A kid of 14 came up to me after one of my shows and said, "I'm thinking of getting into the comedy profession, I hear it's rather well-paying," and I was shocked, 'cause for me it's like a spiritual calling and I said, "Don't you have to be funny?" But now it's sort of just a stepping stone to getting your own sitcom. So the whole idea of it has changed. And so you'll have comedy on Evening at the Improv where they don't do topical stuff because it has to go into syndication, so they'll do stuff about airplane food and Gilligan's Island and their first date. And the audience, they don't laugh so much as applaud, and what they're applauding is their own recognition of the references, so it's a separate reality that Carlos Castaneda never dreamed of.
Paul Krassner
Q: Television is about television. It's about the careers of the people
in the show.
A: It's Inside Baseball. And it's not just television. It's show
business.
From Dusk 'til Dawn wasn't just about George Clooney is
a movie star. It was about we're taking George Clooney, a star of ER, on
TV, and making him a movie star.
Die Hard was about we're making Bruce
Willis, a star of Moonlighting, a movie star.
So you don't want to
be a comedic actor to get on Moonlighting, you get on Moonlighting to
become a movie star. To make Die Hard.
Q: Right. After Die Hard, you become a franchise.
Like
John Travolta following Pulp Fiction with Get Shorty.
Now he's
John Travolta.
A: Dylan went electric at Newport. The folk mafia had a cow.
Q: Well, Dylan knew what he was doing.
He wasn't a folk singer,
he was a rock star.
A: He wasn't a rock star, he was Dylan.
Q: Yes. You're not a failed writer, you're Herman Melville.
A: I'm me. The Madcap Titan of the Dustbin.
Kurt Schwitters.
Making a picture out of sticking plaster.