FOT Forum
The Best Show on WFMU => Dear Tom => Topic started by: adryan on October 20, 2010, 04:44:37 PM
-
New to the forum thanks for letting me in,
Dear Tom,
I think you are a true classic and also that you have more in common with Coyle and Sharp and yes, Jean Shepard than you do with many of your contemporaries. Here's my question: you are gracious and lavish in your praise of your contemporaries but not so much with your antecedents in the specific kid of comedy you do on the Best Show and with Jon Wurster. What gives?
-Anthony (San Francisco)
-
He's cited Bob & Ray as an influence more than once.
-
He's also mentioned Peter Cook and Dudley Moore.
-
He's mentioned the Ealing Studio films with Alec Guinness as well.
-
He has also acknowledged his debt to Rip Taylor...
Or was that Bill Saluga?
-
the specific kid of comedy
Andy Milonakis?
-
Quote from: adryan on October 20, 2010, 03:44:37 PM
the specific kid of comedy
Andy Milonakis?
oh yes I am home, thanks for bringing it
-
You are welcome!
-
He told us on Am I Right?? that he didn't like Shep.
-
He asked if Shep was another "Tiny Town", and told me on twitter he hasn't listened to it. I was a regular listener to the "Brass Fillagree" (Shep's show on WOR from the 60's to the 70's) podcasts for awhile before becoming a "Best Show" listener. Some guy recorded it for ten years in his bed room (someone else here will know more than me). The sound is awful sometimes as a result but they are an amazing document. Some parts are similar to Tom, the feigned (or not) contempt for the audience, shouted asides to the engineer, arcane turns of phrase, show biz tales. No calls though, mostly stories, and sometimes tributes to people he admired that are very touching. Often he lags (he did it 5 nights a week for 30 mins.,) but he has flashes of brilliance. His New Year's story of eating picked herring at his grandmother's floored me. Xmas Story and other tv adaptations have diminished him but I think he was great. Oh, there was a dreadful radio interview I heard with a sports station in NY in Shep's final years, (late 90's?) Where he attributed the decline of major league baseball to the the increase in Spanish speaking players. Depressing.
Tom has to have name checked Coyle and Sharpe at some point, but I haven't heard it. They have more in common with Scharpling and Wurster than Bob and Ray do IMO.
-Anthony
-
Haven't
-
you
-
heard
-
Slow
-
Talkers
-
of
-
America?
-
of course, but I can't tell if you are asking me to be less wordy
-
sandor 21 or sandor 22 could be used? anyone?
-
of course, but I can't tell if you are asking me to be less wordy
I meant to circle back and reply but forgot to till now ... S&W seem closer to B&R to me than C&S ... C&S seems purely absurdist, like maybe in a theatrical sense, where B&R is definitely absurd but there is more of a premise and a direction to what's happening. It's been a huge long while since I heard either so I"m really going off dim memories.
-
for S&W I'm thinking how, esp w/ their early stuff, part of the gag was a put on, the "is this for real" factor which Tom still engages in with some callers. To me this is closer to Coyle and Sharp. B&R were always heavily scripted as far as I can tell, much less in the moment then S&W or C&S. Anyway it's all good stuff and I appreciate everyone engaging with my nerdy and tedious query. Go Phillies!
Oh, BTW Mel Sharpe still occasionally appears on KCSM in the Bay Area and spins absurdist tales that would remind you of some of Jon Wurster's stuff.
-
I can see both points of view, but for me, Bob & Ray were funnier than Coyle & Sharpe--not to mention less smug--so I'll say Bob & Ray.
-
Fair enough, but I don't get where you are coming from with the smug thing w/regard to Coyle and Sharpe, they were the original guerrilla comedians working with no net, smugness is an affliction of later generations.
-
Also wanna point out that Wurster at least scripts his side. Not sure how much TS writes down.
-
Also wanna point out that Wurster at least scripts his side. Not sure how much TS writes down.
Yeah, go look at the Best Show thread over on Comedy Zone Message Board - someone posted Wurster's outline of the Gorch in-studio and it is epic.
-
Someone called in as Flick from Chigaco - that's a total Figlagee reference!