At Charlotte's Comedy Zone

Wow!

As a kid, I loved this old Spider-man Cartoon. I saw an episode recently, and the show doesn't hold up at all. Gotta say though, it's theme song sure does.

How many theme songs since have had the sheer guts to open with a brassy, unapologetic fanfare (bwah bhaw bwah BWAH BWAW BWAH!), and hyperbole that might have been written by Stan Lee himself: "is he strong?/ listen bud / he's got radioactive blood."

It wasn't subtle or minimalistic or ambiguous in any way. It was designed to bring my 5-year-old self running into the living room, and it served that purpose without fail.

I still get chills.

Another trip to Laughing Skull

Why The Darwin Fish Pisses Me Off

No, it's not because I'm religious or that I object to its message. I hate the Darwin Fish in it's most common current version (pictured), because it's a beautiful, subtle little joke spoiled by someone's urge to make sure I GET IT.

Years ago, the Darwin Fish made me smile every time I saw it. Its design was simple: the same fish you saw on many cars, with the addition of budding feet. It was smart, elegant and funny, but you had to do the work the first time you saw one -- you had to figure it out.

Somewhere over the years, someone decided you CAN'T figure it out. The answer? Fill the negative space with the name "Darwin" -- all in loud caps. Then they sent out teams of guys in plaid sport coats and bow ties to drive up beside you as you pass a car with the new, idiot-friendly Darwin Fish, follow you until you pull over and then elbow you in the ribs and say "do you get it????" "Huh?" "Huh??"

Those folks who added "Darwin" -- you're going to be seeing more of their work. At the moment, they're editing a new version of "The Grapes of Wrath" that ends with "...because she was BREAST FEEDING the starving man!!!! -- OMG! Isn't that sad????" Their remake of "Planet of the Apes" will include a narration: "...kneeling in the sand and cursing his fate, Taylor knew, he finally knew, that he WASN'T on another planet. He was on Earth. 'Cause it was The Statue of Liberty. Which is on Earth. And the fact that it's buried in the sand indicates..." They're even rewriting your favorite proverbs, and you'll soon be treated to gems like "a word to the wise is sufficient, because a wise person doesn't need you to explain everything."

By all means, please put Darwin Fish on your cars. I applaud your endorsement of science, especially at a time when it's under assault in our land. But please, please insist on the old, perfect version. If you can only find the new, cluttered design get out your X-Acto knife and make two statements with your fish.

A Suggestion

As comics mention videos of their sets, I often hear some variety of "I want to see what I'm doing wrong."

I'm by no means the expert here; most of my comedian friends have more experience than I do.  Even so, I want to suggest that if you listen to audio or watch video of your comedy, look for and focus on the things you did right.  The things that went well are probably representative of your strengths, and you're much more likely to build up those strong points than turn weak areas into strengths.

I don't mean to say that things that went wrong deserve none of your attention -- it's important to shore up your weaknesses.  You'll see the problems no matter what, though.  Most of us are more likely to cringe at a minor slip of our own than even see them in other comics' work.  What I'm saying is that the minority of your effort should go to shoring up your weak areas, and most of your energy should go into duplicating and building on the things that went well.

Play the good parts over and over.  Give yourself permission.  It'll be a lot more productive and a lot more fun.

Superman's Voice...

This may be too esoteric to explain in a written blog entry, but something I heard cracked me up and I have to give it a try.

I downloaded some old (1940's) Superman radio serials on iTunes, and I've been having a ball listening to them (they're free at "Old Time Radio Hour," if anyone's interested). In these old episodes Bud Collyer uses two distinct voices -- a more reasonable, higher-pitched 40's-businessman voice for Clark Kent and a lower, more serious voice for Superman. You'll hear things like "this looks like a job FOR SUPERMAN."

So in the episode I was listening to recently, Clark, Lois Lane and another character were trapped in an old mine by a cave in. Clark couldn't move away the rocks with them standing there without giving away his identity, even though they had no light and it was pitch black dark in the mine. So Clark concocts some ruse to get the other folks to go off elsewhere in the mine, and then starts clearing enough rubble away for them to get through.

He's alone, presumably still dressed as Clark and talking to himself out loud.

And he says, "now that they're gone, I can clear these rocks away AS SUPERMAN." And there are a few minutes as he narrates his actions to himself -- "A FEW MORE... THERE -- THAT SHOULD GET IT" -- all in the Superman voice. Then in the Clark voice: "now I just have to wait for the others to return and explain the rubble wasn't as firmly in place as we'd thought..."

I guess in 40's radio, the closest thing they had to a special effect was the wonderful vocal talent of Bud Collyer (who voiced Superman from the 40's radio show through Saturday morning cartoons in the 60's), but it cracks me up thinking about this man alone in a cave in street clothes changing his voice so he can talk to himself heroically about what he's doing.

 Alone. By himself.

Hah. Here's a page with a .wav file of Bud Collyer doing both voices in one sentence.

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