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My Interview with Janeane Garofalo!...New DVD If You Will out this week!...

Posted by Brad Schelden, September 15, 2010 03:51pm | Post a Comment

reality bites jeneane garafalo
I have been a big fan of Janeane Garofalo for years -- ever since I saw her in Reality Bites in 1994, when she played Vickie Miner. She reminded me of my friends; she was somebody that I would hang out with. I fell in love with her all over again in Romy & Michele's High School Reunion in 1997. She has showed up in tons of TV shows over the years. SNL, Larry Sanders, Seinfeld, Ellen, The Ben Stiller Show, West Wing, Strangers With Candy, Law & Order, & Dr. Katz! She is currently filming a new version of Criminal Minds. She has also just released a new stand up DVD this week called If You Will. It was filmed live in Seattle, the perfect place to see her. Janeane is busy filming her new show so I only managed to get an email interview out of her, but I was excited to meet her...via email, anyway. Here is our email conversation...

Brad: Hey Janeane! Thank for doing this interview for the Amoeba blog! I have been a big fan of you for years. You tend to work a lot on television. Do you prefer it to working on films? I know that SNL is one of your least favorite shows you have worked on, but what is your favorite? Felicity, Larry Sanders Show, 24, West Wing?

CAUTION: FLAMMABLE!

Posted by Job O Brother, November 18, 2008 11:37am | Post a Comment

The view from my window. That store in the middle is Linda Thai - they have great food.

*Cough, cough!*

Hello! Greetings from *cough* Hollywood!

Sorry about the grey ash everywhere. It’s from the fires. And the heat. Strange, isn’t it? To be in the middle of November and planning your day around which businesses have air conditioning? (Amoeba Music, by the way, has air conditioning.) This is how we do winter in LA: pretend the blazing heat is an Arctic chill and those flakes of ash falling from the sky are snowflakes.

Also, that fat man laughing loudly on Sunset Boulevard is Santa. Nevermind that you’ve never seen Santa throw-up in the gutter and scream that the government put wires in his cereal. This is how we do winter in LA.

*Cough, cough* Word.

I must admit, I kind of like the way the air smells when Los Angeles is consumed in hell-fire. Kind of like everything’s hickory smoked. Kind of delicious, and reminds me of Christmas gifts of Hickory Farms, like you might find a smoked and dried Pasadena nestled in a box of fake grass, next to some strawberry candy. Sounds good, right? Who wouldn’t want to spread a little smoked Pasadena on a poppy-seed cracker? Maybe add a sprig of dill. Mmm!

The last seven days – we’ll call it a week for short – have been packed with all sorts of activities. Let’s start with the most improbable of them:

Larry Sanders, California Raisin

Posted by Miss Ess, June 8, 2007 10:39pm | Post a Comment

So every time I sit down to watch the Larry Sanders Show I am distracted by many things. The show's First Season is really a time capsule of the early 1990s. Janeane Garofalo seems so larry sanders garry shandling

young in her plaid grunge-y dresses and leggings. Jeremy Piven is so obviously balding (now on Entourage he has a mysteriously full head of hair). Larry has a plethora of skinny Southwestern-y belts. There's scrunchies and body suits and so much more-- a veritable parade of nearly forgotten 90s fashions! But what is most distracting from the program for me is the fact that Garry Shandling so closely resembles a giant raisin.

Despite the distractions, the show is actually funny. I'm larry sanders show garry shandling

guessing most people have seen it before, but growing up in a non premium cable household, I didn't even know it existed until recently. It's interesting to watch now, seeing as I have immersed myself in HBO shows on DVD feverishly for the last 3 years or so. Apparently this show was one of the first. Now it reminds me of Curb Your Enthusiasm, one of my favorites.

Larry Sanders has his own late night TV talk show, and we the viewers are invited to watch love boat cast

the goings-on both in front of and behind the scenes. Now this as a concept for a tv show almost can't be beat. It's up there with a bar where "everybody knows your name" and a giant cruise ship that "soon will be making another run". The workplace is always just ripe larry david curb your enthusiasm

for good television (they really should make a show about Amoeba, no joke), and with major opportunities for celeb guest appearances and self referential comedy, this show has a pretty much perfect set up and all the smarts to pull it off. It's not as energetic and giddily addicting as HBO's shows now, but it's got its own slow-burn charm. This show, now that I am watching it, has obviously been highly influential on everyone else, including that other comedic Larry, Mr. Larry David himself. It's quite innovative too. There's never any background music to set the scenes. There's no laugh track or live audience either. It's just the dialogue. That gives the laughs all the power, and it's an interesting break from the still- tired norm.....and this was shot in 1992!
jeffrey tambor larry sanders show

The cast is also a big part of the likability of the show. Rip Torn as Larry's boss Arty is amazing and hilarious and dry. My boyfriend thinks Hank (Jeffery Tambor) is the funniest. (He wants me to add that.) He thinks everything is funny though. I find Larry's wife unrealistic. Does anyone else? Their relationship seems shallow and odd, no chemistry.....maybe they could have worked on that as much as the relationships between coworkers. My favorites are the writers, Phil and Jerry, played by Jeremy Piven and Wallace Langham. They are always troublemakers. Having so many celebs play themselves is a good time too. Some people are better at it than others!

(In which Job needs coffee, please.)

Posted by Job O Brother, May 8, 2007 11:31am | Post a Comment

I am not alone.

I wrote the above sentence then leaned to my right, peering into what once was my kitchen and is now something resembling Dresden after the bombing.

And so it goes.

How this guy has managed to cram a huge ladder into a kitchen so small I barely have room for the second Pop Tart included in the packet, is proof that he is no amateur. (This is what I tell myself, hoping for the best.)

Sonically, I am hidden deep inside my iPod, which just made a seamless transition from Marvin Gaye & Diana Ross’ duet album (titled, mysteriously enough, “Diana & Marvin”) to that inescapable Amy Winehouse record. Every once in a while, on average twice a decade, I find myself enjoying the same album as the rest of the country. Such is the case with “Back to Black”. It makes for boring copy though; I mean, do we really need to hear anymore talk about it?

The answer is “no”, and thankfully there’s a workman in my kitchen providing us with stories.

Last week, amidst my well-documented Vicodin haze (I’m feeling much better these days, thank you), I walked home from Amoeba, as I always do (unless Patti Smith is performing), for lunch.

Whereas normally I am greeted by the meows of my “cat”* I instead walked into a scene from “Brazil”.

Ruling out the possibility of a suicide bomber (I realize they go through a lot of training, but I live on the fourth floor of my building) I found, amongst the sea of bric-a-brac, cleaning supplies and dishware - normally so organized in my kitchen - a lone man doing to my sink and walls what I imagine Jeffery Dahmer would do to a dinner guest.

And I’ll say this about myself: I really am polite. Even when faced with an un-announced stranger tearing my home apart, I start with a simple hand-wave and “Hi,” – waiting for the appropriate social cues from the other person to indicate we can proceed to a conversation. Perhaps about the weather, last night’s game, or maybe why he’s mistaken my kitchen for a newly discovered Egyptian tomb.