ANOTHER SEASON OF FUNNY IS MONEY

We (myself and co-host Tom Kramer) are finishing up another "season" of the FUNNY IS MONEY RADIO SHOW streaming nightly on Shokus Internet Radio @ 7PM Pacific - [9PM starting July 13th]. Check out the station here.

Season 3 started January '09, and we have had some amazing guests - America's houseguest Kato Kaelin, the great director (Fridays, Not Necessarily the News) John Moffitt, comedy writer (Seinfeld, Fridays) Bruce Kirschbaum, veteran writer (Kojak, etc.) Jim Miller, exec. producer of Penn&Teller's Bullshit Star Price, writer and racounteur Jack Carrerow, veteran comedian and head writer of Fridays Jack Burns, producer and writer (Seinfeld, Curb Your Enthusiam) and director (Borat, Bruno) Larry Charles. And we did a couple of "Family Shows" as we used to refer to them on the Carol Burnett Show - i.e., no guests - Tom chatting with writer/producer Bob Illes (Carol Burnett, Silver Spoons) about his career, and Bob chatting with writer/director Tom Kramer (Fridays, Curb Your Enthusiasm) about his career.

People have been CLAMORING for these chats to be available on DVD (since we can't archive them on the shokus radio website) or download. But that is going to change soon.

Other greats from the past who have appeared on the show - Ken Levine (Cheers, Frasier), Alan Katz (MASH, Sanford&Son), Roger Eschbacher, David Wechter (Penn&Teller's Bullshit), Andy Guerdat (Saved by the Bell: The College Years), Bob ("Super Dave") Einstein, Dennis Perrin (Bill Maher), Mitch Glazer (Blind Date), John Ratzenberger (Cheers' mailman), Mike Cerrone (The Threee Stooges movie), Brian Pollack (Cheers, Hollywood Squares), Barry Kemp (Coach, Newhart), and others I probably forgot at the moment. There are also two episodes wherein I devote the entire hour to the story of one "failed pilot" - Sylvan in Paradise, starring Jim Nabors for NBC in 1986 - and one insane adventure dealing with "independent producers" in Orlando, Florida, in 2000, producing a pilot - Love Thy Neighbor, starring Sherman Hemsley.

The underlying theme of the radio show is how various extemely successful writers got started in the business, how they persevered... as well as a lot of great behind-the-scenes stories.

Let me know of your interest. Tom Kramer will be on assignment for the rest of the summer, so we will probably go into reruns as of mid July. Other great pioneers and playas we have in the pipeline - Mitzi McCall, John Rappaport, Chris Bearde, Stuart Pankin, Jeff Garlin and (if I can convince him) David Duclon.

Ms. CARIBBEAN USA

Don't ask me how I got involved in the Ms. Caribbean USA 2009 contest... go here. Well I DO know, I just didn't want you to ask. It has been an interesting look into the world of beauty pageants. According to a former Miss Jamaica (in another pageant), Daisi Pollard, there are 40,000 pageants worldwide. We only know the biggees, like Miss California, (well we do now, thanks to homophobe Carrie Prejean), Miss Universe, Miss World, Miss USA and, I guess it's still going strong, Miss America. But Ms. Caribbean (careful! there's a MISS Caribbean contest in Florida) is just below the radar but nevertheless offers a $5,000 prize to the winner, among other prizes to various contestants. It is being held at the Celebrity Centre Theatre in Hollywood on July 4th, 2009 at 5 PM. I highly recommend it. Check out the women on the website. Interestingly "beauty" per se is not the highest priority of assessment from the judges, although of course there will be swimsuit and gown promenades up and down a runway. There is much larger emphasis on talent, and one-on-one interviews with judges (one of whom is the aforementioned Ms. Pollard). My stake is that I am sort of a mentor to Haitian native, NAHOMIE MERILAN, quite a talented beauty, whom I first saw performing as an actress and model at the World Championships of Performing Arts in Los Angeles in 2008, which I've written about elsewhere. (PS, There is an Internet voting element to the website; I urge you to vote for her!) She speaks little English, but is fluent French and Creole - thus she is about the most authentic "Caribbean" in the Ms. Caribbean contest. The other contestants are largely American born, with a couple of exceptions. But Nahomie will have a translator at the contest, and thus add some international flavor to the proceedings. I believe there will be a little "after party" at Kassava Caribbean restaurant (really excellent) on 3rd & Sherbourne in West Los Angeles. The owner thereof, actor/writer/director Jean-Claude LaMarre will be a co-host of the event, and I'm sure is providing some of the underwriting of the event. More later when results are in.

Facebook | Message: Video

http://r.im/1rb2

Amazing footage of people, apparently in Eastern Europe and elsewhere, getting away with interfacing with vehicles... funny! (Since everybody survived except for serious adrenaline blowout).

WEISKOPF AND WEISKOPF

Sorry to learn of the death of Kim Weiskopf, a contemporary of mine in the TV comedy writing world of the 70's-00's. In spite of the fact that in reality we were no doubt often competitors for the relatively few writing jobs in television, we were good friends - as good as it gets in show business. We never intermingled our families, that I can recall anyway, and never went to each others' homes. But we played softball together in a pick up game held every Sunday morning for a good 10 years (for me it was '86-96) or so. I think vestiges of it go on. David Braff ("Bay Watch") seemed to be a kind of ringleader, and there were also a lot of "halfs" of comedy writing teams - Weiskopf and myself included (our then-partners, Baser and Stein, didn't play ball). There was Larry Mintz, David Isaacs, Lorin Dreyfuss, Mel Damsky, among others who I don't recall off hand. When I first started playing with these guys, it was on the back field of an elementary school close to the parking lot of a supermarket off National Blvd. There were the usual superb players (of which I was not one) and incredibly competitive hot heads (not one of them either). I made a few good hits, and a couple of good catches, and a few bobbles. Your own teammates would call balls and strikes. I remember reluctantly acting as umpire, and called one of my mates out looking. He was furious. And never wanted to ump again. A strange system.
Anyway, back to Weiskopf. I cannot remember where I first encountered him, if on the ball field or in some network hallway. Weiskopf was half Japanese and I guess half Jewish. An interesting look. A good man, not boisterous at all. He couldn't have been more mismatched than with his partner for many years, Michael Baser, a long haired New Yorker, an avid talker. They surprisingly broke up - or perhaps not so surprisingly (neverthless "divorce" is always hard to hear about, or endure). They had already become a bit of an institution in the TV writing realm. Baser was the embittered spouse. Weiskopf went on to a decent solo career - I think he was eventually co-executive producer of Married, With Children. I am not sure how Baser fared on his own.
Things I remember about Kim was he was a family guy - I took my son Nick to his first in theatre film, a re-release of the classic Disney Peter Pan, and also in the theatre was Weiskopf and his son (or daughter; I don't remember). We had a similar encounter when I took my son to see the re-release of Star Wars several years later.
Kim was a legacy of sorts. His dad was the late, great Bob Weiskopf of Schiller & Weiskopf, who were staff writers on I Love Lucy. I have numerous memories of Bob as well. When I was producing Silver Spoons in the mid 80's, Weiskopf and Schiller had an office in our bungalow. They had a housekeeping deal with Norman Lear's company. They were great raconteurs, and we would sneak into their office after hours and admire their memorabelia. A few years before, when I was struggling through One Day at a Time, Lear held a huge company picnic. There was a softball game organized, and Bob Weiskopf, the ex-ballplayer, agreed to umpire. Well, he called ME out on strikes. I thought it was a bit high and outside, but what was I going to do, yell at this comedy legend? And his son was probably playing nearby.
So the unforgettable Weiskopfs belong to the ages. The Dad was quite elderly when he passed away, but Kim left us far too soon. He was probably in line for a piece of that ageism lawsuit settlement! It's one thing to see early icons of childhood disappearing - like Engineer Bill or even George Carlin. But when your old pals start falling, it makes the days a little more precious.

WELL THAT WAS AN INTERESTING COMA

I just woke up and somebody told me it was almost the end of April. I said, No way! It's January! Anyway, I'm back and immediately grabbed a newspaper, hoping I wouldn't see something heinous like "President Biden bombs Iran". Whew! All is well. Right wing freaks are bouncing off the walls, Obama is mellow so everything is just the way it's supposed to be.
No but seriously, I've been semi-busy, producing the Funny is Money radio show for www.shokusradio.com heard every night at 7 PM Pacific. So that means it's 10 PM in New York, and, what 4 AM in Paris? So no excuses! So far this year Tom (Kramer) and I have hosted the great director John Moffitt, the great writer Bruce Kirschbaum, the great comedy writer Jack Carrerow, the reclusive, yet great comedian Jack Burns and the great house guest, Kato Kaelin. Not to mention "Dead Gossip" from the great columnist Walter Winchell. Now that is FUNNY. Would that there was also MONEY attached. More later.

Bob Cesca's Awesome Blog! Go!: Awesome Hall of Fame

Bob Cesca's Awesome Blog! Go!: Awesome Hall of Fame

The New York Times - Breaking News, World News & Multimedia

The New York Times - Breaking News, World News & Multimedia