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Bob Einstein was a comedic test case in nature versus nurture. In the end, comedy was what came naturally. The son of vaudevillian Parkyakarkus (né Harry Einstein), who was a crackup on the radio and around the dinner table, Einstein had a showbiz pedigree. And yet, he rejected the call of entertainment until he was…
Toward the end of the 1983 comedy “The Man with Two Brains,” Steve Martin, as Dr. Michael Hfuhruhurr, is blasted with a drumfire of ethnic slurs. Learning that his sadistic wife, Dolores (Kathleen Turner), withheld the news of his grandmother’s death, he reaches his breaking point and fights with her for the first time. During…
James Franco, Seth Rogen and Jonah Hill do everything together — they smoke weed, they make movies and now they deliver “Saturday Night Live” monologues together. Franco hosted the late night variety show for the 4th time this weekend, and was joined for his opening monologue by comedians Seth Rogen, Jonah Hill and even Steve…
Amy Schumer, in her Broadway debut, proves herself a competent stage actress, an unsurprisingly gifted physical comedian, and, remarkably, a formidable shiska goddess. It’s just a shame the vehicle bringing her here, Steve Martin’s “Meteor Shower,” is quite so stubbornly earthbound. Martin’s latest— the multitalented onetime “Saturday Night Live” star previously wrote the absurdist comedy…
Carrie Fisher died on December 27th. Steve Martin’s controversial (since-deleted) tweet praising Fisher’s looks and Claire Landsbaum’s perhaps still more controversial New York magazine critical response to that tweet were both written on December 27th. Even without knowing precisely how long either Martin or Landsbaum sat pondering their words, we’re talking same-day. The timing matters….
Saul Austerlitz is the author of “Another Fine Mess: A History of American Film Comedy.” His blog posts are appearing this week on The Arty Semite courtesy of the Jewish Book Council and My Jewish Learning’s Author Blog series. For more information on the series please visit: In writing my book “Another Fine Mess: A…
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