We went to a hockey game this Friday, where Yale was barely beaten by Brown, and we sat in front of one of the cleverest hecklers I've ever had the pleasure of hearing. He yelled (only once or twice, I might add...he didn't do the self-obsessed constant chant) "If it's Brown, flush it down!" He also called one of the referees, a particularly short and skinny man on the ice "mini-ref." He repeated this one, but with slightly funnier (read: more extreme) intonation every time. He was drunk enough that he gave the impression of playing this all for his own amusement, and that's a true essence of comedy. An air of playfulness, performing without seeming like you're trying to perform, is a wonderful way to be a comedian. There is nothing less funny than mugging and nothing less enjoyable than having laughs pulled from you as you chuckle on cue.
I also admired his taste. He was a drunken sports fan, yet he never said anything obscene in front of the kiddies. He mocked the players with wit and restraint. One Brown player had the last name "Haggett." An easy target for rhymes, no? But this sports fan chose to yell "If you can't Haggett [hack it], get off the ice!" Hilarious and inoffensive. You go, drunk man.
I also just read Fifty Million Frenchmen, one of my favorite shows in terms of score (a Cole Porter classic). I was again struck by the lyrics to "I'm Unlucky At Gambling." Here's the verse in question:
I took the croupier to a picture show,
I took the croupier to a picture show,
And though I snuggled close when the lights were low,
The croupier impressed me as rather slow.
I said "I like John Gilbert a lot, don't you?"
I said "I like John Gilbert a lot, don't you?"
He didn't answer, but when the show was through
I realized that he liked John Gilbert, too.
Yup...as far as I can tell that's a blatant reference to homosexuality...in 1929. Nineteen-fucking-twenty-nine! That was, like, before Hitler exterminated European homosexuals...but Cole Porter had the brass balls to write it into a song. Stunning...
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Hello! I'm new to the whole blogging thing and was randomly looking up people who have the same interests as me and you were one of the only (3) people listed (including me) who listed Deirdre Flint as a musician you like. I thought I was the only person who had ever heard of her...guess I was wrong!
Anyway, just thought I'd say hi from over here in Washington state. There's no rain and no snow, not much else is going on.
Your blog is insightful and I TOTALLY agree about the continuing disdain for our "resident" president of the US.
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