Last night I once again hung out at Paul Provenza’s tapings of his new show The Green Room for Showtime. Once again, fucking amazing.
First show – Penn Jillette, Martin Mull and Tommy Smothers. Penn was clearly geeked out by the fact that one of his heroes, Martin Mull was on the panel with him, and that he got to play a duet with him. I love Penn – big man, big opinions and one big fucking heart. There was also a fun and philosophic discussion about atheism, God and the notion of belief (love this stuff – always makes me think about my papa), but what I loved was when they talked about the mechanics of comedy – timing, silences, joke telling. Oh, and speaking of joke telling, Penn told Provenza’s favorite joke about a pair of female Siamese twins – one of which played the trombone and the other who loves to masturbate, while they both love Julio Iglesias – need I say more?
Second show – Roseanne Barr, Bob Saget, Sandra Bernhard and Patrice Oneal. Very different vibe, more of an intimate conversation among friends about the business which eventually turned into a therapy session for Patrice about his disappointments with Roseanne, Sagat and Sandra playing the roles of therapist! Wow. And then, mixed into that were these bold declarations from all about the state of the world, our roles in it, etc. – you’ll just have to watch it.
If fire was the first nights alchemical element, I would have to say the element last night felt more watery – like a shape-shifting and life giving force.
And me and this fear thing? Well. It seems these last few nights have created a state of fearlessness in me. There is no one I am being cautious around. There is nothing I am afraid to say. There is no discomfort. I am home.
While watching Martin and Tommy on the show. I suddenly got very emotional. I realized that in some way, these men who are the around the age of my father are my new fathers. And then hearing Roseanne and Sandra talk about their views about hope, and the planet, I saw that they are my sisters – I could have easily folded into their conversation. And Paul – well, he is certainly a brother (with Rick, Gary, David all funny, smart, big-hearted men).
Now that my mom and dad are both gone, people have been saying to me that I am now an orphan. Oh, how wrong they are, how wrong they are.