrate poor African-Americans in Ferguson, but don't pick a fight with NBA stars who make double digit millions a year, who net more cash than musicians. Who march to the beat of their own drummer and go their own way.
Hell, Steph Curry went with Under Armour when the man at the machine missed the memo, one of the reasons Nike is now struggling.
Lonzo Ball's dad might be a blowhard, but these companies depend upon athletes, just because they don't upset the apple cart in the NFL doesn't mean it shouldn't be done.
I don't know what happens next.
But I do know when you're trying to please everybody you please nobody.
You've got to take a stand.
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Sometimes change has to come from the top. History repeats, but with a twist. In the sixties we were a homogeneous society, a middle class which could pay our bills and if you fell behind you were supported by a safety net. Today, it's every person for themselves and fear reigns, people are afraid of the corporation, but not basketball players.
Who live on Twitter.
That's right, basketball is the bleeding edge of sports. And the fastest growing. It's gonna eclipse football in your lifetime. You don't get CTE and the game moves fast and if you don't think the NBA rules, you're probably watching baseball, while your kids are talking about whether LeBron will leave Cleveland.
That's right, LeBron is squeaky clean. He's got tattoos, but no rap sheet. His childhood friends run his business, not Hollywood agents, he doesn't need the system, HE IS A SYSTEM!
Ditto on Steph Curry. He does his job best. He lets his work speak for him. But when you cross him...
They're unafraid of the consequences, they do what's right. Hell, LeBron handpicked his coach, this is not the NFL, where owners are in charge and the players are fungible as they work themselves to death, literally. Sans players, the NBA is worthless. They wouldn't even bother with replacements. The game would suffer too much.
And the NBA was on Twitter long before Trump put his finger to his phone. When you attack someone on their medium, you get attacked right back.
And we need heroes and people to learn from, now that politicians are sold out and CEOs are venerated who else are we to turn to other than sports stars and entertainers? I won't say you've got a responsibility so much as an OPPORTUNITY!
So Trump picked the wrong target. But ignorant people always do this. Unaware of the consequences of their actions.
It's great that football players are protesting. But the Warriors organization got behind Curry long before the NFL owners woke up. But waking up is good, even if it takes you a beat. We were for the Vietnam War before we were against it, we just needed to be educated.
Our country is divided in a way it hasn't been since the sixties. And you can denigrate poor African-Americans in Ferguson, but don't pick a fight with NBA stars who make double digit millions a year, who net more cash than musicians. Who march to the beat of their own drummer and go their own way.
Hell, Steph Curry went with Under Armour when the man at the machine missed the memo, one of the reasons Nike is now struggling.
Lonzo Ball's dad might be a blowhard, but these companies depend upon athletes, just because they don't upset the apple cart in the NFL doesn't mean it shouldn't be done.
I don't know what happens next.
But I do know when you're trying to please everybody you please nobody.
You've got to take a stand.
--
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