. I dont know if there was anyone else around who loved comedy as much as I did...but to me there was always one question that haunted me. Whatever happened to David Steinberg. David was the first real political commmedian who broke the ice for all the others. He said the things that werent popular before that came into vogue and he was a favorite of the Tonight Show registering more than 130 appearances topped only by Bob Hope. But then after so much brilliant and hysterical work, and being the cause of the Smothers Brothers going off the air for 5 years for his outrageous takes on religion, he kind of disappeared. And I wondered what the hell happened to David.. Well, I did find out. He was now directing but I asked myself why. He was brighter than most comedians, had a big pair when it came to breaking the then standards of propriety, was outrageously funny, could tell a story better than anyone and poof! He disappears off the stage. I didnt know the answer to that one til tonight, believe it or not. I was going through a bunch of documentaries and up came Davids name in a documentary called Quality Balls produced by Jerry Seinfeld and Larry David and its all about the career of David Steinberg. As it turns out, he wasnt kicked off the stage, he didnt die on the stage. He had a big following. But the story he offers was that it was just time for a change and he was tired of working every night and not having a home life as simple as that. And thats why he went into directing. Of course, he directed some of the best and funniest programs on TV including Larry David and Jerry Seinfeld, but, you know, the question always remains. Would you do it again? And it turns out he does once in a while. To me, being on stage and doing stand-up has to be the true test of a comic. If you are not funny, the audience will let you know immediately; if you are, those moments are electric.... For me, it was electric to see David again and to hope he decides to come back and do it all ovler again for a younger generation. Hes as sharp as ever, trained at 2nd City, and starred with all the bests.... What I hadnt known, was that his first break was in Little Murders which lasted only one week but was made into a film that til this day is one of my favorites starring Elliot Gould and Alan Arkin and written by the guy who created the Walter Mitty character and did a cartoon series that lasted for generations that would crack you up reading it. And Walter Mitty was the first off-Broadway show I ever went to with Rose.... What a great experience to hear Seinfeld and Larry David talking about working with David....And it was like a trip back in time that needed to be taken.... A taste of serendipity for this old comedy lover!.... LikeLike · · Share Deb Kelley likes this. Les Aaron Write a comment... Les Aaron 3 hrs · The Moat Advantage Can Be Yours!.... It has come to me that if everyone had their druthers, they would live with high walls between each other, but why should you hurt yourself just to keep your neighbors away. Thats why you should consider being the first on your block to have a moat around it. Moats give you the privacy you need without you having to worry whether someone is going to climb your wall, and scratch your Mercedes, or steal y our chickens. We defeat them wit... See More LikeLike · · Share Les Aaron Write a comment... Les Aaron 3 hrs · From Lindsay Snell with VUCATIV Lindsay just came back of 8 days of filming in Syria. ... See More LikeLike · · Share Les Aaron Write a comment... Les Aaron 3 hrs · I didnt know how bad things could become in America until I lived through Bush and saw contempt for the Constitution, 400 pieces of some of the worst legislation and policy I had ever seen, contrived for the few against the many, policy that was against everything I had been taught about the American democratic system, large scale inequality like I had never seen before, a country poised to go into deep indebtedness as a result of wrong-headed, egoistic policies, a contempt... See More LikeLike · · Share Donn Reese, Kevin Karstens and Donavon C. Reed like this. Les Aaron Write a comment... See More Recent Stories About Followed by 436 people Lives in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware Studied Graphic Design/Illustration at Pratt Institute Past: Parsons The New School for Design and Parsons School of Design From New York, New York Owner at Leslie Aaron & Company and President and Organizer at Progessive and Human Rights Activist Past: Unisource Marketing Group and Inter-Tech Marketing Photos · 97 Saul Howers photo. Last dinner together. American and Vietnamese. Populism Rising? ourfuture.org/20131223/populism-rising?utm_source=progressive_breakfast&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=pbreak The Beltway crowd has discovered populism. Senator Elizabeth Warren’s surging popularity from her aggressive defense of Social Security and demand for Wall Street accountability has triggered talk of a populist challenge to Hillary Clinton in 2016. Bill De Blasio indicted New York’s gilded age inequality in his stunning victory in the New York Mayoral race. This month, President Obama returned to his campaign themes, delivering a speech calling inequality “the defining challenge of our time.” Republicans, preoccupied with their Tea Party zealots, mostly have avoided joining the debate, but the Wall Street wing of the Democratic Party raised the alarm. In an incoherent article appropriately placed in the Wall Street Journal, the New Democrats at the Third Way scorned Warren for defending Social Security and Medicare and peddling a “dead end” “we can have it all fantasy.” They beat a hasty retreat when they were slapped down by Neera Tanden, head of the Obama New Dem Center for American Progress, who then labored to paint Bill Clinton – Bill Clinton – as a populist. Gaseous Bill Keller of the New York Times weighed in for what he called the “center-left” against the “left-left” of Warren et al with arguments immediately dismembered by economist Dean Baker. These are but the opening skirmishes of what is likely to be a fierce battle inside and outside the Democratic Party. Populism, by definition, doesn’t trickle down from the top. It spreads as a bottom up movement that chooses and elevates its own leaders. It doesn’t spread because Elizabeth Warren is espousing politically toxic and unpopular ideas, as the Third Wayers charged. Rather Warren is threatening because she champions attitudes and ideas that enjoy widespread popularity outside the beltway, but are slighted inside of it. Populist movements grow out of popular discontent. For over thirty years, inequality has been growing. Profits and productivity and CEO salaries have risen, but workers haven’t shared in the growth. But hard times, as Lawrence Goodwyn, the great historian of the Populist Movement notes, do not generate democratic movements. Times have been “hard” for most people for a long time. When families lose ground, people tend to believe that they are at fault, that their luck has been bad, that they made the wrong choices. They work harder; they take on debt; they get by. Resignation and deference are normal. Movements start only when reality – and organizers – begin to open people’s eyes... I wish you all happy Thanksgiving a Chanuka, dear friends :)
Posted on: Wed, 24 Sep 2014 01:44:49 +0000
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