The Chris Elliot Interview

NY Mag has a pretty in depth interview with Chris Elliot, spanning his career from when he started on Letterman all the way to his most recent project, Eagleheart.

On his spectacular, often misunderstood Fox television show Get a Life:

What kind of notes were you getting from the network on Get a Life? Or did they just ignore you?
No, they gave us notes — an incredible amount of notes. On everything. Like I said, it wasn’t the show they wanted. Believe it or not, I remember them saying when I was first in talks with them that they were looking for a Cosby kind of show. Even though Married With Children was on, and they had In Living Color on — these really cool, edgy shows. I think they were kind of hoping that I would somehow be the classiness that they didn’t feel like they had or something. And then we gave them this 30-year-old guy living in a garage in his parents’ house. But their notes always reflected the fact that they still wanted the show to be grounded in reality. There were notes wanting a real moment between me and my dad that the audience believed. Which, if you know Get a Life, that’s so not that show. And they were persistent with notes like that. The only way we could respond to them was to go, “Okay, there’s a moment here.” And we would put a moment in — and then take it away with the next line. Like, we’d put a hug between me and my dad in, and then the next line he’d call me an idiot or something. So that you’d realize we were making fun of that kind of moment, because there was no other way to do it. But, yeah, there were, like, constant notes.

I've been an Elliot fan since those early Letterman days; heck I braved a snow storm to make it to opening night of Cabin Boy. But I also know his style is not for everyone. So, while I enjoyed the first episode of Eagleheart, I can understand if some people might not. It's absurd humor, and not grounded in reality whatsoever. If you can get past that, you'll like it.

The Good...the Bad...the Beautiful #41

THE GOOD:



Dean Martin, John Wayne, tuxedos, probably a gallon of gin and song. You're welcome.

Bad and Beautiful on the flip side!



THE BAD:



So a porn movie needs a disclaimer like this? Talk about killing the mood. Although, it can only increase the sexiness of whatever comes next.

THE BEAUTIFUL:



Chris Elliot's Fugitive Guy from Letterman. It's beautiful to me dammit!

2008 Links in Review Part V

Part V gives us Sesame Street, lots of high dives, drugs, cheating and more. Picture on the right? A shot showing the devastation Hurricane Ike unleashed on Texas, as well as the luckiest family on the planet.

Just because we're older doesn't mean we have to give up on Sesame Street, right? They still have some cool guests, as evidenced by this.

Why this guy doesn't go up a couple more feet to beat the high dive record is beyond me, unless he's at the Terminal Velocity point of high diving, in which case it's doubly as awesome. If that isn't the case, it's just plain awesome. As an aside, I used to work with a guy that moved on to high diving. It's crazy scary just watching - I can't imagine trying it.

Recently saw Cocaine Cowboys, a documentary on the cocaine trade in Miami, and how it basically ran through two pretty unassuming guys. Oh sure it got violent as the years went on...anyway, I can't wait to see the documentary about the Mexican drug trade in another 10 years or so. Cocaine Bandidos?

More links on the flip side...



Con men and cheating shouldn't be glamorous to me, but they are. I blame Hollywood. Check out this link to learn how to get ahead in life the sneaky way.

This is so completely random, yet so incredibly cool. If you click on nothing else, click here. It's got everything...unrealized love...a gorgeous soundtrack...a raq focus...and men in speedos.

The Olympics happened in 2008. For all the bellyaching people do about them, I'll never tire of them. Here are some pictures.

Bored? Looking for things that cement your sanity? You've come to the right place.

The Olympic Village. Otherwise known as Whoretown.

It's easy to say this article paints Alec Baldwin as insane. I'd argue it just makes him looks more human.

Dave Eggers. I liked his first book. Chris Elliot. I like everything he does. Enjoy them together.

You must travel through the Darien Gap to go from North to South America. Apparently, the trip isn't so easy. Anyone else have a strong hankering to check it out?

The Good...the Bad...the Beautiful #36

THE GOOD:



Think about this for a second. Elliot did this while he was starring in Get A Life, which was in the early 90s. That means no one saw the original awesome Shatner version he was parodying. You can tell by the silence of the audience. Absolute genius.

Bad and beautiful on the flip side...



THE BAD:



Great concept - absolutely awful execution. Seriously, why not choose songs that at least have some opportunity to show off some singing.

THE BEAUTIFUL:



From some Russian movie (possibly titled A Woodpecker Never Has a Headache - from the comments). I think it's just cool to see the kid from Willie Wonka get some more work, even if it is behind the Iron Curtain. Actually he has nothing to do in this other than be mesmerized by some Communist funk music.

Links of Interest 9/11

Years back, my friends and I contemplated a march madness style tournament for men we thought were awesome. There were two problems with this idea; 1. we couldn't limit ourselves to just 64 choices; and 2. we could never clearly define what "awesome" was. What does this have to do with an article about Chris Elliot? Absolutely nothing, other than we did agree he would be a #1 seed. (If this doesn't explain in a nutshell what you should expect from The Popcorn Trick, then I don't know what will).

I won't be as presumptuous as Discover magazine, I'll just say these are some pretty cool facts about the Earth.

Let's hope the trend of doomsdays passing with no doom continues.

Don't get me wrong, I enjoy KFC Chicken, but I've also had better. Are there really companies out there willing to steal the recipe? If there are, I'd love to be hired. It would be much more morally acceptable than what I do now.

Rock stars can get away with so much. Ozzy bites a head off a dove, he's eccentric. I do it, I'm committed. It's just so unfair.