Word: concertized
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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Paris' venerable Olympia concert hall has never seen anything quite like the stir created by Woody Allen and his New Orleans Jazz Band. It's been like that at every stop on Allen's 14-city, 23-day European tour, which ends in London on March 18. In Madrid he needed a police escort to get in from the airport amid what El Mundo called Woodymania. In Barcelona more than 300 autograph seekers mobbed him at the stage entrance. "Woody's having a ball," says his banjo player and musical guru, Eddie Davis. "He's kind of stunned...
...expected to play to half-filled houses," Allen says during a pre-concert chat in the band's dressing room, though perhaps it shouldn't have come as too great a surprise that a self-described "amateur" clarinetist who also happens to be a world-famous filmmaker can sell out halls like the Olympia, which recently canceled a concert by jazz great Ornette Coleman owing to low ticket sales. But if fame pulls in the crowds, Allen works hard to send them home happy. "I'm very conscious of the audience. It's not like Michael's Pub, where...
...Allen, who says he used to throw up every night before going onstage as a comedian, speaking to live audiences is marginally less painful than winning an Oscar. But in the concert setting, he seems to enjoy it, peppering his comments with jokes and repartee. In Paris, much to the delight of the locals, he does all this in passable French. Midway through the show, he announces a series of clarinet-banjo duets. "The others have to rest their lips," he explains. "But not me. I'm very strong, because I live right. I eat well and sleep well...
...concessions to showmanship: Allen keeps his eyes closed and legs crossed most of the time, and his stage costume consists of the usual baggy green corduroys, plaid shirt, gray cardigan and the trademark black-rimmed glasses. Which, of course, is exactly what people pay to see. With concert fees reportedly in the $40,000-plus range, the show seems a lucrative proposition. But for Allen, who hardly needs the money, kicks may be the main payoff...
Internet etiquette seems to imply that one should be able to transmit and receive pornography, yet be free from "offensive" solicitations to a campus concert. How disingenuous...