A Good Day

There’s just something about watching a master at work. Doing what they do. It’s enjoyable as hell and at the same time, it can be a lesson: This is how you do this. This is what it looks like when you do it *right*.

Today was a good day. I found two things I never thought I’d see in this lifetime: The Best Work of John Belushi and Gilda Radner; from their years together on Saturday Night Live.

People call Gilda and John Legends. The cynic might think they’re referred to that because their lives were cut short and we know we’ll never see anything more from them. An artist’s work is made more valuable after they pass away, or something along that line. That’s a pity-answer, in my opinion. The fact that they passed away has absolutely nothing to do with the caliber of their talent.

I call Gilda and John Legends because they knew what they were doing, and you could watch them work their magic. It’s like… Gilda Radner disappears and her character (who looks more or less exactly like her) materializes right before your eyes. It’s not her. It’s acting, but it’s acting for pure comedy’s sake; like she’s dipping into some wellspring that we couldn’t find with a divining rod the size of the Eiffel Tower.

And John? The eyebrows. That dirty cherubic face. The transformations. Give the man a fedora and a pair of sunglasses and he’s tapping something primal. The man was a Rocker. And he was goddamned hilarious. He was just… channeling from the same source as Gilda was. They were naturals.

Let me put it to you this way. Take Jimmy Fallon; one of the most recent graduates of SNL. Jimmy was funny; despite the fact that as often as not he had to hide his face because he couldn’t stay in character. But he was always Jimmy, he never got away from himself. Gilda and John…

They both knew that real, pure Comedy came from pain. Not all of it, but a good portion of it. They could use laughter (other people’s and their own) to just make it all not matter.

I’m fully aware that I’m taking this all a bit too seriously. I imagine that I sound like a fanatic, but… it’s that important to me. I love great Comedy. I love to see that connection grow between a performer and their audience (even though I can’t see the audience). That the comedian has pulled something together with monumental effort or none at all, and there’s that BOND:

“You can laugh. You can trust yourself to laugh, because I’m gonna be funny, *right now*. I’m gonna connect with you and we’re going to agree that something is ridiculous or embarrassing or preposterous and painful and it’d be hilarious if it wasn’t happening to you. But it isn’t happening to you, so go ahead and wet yourselves.” And maybe you do.

I live for those moments, and I have been lucky to have even a few. Just a few. And to call them sweet is an insult to cane sugar. They’re just… right. That bond with the audience. There is nothing like it, anywhere.

I’ve been fans of Gilda and John for years. Gilda, because I had a crush on her when I was in elementary school. That was the thing with Gilda; everyone had a crush, everyone that saw her. That was her *thing*. She was that accessible. That open to people. The ‘Bunny Bunny’ thing is all her.

I was a fan of John’s because of Animal House, which was the majority of my knowledge of his work until Blues Brothers, and then the CD’s of Second City Alumni my brother found for me. They had the young John on them, and it was there. It was raw. To get the chance to watch 90 straight minutes of John Belushi Live, and at the top of his game, is vacation.

You don’t need to point out that I never personally met either of these people. I didn’t. Never even got close. But I’ve seen them work. And I’ve read the accounts of people that loved them, people that barely knew them, people who were just fans like myself. Consider this my account of them.

John Belushi died at the age of 33 of a drug overdose. His successor, Chris Farley, followed in his footsteps every single step of the way-- straight into the grave. Gilda Radner passed away because of Cancer, a disease I am accumulating personal reasons to despise.

I have a good friend (who I don’t want to embarrass) in whom I see some of Gilda. Her cheerfulness. Her approachability, her trust. She Rocks on so many levels she’s practically her own quarry. If I knew anyone I could compare to John Belushi, I would have killed him by now to drink his head and take his power, or something. I dunno. (Whattya want? They can’t all be pearls.)

But now; I’ve got their best work, and it’s mine to enjoy any effing time I please. Forever.

Today was a really good day.