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OUT OF LEFT FIELD |
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TONY BRAITHWAITE?"  TONY BRAITHWAITE ...acting silly in public |
Attention, NBC: Here’s A
Late Night Man for You
of TheColumnists.com
This was going to be a column about the making of a comedy show. Tony Braithwaithe, the one-man whirling dervish about theater in the Philadelphia area, agreed to let me sit in on the early machinations of the show, “First Impressions” featuring many of his quick-witted, improvisational-like talents.
I have already written a column about Braithwaithe (tough name to type every time I do it) but I don’t fear overdoing him because of the chance to present an inside-show business angle to readers. (Click here for Stan's earlier column: A Hidden Treasure Named Tony: Aug. 31, 2009). I’ll eventually get around to that, but something has come up in the meantime that inspires me to make a a bold suggestion.
Last week the TV show-business precincts were rocked by the Leno-O’Brien affair. NBC decided that Jay Leno wasn’t cutting it in prime time. The embattled NBC executives would move Leno back to his old spot on “The Tonight Show” and bump O’Brien to a post-midnight spot. This didn’t suit O’Brien, however. He cried “foul” and by my reading of show-biz tea leaves as of this writing, he is on the make to wind up at Fox network, which is slobbering to have him.
That would leave open the post-midnight spot O‘Brien doesn’t want and NBC would have to fill. Here is where my man Tony Braithwaite (still a tough name to type) comes in. Braithwaithe is an all around song-and-dance man who was born to be a late-night TV host. He is engaging, funny, quick-witted, a master impressionist-as he showed recently in his show, “First Impressions”.
And he has an engaging personality. He is, I dare say, loveable. There is a whole troupe of citizens who are called Braithwaitians (even tougher word to type) in the Philadelphia area who immediately sign up for any show featuring Tony. I hope this appeal somehow works its way to NBC. Are you listening, my old friend, Dick Ebersol?
Now, about the making of “First Impressions.” The idea to do a show involving imitations of Presidents percolated in Braithwaithe’s brain for some time. Last summer he picked up the tab for a suite in Atlantic City for three friends to spend the weekend and fashion a show built around his imitations. He said, “I tend to write better when I am working with people rather than just writing by myself.”
I had visions of the Atlantic City venture
being something out of the writing of the old
Sid Caesar “Show of Shows.” That legendary group of
comedy writers included Woody Allen, Neil Simon, Carl Reiner
and Mel Brooks among others. We have been told it was rambunctious
to the point that an exasperated Caesar once held Brooks outside
the window of a hotel because of Brooks’ tummeling.
“It was nothing like that,” Braithwaithe said, “but we had fun.” He, Howie Brown, Will Dennis and Tom Saparito bounced lines and routines off each other.
With black-rimmed glasses, a roguish persona and a bouncy presence on stage, Braithwaite, 38, resembles Steven Colbert. He freely admits he was a fan of impressionist Rich Little. He said, “I saw Rich when I was 10 and I stole his act.” In “First Imperssions,” he does impressions of almost every President this side of Herbert Hoover as well as Walter Cronkite, Bill Cosby, Katharine Hepburn, Chris Rock, Johnny Carson, Andy Rooney, Robin Williams and Alec Guinness among others. They all struck familiar chords and, no surprise, Richard Nixon was best.
In addition to his “First Impressions” gig, Braithwaite was directing a production of the Truman Capote play, “Tru”; directing the University of Pennsylvania’s perennial favorite, the “Mask and Wig” show; directing the play, “Drowsy Chaperone” at his alma mater, St. Joseph’s Prep; and rehearsing his part in the comedy “Let’s Pretend We’re Married,” which he has done before. He got good notices when he played what he called his “dream role,” the Jack Lemmon part in “The Odd Couple” at the Kimmel Center in Philly.
At the rehearsal in suburban Ambler, I watched as Braithwaite played performer and director. He talked of “the variance of physicality.” He asked the talented Howie Brown, who was playing reporter, to speak slowly in identifying himself. He asked Brown to “hunger for the answer more.” He said, “Let’s do that one more time. The rhythm wasn’t full.”
He said at one point, “I think we need one more Reagan line that is funny. Jelly beans, astrology, Star Wars…” in his search for a joke. He put that on his “to do” list-to write a joke later.
In the midst of some merriment, Braithwaite said, “I think we should re-title the show. Call it ‘Offensive First Impressions.’ Though they made some changes, the skits I watched during the rehearsal pretty much held up in the actual show.
One of his opening songs included these lines:
I want to garner lots of laughs
By spoofing Presidential gaffes.
I wanna imitate the Presidents.
Even dumb kids will seem smarter
When they see my Jimmy Carter
Dwight and I sound so alike
That even he said, ‘I like Ike.’
And maybe for a lark,
I’ll do Lincoln, it’ll be a shot in the dark.
I wanna imitate the Presidents.
I look in the mirror and what do I see
Commanders in chief that I want to be.
The irreverence spills over with the names adopted by reporters in press conferences with various Presidents. There was more than a groan or two from the audience for these:
Bob Dylan from Timestheyareachangin.
Bryce O’Roni from the San Francisco Treat
OBIGeewhyen from CNBC
Ima Croking from The Heimlick Maneuver
One of the bits that I admit was funny even though it offended my political sensibilities was this from Braithwaite/Franklin Roosevelt:
I hate wahr, Eleanor hates wahr, Fala
hates wahr
--And I hate Eleanor
He says he leans to the left politically, but is “an equal opportunity offender.”
Braithwaite traipses into “Chicago”
territory for Bill Clinton giving Presidental advice:
Give ‘em the old razzle dazzle
Razzle dazzle ‘em
Don’t go for substance, go for style
And higher and higher your votes will pile
Give ‘em the old hocus pocus
Please and pander ‘em
Tell them you feel their pain
And shed some tears
I smiled and they forgave my file-gate
I wept and hey they bagged my trial date
Razzle dazzle ‘em
And you’re set for eight years.
Braithwaite once had a short stint as a late-night host on a Public Broadcasting System station in Maryland. It says here, NBC, the man is ready for late-night television.
©2010 by Stan Isaacs. The Stan Isaacs caricature is ©2001 by Jim Hummel. This column first posted Jan. 18, 2010.
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