CONFUSE US, SAY?
Collected ravings of a modern Chinese-American Sage or Rejected
Fortune Cookie Messages,
from Jack "Call me Teddy" Angel:
* ON SEX: Virginity like
bubble; one prick - all gone. Baseball is wrong; man with four balls cannot walk. Panties
not best thing on earth, but next to best thing on earth.
* ON MARRIAGE: It
take many nails to build crib, only one screw to fill it. Foolish man give wife grand
piano, wise man give wife upright organ. Man who fish in other man's well often catch
crabs.
* ON EATING: Man with
one chopstick go hungry. Man who eat many prunes get good run for money. Crowded elevator
smell different to midget. Man who scratch butt should not bite fingernails.
* ON DRIVING: Man who
run in front of car get tired. Man who run behind car get exhausted. Man who drive like
hell bound to get there.
* ON MODERN LIFE: Man
who live in glass house should change clothes in basement. War does not determine who is
right; war determine who is left.
"Generosity makes you fat."
- Real Fortune Cookie
WHAT
A BLAST!
Paolo Esperanza,
bass-trombonist with the Simphonica Mayor de Uruguay, in a misplaced moment of
inspiration, decided to make his own contribution to the cannon shots fired as part of the
orchestra's performance of Tchaikovsky's "1812 Overture" at an outdoor
children's concert. In complete seriousness he placed a large, ignited firecracker,
(equivalent in strength to a quarter stick of dynamite), into his aluminum straight mute
and then stuck the mute into the bell of his quite new Yamaha in-line double-valve bass
trombone.
Later (from his hospital bed) he explained to a reporter through bandages on
his mouth, "I thought that the bell of my trombone would shield me from the explosion
and would focus the energy of the blast outwards, propelling the mute high above the
orchestra, like a rocket."
What actually happened should serve as a lesson to us all during delirious
moments of divine inspiration. First, because he failed to sufficiently elevate the bell
of his horn, the blast propelled the mute between rows of players in the orchestra's
woodwind and viola sections, straight into the conductor's stomach, driving him off the
podium and directly into the front row of the audience who were sitting in folding chairs
which collapsed under them - passing the energy of the impact backwards into a row of
people sitting behind them and so on, like rows of dominos.
Meanwhile, all of this unplanned choreography not withstanding, back on stage
Paolo's Waterloo
was still unfolding. Having failed to plug the lead pipe of his trombone, he allowed the
energy of the blast to send a super-heated jet of gas backwards through the mouthpiece
which split the bell of his shiny Yamaha right down the middle, turning it inside out
while at the same time propelling the singed Paolo backwards off the riser. And for the
grand finale, as Paolo fell backwards he lost his grip on the slide of the trombone
allowing the pressure of the hot gases coursing through the horn to propel the trombone's
slide like a double golden spear into the head of the 3rd clarinetist, knocking him
unconscious.
(You had to be there, or beware . . . )
"70%
of the internet is porn, 20% is people sending the same stuff over and over cause they
don't remember they already sent it, and 10% is the remaining emails, business spam and people
checking to see if their Techs rebounded."
- Danny (the) Mann
CIGARS
AND WOMEN, AGAIN
For opera lovers and haters
alike, we reprint herewith the English synopsis of Carmen, as it appeared in the program
for a recent performance in Genoa, Italy.
"Act 1. Carmen is a cigar-makeress from a tabago factory who
loves with Don Jose of the mounting guard. Carmen takes a flower from her corsets and lances it to Don Jose (Duet: 'Talk
me of my mother'). There is a noise inside the tabago factory and the revolting
cigar-makeresses burst into the stage. Carmen is arrested and Don Jose is ordered to
mounting guard her but Carmen subduces him and he lets her escape.
"Act 2. The Tavern. Carmen, Frasquito, Mercedes, Zuniga,
Morales. Carmen's aria ('The sistrums are tinkling'). Enter Escamillio, a balls-fighter.
Enter two smuglers (Duet: 'We have in mind a business') but Carmen refuses to penetrate
because Don Jose has liberated her from prison. He just now arrives (Aria: 'Stop, here who
comes!') but hear are the bugles singing his retreat. Don Jose will leave and draws his
sword. Called by Carmen shrieks the two smuglers interfere with her but Don Jose is bound
to dessert, he will follow into them (final chorus: 'Opening sky wandering life').
"Act 3. A roky landscape, the smuglers shelter. Carmen sees
her death in cards and Don Jose makes a date with her for the next balls fight.
"Act 4. A place in Seville. Procession of balls-fighters,
the roaring of the balls is heard in the arena. Escamillio enters (Aria and chorus:
'Toreador, toreador, all hail the balls of a Toreador'). Enter Don Jose (Aria: 'I do not
threaten, I besooch you') but Carmen repels him wants to join with Escamillio now chaired
by the crowd. Don Jose stabbs her (Aria: 'Oh rupture, rupture, you may arrest me, I did
kill her') he sings 'Oh my beautiful Carmen, my subductive Carmen.' "
(From Ivan's Jokes)
"I write
one page of masterpiece for 99 pages of sh*t."
- Ernest Hemmingway to F. Scott Fitzgerald
AN
AUGUST MONTH
According to Brian Westley,
August is National Catfish Month, National Data Entry Month, National Goat Cheese
Month, National Hypnosis Awareness Month, National Inventor's Month, Romance Awareness
Month; and the first week was Simplify Your Life Week, Sisters Day and World Breastfeeding
Week. (August sucks?)
"Blue
Dog Democrat? Try Horn Dog Democrat."
- Newsweek's "Conventional Wisdom" on Porn-Again Sexual-Congress Man,
Gary Condit
VEILED
HUMOR AND THREATS
Shazia Mirza, a 25-year-old
Birmingham science teacher of Pakistani origin, is so determined to succeed as the first
Muslim stand-up comedienne that she is prepared to risk the threat of a fatwa against her,
writes the London Times' Dalya Alberge from one of the Planet's trusted international
correspondents, Charles Moed.
Appearing in comedy clubs dominated by "white laddie men and
blacks", audiences are shocked when she stands up and delivers . . . jokes, dressed
entirely in black, her head covered by a veil. In fact, she was recently physically
assaulted by three Asian men during a London performance. (That's heavy heckling!)
"I didn't do a gig for two weeks," says Mizra, "What it's made
me realize is that it's so important that I carry on for Muslim women and people who live
their lives in oppression. I'm celebrating Islam; I'm not against it. Islam gives women a
lot of power, but the culture takes that away; we're brought up not to speak out in
public, but it doesn't say that in Islam."
Last week she won the London Comedy Festival after reaching the semifinals of
the "So You Think You're Funny?" contest at the Edinburgh Fringe.
Among the jokes in her routine - "I'm really looking forward to my wedding day. I
can't wait to meet my husband. My friend Julie says 'How can you sleep with someone you
don't know?' But she does it all the time."
[Go to next
column to continue reading]
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"Man
should not play God - I agree. I like to think that we play 'with' God."
- Madison Shockley, Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice
EATING
OR NOTHINGNESS
(Jean-Paul Sartre's Cooking
Diary)
October 3 - Spoke with Camus
today about my cookbook. Though he has never actually eaten, he gave me much
encouragement. I rushed home immediately to begin work. How excited I am! I have begun my
formula for a Denver omelet.
October 4 - Still working on the omelet. There have been stumbling blocks. I
keep creating omelets one after another, like soldiers marching into the sea, but each one
seems empty, hollow, like stone. I want to create an omelet that expresses the
meaninglessness of existence, and instead they taste like cheese. I look at them on the
plate, but they do not look back. Tried eating them with the lights off. It did not help. Malraux suggested
paprika.
October 6 - I have realized that the traditional omelet form (eggs and
cheese) is bourgeois. Today I tried making one out of cigarette, some coffee, and four
tiny stones. I fed it to Malraux, who remained unusually silent. I am encouraged, but my
journey is still long.
October 10 - I find myself trying ever more radical interpretations of traditional dishes,
in an effort to somehow express the void I feel so acutely. Today I tried this recipe:
"Tuna Casserole - Ingredients: 1 large casserole dish; Instructions: Place the
casserole dish in a cold oven. Place a chair facing the oven and sit in it forever. Think
about how hungry you are. When night falls, do not turn on the light." While a void
is expressed in this recipe, I am struck by its inapplicability to the bourgeois
lifestyle. How can the eater recognize that the food denied him is a tuna casserole and
not some other dish? I am becoming more and more frustrated.
October 25 - I have been forced to abandon the project of producing an entire
cookbook. Rather, I now seek a single recipe which will, by itself, embody the plight of
man in a world ruled by an unfeeling God, as well as providing the eater with at least one
ingredient from each of the four basic food groups . . . After several weeks of work, I
produced a recipe calling for two eggs, half a cup of flour, four tons of beef, and a
leek.
November 15 - Today I made a Black Forest gateau out of five pounds of
cherries and a live beaver, challenging the very definition of the word gateau. I was very
pleased. Malraux said he admired it greatly, but would not stay for dessert. Still, I feel
that this may be my most profound achievement yet, and have resolved to enter it in the
Betty Crocker Bake-Off.
November 30 - Today was the day of the Bake-Off. Alas, things did not go as I
had hoped. During the judging, the beaver became agitated and bit Betty Crocker's wrist.
The beaver's powerful jaws are capable of felling blue spruce in less than ten minutes and
proved, needless to say, more than a match for the tender limbs of America's favorite
homemaker. I only got third place.
December 1 - I have been gaining twenty-five pounds a week for two months,
and I am now experiencing light tides. It is stupid to be so fat. My pain and ultimate
solitude are still as authentic as they were when I was thin, but seem to impress girls
far less. From now on, I will live on cigarettes and black coffee.
(Anon)
"The
suspect was subdued by non-lethal means and is now in police custody awaiting trial."
(Something we never see in the news)
- Phil's Funny Facts
ORDER
NOW!
*Be
Your Own Dick - by John Q. Newman (Private Investigating Made Easy - Revised and
Expanded Second Edition)
*The Clitoral
Truth - by Rebecca Chalker (The Secret World at Your Fingertips)
*Panties Down!
Before Money Down! - by Mac Horn (An Erotic Travel Guide to the Philippines)
*"I Watched
A Wild Hog Eat My Baby!"- (A Colorful History of Tabloids and Their Cultural
Impact by Bill Sloan)
*Backyard
Ballistics - by William Gurstelle (Build potato cannons, paper match rockets,
Cincinnati fire kites, tennis ball mortars, and more dynamite devices)
*The Redneck
Manifesto - by Jim Goad (America's Scapegoats: How We Got That Way and Why We're Not
Going to Take It Any More)
*Guerrilla
Gunsmithing - by Ragnar Benson (Quick and Dirty Methods for Fixing Firearms in
Desperate Times)
Bizarre Catalogs Available Online!
(From Take A Break)
"Living
in Berkeley, California scrubbed me free of any last traces of liberalism."
- Late Sci-fi writer Poul Anderson
FUHRMAN
FOREVER!
Infamous ex-LA-cop Mark Fuhrman now hosts a
2-hour call-in show called "All About Crime" on Spokane's KXLY radio; but in an
article in the L.A. Times, he says he doesn't prepare for the show by reading the news.
Instead he rises early to watch reruns of "NYPD Blue."
"I need my Sipowicz fix every morning . . . it's as close as you can get
to being in a police department. I mean, he's classic. Black humor, tragedy, sarcasm. I
mean, this is the way it is, you know."
"Male
- 35 to 55; conversational, natural - not an announcer. An intelligent grownup adult - but
not stodgy. Caring - but not corny. Helpful - but not unctuous. Warm - but not smarmy.
Laid back - but still enthusiastic. Enthusiastic - but not "sell-y". Playful -
but not fawning. Witty - but not "funny" sounding. Believable, likeable,
trustworthy . . . "
- Audition for "Hamburger Helper"
GIVE
AND TAKE
Yale awarded 12 honorary
degrees at Yale's 300th Commencement which included President George W. Bush ('68), former president of Mexico Ernesto Zedillo ('81
Ph.D.). and my classmate, actor Sam Waterston ('62). Bravo!
We also lost feisty character actor Christopher "Mr. Belvedere"
Hewett, who directed me with a stern hand in a tour of "Bell, Book and Candle"
with Betty White, Allen Ludden and David Doyle, many witchy moons ago; and most sadly, a
legend in the voice-over community, dear Lorenzo Music, best known, perhaps, for his
unseen presence and impeccably dry delivery as "Carlton, the doorman" on the Mary Tyler Moore and Rhoda shows. Perhaps
his greatest achievement was that of co-executive producer and writer of "The Bob
Newhart Show", but he was most loved, respected and remembered for a full, generous
and dedicated life outside the recording studio. He also voiced the cat,
"Garfield" on the cartoon series, but sadly lacked his nine lives.
A "Musical" memorial Service will be held this coming Monday at the
Writers' Guild Theatre on Doheny at 7pm. We'll never forget him.
08/10/01
* FIRESIGN SITE: http://www.firesigntheatre.com
* FIREZINE SITE: http://www.firezine.net
* FIRESIGN PRODUCT: http://www.lodestone-media.com
* FUNNY TIMES: http://www.funnytimes.com
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