An Old School Post - Been A Long Time

As my friend Rabbi Jon Gross likes to tell people I like reading bios of stars. I like strong voices, clear characters. And I like humor. I read Newhart's book cover to cover, same with Steve Martin and Paul Shaffer. I've tried a lot of fiction that I couldn't make it through. Since I read the Al Jaffee book I haven't had a great relationship with a book. Maybe I should keep seeking and reading non-fiction as it seems to work for me. Do what works? Really?

Tonight I was in Barnes and Noble looking for a biography or better yet a memoir. Right when I walked in I saw a new book on Paul Simon and I thought I was done. I kept looking for something that felt more right. I was turning the bend to the cashier when I saw Marlo Thomas' new book. Down went Paul.

It's called Growing Up Laughing: My Story and the Story of Funny. It felt like a good fit. My choice was supported by good reviews for the Marlo book and bad reviews for the Simon bio.

She writes something at the very start that hit home. This is an approach I figured out in my life regarding teaching, speaking, and performing. It's amazing that many people in each of these fields don't get this. She describes how her father replayed tapes of his act, listening carefully for what parts got the big laughs and then she says:

"My father's respect for the audience was his compass. When he hunched over the tape recorder like that, he was shaping the act for them - not for himself, not for the critics."

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I could be wrong but I think I saw three movies in theaters over the summer: The Secret In Their Eyes, Lebanon, and Cairo time. It was almost three months since I saw a movie in a theater till last night, when I saw The Social Network. It's hard for me to be open to enjoying a big budget American movie.

I felt bad for Mark Zuckerberg. I felt bad that a movie was made about someone so young, during their lifetime, portraying them in a Hollywood style, imagined, negative light. I also felt bad for the character in the movie because he seemed so stunted. Today, in talking about I heard three opinions that he has Aspergers. I looked it up on line and it seems to be a popular theory. I watched him being interviewed and he seemed awkward, eerily like the Jesse Eisenberg portrayal. This article seems spot on. I particularly like the observation that in our society you can specialize in one thing and seem successful, while being quite unbalanced. I liked the way the author articulated that one can be considered an expert in his or her field and be rich and yet have no friends. Heavy sigh. That is very sad.