Bob Saget

After five Tony Awards, 674 performances and 32 previews, the musical comedy The Drowsy Chaperone will close Dec. 30 at the Marquis Theatre. The show played to capacity audiences for a long time and moved into the profit column, but for the past six months the crowds had stopped coming. According to the Toronto Star, gimmick casting like placing Full House dad Bob Saget in the pivotal role of “Man In Chair” failed to catch on and its last week’s attendance was 39.3 percent.  read more »

"I love the idea that we're just allowed to riff, like jazz," said Bob Saget at The Aristocrats premiere after-party at Caroline's comedy club last week. "It's like giving 100 people a nude to paint. About twenty of them won't paint her naked, and then some will paint her so graphically - like, gynecological - and whatever's left, sixty people will paint her as they see her."

"It [the film]'s kind of a love letter to comedians," said Bob Saget. "I think it accidentally became a piece of art."

"Have you met my friend, Gilbert [Gottfried], the voice of the parrot in Aladdin?" he asked. (Other credits, of course, include a 1-800-collect commercial and Saved by the Bell: Wedding in Las Vegas.) Mr. Gottfried kindly informed the Transom, "No one reads the New York Observer. I could Scotch tape diamonds inside it and get them all back." On the contrary, Mr. Saget contended that his ex-mother-in-law read his profile.

On the question of exposing this insider joke, the film's director, Paul Provenza, said, "It's not a Masonic rite. It's not like there's a ‘comedy illuminati' that's going to hunt us down... I made this film to get Bob Saget to work."

"And Bob Saget made this film to shock his mother-in-law," chimed in filmmaker Aviva Kempner.

If the Aristocrats joke is regarded as a "secret handshake" among comedians, Mr. Saget's ex-mother-in-law may well be the password. Ms. Kempner later deadpanned that Mr. Provenza's next documentary will feature Karl Rove interviewing Judith Miller. Mr. Provenza continued to eat his barbequed chicken.  read more »

The Transom finally caught up with Susie Essman of Curb Your Enthusiasm and comedian and radio host Frank DeCaro. "No one swears like Susie!" he said. "Fuck you, Frank!" she responded in that warmly familiar, wonderfully shrill tone.

—Blythe Sheldon

Last night's Aristocrats premiere turned out to be part lofty paean to artistic freedom, part botched Bar Mitzvah.

The film—which we've been hearing about for so, so long—is, of course, about an inside joke among comedians that opens with a family entering a talent agent's office to perform an act. Just what that act is depends on the comedian, but it inevitably involves incest, scatalogical fetishes and bestiality. And most of the comedians in the movie made it out to the premier.

Robin Bronk doesn't do stand-up. But, as executive director of the non-profit organization the Creative Coalition, she opened up the screening with a somewhat stirring tribute to the free-speech tradition—only to suffer the slings and arrows that tradition makes inevitable when comedian Jeff Ross interrupted her.

"Show us your pussy!" he shouted.

Bronk continued, unfazed. She mentioned the upcoming Politics and Punchlines event at the 92nd Street Y on September 20th; that it will be moderated by Lawrence O'Donnell of the McLaughlin Group. Arianna Huffington, David Steinberg, Harry Shearer, and Joe Scarborough have also committed - but Bob Saget, who arguably tells the filthiest version of The Aristocrats joke, "is playing hard to get."

"I'll do it, but only if you show us your pussy!" Mr. Saget responded from the crowd. "Hey Gilbert, say something!" another voice shouted. "Pussy!" yelled Gilbert Gottfried.

In a phone interview today, all Ms. Bronk could say was, "Saget's committed now."  read more »

Does that mean ...

- Blythe Sheldon

Bob Saget walked into the lobby of the Hudson Hotel and thrust out his hand.  read more »