Improv Nation
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148 “But Paul didn’t think theater”: Carol Sills to author.
149 Nichols saw Sills’s point: Mike Nichols to author.
149 “So I took a leave of absence”: Kleinfeld, “Del Close.”
149 “I knew the sixties”: Ibid.
149 “jumping around like a chicken”: Joe Flaherty to author.
149 “What a ball buster”: Ibid.
150 “I never wanted to be a director”: Michael Rivlin, “Elaine May: Too Tough for Hollywood?,” Millimeter, October 1975.
150 “I pitched very hard”: Rachel Abramowitz, Is That a Gun in Your Pocket?: Women’s Experience of Power in Hollywood (New York: Random House, 2000), 61.
150 “Listen,” Koch said: Andrew Tobias, “Elaine May: A New Film, But Not a New Leaf,” New York, December 6, 1976.
150 Matthau’s apartment: Wayne Warga, “‘California Suite,’ an Exercise in Spontaneity,” Los Angeles Times, May 21, 1978.
151 “I want to do it again”: Abramowitz, Is That a Gun in Your Pocket?, 61.
151 “You make the crew nervous”: Rivlin, “Elaine May: Too Tough,” 17.
151 “And when they found this out”: Elaine May, “Elaine May in Conversation with Mike Nichols,” Film Society of Lincoln Center, Walter Reade Theater, 2006. Published in Film Comment, July/August 2006, https://www.filmcomment.com/article/elaine-may-in-conversation-with-mike-nichols/.
151 “The first day,” Koch recalled: Abramowitz, Is That a Gun in Your Pocket?, 61.
151 “Elaine does [all those takes]”: Ibid., 62.
151 Mrs. Hitler: Elaine May, “Elaine May in Conversation with Mike Nichols,” 2006.
151 twenty takes: Betty Baer, “If Mike Can, Elaine May,” Look.
151 “She’s basically improvisational”: Army Archerd, “Just for Variety,” Variety, August 22, 1969.
152 the power spot: Ramis, Jack Oakie Lecture on Comedy in Film.
152 “He made us all look good”: Martin, “Harold Ramis Gets the Last Laugh.”
152 “too lost in their own dramas”: Judith Belushi and Tanner Colby, Belushi: A Biography (New York: Rugged Land, 2005), 31.
152 “Look, Mom and Dad”: Ibid.
152 “By the time he was four”: Ibid., 17.
153 “When I was a little boy”: Debba Kunk, interview with Harold Ramis, On TV, June 1982.
153 “This,” he said: Judy Jacklin Belushi to author.
153 “She came in through the bathroom window”: Belushi and Colby, Belushi: A Biography, 32.
153 “As much as John loved being”: Ibid., 8.
154 “Television and rock ’n’ roll”: Michael Segell, “John Belushi: Every Night Live,” Cosmopolitan, December 1981.
154 “From our beginnings”: Sahlins, Days and Nights, 92.
154 “I’m just having so much”: Joe Flaherty to author.
154 “Flaherty,” Belushi would say: Marshall Rosenthal, “Stamped with His Own Brando,” Chicago Daily News, April 18, 1972.
155 “He made a fugue”: Eugenie Ross-Leming to author.
155 “We respected the rule”: Jim Fisher to author.
155 “John looked funny”: Joe Flaherty to author.
155 Kissinger, he said: Ramis, Jack Oakie Lecture on Comedy in Film.
156 “always fit”: Jim Fisher to author.
156 Rabbi Dithers: Joe Flaherty to author.
156 “You all set, Harold?”: Ibid.
156 he really could keep his head: Erica Ramis to author.
9. 1972
158 provision in his contract: “Dialogue on Film: Neil Simon,” American Film, March 1978, p. 38.
158 (“Miss Mother”): David Sterritt, “She Acts, Writes, Teaches, Observes Human Reactions,” Christian Science Monitor, March 9, 1973.
158 to sing songs: Cybill Shepherd to author.
159 “Where does it say they sing?”: Nathan Rabin, interview with Charles Grodin, A.V. Club, May 20, 2009, http://www.avclub.com/article/charles-grodin-28125.
159 “spoke about the exploration”: Cybill Shepherd to author.
159 “Didn’t they have a conversation”: Rabin, interview with Grodin, 2009.
159 leap from a yacht: Sidney Fields, “The Face Is Familiar, but . . . ,” New York Daily News, April 26, 1972.
159 “She would hide”: Mike Nichols to author.
159 “induced documentary”: Visual History with William Friedkin, Interviewed by Jeremy Kagan, Director’s Guild of America, conducted over three days in 2007, 2009, and 2014.
159 Barbados: Army Archerd, “Just for Variety,” Variety, February 16, 1972.
159 “He wasn’t around very much”: Rabin, interview with Grodin, 2009.
159 “that phone call”: Michael Hausman to author.
159 NoDoz: Cybill Shepherd to author.
160 improv workshops during the off-hours: Sterritt, “She Acts, Writes, Teaches.”
160 “When I was little”: Chris Chase, “At the Movies,” New York Times, July 3, 1981.
160 “It seemed as though everything we did”: Stephen Farber, Moviegoer, June 1984.
160 “Rather than the class clown”: Gene Siskel, “Bill Murray Earns His Stripes,” New York Daily News, June 17, 1984.
160 “I got plenty of punishment”: Ibid.
161 school production of The Music Man: Lynn Hirschberg, “Bill Murray, in All Seriousness,” New York Times, January 31, 1999.
161 “Now, who’s going to audition”: Timothy Crouse, “The Rolling Stone Interview: Bill Murray,” Rolling Stone, August 16, 1984, p. 23.
161 “I’m a dancer now”: Ibid.
161 “which was even better than leaving”: Ibid.
161 sipped gin: Chris Chase, “Bill Murray: More Than Just a Funnyman,” Cosmopolitan, December 1984.
161 “We were inculcated”: Fred Schruers, “Isn’t He Romantic?,” Premiere, October 2003.
162 “It was an extraordinary chance”: Josh Tyrangiel, “The Many Faces of Bill,” Time, January 10, 2005.
162 “It was sort of a lonely thing”: Dotson Rader, “‘Life Is Easier If You Can Share the Burdens,’” Parade, February 21, 1999.
162 “They thought I was a riot”: Crouse, “The Rolling Stone Interview: Bill Murray.”
163 selling weed out of a suitcase: David Felton, “Bill Murray: Maniac for All Seasons,” Rolling Stone, April 20, 1978.
163 “I was so bad”: Chase, “Bill Murray.”
163 “Del,” said Ross-Leming: Eugenie Ross-Leming to author.
163 “By the time Del came”: Joe Flaherty to author.
164 “Sometimes we’d hang three pads”: Jim Fisher to author.
164 “made the improv and its requirements”: Eugenie Ross-Leming to author.
164 “Do I think Del influenced”: Helbig, “Friends and Coconspirators.”
164 “No one wanted to call it a night”: Eugenie Ross-Leming to author.
165 sneak into a forgotten warehouse: Ibid.
165 spread their newspapers: Joe Flaherty to author.
165 “Comedy’s an art”: Del Close, “Comedy and Rage: A Conversation with Del Close and John Guare,” New Theater Review 3 (Spring 1998): 9–12.
165 “Although there is a fair amount”: “Second City, Chi,” Variety, April 12, 1972.
165 (Del gave them that line.): Jim Fisher to author.
165 “During my days at Second City”: Mitchell Glazer and Timothy White, eds., “John Belushi: Made in America,” Rolling Stone, April 29, 1982.
165 “John worshipped him”: Joe Flaherty to author.
166 “and out of that”: Ibid.
166 “That was something our group”: Jim Fisher, in The Second City: The First Family of Comedy, directed by Sharon Bartlett (Very Scary Productions, 2006), DVD.
166 “Thirty minutes later”: Ibid.
166 “Other times,” Morgan said: Ibid.
166 “Oh, they really hate us”: Joe Flaherty to author.
166 In August 1972 Gary Austin: Gary Austin to author.
168 Ma
rshall Field’s flagship store: Chase, “Bill Murray.”
168 “There’s a lot of goodwill”: Josh Tyrangiel, “The Many Faces of Bill,” Time, January 10, 2005.
168 “We’d like to offer you a scholarship”: Chase, “Bill Murray.”
168 “It was one of the biggest”: Roy Blount Jr., “Have You Heard the One About Bill Murray and the Himalayan Women?,” GQ, November 1984.
168 “When you talk about paying”: Stephen Farber, Moviegoer, June 1984.
169 “The fear will make you clench”: Scott Raab, “Bill Murray: The ESQ+A,” Esquire, May 23, 2012.
169 “Comedy is not effortless”: Pat H. Broeske, “Murray the Mouth,” Stills, December 1984.
169 “The reason so many Second City”: Roger Ebert, “Bill Murray: ‘Quick Change’ Artist,” New York Daily News, July 13, 1990, available at http://www.rogerebert.com/interviews/bill-murray-quick-change-artist.
169 “He had a very special talent”: Josephine Forsberg quote, “Bill Murray on Acting,” Lost in Translation Fan Forum, http://www.weareawake.org/litforum/viewtopic.php?t=927&sid=f587906829083d1ce54dfd9bb3ba9651.
169 “It was clear Del didn’t want to direct”: Douglas Steckler to author.
169 “I gotta feed the cat”: Ibid.
170 “Get the fuck out”: Ibid.
170 Saint Mary’s women’s college: Thomas, The Second City Unscripted, 63.
170 “You had to give Bill space”: Joe Flaherty to author.
170 “Billy did not think he was doing his job”: Douglas Steckler to author.
170 “Billy was quick to use his fists”: Joe Flaherty to author.
171 “Billy is angry, tough, bright”: “Second City’s Bill Murray to Play Hunter Thompson,” Chicago, August 1979.
171 “I think he respects you”: Thomas, The Second City Unscripted, 62.
171 Treasure Island grocery: Christopher Connelly, “The Man You Are Looking for Is Not Here,” Premiere, August 1990.
171 “If he perceived”: Martin, “Harold Ramis Gets the Last Laugh,” 2009.
171 “You know,” Ramis said: Jeff Labrecque, “Bill Murray: The Curious Case of Hollywood’s White Whale,” Entertainment Weekly, August 27, 2013.
171 “I don’t believe what I heard”: Tobias, “Elaine May: A New Film.”
172 white lines: David Picker to author.
172 “John lost patience with her”: Victor Kemper to author.
172 “It’s because we respect”: Tom Miller, writing as Tom Cranford, A Fever of the Mad: A Movie Publicist Works with Francis Coppola, Elaine May, John Cassavetes, Peter Falk, and Richard Gere and Survives to Tell the Tale! (Hollow Square Press, 2013), 75.
172 16,000 feet with two cameramen: Tom Miller’s Notes, Folder 108, Mikey and Nicky Publicity, Tom Miller Papers, AMPAS Special Collections, Margaret Herrick Library.
173 “But they might come back”: Victor Kemper to author.
173 “Who’s gonna see that?”: Ibid.
174 A focus-puller quit: Tom Miller’s Notes, Folder 108, Mikey and Nicky Publicity, Tom Miller Papers, AMPAS Special Collections, Margaret Herrick Library.
174 locked in a closet: Ibid.
174 “These ladies want to know”: Ibid.
174 “also improvisational”: Ibid.
174 “Elaine,” Kemper said: Victor Kemper to author.
175 Elaine filled the fridge: Dan Rottenberg, “Elaine May . . . or She May Not,” Chicago Tribune, October 21, 1973.
175 a box of donuts: Miller, A Fever of the Mad, 75.
176 “I couldn’t imagine anyone else having invented”: Victor Kemper to author.
176 “Anyone here want to go up”: Joe Flaherty to author.
177 “You’ll love it”: Ibid.
177 Her camp friends, Chicago kids: Sweet, Something Wonderful Right Away, 363.
177 University of Michigan: Ibid., 363.
178 “It’s like getting to be a child”: Ibid., 67.
10. 1973–1974
179 We go north now: Martin Short to author.
179 “No one watched Canadian television”: Ibid.
180 “What sticks in my mind”: Ibid.
180 “Everybody was really at their funniest”: Paul Shaffer, in The Second City: The First Family of Comedy, directed by Sharon Bartlett (Very Scary Productions, 2006), DVD.
180 “Opportunity was inherent”: Valri Bromfield to author.
181 “When we started in Godspell”: Martin Short to author.
181 “Marty did so many characters”: Catherine O’Hara to author.
181 “freedom was encouraged”: Ibid.
181 “like one of those old workshop exercises”: Ibid.
181 “We were all family people”: Ibid.
181 “In those days,” Andrea Martin said: Andrea Martin to author.
181 “Or vice versa”: Catherine O’Hara to author.
181 the actor, not the role: Stephen Schwartz to author.
182 “Godspell was basically”: Dave Thomas to author.
182 “my long, slow, snowy”: Jayne Eastwood to author.
182 “incest and wolves”: Robin Duke to author.
182 Short recalled, “like a demented child”: Martin Short, I Must Say: My Life as a Humble Comedy Legend (New York: Harper, 2014), 75.
182 “This,” Schwartz said: Stephen Schwartz to author.
182 “It’s no accident”: Ibid.
182 “We didn’t love the show”: Joe Flaherty to author.
182 Del and Flaherty wanted Eugene: Ibid.
183 Flaherty confessed to Doyle-Murray: Ibid.
183 “Bernie,” Flaherty said, “wasn’t big”: Ibid.
183 “The instructor Brian Gordon”: Peter Robb, “Dan Aykroyd: It’s All About McNamara’s Band and the Ottawa Little Theatre,” Ottawa Citizen, May 23, 2014.
183 “He reminded me of my brother”: Valri Bromfield to author.
184 “Sitting there, bored”: Ibid.
184 “He could have been”: Ibid.
184 “the hawks, the doves, the rights”: Carol Caldwell, “The Aykroyd Chronicle,” Playboy, June 1982.
184 “I definitely led in the booking”: Valri Bromfield to author.
184 “I had never met anyone so young”: Ibid.
184 “We would dress up”: Ibid.
184 “the very thing”: Ibid.
184 “Danny and Valri were wild”: Dave Thomas to author.
185 “Everybody was improvising”: Valri Bromfield to author.
185 That’s why Candy was so often late: Bob Dolman to author.
185 lobster and pizza: Sheldon Patinkin to author.
186 a gay boxer: Dave Thomas, SCTV: Behind the Scenes (Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, 1996), 221.
186 “I want that guy”: Ibid.
186 “John was so good at listening”: Joe Flaherty to author.
186 hate herself forever: Sweet, Something Wonderful Right Away, 364.
186 “I’d move my head”: Elizabeth Stone, “Gilda Radner: Goodbye, Roseanne, Hello, Broadway,” New York Times, November 9, 1980.
187 “Show business is about families”: Stone, “Gilda Radner: Goodbye, Roseanne, Hello, Broadway.”
187 the Young Girl, the Old Woman: Sweet, Something Wonderful Right Away, 364.
187 “I’ve just never let go”: Edwin Miller, “Gilda Update,” Seventeen, January 1981.
187 “The Second City tradition”: Valri Bromfield to author.
187 “Okay,” Flaherty said: Joe Flaherty to author.
187 “These guys had no artistic pretensions”: Ibid.
188 “I just loved comedy”: Ibid.
188 “Danny and Valri raised”: Ibid.
189 “Improv is human”: Valri Bromfield to author.
189 “fascinated by Danny and Valri”: Catherine O’Hara to author.
189 Please, oh please: Ibid.
189 “Keep up the good work”: Ibid.
189 scared the hell out of him: Eugene Levy to author.
189 Doyle-Murray, Levy
recalled: Ibid.
189 “I had zero agenda”: Martin Short to author.
190 “I couldn’t imagine getting up there”: Ibid.
190 Short was “gobsmacked”: Ibid.
190 “Greg,” Doyle-Murray, as the professor: Second City Archive, The Second City, Chicago.
190 He said, “To trust the power of sincerity”: Martin Short to author.
191 tour of Wrigley Field: Patrick Goldstein, “Candy Tells Tales on Some of His Favorite Comics,” Los Angeles Times, August 28, 1986.
191 “This is my town”: Ibid.
191 “He’s the kind of guy”: Ibid.
191 “He still had a ways to go”: Joe Flaherty to author.
191 “I think that what we try to do now”: “‘Et Tu, Kohoutek; or Take 47’ Cast Interview,” January 15, 1974, Second City Archives, Second City, Chicago.
191 “But this was my first time”: Andrew Alexander to author.
192 “All of a sudden”: Ibid.
192 “blend of outrage and resignation”: Bruce J. Schulman, The Seventies: The Great Shift in American Culture, Society, and Politics (New York: Da Capo, 2001).
193 wear his characters like a trench coat: Dave Itzkoff, “With Bill Murray, Just Take the Trip,” New York Times, November 28, 2012.
193 “Using small effects”: Mark Leviton, “Dan Aykroyd and Bill Murray Believe in Ghosts,” BAM Magazine, June 15, 1984.
193 “He kept us all afloat”: Ann Ryerson, Fred Kaz Memorial, Second City, September 30, 2014.
193 “Sure, you can say”: Hugh Boulware, “It’s Fred Kaz and All That Jazz: ‘Last Hipster’ Is the Musical Glue That Held Second City Together,” Chicago Tribune, December 18, 1988, http://articles.chicagotribune.com/1988-12-18/entertainment/8802250816_1_musical-director-piano-player-second-city/2.
193 “The whole lounge-singer thing”: Tino Insana to author.
194 “Ladies and gentlemen,” he proclaims: Second City Archive, Second City, Chicago.
194 Andrew Alexander went to Bernie: Andrew Alexander to author.
195 “Nothing was bleaker”: Joe Flaherty to author.
195 “Most people with half a brain”: Sally Cochrane to author.
195 “They’d be in a drunken bad mood”: Joe Flaherty to author.
195 “You could barely see through”: Sally Cochrane to author.