A look at a wide-ranging comedian with heart, after-the-jump ...
But first: Top Comments appears nightly, as a round-up of the best comments on Daily Kos. Surely ... you come across comments daily that are perceptive, apropos and .. well, perhaps even humorous. But they are more meaningful if they're well-known ... which is where you come in (especially in diaries/stories receiving little attention).------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Send your nominations to TopComments at gmail dot com by 9:30 PM Eastern Time nightly, or by our KosMail message board. Please indicate (a) why you liked the comment, and (b) your Dkos user name (to properly credit you) as well as a link to the comment itself.
Last week, a diary by SWalkerwillgotojail told a personal story about the comedian Louie Anderson from the 1980’s. I commented that I had read so many tributes to him not just from other comics, but from everyday life, and learned how much in life he had to overcome. I knew only parts of his career: so it seems only proper to have a career retrospective at a life-well-led …. that could easily not have been.
He was born (as the tenth of eleven children) in the Roosevelt housing project in east St. Paul, Minnesota in 1953 with a mother who was loving and protective. His father (a trumpeter for Hoagy Carmichael) … alas, was alcoholic and abusive. Louie said that food was his respite from that, thus having a weight issue all his life.
In his youth he was caught stealing a snowmobile, yet the judge offered him a diversion: if he would become a social worker (as a counselor to troubled youth). The skills he learned stayed with him, not only on-stage but also in his personal dealings (as the previous DK diary noted in an example).
On a dare made by his fellow social workers at St. Joseph’s Home for Children (which closed in 2020) he did a stand-up routine at a Minneapolis comedy club .. and found his calling. His early stand-up act was him acting-out his family-driven anger: caustic and insulting to everyone around him, until:
One night after a performance: he stepped off-stage, received – and wisely accepted — a piece of advice that changed everything. “A guy named Roman Decare, God rest his soul, he was a comic, (said), ‘Louie, if you do that family stuff, and you’re a clean comic on stage, you’ll become famous,’” he recalled. “And, for some reason, a switch clicked, and I started doing the family stuff, and it became a giant part of my life.”
His first achievement was winning first place in the 1981 Midwest Comedy Competition, and he was hired (as a writer for a time) by the show’s emcee named — as fans of Laugh-In will recall — “Oh, that Henny Youngman”. This enabled him to appear on-stage in other parts of the country.
Yet the road to fame was (as with many comics) slow … he moved to Los Angeles to try to make it in their comedy circuit in the early 80’s, financially struggling until in November 1984:
When money finally ran out, and he could no longer borrow from friends, he applied for a cashier’s job at a Mini Market. He soon got two job offers—on the same day: one from the store manager, and the other from The Tonight Show.
“I told the guy, ‘Thanks, but I’m doing The Tonight Show tonight.’ He goes, ‘Right.’ I said, ‘No, really! Watch it.’ The next day the guy called me back to wish me good luck,” Anderson recalls.
The next year, he was originally cast as the second lead in the TV series Perfect Strangers— until he was replaced by Mark Linn-Baker (as the show’s producers didn’t think that the chemistry between him and Bronson Pinchot was right in the pilot). He made his film debut on Ferris Bueller’s Day Offdelivering flowers, and in 1988 was cast as Maurice, a fellow fast-food employee with Eddie Murphy and Arsenio Hall in Coming to America.
Last year, when Murphy and Hall filmed a sequel (Coming to America 2) they revealed that they wanted an all-black cast for the original: but were told by Paramount Pictures there had to be at least one white actor. When offered a list of possible names, Murphy and Hall chose Louie Anderson. And to show that this was not aimed at him, Louie was hired to reprise his role of Maurice in the sequel: this time, promoted to the store manager post he sought in the original film.
In 1995 he had a Saturday morning animated series called Life with Louie (set in the fictional town of Cedar Knoll, Wisconsin) largely based on his difficult family life, which won him two Daytime Emmy awards.
And from 1999-2002, he became host of Family Feud— a show I would seldom watch, yet seeing him in that role was a revelation. Having come-of-age in the 70’s (when male hosts were starting to be cast on the basis of blow-dry looks), I couldn’t help wondering how atypical-looking a game show host he was. Chuck Barris was the only other one that came-to-mind … but then again, he owned the Gong Show. Interestingly, fifteen years after leaving the show: Louie appeared as part of a Celebrity Family Feud contestant in 2017 (now hosted by Steve Harvey).
In many of the obituaries, it was noted about what a people person he was (that surely must date back to his counseling days, plus his survivors guilt feelings about having made it). A former radio host in Minnesota noted he came into the studio to be interviewed on-air frequently (on his visits back to the Twin Cities) ... “and he would sit in a chair in the hallway and engage EVERY person he met”. In 2017, he joined the cast of the TV game show Funny You Should Ask— and in a TV interview, executive producer Byron Allen (the veteran host of Real People and the Byron Allen Show) spoke of how important a panelist he was (and also to the rest of the staff, not on-camera).
From 2016-19, Louie co-starred on the FX comedy show Basketscreated by Zach Galifianakis — in the role of Christine Baskets (mother to two sets of twins, and a Costco devotee) largely inspired by his mother, who had been a source for his comedy for years. In 2016 he won an Emmy for Best Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series. In his acceptance speech he dedicated the award to his mother and “everyone who loved him … when he couldn’t love himself.”
In her book of essays, TV veteran Casey Wilson recounted meeting him offstage, where he recalled several of her roles fondly. She in turn said how much she appreciated his portraying Christine Baskets without any sort of female caricature ….. and was stunned when he inquired about her own late mother, “ask(ing) something I realize no one ever asks … what was her name?”
His last credited (cameo) role was on the BET network, reprising the role of Maurice again … this time, as a freight delivery supervisor on the BET show Twenties— and the show’s creator Lena Waithe took to Instagram to show the clip and say, “After your first table read with us you sweetly said, 'Beautiful writing' and I'll never forget it — because your opinion meant so much to me”.
Louie Anderson was hospitalized last week for non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (a rare blood cancer) and it seemed like only hours later his death was announced. He was the author of four books, the most recent being 2018’s Hey Mom: Stories for My Mother (But You Can Read Them, Too) and in 2004 was named by Comedy Central as #92 in its 100 Greatest Stand-Ups of All Time list.
In reading the obituary (and learning much of his career that I was unaware of) I was amazed by the number of heartfelt tributes that came in: some were from people whose lives he had touched by his life story and in dealing with a dysfunctional family. Many were from comedy and TV veterans, such as Al Franken, George Wallace, Gilbert Gottfried, Sherri Shepherd, DL Hughley, Lizz Winstead, Margaret Cho plus (as a Minnesota native who never forgot his roots) Gov. Tim Walz, as well as Sen. Amy Klobuchar.
Many also came from those he helped at the beginning of their comedy careers … such as from this Emmy winner (for his work on The Daily Show) and Oscar winner (for directing the short film Two Distant Strangers).
Let’s close with this tune sung by Dave Mason during his time with Traffic … to serve as a Hail and Farewell to someone who made many people laugh.
Now, on to Top Comments:
From BenInSC:
In the diary by RudiB about junk mail emanating from ActBlue— this comment, made by Frank Pedraza (which launched a thread of its own).
And from Ed Tracey, your faithful correspondent this evening ........
In the diary by vjr7121 about the downfall of Jerry Falwell Jr.— a television show is recommended by sugarmagnolia that deals with the financial aspect of megachurches pleading for money… and how it is spent.
Next - enjoy jotter's wonderful (and now eternal) *PictureQuilt™* below. Just click on the picture and it will magically take you to the comment featuring that photo.
TOP PHOTOSJanuary 26th, 2022
|
And lastly: yesterday's Top Mojo - mega-mojo to the intrepid mik ...... who rescued this feature from oblivion:
14) From one of the linked articles: … by Catte Nappe +8115) More library attacks by Denise Oliver Velez +7919) Sad story …. But aren’t they all…. by Denver11 +7320) Good for you, Judge! by Arthur Bric Elair +7224) Diary this. It deserves wider exposure. by sidnora +7025) Shirley Chisholm by Denise Oliver Velez +6925) Posted May 20, 2020: … by 2thanks +69