Comedy Matters TV: Thanks For The Link!

Jeff Gurian with Woody Allen at the Make Em Laugh book release

The other day I was having a peek at my WordPress statistics page. Recently I have given up any belief I may have had that the stats were accurate. Many folks have been complaining about this problem. But what I noticed was several referrals from something called www.comedymatterstv.com.

I was not familiar with the name, so I thought I’d take a gander at who could be sending readers my way. Well goodness gracious me, was I in for a surprise!

This is the webpage of one Jeffrey Gurian, one-time dentist and long-time comedian. In a nutshell, his Wikipedia entry begins with “Jeffrey L. Gurian (1956) is an American dentist, stand-up comedian and comedy writer. He is a former writer for Rodney Dangerfield, Joan Rivers, Phil Hartman, Richard Belzer, Jerry Lewis, Saturday Night Live, Robin Williams and Milton Berle, and for many Friars Roasts. Gurian is also the author of two books, Filthy, Funny, and Totally Offensive and Make ‘Em Laugh.

Joan Rivers … Rodney Dangerfield … Jerry Lewis! This guy is pals with and works with some  big hitters. What’s the connection to me?

It seems that Mr. Gurian has listed several links; including a group of comedy clubs, comedy festivals, comedy podcasts and blogs. Sure enough listed as one of the comedy blogs on Jeffrey Gurian’s webpage is little old me.

Suffice to say I was honored.

DCMontreal – Deegan Charles Stubbs – is a Montreal writer born and raised who likes to establish balance and juxtapositions; a bit of this and a bit of that, a dash of Yin and a soupçon of Yang, some Peaks and an occasional Frean and maybe a bit of a sting in the tail! Please follow DC on Twitter @DCMontreal and on Facebook, and add him on Google+

 

The sacrilege of going back to school in August

August Blues indeed …

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“Will I get that marine-wannabe lunatic for phys ed?” “Will Mrs. So-and-so be sober this year?” “Is he back, I thought he had a breakdown?”

Back when I was young the new school year started on the Tuesday after Labour Day. “Summer” consisted of those days between the last day of school and the day after Labour Day; this was a school-free period – sacrosanct. Even after many years the thought of attending classes in August still just doesn’t seem quite right somehow. There was a clear definition of the end of summer; Labour Day Monday. Back to school sales were not seen until mid-August, certainly in not mid-July, something that both teachers and students now find repugnant. I’m no longer at school, haven’t been for some time, but the return to school affects many more than just students. Traffic picks up and even the business world gets back to normal operations with the vacation season over.

That holiday Monday was spent preparing yourself mentally for another long school year – or just being plain miserable. The soundtrack to this day of preparation and pain, playing in the background, was the annual Jerry Lewis Labour Day muscular dystrophy telethon. Jerry and Ed McMahon anchored the event in Las Vegas that, along with raising millions of dollars, eased us out of the lazy summer days and into fall. Even if the weather continued to be warm, perhaps hot at times, once Jerry had sung “You’ll Never Walk Alone“, and cried, and Ed announced that a new record amount had been raised -“timpani” – you knew it was all over. Now Ed has passed away, and Jerry’s been given the heave-ho for some reason and school starts in August. What the hell went wrong?

Labour Day traditions

Happy Labour Day! Once the true indicator of the end of summer as families returned from cottages and preparations for school hit high gear.

The background to these preparations was often the annual Muscular Dystrophy Telethon, or the Jerry Lewis telethon as most people referred to it. It was available in Montreal on the local ABC affiliate.

Twenty or so hours of Jerry in Las Vegas with Ed McMahon and a whole whack of popular and sometimes just plain weird entertainers (they kept the weird ones for 4:00 a.m.!).

But now, for the second straight year there is no Jerry,  he evidently got the bum’s rush.

The story behind Lewis’s departure remains untold. But a few things have become clear in the year since the awkward public breakup. Jerry Lewis was dumped by the MDA, the charity he had been identified with since the 1950s. He’s still bitter about it. And the telethon is withering without him.

In fact the “entertainment event” won’t even be live according to Time.

The Labour Day Telethon without Jerry Lewis and Jerry’s Kids…we may as well just start school before Labour Day and do away with all those traditions…wait a minute, we have haven’t we. More’s the pity!