Harvey Korman

            On Thursday morning I worked out the chords for most of the fourth verse of “Ballade de la chnoufe” (Ballad of the Snuff) by Boris Vian, but that’s the second verse of the song adaptation by Michel Fedrizzi. I don’t think Vian ever wrote or had anyone else write a melody for the song and so Fedrizzi’s tune is the only one I have to go on. Fedrizzi used less than half of the original lyrics and so I’ll have to fill in the blanks later. 

            I imported to my “Les millionaires” Movie Maker project numbers 101 to 220 of the images I collected for my photo-video of that song. There are 31 left and I’ll upload those tomorrow. Then I’ll start synchronizing the pictures with the lyrics. I think all of the photos will probably need to have their duration on the video timeline shortened by at least half. 

            I weighed 87.2 kilos before breakfast. 

            I played my Martin acoustic during song practice for the first of two sessions and it went out of tune during almost every song except for one. 

            Around midday I went over to the hardware store and bought two kinds of bedbug spray: one the poison and the other the diatomaceous earth. I asked Mikey if they sell more of the stuff lately and he said he thinks more is sold in the spring. 

            I weighed 88.6 kilos before lunch. 

            In the afternoon it was too rainy for a bike ride downtown and so I just rode to Freshco. The grapes were all too soft so I just bought bag of oranges instead. I also got two packs of raspberries, two bags of avocadoes, some bananas, a pack of mushrooms, a tub of cream cheese, a pack of Full City Dark coffee, a jar of marinara sauce, a jar of salsa, a pack of Irish Spring soap and a pack of Sponge Towels. 

            I weighed 88.4 kilos at 17:35. 

            I was caught up in my journal at 18:25. 

            I tried again to digitize side 1 of the problematic cassette that would barely record at all with a direct line from the tape player to my audio interface. Yesterday I came close by recording it with a microphone against the speaker but the bass was overwhelming and the volume was too low. This time I turned the bass right down and the volume up to 0 and it worked. It starts with a live recording of my song “Megaphor” and the rest is a rehearsal of “Me and Gravity” and “Instructions for Electroshock Therapy”. Tomorrow I’ll do side 2. 

            I created some folders for photos in my SSD and deleted several images from my hard drive. I steamed a broccoli crown and had half of it in a salad with cucumber, grape tomatoes, and avocadoes while watching season 1, episode 22 of The Carol Burnett Show. 

            During the audience warm-up someone asks Carol if she’s double jointed and she demonstrates that she is. Nanette Fabray performs “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” in sign language. 

            There’s a parody of Valley of the Dolls. Carol and two other women are sitting on a bed. One of them says she’s going to call the drugstore and order an overdose of sleeping pills. Another says, “Get me a jar of Dippity Do. Carol says she’s tired of the lying and the cheating so she’s going to leave Hollywood and go back to the little town she came from. One asks, “Where are you from?” Carol says, “Peyton Place”. 

            There’s a parody of Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner. The son played by Harvey Korman brings home a mermaid played by Nanette Fabray. His parents Carol Burnett and Art Carney have to learn to accept her. 

            In the next sketch it’s the 1936 Academy Awards and Shirley Dimple (played by Carol) is brought out to present the award for Best Child Star but she resents not receiving it again herself. The winner is her arch-rival Janey Dithers (played by Nanette). Shirley and Janey are asked to recreate their famous number from Babes in Armenia. While they are acting out the friendship declared in the lyrics they are also making little attacks on each other until they end up in a big feather pillow fight. 

            Carol brings out Lyle Waggoner to ask about his acting background. He says he studied improvisation. Carol asks to do an improv with Lyle. She says, “Let’s pretend that we love each other a lot but haven’t seen each other in five years”. Carol steps in and Lyle says, “I’m so glad to see you mother!” 

            Vickie Lawrence does a song and dance number with Don Chrichton and the Earnie Flatt Dancers. The song is “Bend Me Shape Me” by Scott English and Larry Weiss. It was a hit by The American Breed in 1968. Some of the members went on to form Rufus. 

            In the next skit Carol plays an obsessively jealous wife who is married to a garbage collector played by Art Carney. She thinks that every woman wants her husband even though she’s the only woman who’s attracted to him. 

            The final song and dance number features Carol and Nanette. They play tough roller derby chicks singing “I Enjoy Being a Girl” by Rogers and Hammerstein from the musical Flower Drum Song. Three years before this, on the show The Entertainers, Carol sang the song while dressed as Morticia Addams. Art carney joins them with a song about Wild Women. In the end everybody has broken teeth. 

            Harvey Korman studied at the Goodman School of Drama. His TV debut was on The Donna Reed Show in 1959. His film debut was in Carving Magic in 1959. His first big break was as a co-star on The Danny Kaye Show. He was the voice of The Great Gazoo on The Flintstones. He won four Emmy Awards and a Golden Globe for his work on The Carol Burnett Show. He had his own sitcom The Harvey Korman Show briefly in 1977 and starred in the also short lived Leo and Liz in Beverly Hills in the 80s. He co-starred in High Anxiety, Herbie Goes Bananas, Don’t Just Stand There, Americathon, and First Family.