When I was a much younger version of the person I have grown up to be I thought the two funniest people in the world were Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis. As a hyper spastic, clumsy freakazoid I was I thought Jerry Lewis was just about the funniest person around. He is the first non cartoon character I remember thinking was pretty awesome and would watch anything with him in it and then try to re-enact the bits I saw him do later. It annoyed the heck out of my parents because I would talk in the high-pitched freaky annoying voice for hours on end. It is no wonder that they would look forward to days when it was nice outside so they could get a break from my horrible impersonations of good ole Cinderfella. As I got older so did Jerry Lewis, in my eyes he became a lot less funny, and maybe too serious for me, although I did love him in that movie King of Comedy.
Which reminds me of the time I was King of Comedy(ed) by Harold Ramis at a premier for his movie Analyze That. I may have mentioned before that I have worked with a film company here is Chicago. Well back when Analyze That the sequel to the super hit Analyze This was gearing up for it’s major theatrical debut I somehow scored tickets to a private premiere that would be attended by ole Dr. Egon Spengler himself. The film company and I figured if I could get close enough to him to give the thirty second pitch he would be floored and automatically say yes I want to help you kids make this movie. I was picked to be the one who would go because I figured the worst he could say is no and get out of here. The whole day I practiced what I would say to him, I warned myself not to talk too fast or too much something I always end up doing anyway.
So I arrive at the screening and find my seat, I watched the movie and to this day don’t remember a second of it. Afterwards there would be a meet and greet cocktail hour. I downed a few quick cocktails and finally laid eyes on Mr. Ramis who for some reason was standing by himself. I walked up and started trying to chat him up, you know complimenting him on how great his movie was and how I thought I had a great movie for him to follow up with. He listen and even took one of the cheap business cards I had, I tried to hand him a copy of the script as I told him a little information as to the story line and who we thought would be good to play roles. He kindly stopped me and gave me the phone number of the people who represent him, he told me to call them and submit the script through them and he would see what he could do.
I remember running outside to tell the boys I had done it I made contact and had received a phone number. Well I’m sure you can tell how the story plays out, I called the number a bunch of times until getting the “we’ll call you if he’s interested” It was a crushing blow because I truly believed that he would eventually read the script and we would be in business. But I guess it was movie making partnership hat was never meant to be. But at least he was decent in turning me down, I see now that it is just a way to keep crazy people from harassing you. Call my people is the polite way of saying “get the hell away from me you whiskey drenched twenty something year old your freaking me out” Well played Egon.
Well back to the cube. It’s getting warm again out there be good to each other kids.
Did you hear Ghostbusters III is green lit?
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