The Funniest One in the Room: The Lives and Legends of Del CloseChicago Review Press, 2008 M04 1 - 416 páginas Nichols and May. John Belushi. Bill Murray. Chris Farley. Tina Fey. Mike Myers. Stephen Colbert. For nearly a half century, Del Close—cocreator of the Harold, director for the Second City, San Francisco's the Committee, and the ImprovOlympic, and “house metaphysician” for Saturday Night Live—influenced improvisational theater's greatest comedic talents. His students went on to found the Groundlings in Los Angeles, the Upright Citizens Brigade in both New York and Los Angeles, and the Annoyance Theatre in Chicago. But this Pied Piper of improv has gone largely unrecognized outside the close-knit comedy community. Del was never one to let the truth of his life stand in the way of a good story—and yet the truth is even more fascinating than the fiction. In his early years, he traveled the country with Dr. Dracula's Den of Living Nightmares, knew L. Ron Hubbard before Scientology, and appeared in The Blob. Del cavorted with the Merry Pranksters, used aversion therapy to recover from alcoholism, and kicked a cocaine habit with the help of a coven of witches. And when he was dying, Del bequeathed his postmortem skull to the Goodman Theatre for use in its productions of Hamlet—a final legend that lives on, long beyond the death of the father of long-form improvisation. |
Dentro del libro
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... Flicker, who was casting for the St. Louis version of the Compass theatre, saw it and hired Hardin and myself. (Hardin later dropped out.) Primarily because we improvised in a style obviously not “method.” (He'd never seen anyone ...
... Flicker, who was casting for the St. Louis version of the Compass theatre, saw it and hired Hardin and myself. (Hardin later dropped out.) Primarily because we improvised in a style obviously not “method.” (He'd never seen anyone ...
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... Flicker had come to see Nine by Six one evening, possibly at the instigation of Severn Darden. According to one story, Flicker offered both Del and Hardin jobs with the incipient St. Louis Compass; however, Flicker quickly discovered ...
... Flicker had come to see Nine by Six one evening, possibly at the instigation of Severn Darden. According to one story, Flicker offered both Del and Hardin jobs with the incipient St. Louis Compass; however, Flicker quickly discovered ...
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... Flicker himself said that his first encounter with Del was at a regular audition held at his apartment on Thirty-fourth Street: “There was no question, before the audition was half over, he was on his way to St. Louis with me.” It wasn ...
... Flicker himself said that his first encounter with Del was at a regular audition held at his apartment on Thirty-fourth Street: “There was no question, before the audition was half over, he was on his way to St. Louis with me.” It wasn ...
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... Flicker and his group to take over its ninety-seat theater. The quartet of performers would have to discover their own approach to improvisation. Del had performed brief scenario plays in Nine by Six, and Ponder had studied ...
... Flicker and his group to take over its ninety-seat theater. The quartet of performers would have to discover their own approach to improvisation. Del had performed brief scenario plays in Nine by Six, and Ponder had studied ...
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... Flicker was anxious to harness his obvious exuberance, performing talent, and intellect. It fell to Flicker to figure out what the St. Louis Compass would ultimately be. He did not want it to be like the Chicago Compass. Flicker was ...
... Flicker was anxious to harness his obvious exuberance, performing talent, and intellect. It fell to Flicker to figure out what the St. Louis Compass would ultimately be. He did not want it to be like the Chicago Compass. Flicker was ...
Contenido
| 1 | |
| 22 | |
| 36 | |
| 44 | |
| 62 | |
| 77 | |
7 Stongehenge and a Skate Through the Sewers | 95 |
8 The Merry Pranksters and My Mother the Car | 109 |
17 The ImprovOlympic | 239 |
18 Roaches in the Dental Floss | 251 |
19 The Return of the Harold the Barons Barracudas and Charna | 267 |
20 The Brain of the Galaxy | 285 |
21 Chris Farley The Blob and Farewell to Second City | 300 |
22 Workshops Reunions and the Family | 316 |
23 Close Youve Gone Sane | 331 |
24 The Party | 350 |
With the Committee in San Francisco | 118 |
10 The Birth of Harold Spidering and a Pornographic Western | 132 |
11 Pretty Much a Blur | 153 |
Belushi and the Bean Can | 165 |
13 Valium Vitriol and Ancient Egyptian Opium | 175 |
14 The Clockwork Orange Treatment | 193 |
15 Junkies Give the Best Shots | 208 |
16 Saturday Night Live Tennessee Williams and the Cleanup | 220 |
25 Curtain Call | 364 |
Bibliography | 376 |
Notes | 377 |
Interviews | 386 |
Acknowledgments | 389 |
Works of Del Close | 393 |
Index | 410 |
Otras ediciones - Ver todas
The Funniest One in the Room: The Lives and Legends of Del Close Kim Johnson Sin vista previa disponible - 2008 |
Términos y frases comunes
actors appeared asked audience Avery Schreiber became began Bernie Bill Blob called cast CHARNA HALPERN Chicago Tribune Close comedy comic Committee COURTESY OF CHARNA Crosscurrents David Pasquesi decided Del Close Del's DePollo director drinking drugs Elaine Farley father featuring felt film final Flicker friends funny George Wendt going Goodman Theatre Greenberg Hamlet Hankin Harold high school Ibid improvisation ImprovOlympic included Interview Jeffrey Sweet Jim Belushi Joel Murray John Belushi John Brent John Ostrander Kansas Kazurinsky Kleinfeld knew Kolb Larry Coven later laugh Lenny long-form Manhattan Mike Mosher movie Murray never Nichols onstage opened Patinkin Paul Sills performing play Players recalled rehearsal Revue directed role Sahlins Saturday Night Live scene Schaal Second City Severn Darden skull stand-up starred story Swise talking theater thing thought Tim Kazurinsky told walked wanted Wasteland weeks Wonderful Right workshops York
Pasajes populares
Página 48 - The stage was dark. Two of the players were planted at a table in the audience. They began to argue, until the audience was hollering for them to shut up. As the couple made their way to the stage, Flicker, a small volatile man with a Mephistopheles beard, hopped onto the stage and shouted, "Freeze!
Página 49 - Flicker did allow the women to try "a real improv," he saw "the most conflictual situation: two sisters in love with the same guy. It lasted about twenty minutes. It didn't do any of the things they wanted it to do. The situation didn't really lend itself to disagreement. They forced themselves into red-faced emotion.
Página 6 - ... room and kitchen on the first floor and two bedrooms and a bathroom on the second floor.
Página 127 - He was wearing the pieces from three different sets of eye-glasses held together by colored rubber bands. He sported a long ponytail sprouting from a rapidly balding pate and plainly operated on his own frequency.
Página 193 - Laughter is a response to gestalt formation where two previously incompatible or dissimilar ideas suddenly form into a new piece of understanding — the energy released during that reaction comes out in laughter," Del philosophized in an interview in the "Comedy Roots" column for the December 26, 1977, issue of New Times.
Página 198 - Second City, we had a definite sense of being part of the process of history in the making — hanging ten out there in the front of something, forging away into the unknown.
Página 159 - Hamilton Camp, Melinda Dillon, Peter Bonerz, Valerie Harper, Richard Schaal, Richard Libertini, and Paul Sand, with Mary Frann and Lewis Arquette serving as alternates.
Página 198 - There were no rules, to the extent that Del would either ignore scenes or give copious notes on scenes that were eminently ignorable.
Página 65 - Dear Mr. Close, You still owe the United States Air Force one dream.
Página 32 - played Lucky in a reading of an obscure translation of an unproduced play by Samuel Beckett called Waiting/or Goodie" which was presented in the loft apartment of Jasper Johns, an artist Del knew from the University of Iowa.