October 06, 2006
HEY, AUNT BEA, LET'S PICK IT UP!
I'VE GOT A LIFE TO LEAD, CHA-CHA!
I had the surreal experience of interviewing Dennis Miller last week for a story in the Tribune today.
As you can read in the story, I've been a fan since his SNL days and disclosed as much during the interview. Yes, I really did memorize the "Off White" album. Yes, I have the rants books. My friend Anna once downloaded the audio to all the HBO shows and sent them to me on CDs. I did, however, draw the line at watching all of "Bordello of Blood." And, quite honestly, no one went to see him and Sandra Bullock in "The Net."
So I was surprised to find how approachable he was by phone. We had to reschedule to later in the day due to a travel snafu, but he couldn't have been more apologetic when we finally talked.
We hit all the highlights: SNL, Monday Night Football, the rants. We talked about his politics and the shift into being a "known conservative" in Hollywood. "I can't live my life through the prism of whether it will play at Rob Reiner's house," he told me. Fair enough.
When I mentioned the "Off White" album, we had a funny moment where I told him that I had fixated on one line in a bit about him watching "Star Trek" while stoned to the bejeezus on pot and trying to remember which little white dot in the opening sequence turned into the Starship Enterprise:
Q: I think I dropped the phrase “incredibly potent Sao Paolo north-slope tripweed” at least 5,000 times at parties.A: It's funny when people isolate a joke and they come up and it will sound like a vague echo of something I remember.
When I got in a corner, I used to always have this equation for jokes where I would think, “Indignation … what am I? … arcane reference.” I think that's one of those jokes I shot through that prism. That sounds like me just loading up the adjectives.
Posted by Jeff at October 6, 2006 08:53 AM | TrackBack
"Do you know what it's like to be the only person on board who CARES if it crashes? I'm going into the side of a mountaintop, they're going to a better place. 'Hey look, kids, the wing just fell off!' 'Kumbay-YAAAAAHHH!'"
Bill still uses both the "folding his jacket like he's in the colorguard at Arlington National Cemetery" and the "gaffer-taping a twine handled to a Refrigidaire freezer box and calling it 'carry-on.' "
The Net was actually a decent movie. *Much* better than the other Internet-themed clones that were released at that time.
Posted by: Mike at October 6, 2006 10:20 AMYou mentioned me, right?
Posted by: Anna at October 6, 2006 03:22 PMHow could I not?
Posted by: Jeff at October 6, 2006 06:04 PM*I* saw "The Net." At a movie theater in Anchorage. With former ADN stalwart Stan Jones. It was not an intended date; he and I ran into each other in line. And it wasn't just "The Net," baby. It was a double feature, the other half of which was "Virtuosity," with Russell Crowe and Denzel Washington. What can I say? It was an enchanted evening.
Posted by: Lancaster at October 7, 2006 11:38 PM