On Jul 24, 2005, at 1:05 AM, Christopher Smith wrote:
On Jul 24, 2005, at 1:36 AM, Ken Durling wrote:
Um, did I rank any of Chuck's achievements? Did I say "cooler than"?
If I misread your post, I apologise, but when you say "now that is
a cool thing" it sort of implies that maybe some previous things
WEREN'T as cool as "that". I was reacting to that implication, in
the case of Chuck. Though now that I have waded through some more
of last week's posts, he didn't seem to take it amiss at all, and
didn't need me to jump to his defense.
No, I didn't (take it amiss, I mean) - not at all. I think people
deserve special respect when they are doing the thing(s) for which
they are specially trained and developed and where they have special
experitise. Otherwise, they deserve only normal, person to person,
respect (not a small thing, and one that is occasionally missing in
some gratuitously insulting posts). I was glad that Ken thought that
being around Lenny Bruce was an interesting experience to have had.
It was, though I didn't know him well and can hardly point to any
level of intimacy in our relationship. I did know some other, now
famous, comedians, because there were many of them working in the
same clubs I was. Woody Allen, Dick Cavett, Godfrey Cambridge,
Richard Pryor and George Carlin were among them, and Woody was the
only one I had enough of an acquaintance with to think that he'd
recognize me, if we passed on the street now.
One of my pleasurable moments on this list was when I answered
someone's question about arranging techniques by sending some of the
material I use with my students, and Linda Worley called it a "great
post." If I am able to return some of the invaluable help and
knowledge I have gained here, and someone happens to acknowledge
that, that's recognition enough in this context.
About Carl Dershem's suggestion that my autobiography ought to be a
great read: a few summers ago, I wrote about 200 pages of a spew
draft of a "memoir," showed it to a few people and then left it to
sit for a (long) while. Now it looks about 40 to 50% pertinent and
maybe 60% silly personal stuff that is of interest to no one but me,
and me not so much on a distanced re-reading. I think it needs a lot
of taking the personal stories and incidents and putting them in a
larger context of the the culture of the time. Then it might be a
good book. That's a lot of work, and I don't know when I'll get
inspired to do that. It's much harder (and probably more important)
than just reviewing my experience. A good and interested editor
would probably help.
Chuck
Chuck Israels
230 North Garden Terrace
Bellingham, WA 98225-5836
phone (360) 671-3402
fax (360) 676-6055
www.chuckisraels.com
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