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ARTS

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the Michigan Daily

Monday, November 14, 1988

delivers
musical
mdlange
BY LIAM FLAHERTY
the only time you're likely to hear
blues, Cajun music, Duke Ellington,
and virtuoso violin music in the
same place, besides an hour of
WCBN free form, is when Clarence
'Gatemouth" Brown is playing.
£ The renowned Texan, almost 70
years old, swings into town tonight.
As always, he will be carrying a full
k)ad, with guitar, violin, harmonica,
mandolin, and drums at his disposal.
And he knows how to use them.
Everyone from Albert Collins to
frank Zappa has cited him as an in-
flyence on guitar. He has racked up
two W.C. Handy awards for best
lilues instrumentalist of the year and
4.Grammy for best traditional blues
recording.
. - As a child Brown played polkas
and traditional French and Texan
tunes on the fiddle, but made his
professional debut was as a drummer.
He made a kamikaze entrance into the
blies, at a T-Bone Walker show,
grabbing and jamming with Walker's
guitar in between sets. The manager
fdgave him enough to book him af-
ter Walker went on the road.

Eat your

heart out, SNL

.6

Brown
...does it all
He has worked with orchestras and
big bands, before delving into coun-
try for a while, hosting a television
show in Nashville. Not exactly been
one to fall in step with the whims of
his time, Brown even spent the
psychedelic '60s as a sheriff, pa-
trolling the mean streets of New
Mexico.
Brown is always finding new
ways for new notes, and his many
trips to Europe and Africa have con-
tributed to his ceaseless integration.
He is eclectic, and not in some vapid
postmodern sense of dabbling in ex-
otic cultures, as if the world were
some daintily wrapped box of choco-
lates. He plays so many styles be-
cause they all find resonance in him.
Put simply, he plays nothing he
doesn't feel.
CLARENCE "GA TEMOUTH"
BROWN will trundle his instruments
to Rick's tonight at 10 p.m. Cover
should be around $5.

BY MARY BETH BARBER
Remember the old Saturday Night
Live episodes that would make you
almost sick with laughter? If you're
disappointed with the new episodes,
there is something that can tickle
your funny bone like that again. The
Comedy Company's Big Show was
everything that the original SNL
episodes were, and more.
Those "Wacky Funsters," as they
call themselves, following a SNL
format, had sellout crowds roaring
last Thursday, Friday, and Saturday
nights, and for good reason. They
were hilarious. They presented 20
sketches, some better than others -
"Olympic Recap" was by far more
funny than the clown terrorists
sketch - but every sketch generated
at least one good laugh. Even SNL
doesn't do that anymore.
It boggles my mind that most of
the actors are not theater majors.
Maybe they should be, because they
equalled the Not Ready for Prime
Time Players and all were better
than excellent. The head geek in "If
Geeks Were Cool," played by Jason
Dilly, was as funny as the Church
Lady. Sara Mathison's parody of
shallow, inept graduation speeches,
was perfect; Gilda Radner couldn't
have done it better. And no one
could forget Jonathan Liss as the
Calculus professor who suffers from
C.S.D.S. (Common Sense Defi-

ciency Syndrome) -causing him to
ask his students Marie Antoinette's
bra size as part of a test.
Jon Hein (producer), Deb Cong-
don (director), and Steve Doppelt
(director) also deserve congratula-
tions for putting on one of the most
humorous shows on campus. But a
great deal of credit should go to the
writers. "A Warm Welcome" focuses
on a husband who is invisible to his
wife's family - to the extent that
he can steal a Thanksgiving turkey
off the dinner table without them
noticing - a hilarious treatment of
the problem of adjusting to a new
family. "The Times They Really Are
A-Changin"' presented the change,
or lack thereof, in social and politi-
cal values, from the '50s to the '80s.
And the concept of C.S.D.S. in
"P.S.A. III" was brilliant. Every
sketch was humorous - the writers
on SNL should take some hints.
One of the most brilliant perfor-
mances came from someone off-
stage. Dave Darmofal, musical
director (i.e., piano player in-be-
tween sketches) played jingles on the
piano, including the theme from
Gilligan's Island, Brady Bunch,
Scooby Doo, and "Joy to the
World." Not only did the playing and
audience sing-alongs eliminate the
tension between sketches, but it was
entertaining as well. But Darmofal
really got to show off his talent in
"Lucky Charm," a sketch with only

4

JOSE JUAREZ/DaDISy
In "If Geeks Were Cool," nerds (1-r) Andrew Yeager, Jason
Dilly, and Jon Glaser cackle with evil glee at their dominance
va h ch

4


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* S
I Xubishing
Prog4ram
The Rice University Publishing Program, June 19-July 14, is designed
to develop talent, skills and career opportunities for persons interested in
hook and maga:ine publishing. The program is designed for students who
will he entering their senior year in 1989 and for college graduates.
Although participants come from all disciplines, the program has heen
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JOSTENS
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IS COMING!

action and piano music. Each action
on stage had a melody to accompany
it, and there wasn't one note that
sounded inappropriate.
If you missed last weekend's per-
formance, you'll have to wait until
next semester to see it again in Ann
Arbor, and there is no guarantee that
the same sketches or actors will be
ROSE BOWL '89
Dec. 30-Jan. 3
* Round-Trip Airfare
" Four Nights in
Hollywood
" New Year's Eve Party
" Game Tickets, Parade
" NFL Playoff,
Many Extras
S & E Travel
562-6810
1-800-263-9372

S10a
~5
PARSs
IT
AROUND!'I

used. But if you are really interested-
in seeing them perform, they will be
at Northwestern University during
early December. If not, we might see
the cast some Saturday night
T.V., replacing the old SNL gan
You never know.

E

mu

THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
CENTER FOR RUSSIAN
AND
EAST EUROPEAN STUDIES

204 Lane Hall - 764-0351

PW -
IAN

TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 15
Lecture, 8:00 p.m.
Rackham Amphitheatre
"Polish - Soviet Relations: Past and Present"
PROF. NORMAN DAVIES
Professor Davies, from The University of London, Center for Slavonic and
East European Studies, is an eminemt historian and author of the two-volume
work God's Playground: A History of Poland.
Co-sponsored by the Copernicus Endowment at The University of Michigan,
Studium, and the AnnArbor Chapter of the Polish American Congress.

Sf

The Medieval and Renaissance Collegium
announces
a FEMINIST LITERARY
CRITICISM
IN THE MIDDLE AGES:
CHRISTINE DE PISAN
LA CITE' DES DAMES
a lecture by
PROFESSOR GLENDA McLEOD
The University of Georgia
November 15, 1988, 4 p.m.
Pi c- T rarfii r vRnnIrMnni'v11 t-r arl-b n

Stop by and see a Jostens representative,
Monday, Nov. 14-thru Friday, Nov. 18,
11a.m. to 4 p.m.,

I

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