As we asked earlier this week: He hates who?? BURT KEARNS’ appearance on a “very special episode" of the popular podcast SHUT UP I LOVE ITis becoming an instant favorite among locked-down listeners.
Burt, known for his book Tabloid Baby until the recent publication of The Show Won’t Go On, his and Jeff Abraham's recent bestseller, tells hosts Sasha Feiler and Jay Hunter the very personal reasons behind the axe he continues to grind against... Curb Your Enthusiasm's Larry David.
There's a great lesson to be learned here. Somewhere.
LISTEN HERE or HERE or wherever great podcasts can be heard.
Hold on a second. He hates who?? Our colleague BURT KEARNS is no stranger to controversy (see Tabloid Baby) but now he's really stepped in it, as he returns to the popular podcast SHUT UP I LOVE IT, in a "very special episode" that’s sure to get a reaction from the giants of comedy!
The latest target? The photos above tell the story: a 30+ year personal grudge against one of America’s most beloved curmudgeons! Find out why Burt tells Sasha Feiler and Jay Hunter:
“I hate Larry David!”
LISTEN HERE or HERE or wherever great podcasts can be heard.
Subway riders, other commuters, and executives getting ready for the day got a special recommendation to go with their bagels, coffees and Trump news this morning from New York City’s venerable tabloid, the New York Post:The Show Won’t Go On!
The latest is from BOOKLIST, the publication and website in which trusted experts from the American Library Association offer book reviews for librarians in public and school libraries:
"This is the perfect book for the morbidly curious, the gawkers, and anyone fascinated by peculiar deaths. It chronicles those who gave their last performances in all types of entertainment: theater, comedy, magic, television, radio, and several genres of music.
"Abraham and Kearns use a journalistic style to inform the reader of the events surrounding each performer's demise, and this pays off in the interviews with some of the decedent's friends and relatives. In some cases, we learn their last words before the performance, which is moving and oddly satisfying. While some deaths were completely preventable, the authors are careful not to pass judgment and instead simply report the events as they happened.
"The format is not a strict narrative, allowing the reader to skip around, if desired, and read whatever bits and pieces immediately jump out. The pictures are a touching tribute, showing each performer in his or her prime.
"Laced with intrigue and respectful at the same time, this is a wonderful read for those looking for a unique twist on true crime. Adults aren't the only ones obsessed with true crime, and this sensitive portrayal of sensational deaths will appeal to teen Murderinos."
The official publication date isn’t until September 3rd, but the first review is in for THE SHOW WON’T GO ON: The Most Shocking, Bizarre, and Historic Deaths of Performers Onstage.
“Their research is impeccable,” writes David Wineberg in The San Francisco Review of Books. “The authors prove to be great scene-setters... The book is far more engaging than the collections of New York Times obituaries that find publishers all the time...
“The Show Won’t Go On left me with one important conclusion --“
Dave Dave was six years old when his father tried to kill him by setting him on fire in 1983. He survived, and grew to become a sweet and gentle man who turned his suffering into art.
Many of his longtime friends were people in the news media who’d met him while telling his story. Others were celebrities like Michael Jackson.
You might remember their first hit, At The Hop. The story of their success in the heyday of Fifties rock ’n’roll, their decline, their incredible comeback, second career -- and their role in a wild American revival of old time show business -- would be a glorious one, if not for the sad end to the life of Danny himself -- Danny Rapp, dead in a mobile home turned motel unit in the dry hot Arizona desert.
Our pals Burt Kearns and Jeff Abraham tell that story, as none has done before, on the Please Kill Me website (no pun intended).
"This is what’s cool” is the tagline of the pop culture and literary website that sprung from the classic punk oral history book by Legs McNeil and Gillian McCain -- and this article is very cool, another outtake from the upcoming book by Jeff and Burt.
"So what was the breaking point? The twentieth anniversary of singing the same two songs? Looking through the windshield at another endless highway and seeing only more of the same Holiday Inns, afternoons waking up hungover next to the same middle-aged female fans? Near the end of the decade, maybe it was Danny & The Juniors’ latest and strangest trip: another package tour, traveling by bus with another collection of acts. Only this time it wasn’t rock & roll.
"It was vaudeville..."
So check out The Lonesome Death of Danny Rapp! I don't care what people say, this story is a great one! (even though people are agreeing it’s quite a read!)
That story is Burt's latest exclusive on the literary rock website PleaseKillMe.com. The story focuses on an incident tduring a British concert tour on which Chris and Tommy Roe headlined with the Beatles as their opening act! It includes testimony from Chris and Tommy, and a cameo from Andrew Loog Oldham, who was a publicist on the tour and went on to produce The Rolling Stones.
Bob O’Brien died this week. For decades, he was a top street reporter for WNEW-TV’s Ten O’Clock News in New York City. A legendary, crazy, serious, fun, all-business, wild, family man and good friend to all of us.
We miss him but his spirit will live on.
Here's the obituary that ran in his new hometown in Virginia Beach. Colorful as it is, it only begins to paint the full picture of this force of nature who influenced so many of us (after he retired from television news, he moved to Oregon and was elected town councilman!). Thanks for the memory, OB.
Robert Eugene O’Brien Jr., 75, award-winning journalist
Robert Eugene O’Brien Jr.
Robert Eugene O’Brien Jr., 75, went to be with the Lord Tuesday, April 24, 2018.
Robert was born Aug. 22, 1942, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, to the late Robert and Clare O’Brien. He graduated from Xavier University to go on to a full career in broadcast journalism in New York City. It was at Xavier that he met the love of his life, Veronica, whom he lovingly called “Ronnie Rose.”
He is best remembered in his illustrious journalistic career for interviewing numerous presidents and heads of state, as well as celebrated individuals from Groucho Marx to Gerry Adams. He covered the hunger strikes in Northern Ireland; the inaugural flight of the Concord; the passing of Princess Diana; and as a true Irishman, the annual New York City St. Patrick’s Day parade. His formidable career is memorialized by three Emmy awards.
Left to cherish his memory are his loving wife of 51 years, Veronica R. O’Brien; daughter, Samantha; son, Sean, and his wife, Katie; brother, Chris Ischay, and his wife, Linda Wolfson; and a wealth of nieces, nephews and friends he called family.
A funeral Mass will be held at 11 a.m., Monday, April 30, at St. Gregory the Great Catholic Church, 5345 Virginia Beach Blvd, Virginia Beach, immediately followed by a wake at Buoy 44 restaurant, 4536 Ocean View Ave., Virginia Beach.
In lieu of flowers, the family appreciates donations made to Alzheimer’s Association: Alzheimer’s Disease and Dementia at tmcfunding.com. At the end of the 30-day campaign, the family will present Alzheimer’s Association, Southeastern Virginia Chapter, with a check of all proceeds raised in the name of Robert Eugene O’Brien Jr.
Share online condolences with the family at altmeyerfh.com.
Burt Kearns and Jeff Abraham interviewed legendary musician, comedian, and leader of the sexual revolution Rusty Warren a few weeks ago in southern California. Today, their time with the famed ‘Knockers Up Gal’ of the Fifties and Sixties has been turned into a long article posted on PleaseKillMe.com, the rock, pop culture and literary website based on Please Kill Me, the definitive punk rock history book penned by Legs McNeil and Gillian McCain.
Burt, as you know, wrote Tabloid Baby. Jeff is Hollywood’s leading comedy historian. The pair collaborated on a book we can’t tell you about just yet. Their piece on Rusty unearths many anecdotes about her life and career, and brings to the forefront for the first time the sisterhood alliance among the top female comedians of the era.
Here’s a sample, as Rusty Warren looks back at the heyday of Las Vegas:
“In Vegas, you’d always have three comics, myself and two other people,” Rusty recalled. “We’d trade off. The men were all dressed to go onstage, except they’d pull their pants down and the gals came over and gave them blowjobs. And then: ‘Now, ladies and gentlemen… dadadadada…’ Up… Zip! Pull up, out and get out to go on. My room was right next to theirs.” Whether working the lounges or the big rooms, the male performers went their own way, she said, kissing up to the mobsters running the casinos or hoping to pal around with big stars like Milton Berle or that prickJerry Lewis. The women supported each other. “Joan Rivers was always nice to me, even when she was working the main room,” recalls Rusty. “Phyllis Diller gave me her house when she was gone. I was there three times a year and she let me use it. TotieFields, she was younger. Her house was nearby, she’d come round. She made it big, but she came to me as a friend because I was one who didn’t go on (in the main room) where she goes. She’d ask, ‘What shouldI do with so and so?’ She was very nice. It was a nice combination of friends. “Las Vegas was different then. I don’t go to Vegas today.”
Time Presents: Milestones 2016 - A Tribute to the Stars We’ve Lost premieres Wednesday, December 21st on Reelz. Editors at Time talk about some of the major losses in film, television, music and politics in a very lively special that focuses on celebrity accomplishments rather than their deaths.
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