The Sunday Memory Drawer - Comedy Writing 101

We've lost a couple of giants over the past few weeks.  Aretha Franklin.  Senator John McCain.   The latter I will discover in an upcoming blog entry and it has more to do with the mourning than the man himself.

But the one that really, really bothered me was the death of Neil Simon.  If you have tried to write something funny ever, your life was obviously influenced by this man.   A true genius whose work was thought to be surface and not deep and simply one-liners.   Um, no.  I mean, the man did win the Pulitzer Prize for "Lost in Yonkers."  

But, the criticism was that he was a joke writer.   And, for that alone, he should be praised.   Because, at the end of the day, it is laughter we always need.

As a kid growing up in Mount Vernon, New York, I learned of Neil Simon from the New York Daily News theater pages.  Oh, not because my parents were taking me to Broadway.   Hell, no.  Not at the exorbitant prices of $3.70 per ticket.  But I dreamed of going to a play and it seemed like this man named Neil Simon always had a couple of them going.

Barefoot in the Park.

Plaza Suite.

The Odd Couple.

Luckily, this was fodder to be turned into movies and the 50 cent admission I could easily handle from my allowance.  The first Neil Simon work I ever saw was the screen adaptation of "The Odd Couple" with Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau.  At the Kimball Theater in New York with my childhood best friend Leo.  Ironically, I probably would have gone to see it regardless as there was a much bally-hooed scene that was filmed with the Mets at Shea Stadium the previous summer.   But, as I watched Simon at work for the very first time, I was mesmerized and I suddenly felt like an adult.  Because I got all the jokes I heard.   And I wanted to be the one writing jokes like that as soon as possible.

So, on my limited schoolboy budget, I caught up with Neil Simon's play as they got filmed by Paramount.   And, naturally, I was all over the TV adaptation of "The Odd Couple" with Tony Randall and Jack Klugman although Simon really had nothing to do with that.

A little older and I got to see the screen version of "The Sunshine Boys" with Walter Matthau and George Burns.   This was the very last time I went to a movie/stage show Christmas extravaganza at Radio City Music Hall.   An added memory.

All the while, I am listening and learning and laughing.   The 3 Ls.  

I finally got to see Simon on Broadway after I got out of college and could afford the then-Orchestra price of $18.50.   It seemed like he churned out a play a year.  Some were great, others okay.  But, always, there were moments to enjoy.  Mediocre Neil Simon is better than 99% of the comedies on stage and screen ever.

It was his direct-to-screen work that I really became enamored of.   In my humble opinion, "The Goodbye Girl" is about as perfect a romantic comedy as there ever will  be.   And, the ultra politically incorrect "Murder By Death" is a must-watch in my house once a year...a careful reminder of how this brand of humor no longer exists.   Simon used one ethnic slur after another.   So what?  It was funny and nobody got offended.

And then there was "They're Playing My Song," likely one of the best musical comedies I have ever seen.   I hit it six times on Broadway alone.   Neil wrote the script for this tuner starring Robert Klein and Lucie Arnaz.   More likely, I loved it because of the music by Marvin Hamlisch and Carol Bayer Sager.  But the words and story had to be written and this production was complete serendipity....major talents coming together at a moment in time to create magic.

Again, all the while, I am listening and learning and laughing.   If you've ever gotten a chuckle or two out of something I have written, one of the reasons could be my schooling at the hands of Professor Neil Simon.

Well played, sir.

Dinner last night:  Pepperoni pizza at the Hollywood Bowl.