Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, September 18, 1993 TAG: 9309180078
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: ????????????????? EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Mike Mayo
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
Of all forms of entertainment, humor is probably the most subjective. With its diversity and economic flexibility, home video is bringing comedy - particularly stand up comedy - to a much wider audience than it has had before. While the big names can and do draw large audiences, those who aren't as well known can experiment on tape. And the medium is well suited for anthologies of different styles.
That's the idea behind "Wise Cracks," a collection of routines and musings from female performers and comediennes. As you might expect, it's a mixed bag - some of the material is really sharp and funny; some of it's flat; some is whiney and complaining. On balance, the good outweighs the bad, though the content is so varied in tone and subject that there's something to offend or to delight just about everyone.
Most of this Canadian film, produced by Gail Singer and Signe Johannson, is focused on younger stand-up comediennes - Paula Poundstone, Kim Wayans and several others who are working in clubs now. Whoopi Goldberg talks about her early career, but perhaps the most interesting single performer is veteran Phyllis Diller. Her appeal isn't so much her comedy itself, but her insights into the mechanics of stagecraft: how different physical arrangements affect the relationship between audience and performer; what distracts the crowd and what draws it in.
For comedians and actors, it's probably the stuff they learn in Drama 101. For the rest of us, it's a fascinating peek behind the curtain.
Kevin Pollack should have taken some advice from Phyllis Diller before he taped his cable-TV special "Stop With the Kicking." Though it has several laugh-out-loud moments, it's also notable for one curious and often-repeated mistake.
Much of the show is a taped concert performed on a stage with what appear to be leftover props from some other work scattered in the background. Part of that is a large realistic painting of a group people sitting on a park bench. Whenever Pollack is shown from a certain angle, as he often is, these folks appear to be on the stage with him looking over his shoulder.
It's a real distraction, but really no more irritating than the backstage material, filmed in black and white, in which Pollack pretends to be a cliched show biz phony for director David Steinberg.
The funniest moments are Pollack's impressions - his version of Dustin Hoffman in "Rain Man" is terrific - and his observations about sex.
Turning from comedy to music, we have "Concerto!" It's the home-video version of a British series that aired on cable's The Learning Channel in late August. For anyone who's interested in serious music, these discs and tapes are a delight.
Host Dudley Moore and Musical Director Michael Tilson Thomas work with various solo artists to define this musical form and to explain how it works in practice: how the soloists approach their parts and how they interact with the rest of the orchestra. Obviously, this could be dry, stodgy stuff. But judging by the two discs I've seen, there appears to be a genuine rapport among these people. Moore has toned down his manic elf impersonation.
Instead he's quietly witty and he asks the right questions of the musicians. Harpist Marisa Robles, for example, does a wonderful job of describing how her instrument works and what she's doing with all those "knitting" movements she makes with her hands. On that same disc, Mozart's Concerto for Flute and Harp, James Galway talks about how easy the flute part is. Richard Stoltzman talks about the various emotions that his instrument is capable of in Copland's Concerto for Clarinet. Each program ends with a complete
performance of the concerto, and those were stylishly taped on an atmospheric set, slightly reminiscent of a smoky cathedral. There the producers struck a proper balance between the staid restraint of most public television orchestral concerts and the excesses of MTV. In a visual sense, there's enough going on to hold the interest of younger viewers but not enough to distract those who know and love the music. The other four programs in the series
are Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 1 with Alicia De Larrocha, Saint-Saens' Cello Concerto No. 1 with Steven Isserlis (and Michael Tilson Thomas and Dudley Moore, pianos), Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto No. 2 with Barry Douglas and Bartok's Concerto for Violin No. 2 with Kyoko Takezawa.
Finally, for both the experienced videophile and those who are new to the field, there's "Consumer VCR Smarts" (JDM Communications; $14.95, trade paper) by David Scott and Jason MacZura. The authors run a VCR and TV repair shop in Tulsa, Okla., and if they're not memorable prose stylists, they know their business.
They make no recommendations on individual models or brand names. The book is filled with solid advice on the equipment features that consumers should look for and those they should avoid. It also has more esoteric knowledge that most of us probably don't know. For example, the powerful electric motors in most vacuum cleaners can damage video tapes and distort the color on floor-level TV screens. Low-cost blank tapes that don't display the letters "VHS" inside the rectangular logo box don't meet minimum quality standards of the company that holds the patent, and should be avoided.
The book also covers cable and antenna connections, camcorders and video games. Laserdisc players and interactive video are not included. Anyone who's considering new equipment would do well to take a long look at "Consumer VCR Smarts."
THE ESSENTIALS:
Wise Cracks: ++ 1/2 Monarch Home Video. 93 min. Unrated, co
\ THE ESSENTIALS:
Wise Cracks: ** Monarch Home Video. 93 min. Unrated, contains some strong language and sexual humor.
Stop With the Kicking: ** New Line Home Video. 58 min. Unrated, contains some strong language, sexual humor.
Concerto!: *** BMG Classics. 51 min. Unrated, contains no objectionable material.
by CNB