Word: absurdistly
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Because the ending is taken beyond ridiculous, "Monkey Town" falls somewhat short of the high Absurdist standard it sets for itself. The play's closing lines, "you've just been monkeyed around," leave the audience indignant. If Monkey Town is indeed some sort of bluff, it is poorly executed. But if the ending can be written off as a poor attempt at a facile closure, one is willing to forgive the forced nature of the play's denouement and look forward to more plays like "Monkey Town...
...well. But hold on. Sandler, one of the more annoying Saturday Night Live cast members of recent years, reveals some unforeseen talent on his new album, What the Hell Happened to Me? He still lapses too often into juvenile self-indulgence, but the best of his dry, absurdist bits--several aging mafiosi dote on one of their grandchildren; a band of neighborhood pals teases a goat--have more body and feeling for character than anything SNL offers these days. Sandler, it seems, is one of those comics who just took a little while to find his place: on records...
Bandstand is tailor-made for late twentysomethings still wallowing in the absurdist culture of their youth. The most frequently rerun episode has John Travolta in a skintight turtleneck giggling his way through an interview with remarks like "I'm going to get to dance in a film in January, and it's going to be hot!" But the real celebrity fun comes with the far less recognizable faces--the Corey Harts and Quarterflashes that dominated the mainstream pop of the late '70s and early '80s. In one segment John Waite performs his only hit single, Missing You, wearing a gauze...
DIED. STANLEY ELKIN, 65, darkly witty, language-obsessed novelist; of a heart attack; in St. Louis, Missouri. Author of 17 books, Elkin won the National Book Critics Circle Award in 1983 for George Mills, which-in a plot typical of his absurdist bent-follows a thousand-year lineage of losers with the same name, from a misguided medieval crusader to a furniture mover in present-day St. Louis. Elkin remained a prolific writer despite suffering from multiple sclerosis...
Filmmakers today are desperately stalking an elusive, yet deliciously lucrative genre--the cult classic. Peter Chelsom's new "Funny Bones" is one of the few to capture the capricious beast. The film, starring Oliver Platt (the dramaturg-thug of "Bullets Over Broadway"), brilliantly walks a tightrope between absurdist comedy and tragedy without ever missing a step...