Obit is never for the dead as the dead seldom read.
Obit is for us the living
to grieve,
to pause,
to rethink,
to laugh,
to learn,
to redo,
to do,
to learn how to live on forever
in hearts & minds of others.
For what is important is not what we own,
it is what we leave to others.
“Mr. Stiller and Ms. Meara’s swan song as a team was a series of web-only video clips produced by their son and posted from November 2010 until March 2011. Each clip lasts about two minutes and consists of the two of them discussing a single topic. One topic is obituaries.
In that clip, Mr. Stiller says he is “shocked” that The New York Times might have already prepared their obituaries and wonders whether the newspaper is “up to date” on his having worked with Veronica Lake in a production of “Peter Pan” (about six decades earlier). And Ms. Meara reveals that years ago Mr. Stiller had persuaded The Times to publish her father’s obituary by falsely claiming that he had written material for their comedy act.
Mr. Stiller’s agitated response: “What you just said is going to get us in trouble with The New York Times! I may never get an obit!”
P.S. In life, it is ALWAYS up to us to learn whatever we want to learn and what we think we can learn. If we think there are nothing new to learn in life after age 60 (or whatever age you think that is), then we will indeed learn nothing because self-fulfilling prophecy is as powerful as you think it is!
Still learning from Ms. Anne Meara and Mr. Jerry Stiller (1927-2020) as their loving words and insights will remind in my heart and mind for the years to come!
P.P.S. SATC S06.E14 “Miranda’ Family”
In this clip: Anne Meara, Cynthia Nixon, David Eigenberg, Kim Cattrall, Sarah Jessica Parker and Kristin Davis.
Comments Off on #Obit is Never For – Another poem by Kempton Lam – Poem2 inspired by Mr. #JerryStiller (92) | funny, insightful, Poetry | Permalink Posted by kempton
I LOVE the Brief But Spectacular series from PBS (and now also from CBC also). Because I’m a geek, there are TWO versions (in a sense) of Steve Martin and Martin Short – Brief But Spectacular.
Here are a bunch of interesting podcasts from Hollywood Reporter (THR) starting with Sacha Baron Cohen, one of my most favourite and insightful comedians, and the one that started me on this interesting journey. Have a listen of any one or more of these podcasts as I copied and pasted from THR. Enjoy!
So why are we guilty as charged?! What roles did we play in coaxing Howie? Well, you are in for a special treat! “Crimes/pranks” have never quite been captured like this, from the inception, to the coaxing, to the actual execution, and then the final we laughing our heads off all over a few short minutes! Have a watch of how we created this magical #videobomb moment right in our Fox LA Google+ Hangout!
“Everything I’ve ever been punished for, expelled for, hit for, is what I seem to get paid for and now I’m being distinguished for it, but the thing is the people who supported me are the people who love like, and those were few and far between, my family and my friends, but when I got into this business, what’s amazing is it’s such a group effort so any cameraman that I’ve ever worked with, any script writer that I’ve ever worked with, any producer, network executive or anything, they’ve all supported me and made this possible.
All I do really, and this is what Woody Allen says, is “I just show up.” 90% of success is just showing up and I’ve always done that from day one, from when my career started. I didn’t even have a career, I wasn’t pursuing a careers. I’m still not really pursuing a career. I’m not, I showed up at Yuk Yuks in April 1977 I showed up at Yuk Yuks because I don’t dance, and didn’t like going to discos and they’d opened a comedy club in Toronto and I showed up to see a show and I was fascinated […]“
I can’t speak more highly of Howie as great comedian and as a frank, blunt and honest person willing to talk about his own life challenges. And if you have time, also watch this insightful interview of Howie by Howard Stern which I watched to prepare my Google+ Hangout questions for Howie.
Concluding Thoughts about our Google+ magic
I’m a Google+ Hangout News Consultant and I’ve been using using Google+ Hangout since the beginning in July 2011 and Google+ Hangout On Air (G+ HOA) since its launch in September 2011. To me, G+ HOA is one of the most powerful new broadcasting tools available. But like in the world of cooking, even if you have a great knife, an awesome mixer, etc you still have to have great chefs and first rate ingredients to createmagic!
“Everything is copy. Everything is material. Some day this will be a funny story. Doesn’t seem funny now, but trust me, someday it will be funny.” – Nora Ephron via Conversations at KCTS 9 (YouTube video)
I have been watching these jokes for the last few years now. I hope you enjoy them as much as I do. I can’t stop laughing after watching the first two minutes of Jimmy Kimmel’s beeping and blurring humour! Have fun.
“But when it comes to food vloggers — that is, bloggers who post videos — it’s the new order. Vlogging requires crazy commitment and passion. Sure, cellphones and pocket cameras can easily capture video, but scripting, shooting, editing and uploading is another thing. It takes a sizable bite out of one’s life and exquisite patience. Ouch!
One such local vlogger, Mijune Pak, of Richmond, posts on YouTube and on her blog, Follow Me Foodie. “I know the food blogging community is very saturated right now but vlogging hasn’t been touched,” she says.
Here’s the reason in a nutshell. She and her two-man crew shot for three hours, then edited for six hours to produce a 1.5 minute video. Who’s got that kind of time or expertise?
“We’re doing it because we’re passionate and it’s a good way of getting exposure,” says Pak, 25. One video, The Things Foodies Say [note: see below], “went crazy,” she says. “It’s very challenging because most viewers click off after two or three minutes. To lock in a recipe in two or three minutes is very challenging.”“
Also check out her FollowMeFoodie YouTube channel and this really funny 90 seconds clip. If you love food, I bet you will laugh at recognizing things you or your friends say! Enjoy.
If I am lucky later this morning, I may be able to participate in a Google+ Hangout with the one and only William Shatner! Just in case I have chance to ask Bill a question or two, here are some research materials I found.
[Update: Well, Bill had to rush to another interview so no G+ Hangout yet. May be next time … Made me treasure even my my opportunity to meet him and Ricky in 2010.]
OK, the best defence against the 50 Cent Army (五毛党) is to ignore them. Yes, ignore them! Don’t waste your energy, just ignore them!
In my case, so far I’ve taken one step further to confirm the offending Twitter accounts actually have the telltale signs of 50 Cent Army and I then will block the user and report them for spam. Of course, my act of blocking and reporting the accounts for spamis a complete waste of time! Why? Because these type spam Twitter accounts are disposable accounts! They are automatically created. Once these accounts did their job of wasting your time/energy to read and reply, etc the posters had already moved on to a brand new spam account. The spammers are “smart” and fully expected these accounts to be suspended. So after posting a few tweets (127), they will stop using an account and move on.
So save yourself the time, just ignore the 50 Cent Army. I’ve wasted my time to write this post so that you don’t have to waste your time. :)
P.S. Part of me is sad for people in the 50 Cent Army but then thinking they get 50 cents per post, it makes me laugh at the topsy turvy world of China.
Accounting for time difference and a little bit of cheating, I want to wish The Office a happy 10th anniversary! Thanks Ricky and Stephen for being true to your own sense of what is funny and what is not! For breaking path and redefining what is funny! It will definitely be one of the “classics” that I remember.
“Ricky, 50, is still fond of his iconic comedy creation but admits growing Brent’s trademark goatee for these pictures made him instantly recognisable.
He said: “It feels good to be Brent again – although I left the facial hair to the last minute.
“I get spotted more when I’ve got it – it’s like people need that visual aid to work out where they know me from.
[…] “None of my characters have been as much fun to play as David Brent. People say he was a b****** and the ‘boss from hell’, but he wasn’t. He was just a twit.
“He was a man whose biggest mistake was confusing popularity with respect.”
When The Office first aired on BBC2 on July 9 2001, it was panned by several critics. Read the rest of this entry »
This is some funny stuff from Ricky Gervais. Cool to see Conan and Ricky pushing the boundary of comedy, funny stuff. [HT HuffPost]
P.S. If you don’t “get” the following is comedy, then this type of comedy is not really for you. With no disrespect, some people don’t like abstract art, so no one forces them to go see Voice of Fire.
Last year at Banff 2010, I had a great time attending the insightful and fun “in conversation” between William Shatner and ‘The Big Bang Theory‘ creator and show runner Bill Prady. I just discovered the official Banff team had actually uploaded the full video of the session. I’ve finished watching the 7-part video of the chat again and absolutely loved it. Have fun & enjoy.
* In Conversation with: Lifetime Achievement Award Winner, EDWARD ASNER 09:00-09:45 Van Horne C [Kempton’s Note: Last night, I got the great pleasure to meet Ed and listened to Ed‘s achievements over the years. Wow, what a great and accomplished man. I told Ed after the award ceremony that I would be a happy man even if I could achieve only 1/100th of what Ed has achieved in his long and ongoing career even he is almost 82 years young already.]
* nextMEDIA Keynote: In Conversation with Ted Sarandos – The Netflix Effect In Canada 09:45-10:30 Van Horne C [Kempton: This can be a really interesting session. Will see.]
* Tech Hub: Nokia Case Study Crump Room 11:30-12:00
* Online Video Lunch Conservatory 12:30-13:30
* Access to Hollywood Digital Buyers Baron Shaughnessy 13:45-14:45
* In Conversation With: Award of Excellence in Digital Media Award Winner, LISA KUDROW AOL Canada Theatre 14:45-15:30 [Kempton: I am very much looking forward to this session as I found ‘s Web Therapy very funny (see this earlier posting).]
I had a great time and learned a lot from attending Mike Farah, President of Production Funny or Die, and his teammates Jake and Chris’ Banff World Media Festival 2011 panel discussion. Afterwards, I had the pleasure of interviewing Mike.
It will take me some time to write the article and process & upload the video after Banff. Stay tune.
Four funny comedians: Ricky Gervais, Louis CK, Jerry Seinfeld, and Chris Rock in a room talking about the business of being funny. I enjoy the show very much even it has some serious discussions about being a comedian and being funny. The four men definitely had lots of fun. And I think there are a few things worth thinking over, enough that I mentioned the show to a comedian friend and I hope she enjoys it as much as I did.
“The tone of their armchair summit is informative, but it’s clear the comics’ main agenda is to crack each other up, and the material is decidedly blue.
Among their gleanings: Mr. Seinfeld used the F-word in one bit—a decade ago—before expunging it from his act. Mr. Rock believes jokes often fail simply because the audience doesn’t get the premise, hence his trademark repetition. (“You can be married and bored, or single and lonely. Married and bored, single and lonely.”) Mr. C.K. forced himself to write newer, stronger material by replacing his opening joke with his closer. And Mr. Gervais got into stand-up because he needed to prove himself to other comedians after his instant success with “The Office.”
Mr. Gervais assembled the group. “It was an easy pitch,” Mr. C.K. says. The one-hour show was edited down from nearly five hours of conversation.“
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