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10th
JUN

Old Stuff: Tim Robbins

Posted by chainsaw under interviews

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The following are excerpts from a 2005 interview I had with Tim Robbins, who was coming to The Ridgefield Playhouse for a film retrospective. All I remember from the phone interview was that he sounded really, really tired.

Hollywood maverick has sense of humor

RIDGEFIELD - Academy Award winning actor Tim Robbins does it for the wigs. When he gets a script, he scans the pages but doesn’t look for dialogue or character development.

Nope. He’s looking for rugs.

“I’ve got a few. It makes Halloween that much easier. If I ever start losing my hair I have a collection to choose from,” Robbins said.

However, there is a downside. Most of his wigs look like the one he wore in the Will Ferrell comedy “Anchorman,” where Robbins had a cameo as a pipe smoking, elbow-patch wearing, PBS-newsman-with-a-violent-streak.

The wig in question was a weird quasi-Afro.

“I could go for that if I had to,” Robbins said.

# # #

Robbins was also attached to one of the biggest Hollywood bombs of all time. “Howard the Duck,” produced by George Lucas, came out in 1986 and was quickly forgotten - even by Robbins.

“I was in another movie that year, ‘Five Corners’ (starring Jodie Foster and John Turturro) which was very good. I knew that more people would see that than ‘Howard the Duck.’ I didn’t care that much about ‘Howard the Duck.’ When that movie was about to come out I was directing a play at The Actor’s Gang,” he said.

# # #

Robbins‘ most popular movie, “The Shawshank Redemption,” wasn’t much of anything when it was released in 1994. It came and left theaters with little notice, despite glowing reviews.

However, the movie became a phenomenon once it hit video stores. Today it is considered, with “The Godfather,” as the most popular movie ever made, according to polls conducted by the Internet Movie Database.

Robbins said he thought the script was the best he had ever read. He’s proud that “Shawshank” has become a pop culture touchstone. In the film, he plays a man wrongfully jailed for murder. The movie has a mythic quality that makes it seem more fable than prison tale.

He’s still not sure why people love it so much.

“The spirit of that movie is a redemptive spirit. It offers people hope. You can analyze about what it is exactly about that movie. Is it someone finding freedom? Is it one of the few movies where men can have a friendship that doesn’t involve kicking ass and driving fast cars? Is it this deep meaning about being in prison and how everyone is imprisoned to some degree?,” Robbins said.

“Who knows? It’s important to people and I’m honored to be part of something like that,” Robbins said.

 

10th

Old Stuff: Jim Florentine

Posted by chainsaw under howard stern, interviews

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 Here’s a reprint of a News-Times interview I did with comic Jim “Yay, I’ve got mail” Florentine, pictured above with his lady friend, Ms. Robin Ophelia Quivers. He was a heck of a nice guy and didn’t say a bad word about anyone — even though I tried my best to goad him.

Cringe comic Jimmy Florentine! ! !

During an exclusive, 19-minute interview with The News-Times, Jim Florentine said dating Robin Quivers is a high-maintenance nightmare and Artie Lange is a cry-baby hop-head. Nah, he didn’t say anything even remotely close to that.

But the guy beyond the “Yay, I’ve got mail” voice from the old “Crank Yankers” show did plug his 7:30 p.m. appearance Sunday at the Treehouse Comedy Club in Danbury — and his latest comedy CD, “Anger is a Gift.”

News-Times: Tell me everything you know about Danbury.

Jim Florentine: Um . . . (long pause). I know there used to a Ground Round that I used to perform at there. It was tough to tell jokes while a guy was vacuuming up peanut shells.

NT: Your show is on a Sunday night. Is that an optimal night for comedy?

Florentine: It’s an early show. The married people can be home by 8:30 and the husband can go sleep on the couch.

NT: You’re dating Howard Stern Show co-host Robin Quivers, who’s known for being sophisticated and high class. You’re known for your love of flatulence. Does she having you doing things and going places against your will?

Florentine: In any relationship, with whatever chick you have, you’re going somewhere you don’t want to be. You gotta do some of that stuff. I’ll go anywhere once just for the experience. It’s good for comedy, so you have something to write about.

NT: Have you worked your high-profile romance with Quivers into your act?

Florentine: People want to know about it when I’m up on stage. They talk about it on the (Howard Stern) show non-stop, so fans already know what’s going on. (Quivers) is a cool chick. She’s not a controlling little girl like most of these girls are, you know? She’s independent, she’s got her own life going on, so that’s cool.

NT: Your “Meet the Creeps” DVD is full of pranks on unsuspecting rubes. Have you ever pulled an especially cruel prank and then felt sorry afterward?

Florentine: No.

NT: Not even close?

Florentine: Look, it’s a prank. It doesn’t bother me. It’s like asking an actor ‘Have you ever felt bad for playing a rapist or a murderer in a movie?’ You can’t over analyze it.

NT: What was your reaction to your friend Artie Lange’s outburst against his assistant on Stern’s Sirius show earlier this month?

Florentine: It’s sad. Hopefully everything works out.

NT: Who could replace Artie?

Florentine: I don’t know, man. The guy isn’t replaceable. He’s a very interesting guy. I hope, as a friend, that everything is good.

NT: Which stand-up comics did you rise through the ranks with?

Florentine: Jim Norton was my roommate. We both started at the same time. (We lived) in north Jersey. Bob Levy helped us both out. He let us open up for him because he liked that we were two creeps. Rich Vos was another guy who took a liking to us and took us under his wing.

NT: You’re part of the “cringe humor” crew. It seemed that observational comedy ruled stand-up for years — that and dopey guys like Ray Romano talking about their families. Why did guys like you, Norton and Vos break through?

Florentine: It comes in waves. Guys like (Sam) Kinison and Dice (Andrew “Dice” Clay) were big back in the day. (Bob) Schimmel was still around back then. Those were guys that were brutally honest. They just kind of laid it out there and were really funny, edgy, dirty and raunchy. Then it went away for awhile. I think the exposure with the Internet and radio changed everything. You don’t have to just work on getting a clean, five-minute set and then getting a sitcom on TV. I never subscribed to that formula. I was never going to be the guy with the corny wife and family and two kids.

NT: Do you hate Dane Cook?

Florentine: I’ve got nothing against him. A lot of comics don’t like him because he’s on top. A lot of people are jealous. Before him it was Larry the Cable Guy. A lot of comics didn’t like him because he was popular…

NT: Who is the most underrated stand-up comic today?

Florentine: (Very long pause) Judah Friedlander (of “30 Rock” fame).

NT: How come the Rev. Bob Levy gets plugs at the end of “The Howard Stern Show” but you don’t?

Florentine: He had a thing where he did the roasts and that was his payment, you know what I mean?

NT: What’s the weirdest thing you’ve seen at a “Killers of Comedy” road show?

Florentine: Bob Levy saying no to cocaine.

NT: You pulled out of the “Miserable Men” show on Sirius radio. Why?

Florentine: I wanted to get paid.

NT: That’s important.

Florentine: Yeah, especially when they tell ya you’re going to get paid, then you work nine months for free and you still don’t get paid. I loved doing the show, but I was cancelling gigs to come back to New York to get there.

NT: Who has better stand-up material? Shuli or Sal the Stockbroker?

Florentine: I don’t know. I’d say about the same. They’re both really funny guys. I don’t analyze comics that much. They both get laughs.

10th

Old Stuff: Rich Vos

Posted by chainsaw under interviews

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Blogs: the place to recycle stuff!

Here’s a 2006 interview I did with Rich Vos. At the time Vos was on his way to a gig at Brad Axelrod’s “Treehouse Comedy Club” at The New Sorrento in Danbury.

Vos is a stand-up comic from Jersey who gained fame on the first season of “Last Comic Standing” and constant appearances on “The Opie and Anthony Show.”

Vos made me laugh harder than any comic I’ve interviewed.

Most miserable man alive coming to Danbury

DANBURY - Rich Vos is a stand-up comic. He is a regular guest on the “Opie and Anthony” show on satellite radio. He was also on the first season of “Last Comic Standing” and he was a rotating guest on Comedy Central’s “Tough Crowd with Colin Quinn.”

He’s also the most miserable man alive.

Q: During stand-up shows, comics not performing always seem to sit in a corner table and talk. What are you people talking about?

A: They usually talk about how brilliant I am. Usually the conversation is ‘God, Rich Vos is brilliant. I which I could talk to him but he’s just too big to talk to us.’ That’s usually what goes on.

Q: Do you sit there and bad-mouth other comics like Jay Mohr, the “Last Comic Standing” host?

A: Jay Mohr is too easy. Jay Mohr bad-mouths himself. That’s all we do is bash each other. It’s just a bunch of insecure, self-centered egotists bashing each other.

Q: You raised your profile after appearing on NBC’s reality show “Last Comic Standing,” where a bunch of stand-ups lived together in a house.

A: I turned it down until the day before they started filming.

Q: What were your concerns with the show?

A: That I wouldn’t look good because I’m too mean and abrasive. It would have been the biggest mistake of my life.

Q: I’m going to group you in with edgy comics such as Jim Florentine, Colin Quinn, Jim Norton . . .

A: Whoa, whoa. You group them in with me. Don’t group me with them.

Q: OK. Do comics of similar styles tend to hang out together offstage?

A: I tend to hang out with creepier people. Jim Norton, (Patrice) Oneal, Florentine - they are all pure dysfunction and they make my life look better. I’m not going to hang out with lawyers or doctors. I’ll feel like a total zero. But with them, I feel like I’ve accomplished things in my life.

Q: You’ve been on “The View” three times.

A: I was on Rosie O’Donnell a few times. That’s my target audience. Middle-aged moms who are trying to decide ‘Should I sell real estate, or should I (have sex) with the guy next door?’

Q: Who’s creepier - comic Jim Norton or Star Jones?

A: No one’s creepier than Norton. If hepatitis was in human form it would be him.

Q: When you first hooked up with Opie and Anthony, did you think they were a Howard Stern rip-off?

A: I never thought they were a rip-off at all. I thought they were their own. I mean, there’s only a certain amount of topics you can do. They do their own spin on stuff. I was never a big Stern listener because I’m never up that early.

Q: You met Dustin Hoffman at last year’s Academy Awards. He played Lenny Bruce, every comic’s idol. What did you say to him?

A: I go to him, ‘You know, I also played Lenny Bruce.’ I compared my four lines on a show called ‘American Dreams’ to his Oscar nominated performance in a movie. I felt like a fat chick. That’s what I was. I wanted to go dip my arm in cheese and nibble on it. Barbra Streisand was there too and I didn’t talk to her. I said something stupid to Dustin Hoffman and I shunned Barbara Streisand. I just walked away. That’s why I’m working Danbury this week. That’s why he’s doing a movie every month and I’m doing a hotel for freakin’ Brad (Axelrod, The Treehouse Comedy Club producer).

Q: But you’re being interviewed by The News-Times. That’s pretty good.

A: Yeah, I heard of you. I heard of you. Are you kidding me? This is the second thing on the resume. This pushes everything down. The Oscars, then News-Times. And then my high school paper. And then an Internet interview.

Q: What about all these shows on E! and VH-1 where comics just comment on stuff?

A: I did one with E! They aired one word. That’s all they aired in a two-hour special. It was about the 50 best chick flicks. They aired me saying ‘ditto.’ I did one on VH-1. I’m sure it’s all sitting on the editing room floor. I’m sure they said ‘We can’t put that on. We can’t put that on.’

At this point Vos launched into an off-color joke we can’t print.