The Funniest One in the Room: The Lives and Legends of Del CloseChicago Review Press, 01/04/2008 - 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. |
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... performing . His flirtation with the theater had developed at an early age , but when he was nine years old , he began to understand that theater could have a deeper meaning , a more transformative effect than the thrill of performing ...
... performing as much as a love of music . Del began playing in the fourth grade , continued through high school , and even played in Manhattan's Municipal Band . His former band teacher , Laurence Norvell , recalled him as “ an excellent ...
... performing . He would later wax nostalgic about the Manhattan , Kansas , of his youth . I have a theory about why adolescence is so painful and so laden with nostalgia . It's because you know you're saying goodbye to your childhood day ...
... perform his fire - eating act . This guy had a midnight show - y'know , at the movie theater , bring your date , squeeze her thigh : " Ahhh ! Monsters are loose ! " Dr. Drac- ula had this tattered print of Bride of Frankenstein , and ...
... performed in Manhattan , and secured employment around that time or later . Indeed , the facts seem to sub- stantiate the Dr. Dracula story . Although Card Mondor - Dr . Dracula— is deceased , his partner Dick Newton , in a 2005 ...
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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 |
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The Funniest One in the Room: The Lives and Legends of Del Close Kim Johnson Pré-visualização indisponível - 2008 |