0 w w w w w w i lqw w qw w MICH-ELLANY FILM Story of orangutan gone ape is basically a tu Sitting in temple, counting the pages INTERVIEW Jay Leno To his lazier colleagues, this busy comedian says, 'Oh, shut up' Jay Leno is one funny guy. Once a car mechanic and strip show MC, the 36-year-old Leno has become one of the country's most successful comedians. He's been a guest on "Late Night with David Letterman" more than 30 times, a guest host on the "Tonight Show" and "Saturday Night Live," staged a concert on cable TV, and signed a contract with NBC to do several specials. Last year Leno worked over 300 nights. On October 19th, he'll perform at the Power Center. He spoke by phone from Los Angeles with Daily staffer Seth Flicker. Daily: Did you always want to be a comedian? Leno: No, I never even thought about it until I started doing it. This wasn't any Divine Right of Kings or anything. I grew up in New England, not really a kind of place where you go into show business. Boston has 200 colleges. Especially back in the early seventies, every college had a coffee house kind of setting where folk singers from Long_ Island sing and they hate their parents and that kind of stuff. I used to MC a lot of these things... bring on the acts, make fun of them, or do something like that. From there I started working in some of the strip joints around Boston. I never thought of making a living out of it. D: Well, a lot of young comedians started in Boston. L: Yeah, probably because that's where all the students go. You know, when you have that many students in a city which isn't very extensive, like Boston, your entertainment options aren't that many. You do things with other students... like math. What you have is hundreds of students, with no talent, willing to perform for thousands of other students with no appreciation. One more or less cancels out the other. D: What did you want to be before you were a comedian? L: I never really gave it much thought. I was not one of those people who saw beyond the next day. D: What did you study in college? L: I think it was speech therapy. I remember reading the brochure. It said, "Speech Therapy. At the end of the semester, rather than a written exam, an oral exam will be given in which the student will be required to give a five minute speech." And I said, "Well, shit, I'll take that." There was a war on at the time and one had to do what one did. I really had no particular interest in college other than just finishing. D: What did your parents think about you becoming a comedian? L: They were fine. My parents came from the "You just finished school and if nothing works out, you can always teach" school of thought. I never decided to become a comedian. I still had my day job. I used to be a Rolls Royce-Mercedes Benz mechanic. I was working for them during the day changing oil-not real complicated stuff-spark plugs and tune-ups. This (comedy) is something that I would do at night. I would work, Continued on Page 9 WHEN I WAS YOUNGER, I complained about how boring the Yom Kippur service was, and how it.was interminably long. My dad made it clear that attendance was mandatory-that we only went to temple a few times a year, and that we would go as a family. When we got to temple I counted the number of pages in the prayerbook so that I could keep tabs on the progress of the service. "Two hundred more pages," I would think to myself dejectedly, or perhaps I would whisper the number to my younger brother Steve, who understood. All I had to do was say the number and he would sigh in sad agreement. The rabbi asked us to stand up all the time, and then there would be a droning of words, some English, some Hebrew, and just as it seemed our legs would collapse from stiffness, we were allowed to sit down. Sometimes Steve and I would laugh about something, anything Anything was better than sitting there in time that could easily have been moving backwards. And it always seemed to be hot. The necks of our shirts and our ties OFF THE WALL I used to wonder why people write on walls... then I tried it. You know, I sleep better nights... -WCBN-FM Studio LOOK CLOSE AT THOSE YOU MOST DESPISE IN THEM YOUR UNEXPLORED SELF LIES -Angell Hall You're all crazy. I've gone here for three years, never studied, never gone to a single class, bought the test answers, gotten all As, and then I will go to Law School, do the same, and make a million bucks by the time I'm thirty. -Graduate Library Help me find a major. If you have any information regarding a promising career write: HELP ME FIND A MAJOR P.O. Box 3075 Hopeless, NY 48369 (in reply) How about being an actuary? The supply is small and with the increasing average age the life insurance industry is in a most auspicious position! (it's also boring as hell) -Graduate Library PROFANITY IS THE CRUTCH OF INARTICULATE MOTHERFUCKERS -Student Publications Building S MIK E FISCH seemed to strangle us. If we laughed loud enough for our parents to hear there was a good chance that we would be separated. Now we were surrounded by adults. One hundred forty more pages. Now that I'm in college, I don't get the speech from my Dad about going to temple. Now I wrestle over the whether I will go or not. Every year, it seems, my arguments are for skipping services are good, but I still end up going. At the last minute I throw on a tie, with my blue suit, and I walk over to the synagogue. I sit down and then I thumb through the prayerbook to see how long the service will be. "Two hundred twenty-three pages," I think to myself, and do not whisper this to anybody. The service is no longer torture. I still bring Lifesavers to suck on. I look at my watch and am able to make more sophisticated extrapolations as to when the service will conclude. I like the singing. The voice of the cantor is powerful, and even though I cannot understand the words he is singing (which is not to say that I make the effort to look up their translations in the prayerbook), he seems to really. mean it. I think that he would be a good blues singer. He's not just singing because that's the next thing on the agenda or because the song happens to be the one in the book. I look at my watch again. One hundred twenty more pages. That cantor really can sing. So how is it, then, that I end up at services every year, and that I still count the pages? That I still get my main kick out of those words the cantor belts out over everybody, words I can't understand? He transcends the order of the service. He is alone. He is above and exultant. Why do I end up in that uncom - fortable seat again? I wish I could have as much faith in God as that cantor. When he sings God's praises he means it. He is not just Continued on Page 12 By Kurt Serbus DIG THIS: A PRETTY, bright young co-ed becomes personal assistant to an eccentric professor specializing in the study of simian behavior. Arriving at his spooky, isolated mansionsomewhere on the English coast, she finds that the only other inhabitants are a trio of sinister monkeys and a pack of viscious, wild dogs who patrol the area. When the good doctor makes arrangements to have two of the monkeys offed (including a super- intelligent orangutan named Link), bodies start popping up left and right, and it begins to appear (suprise!) that the killer is somewhat less than human. Sound like the stuff of classic motion pictures? Of course not. Sound like the type of fare that's headed for the "Scream Theater" playlist in just a few short months? Exactly. But even some of those "Scream Theater" regulars are all right, and "Link" definitely has it's moments. Make no mistake about it-"Link" is a cheap schlock horror film, an inane script thrown together around a ridiculous premise. The acting is second-rate (except for the orangutan, who's subtle, sorrowful performance as an aging celebrity strikes more emotional chords than a lot of recently "acclaimed" human performances-like Jon Voight's Oscar-nominated ranting in "Runaway Train," for instance). PRINT FROM THE PAST 0 0 T LL _J Q Continued from Page 4 songwriting here is spotty at best, and there's painful little resembling his old work on this piece of vinyl. In this round, Thompson's adventures mostly concern his misadventures with those strange, fickle creatures that he hasn't quite figured out yet: women. This is how he deals with the subject: women are Exotic and the Other, and gosh, he has no idea what to do with them, they're awful and he has to love 'em. Or he doesn't. One example of the latter is "Bone Through Her Nose," Thompson's right-on-target stinger about fashionable New Wave Gurls. Do I need to say he doesn't like them? Here, the songwriting is wonderfully amusing, and the production overdone, complete with McNuggets Shanghai style guitar riffs. As well, there are many references to Linda Peters Thompson, his ex-wife and ex- singing/songwriting partner. The_ subject occurs and reoccurs in "Missie, How You Let Me Down," "Long Dead Love, "Lovers' Lane," and "Jennie," all ballads, all you- done-me-wrong brought up to date. "Missie" and "Jennie" succeed to some extent, rising above the overproduction that engulfs the other ballads and chokes them. "Missie" has a, great hook, and "Jennie" emphasizes Thompson's crooning abilities (unfortunately at the expense of his guitar). And then there's the issue of treading water, which does come up here. "Baby Talk" is just a rewrite of Thompson's witty "Two Left Feet." And "Dead Man's Handle" is a depressing, flowing, wonderful The climatic ending is really stupid. And there's a lot less action and gore than there could have been. So how come I sort of, kind of, liked this movie (sort of)? Well, the camera work, for one thing. No matter how lame the other elements in "Link" might be, producer/director Richard Franklin always keeps things vi.sually interesting with a lot of De Palma- style pans and other techniques. When the camera is shooting a monkey's eye-view, for instance, he utilizes speeded-up stop-action pho - tography to represent the altered perception of the beast. Now, there's no reason in hell that I can think of why a monkey would see things in speeded-up stop-action photography, but it looks really, really cool anyways. Seriously, this Franklin guy has a good eye for the right shot, a terrific visual imagination, and his action scenes really kick ass. If he can get his hands on a decent script the next time around, he could really be a contender. The acting, like I said back in paragraph three, is second-rate, but it's interesting nonetheless. Terence Stamp, who already carved out his own niche in the "Scream Theater" pantheon years ago as "The Collector," does a decent turn as the nutty professor. He doesn't exactly pull a De Niro, mostly relying on the fact that he's old and English to define his character, but in a movie about killer monkeys, he still manages to rise above the material. 1 7 I 1 1 rocking guitar. The production is not real noticeable on this one, as he goes on about how he don't understand her, still he loves her. Yep, and we're hoping it'll never end! "How Will I Ever Be Simple Again" is charming, simple and slow, with a real 19th Century English folk feel to it. And "Al Bowlly's in Heaven" is also a bit simple-the guitar sneaks around and grabs you, in the most pleasant and unnerving way. Ah, yes, this is the Richard we know and love. To those who aren't too familar with Thompson: There are good points and bad points to everything. I'd recommend getting some of his earlier albums if you're not familiar with them, and then when you're hooked, come to this one. It's a strikingly human album made by a human Guitar God... not as good as stuff in the past, but still good. -VJ. Beauchamp Ric Ocasek THIS SIDE OF PARADISE Geffen After seeing Ric Ocasek in a Cars video, you might think that he can do anything. In "Magic," he even shows us that he walks on water. So when this demigod of pop music releases a solo album, it naturally raises high hopes. But "This Side of Paradise" falls short of expectations. The opening track does shake it up pretty well. Ocasek's familiar intonations glide across a catchy, if unspectacular upbeat tune. Then just as it starts showing signs of running low on fuel, along comes Steve Stevens. Billy Idol's lead Student housing 1962, co-op style: two housemates ofa the Owen Cooperative consider strategies for preparing the evening's meal. THE DAILY ALMANAC 10 years ago-October 12, 1976: Volunteers collected over 37,000 canis and bottles along the Huron River and put them in an enormous heap. The effort was staged to dramatize the need for "Proposal A," the so-called "Bottle Bill" banning non-returnables in Michigan, which was on the November ballot. 20 years ago-October 12, 1966: It was announced that out- of-state enrollment at the University jumped sharply after seven straight years of decline. Fall 1966 out--of-state enrollment hit 30.5 percent, an increase of 3.3 percent over 1965. State legislation passed in 1959 set limits on the number of non-Michigan residents allowed to study at the University, after criticism that out-of-state students were being accepted at the expense of Michigan residents. Ric Ocasek's latest solo effort falls short of expectations. thang that bears more than a passing resemblance to Thompson's brillant, depressing, flowing "Wall of Death." Still, I'd rather listen to Richard Thompson's rewrites and re-rewrites than just about anyone else's first draft. And then there are the glowing spots of brillance that even Mitchell Froom cannot destroy. "Valerie," the single, is lovely and uptempo with a nice glisten of PAGE 8 WEEKEND/OCTOBER 10, 1986 WEEKEND/OCTOBER 10, 1986