Sunday, February 19, 2006

Spot-on Impression of Bush

I have to admit to having a soft spot for comedic impressionists. Back when I was about 14, there was a TV show called "The Kopykats" that featured Rich Little, Frank Gorshin, and a slew of other impressionists doing sketch comedy. I loved it, but that must have been the minority opinion as it only lasted a few episodes.

I first saw Frank Caliendo on Comedy Central about two years ago. My wife and I were visiting the in-laws, and thankfully she is on the same page as I am when it comes to visiting relatives: we get a room. Having to sit there all day while she and her family catch up on people, places, events and memories that are meaningless to me but compelling to all others present is a lot to ask of a hyperactive cat. I do it because I love her and it makes her happy. Helping me through the rough spots is the thought that at the end of the day we can get away and have some alone time. Our own bathroom, TV, ice bucket, white towels, little soaps wrapped in paper and a bottle a tasty cheap cab seem like an oasis after 12 hours of being the only one in the room who has absolutely no idea of what everyone else is going on about. I can sit on the bed in a t-shirt and sweat-pants, sip a glass of wine out of a plastic cup and surf the ‘net while the Viscountess takes a bath. Bliss. Nowadays we both have company-furnished laptops and most motels have a wireless connection. This comes in handy when we are at the in-laws because all they have is 56k dial-up, and when you are used to DSL that is like going from a crotch-rocket to a pogo-stick.

It was one of these trips that we tuned the Super 8 19” Color T.V. to Comedy Central and were pleasantly entertained by Frank Caliendo. Here was this pudgy, non-descript little guy doing the most amazing impression of John Madden. We ended up watching the entire program and he was consistently hilarious. He also did Al Pacino, Bill Clinton and an imitation of George Bush that was simply the best I’d ever seen. I wouldn't want to follow him if I was Will Ferrel. I have since learned that he is a regular on Mad TV and Fox NFL Sunday, but we don’t watch much television at home anymore. Not since we kicked.

I thought I’d share this little clip of Mr. Caliendo that I received this week courtesy of Soundsurfr. It is an edit of his performance from his recent appearance on David Lettermen, which just includes his unparalleled imitation Bush mixed with a little bit of vintage Clinton. You can watch the edited clip by clicking here, or for a version of the entire performance including his great John Madden, click here.

Enjoy.

10 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

That was pretty funny.

Gobble-gobble.

6:14 PM  
Blogger Eidin said...

You should treat yourselves to a higher quality, yet affordable cab. I recommend the cab and the mourvedre here:

http://www.hollyshill.com/wines/wines.html

and the cab and the cab/syrah here:

http://www.narrowgatevineyards.com/pages/wine-order-form.php

cheers!

8:31 PM  
Blogger Eidin said...

Caliendo's bit on Bush was funny. "...everytime he opens his mouth he knows he's gambling just a little bit."

8:48 PM  
Blogger The Viscount LaCarte said...

You should treat yourselves to a higher quality, yet affordable cab.

Oh yeah, we often do, but when we stay at the Super 8 the $5 variety seems apt, and as those go the Stones Cellars is not too shabby. Thanks for the recommendations though, as I always am looking for new inexpensive wines to try.

9:19 PM  
Blogger Eidin said...

There's a $5 cab?! Well, I'd be curious what you and the Countess thought about the wine that's grown in my neck of the woods.

10:39 PM  
Blogger Neil Shakespeare said...

Saw that over at soundsrfr. He was doing some Bush on MAD TV last night, in fact. Pretty funny, but not as funny as this clip.

10:51 PM  
Blogger The Viscount LaCarte said...

There's a $5 cab?! Well, I'd be curious what you and the Countess thought about the wine that's grown in my neck of the woods.

I'm sure we'd LOVE it!


Stone Cellars by Beringer is usually about an $8 bottle of wine, but I can get it here in suburbs of Atlanta for $5 + tax. Is it going to drink like a $25 bottle of Sonoma Carbernet? Nope. But We are red wine drinkers and both of us usually drink 1 to 2 glasses per night 6-7 days a week, (which doctors still say is quite healthy in fending off heart disease and perhaps other ailments - lucky us!) so while we treat ourselves to a bottle of this or a bottle of this once or twice a month, we'd go broke if drank those exclusively. So we try to find inexpensive wines that won't break the budget. CK Mondavi, Woodbridge, and Century Cellars all fit the bill at about $10 - $11 for a 1.5 litre bottle.

By the way, we can get this for about $10 and it is a nice pinot for that price.

Since you are from wine country, I'd love it if you can steer me toward some of your favorites regardless of price, but I think it is still not legal to ship to GA. Pity.

7:45 AM  
Blogger jemison said...

Happy Birthday today to Walter Becker!

I also heard an initial track from Morph the Cat. SOunds good. Looks like his March tour is mostly in the Northeast--too bad.

9:20 AM  
Blogger The Viscount LaCarte said...

I also heard an initial track from Morph the Cat. Sounds good. Looks like his March tour is mostly in the Northeast--too bad.

Been looking forward to that release myself. Haven't heard anything from it yet. Donald doesn't really like the south all that much, so I'm not surprised, but I am disappointed.

9:47 AM  
Blogger Kevin Wolf said...

Thanks for the clip. I've always had a soft spot for impressionists too.

And, sorry, but I have no wine wisdom to impart.

11:01 AM  

Post a Comment

<< Home