July 30, 1996: After my open stage I went for coffee with my regulars

Thirty years ago today

             On Tuesday night as always I hosted my Orgasmic Alphabet Orgy writers open stage in the Art bar of the Gladstone Hotel. Afterwards I went for coffee with Raven, Cad, Anna and a few other regulars.

July 29, 1996: Brian and I rehearsed

Thirty years ago today 

            On Monday Brian Haddon came over to my place and we rehearsed for our Art Bar reading series gig in a couple of weeks.

James Garner

            On Saturday morning I continued editing “La complainte de Bonnot” by Boris Vian in my Christian’s Translations blog and might have it published tomorrow. 

            I memorized the chorus of “Shylock” by Serge Gainsbourg and translated it with the title “Pirate”. Although the name Shylock is Anglo Saxon in origin it has antisemitic implications because the most famous Shylock is the Jewish villain in Shakespeare’s Merchant of Venice. “Pirate” renders it more universal. 

            I weighed 90 kilos before breakfast. 

            I played my Gibson Les Paul Studio during song practice and it stayed in tune pretty much the whole time. 

            Around midday I rode to No Frills where the green grapes were on sale so I got seven bags. I also bought some bananas, a pack of nectarines, a pack of peaches, a box of Earl Grey tea, a carton of spoon sized shredded wheat, a jug of lemonade, a jug of orange juice, two containers of skyr, and a bag of Miss Vickie’s chips. 

            I weighed 91.3 kilos at 14:35. 

            I had peanut butter and five-year-old cheddar on saltines with a glass of lemonade. 

            I took a siesta and slept a lot longer than usual so it was too late to take a bike ride. 

            I weighed 91.9 kilos at 17:40. 

            I was still a day behind on my journal and worked on getting caught up. 

            I made two burgers with Canadian ground beef. I made pizza on a slice of multigrain sandwich bread with rosée tomato sauce, tomato pesto, a crumbled up burger, and five-year-old cheddar. I had it with a glass of Creemore lager while watching season 11, episode 22 of The Carol Burnett Show.

            During the audience warmup someone asks Carol how can she walk around in that tight skirt when she plays Mrs. Wiggins. She says there’s a lot in the behind of the skirt that she doesn’t fill up and it’s very tight at the bottom so the only way to walk in it is bent forward with the butt out. 

            Someone asks Carol what was her biggest break in show business. She says when she was on The Garry Moore Show. 

            Someone asks what her plans are for the near future. She says she has no plans other than to be on the unemployment line in about three weeks. She thinks she’s going to do another picture with Robert Altman because she loved the last one. The last one was A Wedding and in 1985 she was in an Altman TV film called The Laundromat. 

            Someone asks if Carol is going to do any specials. She says she’d love to do a special with Dolly Parton. A year later she did Dolly and Carol in Nashville. 

            Someone asks, “If you had your choice of any person…” Carol interrupts and says “It would be you!” He finishes his question, “…to spend the night with.” Carol points at the production booth and says, “No it’s none of you guys!” She says, “They have been so raunchy! I can hear every word they are saying to me” and she shows that she’ s wired up her back running to an earpiece.

            In the first sketch Ken Berry plays a psychiatrist and James Garner (as Larry), Carol (as Millie), Vicki (as Diana), and Tim (as Bradley) are his patients who have just successfully finished a group therapy experiment in which they’ve spent three weeks in a remote cabin together until they were cured. Ken and three of them are about to leave but James calls out, “Don’t open that door! He’s still out there.” Vicki asks, “Who’s still out there?” Larry says, “The Boogie Man!” Bradley is angry and wants to leave but Millie says they agreed that no one leaves until they’re all cured. Millie asks Larry, “What is all this nonsense about the Boogie Man?” “It’s not nonsense! He’s gonna get me!” They remind him that they caught the Boogie Man and put him a big bag, then stomped all over him before setting fire to him and then buried the ashes. Larry says it wasn’t the real Boogie Man. Ken says this is just a typical separation anxiety. Millie says, “What if all of us went outside with you?” He agrees to that. But Bradley has locked himself in the washroom. Millie coaxes him out and Brad comes out cross-dressed in a dress, a blonde wig with a green bow, a pink purse and matching shoes. Ken says he can’t go out like that. Vickie says she feels her headaches coming back. Then Millie’s split personality comes back and she switches back and forth in an argument with herself. Ken gives one personality a slap and then the other. Ken says, “Cure or no cure, I am flying to Hawaii!” He flaps his arms and jumps through the window. 

            George Carlin as Carl Closeout does an Amazing Record Offer commercial. It’s the chance to have 400,000 musical favourites in your own home. A treasury of every song written since the dawn of time. These records are yours for 12 cents a pound, which comes to just over $27,000. Country classics like “If I Give My Heart to You Will You Give Me a Receipt?” and “No One Knows How I Feel So I Keep it to Myself”. Hey Jazz fans, the big bands are coming back. There’s no work for them but they are coming back. You’ll hear The Ornette Perkins Far Out Woodside Avenue Experimental Pop Band and Travel Agency doing their calypso version of “Taps”. In the Latin music category Tito Cabesa plays “The Mexican Hat Dance”, “The Mexican Overcoat Dance”, and “The Mexican Corrective Stocking Dance”. In Classical music The Bell Telephone Orchestra does “Symphony Number 9 Opus 508 Area Code 212”. Try these records in your own home for ten years. Take a leave of absence and give them a listen. If you’re not completely satisfied we’ll send someone out to poison your dog. If you don’t have $27000 we can spread the payments out over a week. If you order now we’ll send these bonus tracks for free: A three hour recording of Sam Levinson describing his kitchen as a child; a three hour recording of Dr. Timothy Leary describing his child as a kitchen; a documentary called “One Nation Indivisible Parts 1 and 2”; and a recording of Rich Little talking in Jimmie Cagney’s sleep. 

            Tim Conway and Brad Trumbull are construction workers sitting on a girder and having lunch. Brad is reading the news out loud and says, “The federal government’s now allowing companies to grind bones into hot dogs.” Tim says, “I wish someone would grind my wife into a hotdog. Brad reads that somebody accidentally killed their pet chicken in a trash compactor. Tim buys a trash compactor and presents it to his wife (played by Carol). She’s a cloying, ditzy, overly affectionate slave who refers to herself in the third person as in, “You bought her a present?” He tells her to stick her head in to read the instructions. But she keeps popping back out before he can push the button to compact her. She says it’s dark in there. He demonstrates and she pushes the button because she thinks it’s the light. 

            Ken and the dancers are in late 19th century costumes in a small town waiting for a train. He sings the 1926 song “My Cutie’s Due at Two To Two Today” by Leo Robin, Albert Von Tilzer, and Irving Bilbo. Of course he also does a tap dance. Played by Vicki, she’s been away for months but returns sophisticated, fashionable and worldly. She sings a song about teaching everybody those big city ways. She dances with all the men but Ken. He keeps trying and failing to cut in. Ken sings about not minding that she’s flirting and tells her to order him around and he’ll obey. She lets him carry all her luggage while the other men escort her. 

            Tim and Brad are back at work but now Tim has a shrunken head from his encounter with the trash compactor. Brad reads that a demolition worker in Toronto was hit by a wrecking and knocked into Lake Ontario. Tim gets a wrecking ball and hangs it from his ceiling, and sets it up so it will swing down when his wife walks in. He calls for her and she comes in but bends over to pick up his slippers just as the ball swings and it misses her. He gets her to stand on a target but she squats to look at the pretty colours when he swings the ball. He tries again but this time the ball doesn’t swing. He stands over the target to try to release it and of course it hits him in the head like Wile E. Coyote. 

            Jerome (played by George) is in a dental office to get his teeth cleaned. Mona the dental hygienist (played by Carol) turns out to be his ex-wife. She says she’s been working there since alimony ran out. He asks how she’s been doing as she begins to work in his mouth. She says she’s been fine considering that he took her to the cleaners in the divorce settlement, and she begins to cause him pain. She says she’d told him to wait till the kids grow up and she inflicts even more pain. It sounds like she’s breaking his teeth as she talks about her broken heart. She starts to use an electric grinder on his teeth and there’s smoke coming out of his mouth. He’s spitting out teeth and she says she’ll see him in six months. 

            Carol and James play a couple that’s been having an affair but now Carol says it has to end. He begs her to stay but she goes to the door. She leaves and closes the door behind her but comes back in because it was the closet. They say goodbye again and she takes the opportunity to leave after the phone rings. She comes back because she thinks she left her glasses. She finds them then leaves again but comes back because she forgot her purse. Then everything falls out of her purse and they pick the things up. She leaves again but it’s in the closet again. She says, “Why don’t you put a sign on the damn door!” 

            Tim and Brad are back at work and Tim hears from Brad another news report about a mob hit involving a piano that was rigged to explode when a certain note was played. Tim rigs a piano so it’ll explode with the final “pop” of “Pop Goes the Weasel”. But when Carol plays it the “pop” has a higher key. For some stupid reason he plays it to show her she’s wrong and it explodes. 

            A couple of buskers are playing in front of the music hall so Carol and Ken set up as well. They are carrying violin cases but inside there are kazoos. They play but it’s pretty bad. Then they sing “Two Penniless Bums” by Jule Styne and Bob Merrill from the 1972 musical Sugar. Instead of the kazoos they try singing and sing the 1971 song “Sing” by Joe Raposo from Sesame Street. Then they sing “Put On a Happy Face” by Lee Adams and Charles Strouse from the 1960 musical Bye Bye Birdie. Then they do a soft shoe dance in the snow and the passersby start to throw money. They end with “Two Penniless Bums”. 

            James Garner had a stepmother who beat him and forced him to wear a dress in public as punishment. He started modelling Jantzen bathing suits while still in high school. He dropped out of high school at 16 to join the Merchant Marines. He earned two Purple Heart medals after being wounded twice during the Korean Police Action. He made is acting and Broadway debut with a non speaking part in The Caine Mutiny Court Martial in 1954. The play led to small TV roles, TV commercials, and eventually a contract with Warner Brothers. From 1957 to 1960 he starred in Maverick (in which he said he played his lazy self more than any other role). The show beat Ed Sullivan and Steve Allen in the ratings for two years and made Garner a star. The hit movie The Sting was based on one of the Maverick episodes. He starred in the short-lived series Nichols. He starred in The Rockford Files (modelled as a modern day Maverick) from 1974 to 1980 (for which he won an Emmy Award). He starred in the sitcom Man of the People. He appeared in 45 episodes of Eight Simple Rules. He co-starred in Sayonara, The Children’s Hour, Boy’s Night Out, The Thrill of It All, Move Over Darling, The Great Escape, Murphy’s Romance (for which he was nominated for an Oscar. Sally Field said kissing Garner in that film was the best screen kiss she ever had), Sunset, Maverick, My Fellow Americans, Space Cowboys, Divine Secrets of the Ya Ya Sisterhood, The Notebook, The Ultimate Gift, The Return of Black Adam, and Victor Victoria. He starred in Darby’s Rangers, Up Periscope, Cash McCall, The Americanization of Emily, Mr. Buddwing, Grand Prix (the movie led to his obsession with racing pace cars), He co-produced and starred in The Racing Scene. Marlowe, Hour of the Gun, Support Your Local Sherrif, Support Your Local Gunfighter, 36 Hours, Tank, Barbarians at the Gate, Starting in 1977 he did a series of more than 250 Polaroid Commercials with Mariette Hartley. The couple was so convincing that many people thought that Hartley really was Garner’s wife. From 1985 to 1989 he was the radio and television spokesman for Mazda. He earned $1 million a year and a new Mazda of his choice every year. he had a 400 acre vineyard in Santa Ynez, California. He bottled his own chardonnay called “Chateau Jimbeaux”. He smoked marijuana for 50 years and didn’t know where he’d be without it. He though it should be made legal and that alcohol should be criminalized. He was vice president of the Screen Actors Guild when Ronald Reagan was president, and that’s how he knew that Reagan was not qualified to be President of the United States.

July 28, 1996: My daughter and I spent a nice Sunday together

Thirty years ago today 

            On Sunday my daughter and I went to the playground and also played on the back roof of my place.

July 27, 1996: Nancy brought our daughter to me

Thirty years ago today 

            On Saturday Nancy brought our daughter to my place so she could spend the weekend with me.

Steve Martin

            On Friday morning I uploaded “La complainte de Bonnot” by Boris Vian to my Christian’s Translations blog and started preparing it for publication. 

            I converted my audio for “Shylock” by Serge Gainsbourg to AVI and imported it to Movie Maker where I just cut it down to the words “vieux brigand” or whatever is being said. I uploaded it to several transcription sites but they all wanted money. I downloaded Whisprflow but it turned out not to do French for some stupid reason. I found a site that did it for free but it was way off. Finally I just decided that what Petula Clark is singing must be “vieux brigaut” which means “old pirate”. So I’ll go with that. 

            I weighed 89.75 kilos before breakfast. 

            I played my Martin during song practice for the last of four sessions.

            My stereo was dropping a channel again sometimes but only when the Input knob was switched to CD. The CD plugs in the back of my stereo are what I use to connect the audio from my computer. I decided to try to plug the jacks into Phono and I got both channels but it was distorted so I switched back to CD. Suddenly I had two channels and it didn’t drop out so I must have just had the jacks not fully fitted into the plugs. 

            I cleaned the glass of my future bathroom mirror and secured it back in the frame with the metal wedges I’d removed last week. While struggling with that I smudged the glass again so I’ll clean it again on Sunday and hopefully finally mount it in the bathroom. 

            I weighed 91.25 kilos before lunch. 

            In the afternoon I took a bike ride downtown and on the way the way up Brock Avenue I found a two-volume set of a hard cover French-English dictionary called Harrap’s, so I took them. Apparently it’s a well respected dictionary that focuses more on historical context than my Collins-Robert dictionary, which is what I like. It’s the 1972 edition and in excellent condition. 

            On the way back I stopped at Freshco where I bought five bags of red grapes, a pack of Mexican raspberries, some bananas, a loaf of Rudolph’s sandwich bread, a pack of Canadian ground beef, honey, a pack of Full City Dark coffee, a jar of salsa, and some petroleum jelly. 

            I weighed 90.8 kilos at 18:45. 

            I had a container of honey that still had some in the bottom but not enough to pour. I usually add milk to it and shake it then use the last of it on my cereal. I was about to do that and then put it in the fridge overnight but noticed there were some ants crawling on the inside of the cap and a lot of dead ants in the honey at the bottom, so I threw it out. 

            I worked on getting caught up in my journal but was still behind at suppertime.

            I had a potato with gravy and two chicken drumsticks while watching season 11, episode 21 of The Carol Burnett Show. 

            In the As The Stomach Turns sketch, Marian (played by Carol) is necking with the chief of police to thank him for his search for her missing daughter. Later the doorbell rings and it’s Donna Davenport (played by Betty White) Canoga Falls leading interior decorator whose work is known in every bedroom in town. She says “The secret to an exciting bed lies in the sheets!” She tells Marian that she heard about her missing daughter and rushed over to tell her that now is the perfect time to turn her room into an upstairs den. Donna asks if she likes what she did to her bedroom and Marian says putting in a tollgate was the perfect choice. She asks if her round bed is good to sleep on but Marian says she wouldn’t know. The doorbell rings and it’s lineman from the county Richard Dryface (a parody of Richard Dreyfuss played by Steve Martin) who comes in looking extremely agitated. He informs Marian that her daughter was abducted by aliens and taken aboard a spacecraft from another world. Marian says angrily, “I told her never to accept rides from strangers!” He wants to show her the shape he saw in a vision of the place where the aliens will land. He goes out to her garden and breaks her window then throws several plants inside onto her table. He goes to her kitchen and brings a big container of mashed potatoes, which he empties with the plants onto the table. He puts eggs on top of the mashed potatoes for landing lights. He smashes the eggs with a tennis racket and then dumps a bag of flour on top of that. He asks if she has a spare cat. She slaps his face and he says, “Well excuuuse me!” He covers everything with a table cloth and puts a pillow on top then declares, “That’s the shape!”. Marian says it looks like her new bed upstairs. Then the house shakes and lights flash. Marian’s daughter (played by Vicki) descends the stairs with a baby and says they’ve brought her back. She says the baby is named Otmore Om Junior. He has antennae and his father’s eye. The alien (played by Tim) descends the stairs. He is silver with a very large head and long fingers. Richard tries to communicate with sign language. The alien pokes him in the eyes with two fingers. He then does a few other hand moves out of Three Stooges type sketches that result in Richard getting hit a lot. The alien wants someone to go with him and they all argue over who gets to go. 

            Steve Martin does a stand-up routine. He says in order to be a success in television you have to appeal to everyone. But he says there’s one group he hasn’t been appealing to and that’s dogs. A lot of dogs watch TV and he’s worked up a comedy act for dogs. He says he tried his act on some neighbourhood dogs and they were on the floor. “So if you have a dog call them over and let them sit in front of the TV screen because I think you’re gonna see them crack up for the first time. I’ll wait for just a second while you call your dog over.” He has four dogs sitting in front of him for his performance. After two bad jokes two of the dogs walk off stage. The dogs start being affectionate with him and each other. He asks one dog what time he has to be home and then says, “Maybe he can’t tell me because I have his watch!” He plays a tune on the dog whistle that only they can hear. The two dogs wrestle with each other and knock Steve down. 

            Tim plays an elderly man named Mr. Purdy who is wheeled by a nurse to sit alone on a park bench. Carol plays a nearly toothless old lady who sits beside him to feed the pigeons. She tells Purdy to pretend he doesn’t notice her. She says, “We’re bustin out of here tonight. Are you with us?” He calls for his nurse but Carol tells him to keep it down if he doesn’t want the screw in the tower to hear them. “We ain’t got much time out here in the yard”. She tells him to put his newspaper down between them and she slips something inside. It’s a spoon she says she made out of a knife. She says hello to the warden although there is nobody there. She tells Purdy the warden wants to know what he has in the newspaper. She says he just has his watch and so Tim takes off his watch and she shows it to the invisible warden. She says the warden says he’s not supposed to have a watch and so she’s supposed to keep it for him. She puts something else in his paper and this time it’s a bar of soap she says she made out of a gun. She says the warden’s come back and wants to know what he has in the paper. She tells him it’s his ring, so Tim puts his ring in. She says the warden says he can’t have a ring, so she’s gonna hold onto it. She tells the warden he also has his wallet in the paper. Purdy says he’s not going to go for it this time. He calls for a policeman but after relating everything that just happened, the cop takes Purdy away. 

            Next is a Family sketch that begins with Eunice’s sister Ellen (played by Betty) in her home, all dressed up and preparing for a party. The doorbell rings and it’s Eunice and Mama. Mama says, “Happy anniversary!” and Ellen invites them in but only pretending to be glad to see them. Eunice tells Mama that evidently there’s a party that they weren’t invited to so maybe they should just creep back to their humble part of town. Ellen says they can have a brief visit before her guests arrive. Mama gives Ellen a present and Eunice says it’s from both of them. Ellen opens it and it’s some cheap cologne they got at a two-for one sale. Ellen takes a sniff saying it’s wonderful but barely hides her disgust. Mama says it’s just a remembrance of her anniversary and she’s just pleased one of her daughters could keep a marriage together. Mama wants to see her two granddaughters and Ellen says they’re upstairs doing their homework. She asks her not to stay too long because they have a lot of work to do. Mama asks Ellen if she’s afraid she’s gonna kidnap them and sell them to the circus. When Eunice and Ellen are alone Eunice argues that Ellen’s daughters lives would be enriched if they spent more time with their grandmother. Ellen says, “Then you’re very lucky Eunice that your little boys have her right in the same house.” Eunice says, “Well I don’t wanna be selfish about it. It might be nice if we shared Mama for a while. You live in this big house while I live in a little cracker box on the wrong side of the tracks, as you once described it. As you know, Ed left me and I am trying to rebuild my own life and that old lady is driving me right up the wall and I think it’s only fair that you take her for a while.” Carol tries to ad lib a bit about the differences between her and Mama and gets confused, which makes Betty smile. Ellen says, “Well like you said, she is fun!” “Give me a breather. Just take her off my hands for a little bit!” Ellen says her husband breaks out in hives at the mention of Mama. “Do you remember how she behaved at our wedding? Asking Bruce’s mother how much she weighed!” “It is not fair! You have got to take her!” “I’d sooner take gas!” “If you don’t take her off my hands I’m gonna put her out on the streets!” “I have suffered enough on that account!” “She has always hated me and loved you the best!” Mama is no listening from the stairs as Ellen says, “If your were dumb enough to let that dragon move in with you, you can stew in your own juice…” Then they notice Mama, who says to Eunice, “I never expected any more from you, but you Ellen, I have given up my entire life for you!” “Oh set it to music Mama! You never gave up anything for anybody in your entire life! Thank the lord I left when I did or I would have turned out like Eunice!” Ellen’s guests arrive and she rushes Mama and Eunice out. Mama tells her, “You were a cold, ungrateful little snip the day you were born and you still are!” Eunice says, “You and that mealy faced priss Bruce you married, you deserve each other!” Mama tells Eunice, “You quit pickin on your sister!” and they leave. 

            They do a parody of Beach Blanket Bingo with Carol as Nanette Vermicelli, Steve as Frankie Travelon. Vicki in a blonde wig with pigtails is singing and twisting to the theme song on the beach with the dancers. Frankie says he broke up with Diane and he tells them about it by singing “Teenage Madonna” through the microphone he carries in his back pocket. Surfs up and Nanette doesn’t want to let Frankie surf alone in his hour of despair. Vicki warns her that nice guys never marry the girls they surf with. Nanette surfs beside Frankie and he invites her to step onto his board. Then she sings “Surfer Baby” (which sounds similar to “Surfer Girl” by The Beach Boys). Frankie pulls out his microphone to sing the second verse. He tries to kiss her and she slaps his face so they both fall off the board but Nanette saves him and they are both dry when they make it to the beach. Then the leather clad bikers arrive led by Betty as Angel and Tim as Von Schlepper. Schlepper tells the surfers to get off the beach and Frankie stands up to him for a while then backs down. Angel says she likes her men weak. He says he likes his women strong and greasy and they kiss. Schlepper challenges Frankie in a race to Dead Man’s Cove. Frankie is on his surfboard while Schlepper is surfing while standing on his motorbike. Carol, Vicki, and Angel cheer them on with a song. The race is a tie and now nobody hates each other. Frankie asks Nanette to marry him and asks Schlepper, “Do you think we outta get married?” Schlepper says he already promised Angel. Everybody sings, “Surfin Everyday” to the tune of “Surfin USA” by The Beach Boys which is to the tune of “Sweet Little Sixteen” by Chuck Berry. 

            At the age of 15 Steve Martin got a job at The Magic Shop at Disney’s Fantasyland where he learned magic tricks, juggling, rope tricks, and how to make balloon animals. He started playing banjo at 17. He was a cheerleader in high school where he developed his King Tut dance. At Santa Ana College he studied Drama and English Poetry. He joined a comedy troupe at Knott’s Berry Farm. He studied theatre at UCLA. He toured the college circuit with Martin Mull in The Steve Martin Mull Show. He started writing for The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour for which he won an Emmy Award and did his first TV performance on the same show, after which he was depressed for a week. He wrote for 20 episodes of The Glen Campbel Goodtime Hour, 37 episodes of The Sonny and Cher Comedy Hour, He first appeared on the Tonight Show in 1972 and returned several times each year to do standup. He guest hosted Saturday Night Live in 1976 and another 14 times over the years, plus 12 additional appearances in skits. His first comedy album, the Grammy winning “Let’s Get Small” went platinum in 1977. His “Wild and Crazy Guy” album went gold and also won a Grammy. His Comedy Is Not Pretty album went gold. His first starring film role was in The Absent Minded Waiter in 1977 (which he wrote and which was nominated for a short film Oscar). He co-wrote and starred in The Jerk in 1979. He starred in Dead Men Don’t Wear Plaid, The Man With Two Brains, All of Me, Pennies from Heaven, Three Amigos (which he co-wrote), Roxanne, Planes Trains and Automobiles, Parenthood, My Blue Heaven, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, L.A. Story (which he wrote), Father of the Bride, Father of the Bride 2, Leap of Faith, A Simple Twist of Fate, The Spanish Prisoner, Housesitter, The Out of Towners, Mixed Nuts, Grand Canyon, Bowfinger (which he wrote), Bringing Down the House, Cheaper by the Dozen, Cheaper by the Dozen 2, Shopgirl (which he wrote), The Pink Panther (which he co-wrote), The Pink Panther 2 (which he co-wrote), Love the Coopers, Sgt Bilko, He co-starred in Little Shop of Horrors, The Big Year, Home, Loonie Tunes Back in Action, Prince of Egypt, baby Mama, It’s Complicated, Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk, He co-created and stars in Only Murders in the Building on TV. He co-wrote the movie Traitor, He wrote the memoirs Born Standing Up, Number One is Walking, . He wrote the novels An Object of Beauty, The Pleasure of My Company, . He wrote Cruel Shoes. Pure Drivel, He co-wrote the musical Bright Star (which won a Grammy for Best Musical Theatre Album). He recorded the album Love Has Come for You with Edie Brickel and it one a Best Roots Grammy. He wrote the plays Meteor Shower, Picasso at the Lapin Agile. He won a Grammy for his music album The Crow in 2009. He co-won a Grammy for Best Country Instrumental performance on “Foggy Mountain Breakdown” with Earl Scruggs and Friends. He hosted the Academy Awards three times. His biggest comedic influence is Monty Python’s Flying Circus. He is a member of Mensa. He became a father for the first time at the age of 67.

July 26, 1996: Brian and I made enough busking to buy lunch and beer

Thirty years ago today

            Brian Haddon and I busked on Bloor Street and made enough to buy lunch and a pitcher of beer. Later he performed with me on the Spit Fridays open stage in the back room of the Cameron.