Blog Archives
Cinco de Voices
What do Seth MacFarlane, Emily Blunt and Kermit the Frog have in common?
They all hear funny voices.
While I can imitate some characters for the sake of drama or comedy, Seth MacFarlane constantly proves that performing impersonations is a remarkable skill. To successfully pull off a great impression, you have to fully inhabit another person or character’s being, including their accent, temperament and signature reactions. Most impressively, the best imitators are able to switch on-and-off like a light switch from acting like themselves to being somebody completely different with stunning accuracy.
As a fan and student of improv and acting, the following video of impressions is entertaining and educational. It features one of the modern masters at work:
Impersonations definitely require a very specific set of skills.
The Season’s Over
Some devils went up to Indianapolis (in the Indiana) and were able to stage a late game flurry of offense to neutralize Frank “The Tank” Kaminsky and his fellow Badgers to win the men’s college basketball national championship last night. As a basketball fan, it was an exciting game. As a fan of the Tar Heels who lives in Columbus, Ohio with family from Wisconsin, it was excruciating watching Coach K jump up and down in pure exuberance after the clock ticked down to all zeros. Wisconsin and the Big Ten were so close, but the summit was just too steep to reach.
Baskets are only worth so many points in the final 30 seconds.
Yesterday was fascinating, though. Aside from the grand finale of March Madness, it was also Opening Day for baseball. Quite the transition from one indoor sport with a time limit to an outdoor sport with no time limit. From a sport with nail-biting plays to a sport with no shortage of yawns, sports made one of its transitions on Monday. The occasional experience of a baseball game is fun. I have a few great memories of being at a baseball game in a new park every several years. There is an entertaining dynamic. But like hot dogs and beer, a steady diet is not recommended.
Regardless, in ballparks across the country, hot dogs and beer were purchased, jerseys were taken off the hanger in the closest and America’s pastime (some may say literally…) began its 162-game marathon of strikeouts, home runs and, well, what the New York Mets do:
That’s funny every year.
Top of the Sixth
“As a celebration of the magic of movies involving baseball, at least one scene from a different film will be posted each day for the next nine days…”
—From “Top of the First” March 28th
For twenty four Major League Baseball teams, today serves as Opening Day for the 2013 season. Despite the fact there will be 161 more games to follow, every team wants to start off the right way. A first game victory sets a good tone for the second game and so on and so forth. Winners always want to win and understand that it all begins with a great first pitch. The team that is on defense during the top of the first never wants to get behind early.
For some baseball teams though, bad karma can’t ever be broken. The following clip is not from a movie. However, I think most would agree the video below is a “pitch” perfect representation of the opening day for a particular organization.
The New York Mets host the San Diego Padres this afternoon.
Jimmy's Daily Planet 