hey laaaaaaaaaaaady!!!
martin short's not funny. like al bundy once said, "[he] couldn't even hold his own in 'three amigos'."all things considered, though, he does a fucking dynamite jerry lewis. this goes for both young, nutty jerry and older, decidedly taciturn jerry. the beauty of his impression of the latter is that the key component of it is what he calls the "imaginary throat lozenge," which, if you've ever paid any attention to present day jerry lewis's mouth when he speaks, you ought to have a pretty good mental picture of right about now.
dave letterman gets a real kick out of those impersonations, and makes sure to have short perform them anytime he guests on the late show. one of my favorite television moments is when dave had him on one time, and about halfway through the interview, goes "now, martin, you know i love this. jerry lewis ... " and before letterman could even finish, martin short's face lit up and he started wildly rolling his tongue around his mouth.
other one-trick funnymen:
kevin pollack - he was doing a spot-on william shatner well before bill resurfaced on the pop radar by parlaying his own campiness into a career second wind as everyone's favorite icon of ironic postmodern self-awareness. by the way, i would mark the exact moment in time and space that shatner made this transformation as when he rapped marc antony's funeral speech from "julius caesar" at the end of this movie.
jon lovitz - for when he bugged out his eyes as satan on snl. that's about it. sorry, but master thespian sucked.
i'm out for now, but there's more.
posted by jomilkman @ 10:28 AM
10 Comments:
Not a big fan of Martin Short... but a huge fan of Jiminy Glick.
Also, recommend checking out Jon Lovitz as pathological liar Tommy Flanagan.
but what about ed grimly?
I agree about Ed Grimley.
Also, Kevin Pollack is no one-trick: he is a brilliant impersonator of many.
My reporter friend interviewed him and laughed for the duration of their convo. When he got off the phone, he said, "(Pollack) basically just did 15 to 20 impersonations? How the hell am I supposed to convey that in an article?"
He does a tear-bringing Christopher Walken in The Aristocrats.
aristocats aristocats. i alreay saw the disney version. whats all the halloh about this movie.
when i was younger, it was "beth you remind me of ed grimley."
i appreciate the intent behind jiminy glick, but the high-pitched dipping to low rumble voice modulating kind of gets to me.
i was rethinking lovitz a bit, and while i'm not all that big on flanagan, i do enjoy him as "tales of ribaldry" host evelyn quince, though i think this is another case of the suggestive, bugged-out eyes scoring a home run.
ed grim: not too big on him, which is odd, considering i picked up much of my sense of humor from my pops, who's a huge fan of demented dweebs. i think i would have the urge to punch ed grimley in the face if he was a real person and i happened to meet him.
that said, you totally don't remind me of ed grimely, beth. i guess the fact that i've never thrown any right hooks at you speaks to that.
kp - the thing with the walken is that, to my knowledge, about a hundred other people -- including jay mohr and kevin spacey -- were doing spot-on chris walkens before him, and i wonder if he'd be doing one at all if this whole cow bell thing hadn't gotten completely out of control.
then again, i haven't seen any of pollack's other impressions, and it sounds like his application of the walken is pretty masterful in the aristo, so i'll go ahead and replace him with ....
jimmy fallon: i'll admit BEGRUDGINGLY that he does a good french stewart. it's a case of crap emulating crap, pretty much, which might be why it works. otherwise, he's never funny. too concerned with the pretend frazzled nerves (fussing with the hair) and breaking character to laugh at every opportunity, no matter how inappropriate (hi ladies, isn't my smile cute in a quirky way?).
lets go ahead and add one more to the list while i've got it on my mind:
colin quinn: just kidding. never, ever been funny.
longest comment ever.
Have to agreee with some other people on Pollack -- his impersonations are great. Everybody and their grandmother does an impersonation of Walken, but in my opinion only he and Spacey do it very well, and I'm pretty sure Pollack's been at it for quite some time.
Weird thing about Short is that I think he's pretty funny when he's just himself...I just hate his characters.
And Colin Quinn? One of the unfunniest people of all time. I never saw 'Remote Control', but somehow I don't think he was funny back then either.
Jimmy Fallon's a piece of shit. But we all knew that by now. Great call about his French Stewart (which was yep, spot-on, and most likely because Fallon was essentially playing it as though the imaginary Irwin Allen in his head had just told him, "alright, Jimmy, do yourself but pretend you want people to think you like men, a LOT")
i never thought colin quinn was funny but for some reason that never bothered me like it probably should have. i've heard he's a decent guy.
Denis Leary is also a piece of shit, stole Bill Hicks' act from him, and I think really believes he is: 1) actually a fireman, 2) actually a New York City fireman, 3) beloved in Boston. None of the three are true.
There's more talent in the Trader Joe's frozen enchiladas I just ate than in anything Jimmy Fallon ever did. Which is to say, closing your eyes and holding your arms a certain way does not an impression make.
Let me get this straight: Kevin Pollack does impressions of Shatner and Walken. Perhaps also of Schwarzennegger and Ross Perot? Does he make jokes like, "I could tell you but I'd have to kill you"? Does he like to say, "Show me the money!" and "You're fired"?
Also, I've heard he's a bastard. As in, I know people who have worked with Kevin Pollack once and refused to do it a second time -- actually turned down jobs because he was so unpleasant to deal with.
Jon Lovitz is also a one-trick pony. All his characters are the same... but they all make me laugh. Ditto Chris Farley. (By the way, Jon Lovitz in the beginning on "Happiness" is a revelation.)
speaking of unfunny Kevins...
Kevin Meaney (sp? do i care?) and his Mister Big Pants routine (or whatever...do i care?): wow. just wow. Punch-in-the-Face TV.
Martin Short - I always liked him, even if he didn't necessarily make me roll out of my seat. I guess I always considered him a performer rather than a strict comedian.
Kevin Pollack - Pollack's been doing those impressions a long time. Remember, his background is in standup. Mohr and Spacey only popularized it because SNL gets so much exposure. I've also heard he's an asshole though.
Jon Lovitz - Lovitz's main "shtick" can be annoying, but I actually believe he's a pretty versatile performer. He played a good straight man on SNL, he was great in two guest spots on Newsradio (not the fifth season), and delivered the classic line, "Would anyone else like a bite of banality?" on the "Streetcar named Marge" episode of the Simpsons.
Jimmy Fallon - I always thought Fallon was miscast as a lead performer on SNL and later in feature films, due to his good looks. His strength on SNL was always impressions (Stewart, Sandler, Seinfeld) and I look to his brief appearance in "Almost Famous" as the kind of role he should be taking in films. He should hide his face and play scuzzy oddballs.
Colin Quinn - Kind of a one-note standup. He's not really a sketch guy, so SNL wasn't a great venue for him until he got Update. He never really elevated a joke beyond the writing, and he never improvised anything funny on his show where he sat next to four other comedians. Supposed to be a nice guy, though.
Larry Miller - I include him here because I always think of him when I think of Pollack. Not funny!
Have to watch Jim Gaffigan on Conan, now he's funny.
Post a Comment
<< Home