Notes from the Good Doctor
Hey gang, David Allen sent an email around responded to past emails and the blog. I'll post the full text in the comments section. [Note: Dr. David Allen is a registered author of the blog and could create a post any time he likes by going to blogger.com, logging in, clicking on "Combo Za Blog" and then "Create" under the posting tab. If other people would like such power, just let me know.]
posted by (d)avid at 1/20/2005 11:45:00 AM
3 Comments:
Combo Za!
Have a great time at the reunion everyone. I wish I could be there but I can't. Our beautiful 6 week old baby Ben needs me to be home with him, Kath and big sister Monique.
I've really enjoyed reading the emails and the blog. I’ve been laughing out loud and enjoying the memories and the education on later day za. So hell, it’s about time I contribute something to the discussion.
I gotta say that it makes me so happy to see that the group has survived, nay thrived for 20 years. And to think we teetered on the edge in the primordial ooze of Erol Onel's humor and the dark days of the comedy sponge. It's so cool how things have grown and evolved. Basement tapes, initiation rites, first line a thon. btw, i didn't see any mention of the first line a thon. i thought that was a balsy concept. do you know how many years that occurred?
Here are a few thoughts and memories to share:
WHAT’S IN A NAME?
I was a fan of “Raging Bull” and really pushed for it as a new name as the group really started to gel. It was interesting to hear that the discussion continued a couple years later. I felt it could distinguish the new group from the old group. Plus, I really liked the raging in the name and the bull/purple cow connection fit so nicely. I remember well that as we discussed this sitting in classroom chairs in Bronfman 107 (?) that Randy made a great case for keeping the name, saying Combination Pizza is ok, but “Comba Za” just sounded cool. Picture Randy saying “Combo Za” as he slowly gestured in his Randy way with both hands upturned as if each holding a grapefruit, his hands raising and lowering as if to sniff said fruit, and head cocked to the side as if to get just the right whiff.
THIS WILL NOT BE OUR NAME
In the early stage of this group name discussion Byron Shah ’89, an early group member was still on again off again in the group. Bryon was funny but a bit too into being sophisticated and cool. Byron, who established the Williams Cocktail Society, campaigned strongly for changing the name to “'Shroom Safari.” Yikes. Many people have done much to forward the progress of this group. I like to think my biggest contributions were dodging the “'shroom safari” moniker and taking the difficult step of informing the Stan that he was no longer in the group. To his credit, Stan was not totally unfunny – it seemed to only occur when he was on stage. After dozens of people said “that guy is just not funny, what’s he doing in the group?” it was time for him to go. As I started to tell him why I had come to talk to me he said in a slow, faux mean deadpan, “I’m not FUNNY enough AM I Dave?”
NICKNAME
Yeah, hey, let's kill that pastey name once and for all, eh? It was a name on a shirt from a play I did in high school, not overly interesting or creative. The only reason it stuck was because it was a bit more interesting than a previous nickname that was also simply some text on my clothing. The previous nickname was '85, as in that's when I (and everyone else in my class) graduated high school. My Sage A entrymates were not the most poetic in coming up with nicknames. I would have taken any other nickname if it at least had a good story behind it. But we can’t choose our nicknames in life. The Za nickname thing was a development after my time, but I was honored that when I returned after graduation Wreckin’ Ball generously dubbed me “The Doctor” which I thought was kind of cool, especially when Wreckin’ Ball said it in a gravelly voice, slightly drawn out and con much gusto.
ROUGH TRY OUTS
Tim Hanes and Evan Buxbaum doing play's the thing 1987. Tim and Evan are readers and a woman (Sara, I believe) with some comedy potential is in the middle. All 3 are trying out. The skit starts out, moves along with a few funny lines, then Tim and Evan really start making it roll. I’m psyched that these guys just learned the skit and they’re already making it work, even exchanging lines back and forth to each other several times. As the dialogue continues between the two readers Tim mines a great line from his play that perfectly refers to the fact that the middle person hasn’t had to say anything for a minute or so. “You don’t need to listen to her.” Spouts Tim. Impressive, I think to myself. Sara finally gets a word in by making a hyperbolic response, bursting into tears and darting out of the room. Not bad, I think. That wasn’t super funny, but Sara did make a respectable attempt at playing off the other’s lines. Leaving the stage wouldn’t work during a show but Sara did show ability to think out of the box. In critiquing Sara’s performance I turned to fellow member Mandy Dawson and nodded, “hmm that’s pretty funny.”
Rosalyn Carter once said that President Jimmy Carter, the great international negotiator may have a fault in that he always sees the good in people, even thought sometimes it’s not really there. During college I was obsessed with humor. I was always scanning, looking for what was or could be funny. Sometimes though, I saw humor when it wasn’t there.
Mandy’s response to me was, “She was REALLY crying, you ****ing idiot.” Mandy dashed out into the hallway to console our poor injured candidate. I swear I never saw Sara on campus ever again.
CROSS HIM OFF THE LIST, RANDY!
Yes, as you mentioned in the blog, Chris, that is the line that got you in. It was especially funny because this was only the second year of having tryouts for this comedy group and the whole concept of tryouts for funniness still seemed crude and not quite fair (e.g. we thought Stan would be funnier in the group than Keith) and I’m sure I conveyed in some way that we still were not totally comfortable with subjecting people to this. (But I was going to be damned if we were going to subject the group to the far worse situation of lacking any quality control whatsoever or continuing to have the comedy sponge” in the group again.) So, Chris’ hyperbolic rendition of what was indeed going on (mercilessly crossing people off the list due to insufficient funniness) really hit me as hilarious because it highlighted something we were all feeling. And to throw that in our face like that – while first and foremost being funny – was totally balsy.
THE GREYLOCK SHOW
Here’s something we don’t like to talk about. Then again, some of us, like Mike Baratta took perverse pleasure in reliving our most painful, wrenching moments on stage.
So, we subject people to the first year of tryouts, get 4 new fresh faces - Tim Hanes, Evan Buxbaum, Carsten Vala and Randy. We were always blessed with very enthusiastic crowds that were generous with the laughs, especially at the intimate log. Was it that Williams folk are generally nice? Was it the dearth of any other entertainment for 3 hours in each direction? Hopefully it was that we were saying somewhat funny things on stage as well.
We had our first show of the year in the unusual location of the Greylock dining hall. We just did a couple of skits to warm up the crowd before something like a band played. This was the first show for the frosh and I wanted to make sure they were cool about it. We all assured them how our audiences were always great. And hey, it’s improv. If you’re not funny they cut you slack, if you’re funny, you’re a hero.
However, things were just not right that night. People were there to hear a loud band; they were not interested in a bunch of guys doing their comedy skits. The show started after considerable delay. The air in the smallish NW dining room was heavy with the perspiration of too many people packed into the room. Views out of the huge Greylock windows were obscured by fog, pierced only by dripping, condensated sweat.
Everyone had plenty of beer to drink to enhance their mood. I’m sure the entire hockey team was there. And best of all, our microphones did not work well. According to plan, we sent Evan and Carsten out there, bless their hearts. I remember the scene they were doing for some reason had them on their knees. Comedy human sacrifices. The audience couldn’t hear them. Soon we heard the terrible sound of losing the audience as their chatter overcome our performance and we became irrelevant, just an annoyance. Through the din we did hear someone yell, I’ve got a scene for you, “Two guys on stage NOT being funny!”
After the show the group traveled as a unit from party to party, instinctively clinging to each other for protection. The tragedy was Evan, with whom I worked in Williamstown for a summer and became good friends, never recovered from the trauma of Greylock.
ORIGINAL FUNNY PEOPLE
I hope you have the name of Brian Carpenter as the first leader and founder of the group. I remember frosh year, squeezing into a packed log to hear some comedy group. I finally got my head tucked under the doorway to a raptured audience having a great time hearing Carpenter’s stand up. I was very very intrigued.
Other early Combination Pizza members of note (the shortened “Combo Za” came later) were John Watkins, a real improve natural.
Let’s not forget Ray Yao “Nam. What a hellhole. Well, actually I was too young to go to Vietnam, but I experienced it all through Time/Life Books.”
My friend David Katz ’89 later went on to write for “House of Buggin” on Fox (is that something to boast about?)
THE DOCTORRRRRRRRR!
If the appearance of the Good Doctor is not an auspicious opening to this occasion I don't know what is...
More details: "The Doctor" actually stemmed from an elaborate hoax Randy, Chris and I concocted and never perpetrated that involved reserving a space for a lecture by Dr. David Allen and filling it with friends, then getting a recently-graduated Dave up to campus on some subterfuge and informing him at the last minute that he was expected to deliver a speech on a given subject an push him out in front of the "audience" and watch him IMPROVISE AN ENTIRE LECTURE WITH NO ADVANCE KNOWLEDGE OF THE FACT ON A SUBJECT HE KNEW NOTHING ABOUT IN FRONT OF A PACKED AUDIENCE!!!
Thanks for the power-entry Dave: you ARE Mach I! We'll be thinking of you...
ROCK N ROLL!
Ditto, 5 days later!
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