Our brush with "SNL" greatness — Laraine Newman

As kids growing up, we would wait until our parents went to bed on Saturday nights and sneak to the stop of the staircase. We'd try to stifle our giggles as our older brother and sisters would laugh uproariously below. Little did we know at the time that Saturday Night Live  would last for 40 years and that we would have the great fortune of sitting down with both Garrett Morris and Laraine Newman on separate occasions for the Archive of American Television.

Those childhood memories came rushing back as Morris delivered his most famous late night line — "Baseball's been berry, berry good to me." And Newman regaled us with behind-the-scenes tales of her early days on SNL. As NBC gets ready to celebrate the show’s 40th anniversary this Sunday, we took a look back at our sit down with Newman.

Just 23 when the late night juggernaut debuted in 1975, Newman didn’t have a lot of experience under her belt. As a teenager, she had been a member of a Los Angeles improv troupe. At the age of 15 she saw a performance by iconic mime Marcel Marceau. She was so taken by his craft that she worked her way backstage and introduced herself to the French master. Three years later she found herself in Paris studying the art form with Marceau himself.

After returning to L.A. and doing a brief stint in secretarial school, she became a founding member of The Groundlings along with her sister Tracey, who would go on to produce TV series like Ellen and According to Jim. Her stint with the iconic improve group led to an appearance on The Lily Tomlin Special and her introduction to a young producer named Lorne Michaels. The results landed Newman on the SNL cast without so much as an audition.

But joining the Not Ready for Primetime Players on Saturday Night Live wasn’t without its challenges for the actress. She admits that when she first heard the show described as a Monty Python meets 60 Minutes, she had no idea who the British comedy stars were. Plus, she had to uproot herself from her Los Angeles home and move to New York City.

Working for just $750 a week, Newman quickly became a household name along with Chevy Chase, John Belushi, Dan Aykroyd, Gilda Radner, Jane Curtain and Garrett Morris. And she quickly became so recognizable that even John Lennon and Yoko Ono would stop her on the street to introduce themselves to a member of the hottest cast in the world.

With five years and characters like Sherry the Valley Girl and Lina Wertmüller under her built, Newman left SNL. She has gone on to have a flourishing voice over career on shows like Histeria!, As Told By Ginger and The Oblongs. But she will always be known to fans for her hilarious turn on TV’s greatest sketch comedy series.

When we sat down with her in March of 2013, she reflects on that very first episode of Saturday Night Live all those years ago. Watch what she has to say in this clip from our interview with her for EmmyTVLegends.com.

Check out the full interview at http://www.emmytvlegends.org/interviews/people/laraine-newman

Jane Seymour Talks About Forever and Glen Campbell

Photo courtesy of ABC

We were happy to hear this week that ABC’s Forever has just received an order for another nine episodes making it a full season. We are intrigued by the premise of the immortal medical examiner and look forward to discovering more about his mysterious past. On tonight’s episode the legendary Jane Seymour guest stars as a love interest for Judd Hirsch’s Abe.

We had the chance to speak with Jane about doing the show. She told us, “I thought the character was really fun and really something I could get my teeth into but at the same time something that could possibly be a bigger role one day.”

Jane plays Abe’s twice ex-wife, Maureen Delacroix. She explains “She’s basically trouble for Abe… She’s realized that in finding the right partner, no one ever’s been quite as good as Abe... So now she wants to get him out of his life and travel the world with her. But he knows she’s trouble.” Lucky for us, the producers asked her if she would be available to do more shows, so it seems like things are not quite settled with Abe and Maureen.

They must have picked up on the instant chemistry between Jane and Judd. “I did all my scenes in one day. And obviously, they’re pretty intimate. It’s quite interesting. From the moment I met Judd somehow or other we hit it off. We worked really well together. She seduces him and he just does not want to be seduced but he just gets suckered right in.”

The actress, best known for her ‘90s TV series Dr. Quinn Medicine Woman is as passionate about her work behind the camera as she is acting in front of it. Most recently she co-produced the documentary I’ll Be Me: The Glen Campbell Story with her ex-husband James Keach. After announcing he had Alzheimer’s, Glen set out on farewell tour, which is documented in the film.

Jane recalled, “At first we thought this would be a very depressing story but then when we met him, he was a very, very, funny, amazing, uplifting guy. We followed him for a year and half, thinking it was going to be five weeks, and ended up with an amazing documentary that makes you laugh and cry. And it’s on a very important subject, the fact that there’s no cure currently for Alzheimer’s… I saw it last night for the hundredth time and there was a standing ovation and people were actually cheering in the middle of the film and laughing out loud. So I do hope it gets a wide audience.”

Her passion shows through while talking about the project, so it is not surprising that she revealed to us, “I’m most passionate about things like being able to bring awareness to things like Alzheimer’s. I do my Open Hearts collection, which really speaks to a concept of taking a challenge in life and using that as an opportunity to help other people. With all the change and uncertainty in life, I’m a very positive person. And my mother, who went through a lot of terrible things in her life, taught me how to turn lemons into lemonade, how to think out of the box and how to live in the moment and appreciate every moment you have and be creative with it, and find your happiness.”

It is this passion that inspired her choice for which pop culture icon she would be for one day if she could. She answered, “Audrey Hepburn because I felt we had something in common. She was  a dancer, her mother was Dutch and she also made such a huge difference when she worked with UNICEF. She would have been fun because she ticks off all the boxes I’m already interested in.”

Tune in to Forever tonight on ABC at 10 p.m. EST/9 p.m. Central.

Bob Odenkirk Is Passionate about Fargo

Photo by Matthias Clamer/FX

The first time we saw the Coen Brother’s movie Fargo we had just been to a family reunion in North Dakota. We not only got a good laugh over exactly how accurate those accents were we also knew we had just seen something special — a perfect blend of comedy, drama, darkness and fun. We were nervous when we heard they were attempting a TV version of the film, but a little relieved to hear some of the key players — Billy Bob Thornton, Collin Hanks, and the incomparable Bob Odenkirk. How can you go wrong?

We spoke with Bob during a recent conference call interview, and he, too said he was nervous about what they would do to the movie he also loved, but was pleasantly surprised by page eight of the script to see that they got it right.

It was great to hear the actor’s passion for the project. Before the call even got underway he couldn’t contain his excitement, saying, “I love Fargo. I had so much fun making it and we could all tell we were making something pretty great around, I’d say, week three or four. It’s so nice when it turns out and everyone is hoping that it’ll turn out and working towards that. But the vibe around it was so good and it just got better as we made it, so I’m thrilled that it’s playing well for people.”

Coming off the role of a lifetime, Saul Goodman in the series Breaking Bad, it’s impossible not to ask the actor to compare the experiences. He noted, “The similarities were these are amazing casts of people who are completely professional and grateful to be working in this area. I know I’ve been lucky. I know that this isn’t the norm, so I got to be real careful not to get deluded by these wonderful experiences that I’ve had in the last two years, or four or five years… These casts are veterans. They really know to appreciate good writing because they’ve seen not so good writing.”

Cayce Mell Discovers Her Grandmother’s Past by ‘Tracing Outlines’

Photo courtesy of Cayce Mell

Some stories are destined to be told, even when they’ve been hidden away for decades. Such was the case with the new documentary “Tracing Outlines,” which tells the story of a modern art gallery that was established in 1941 by Elizabeth Rockwell in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. What filmmaker Cayce Mell didn’t realize was that the gripping tale had been right under her nose her entire life.

So how did a social justice advocate become an independent filmmaker? The story is almost as interesting as the one that unfolds onscreen — and all thanks to a chair that was for sale on Craiglist.

As Mell recounted in a recent one-on-one interview, “My husband sells antiques. A young couple came to our house. They found a chair he was selling on Craigslist. I all too often see the significant other of the person who’s buying a chair or a lamp looking very bored and I’ll just go out to the driveway and talk to them.

Roseanne Barr Discusses Last Comic Standing

Photo by Ben Cohen/NBC

We’ve watched Last Comic Standing since the early seasons with Dat Phan, Ralphie May, Alonzo Bodden and John Heffron and are so happy to hear that after a four-year hiatus, it’s back and better than ever. The new season features Roseanne Barr, Keenen Ivory Wayans and Russell Peters as judges and JB Smoove as host. And with Executive Producers Wanda Sykes and Page Hurwitz at the helm, it’s sure to deliver.

In a recent conference call Roseanne talked about what drew her to be a judge on the show. “I just thought it would be really fun. And when I heard that Keenen Ivory Wayans was one of the judges, I really love him. I like Wanda a lot, too, so I thought it would be fun to work with some really great comics and get right in the middle of stuff that has to do with standup comedy.”

And working with these heavy hitters did not disappoint the four-time Emmy winner. She said of Keenen, “I’m blown away, every week. I’m sitting next to a bodhisattva. I’m sitting next to Keenen Ivory Wayans. That guy, his commentary and the way he sees… He discovered a lot of great performers and comics on his shows and movies… I’m always like, ‘Let Keenen go first.’ And then I go, ‘I agree with Keenen.’ He’s just a brilliant… It’s just amazing.”

Roseanne also lavished praise on her other co-panelist Russell Peters. “I never even heard of the guy, to be honest. And they’re like, ‘This guy is like the Beatles.’ And so I went on YouTube… he’s playing on like 70,000 seat arenas. And is right now kind of in a Russell Brand thing. He’s real new to the United States. And that guy is so funny. It’s like non-stop. He gives feedback like a standup comic — joke, joke, joke. And I mean there’s nothing on earth that he doesn’t have a joke for. It’s amazing. And it made me go, ‘Oh this is so cool to be back in this arena.’”

And Roseanne was not just enlightened to the comedy of Russell Peters during this experience, she also rediscovered the world of standup. She noted, “I was thinking that it was pretty static and kind of boring, actually, over these last few years. But becoming a judge on this show and seeing people who are actually writing jokes that I’ve never heard before, it’s exciting. I’ve never heard these premises in so many of my favorite comics who are competing. It’s very brave. And it’s cool. So that brought me back into comedy.”

She continued, “Keenen and I were talking about it, this is like comedy coming back. It’s like a re-birth of comedy. Not just on this show — but certainly including this show — but all over the place. Yes, there’s a whole different everything. It’s exciting. It’s kind of like punk-rock.”

So what is Roseanne like as a judge? She sums it up in one word, “Intelligent!” She said she doesn’t fit into any other reality judge mold of the nice judge or the mean judge. “I’m just me. I didn’t try to copy somebody else. I’m just me… I just give my honest opinion, as I have done for all these many years when it comes to writing and comedy.”

There are several changes to the format of the show in Season 8. The 100 comedians are handpicked by Sykes and Hurwitz and they are bringing back the challenges. But perhaps the biggest adjustment is that there are no more viewer votes. The three judges alone will select the winner. But Roseanne was quick to point out that the audience still plays a part. “They win because they kill the audience. So the audience is part of it. It’s the laughs they’re getting from the audience, that’s how we judge. But no non-expert opinions are needed. You want people who’ve never acted to vote on the Academy Awards? It’s people who know the craft who should be voting on it. But it is about if they’re getting over and making that audience come out of their seats. Then they’re going to win.”

So if Roseanne Barr back in the 1980s did her Domestic Goddess bit on Last Comic Standing how would she fair?  She modestly stated, “I would’ve won. I did, in fact, win the Denver Laugh Off. And that is what propelled my career. I did a number of other untelevised comedy contests. But I think I would’ve really worked really hard. That’s what I like about these comics because they’re prepared. I wouldn’t become part of any contest unless I was really prepared and thought I could win. And that’s what I think we have here. We’re seeing who’s prepared and who isn’t prepared. And that’s like the most exciting part to me.”

She added, “But, of course, I have to say I would’ve won. Because you have to have that kind of self-confidence being a standup comic. You have to really believe in what you do and that you’re the best at doing what you do. And so we’ve seen a lot of people on this show come in like that and falter. But the ones who want it the most, are the ones who make it.”

Tune into Last Comic Standing tonight at 9 p.m. on NBC.

Oliver Platt Relishes the Role of the Supermarket King on Fargo

Photo by Chris Large/FX

Oliver Platt has made a career out of playing bold and brash characters who don’t seem to shy away from the hard job or the caustic remark. But the Golden Globe nominated actor admitted during a recent conference call interview that he had a bit of trepidation before signing on to play the Supermarket King Stavros Milos on the small screen adaptation of Fargo. But after getting a look at Noah Hawley’s interpretation of the Cohen Brothers’ classic, he gladly signed on to the show. 

As he recounted, “The stuff that I was shown, the story that I was told, the fact that Joel and Ethan [Coen] had blessed it was not insignificant. I have to say, I think that Noah’s done a pretty remarkable job of sort of threading that needle of writing in their tone. But he had his own voice, if you will. And, to me, it’s pretty impressive stuff.”

Filmmaker Mick Caouette Shines New Light on Thurgood Marshall

Image Courtesy of Mick Caouette

Most of us learned about Justice Thurgood Marshall in school. We all know he was the first black Supreme Court Justice, nominated by Lyndon Johnson in 1967. But few know of the heroic life he lived leading up to that high profile position. Filmmaker Mick Caouette has set out to change that with his new documentary Mr. Civil Rights: Thurgood Marshall and the NAACP, scheduled for a fall 2014 release.

Mick said he wanted to make the film because he hoped to shine a light on the Thurgood Marshall none if us knew. He states, "He was the first black Supreme Court Justice, which is probably the most significant thing… A lot of people only know him from that period… But the early part of his life was, in many ways, more courageous — from 1908, when he was born, to the early 1950s… So the story we're telling is that story of that period."

He continues, "He traveled the south as an NAACP lawyer and fought case after case in these white courtrooms. It was really dangerous. He was at the foot of death wherever he went. And he traveled a lot alone. Always running from the Ku Klux Klan and other people. He slept in three or four different houses some nights and just kept moving, and all by train from Harlem to the South. He was a really courageous person."

Marshall was trying to do what no one else at the time would dare. Mick explains, "He was trying to bring equalization to education. He was trying to enroll African Americans in colleges and high schools. So the Brown vs. Board of Education decision was the culmination of his journey in 1954 and 1956."

The filmmaker, who has been making docs since the '90s, didn't know much about Marshall himself when he decided to make the film. He recalls, "I knew something about him from [my earlier film, "Hubert H. Humphrey: The Art of the Possible"] because they knew each other. Humphrey was Vice President when Marshall became Supreme Court Justice. For the Humphrey film we interviewed Roger Wilkins who was Roy Wilkins nephew. Roy Wilkins and Thurgood Marshall were best friends and they ran the NAACP together." When Mick contacted Wilkins to do a film about his uncle, Roger suggested he look into Marshall instead. "So I dug into it a little bit and he is a colorful person."

The film tells the story of how Marshall paved the way for the 1960s Civil Rights Movement. Mick tells us, "He had a dozen Supreme Court cases that had been decided that he had won, that were the foundation for all the things that happened in the '50s and '60s, like Rosa Parks. Those decisions were based on his victories in the Supreme Court."

During his research, Mick was most surprised to learn about Marshall's courage. He claimed, "I had no idea that he did what he did. At one point they brought him to the river to lynch him and he was arguing in the Supreme Court within weeks. So absurd. He got away from them at the last minute, because another group of black guys that came back from World War II had guns in the car and they chased the crowd and got him freed. That's the kind of courage he had. He was going to these kinds of places where they wanted him dead… It's not a well known story and that's why I wanted to do it."

Marshall went about his crusade under the radar and was never really acknowledged for his contribution to the Civil Rights Movement. Mick points out, "He was a real hero… He was not out in the public. He was behind the scenes doing all this. He laid the foundation for the [Civil Rights Movement] and never really got credit for it."

In fact Marshall was so behind the scenes that it posed a problem for Mick while making the film. "It was tricky because he didn't really travel with a camera person, so it was hard to find visuals."

But he found resources to help round out the doc. "There were a few black filmmakers from the '40s and '50s that were shooting around Harlem and they were shooting these amateur films. And I found a number of those that were public domain and used scenes from them. And also there a lot of photographs of Marshall. And then I used contextual film from the time of Harlem and New York and other places… But I panicked at first at what I got into. There's nothing. There was no TV, no anything at the time… If you look through the old newsreels, everything's covered except African Americans, through the whole period. They were nonexistent. So it was tricky but it worked."

Mick hopes the film will be an inspiration to all people facing any kind of hurdle. He says that the film is evidence that "incredible obstacles can be overcome with persistence and drive and the belief that you can change things. What [Marhsall] changed and what he did is no less difficult than any problem we face now. He was overcoming everything. He was overcoming race. He was overcoming opposition everywhere he turned, and yet he did it. It's a story of inspiration and courage."

To find out more about Mick Caouette's film Mr. Civil Rights: Thurgood Marshall and the NAACP visit Mick's website at southhillfilms.com and watch for the doc on screens this fall.

Anaitte Vaccaro Brings the Surreal to Life through Digital Scenography

Image courtesy of Anaitte Vaccaro

For some artists, the essence of their creative endeavors it to capture one single moment in time. That is not the case with Anaitte Vaccaro, who chooses to visualize her paintings in motion through what she has dubbed “digital scenography.”

Born and raised in Puerto Rico, Vaccaro became interested in art at a very young age, albeit the more traditional disciplines. Her focus on painting and sculpture ultimately evolved. As she explained in a recent one-on-one interview, her “desire to express the full story behind one single image was how I then came into this ‘digital scenography’ world that gave me more tools to express that type of time inside a message.”

After earning her BFA from Escuela de Artes Plasicas in Puerto Rico, Vaccaro decided to move to the U.S. to get her Master of Fine Arts in Visual Effects from Savannah College of Art and Design. Unlike her fellow students, she never intended to pursue a career in the film and TV world of digital production.

Movie Heroes to the Rescue

Photo courtesy of Movie Heroes

How would you feel if the movie theater where you had your first date was going out of business? What would you do if the cinema where you saw the movie that inspired your career path was closing its doors forever? Well that happened to Keith Walker and Matt Sconce. But they put their best caped-crusader effort into saving their local movie house… and subsequently Movie Heroes was born.

Keith and Matt learned in November of 2012 that their local movie theater, The Met Cinema in Oakhurst, California, could no longer afford to operate. So rather than let their childhood memories fade into oblivion, the independent filmmaker and aerospace engineer sprung into action. In a recent one-on-one interview Keith stated, "That's the place where we saw every single major movie growing up. I remember seeing October Sky there which really inspired me. It's about building rockets, and that's what I ended up doing with my life… So there's a heart for that place and it closed, and it's like, 'Oh, no, we have to save this.'"

Matt added, "For me that was the theater that I went to my first date on, Oliver and Company. So I remember growing up it was always the place to go. For me, being a filmmaker, it was one of the biggest things that inspired me. Because I love to be able to see the stories that other people like, to be able to look into different realities and different places and be able to travel the world."

So how do a filmmaker and an engineer who know nothing about running a theater go about such a daunting task? It was perhaps their naiveté that made the venture successful. Instead of thinking about all the stumbling blocks in front of most theater owners, they took a different approach.

Keith said, "We attribute our success to the fact that we didn't know much about it. Now that we know what we know, we realize that what we were doing was more significant and more risky than we know at the time." They went into the business thinking it was all about the consumer and creating a value added proposition for them. However they did not realize how much control the movie studios have over the theater owners.

They thought they could turn the business around by selling subscriptions a la Netflix. For $19.95 a month a consumer got unlimited access to see any film showing at the theater at any time. They set a goal to sell 3,000 monthly subscriptions and assumed the studios wouldn't care how they got their money as long as they got it.

Keith recounted, "What we found out is, they didn't do it that way. They viewed this as a very different thing. As a result we had to spend a lot of time building trust with the studios and developing audit mechanisms so they would feel comfortable with what we were doing."

So while they were building a business — hiring a staff, ordering concessions, updating the projectors — they were also negotiating with major movie studios to get product. Matt admitted, "For a while we had saved the theater but we had no studios giving us movies. So we had this limbo state for about three months where we wondered, 'Did we save the theater just to not save the theater?'"

But once they gained the studios' trust, business began to flourish. In fact, the model has been so successful for them that the movie house has had better attendance under this subscription model than at any other time in the theater's history.

Keith explained, "People watch way more movies. And by 'way more'  we don't mean 10% more. People are watching at a rate between six and 10 times the national average. A 500 to 900% increase."

Not only have the Movie Heroes saved The Met Cinema in Oakhurst, they have applied the same model to movie houses on Coalinga, Avenal and Red Bluff. And these theaters have more than doubled their revenue. Matt and Keith hope to save many more theaters around the country and are in contact with 60 other cinemas that are interested in the Movie Heroes model.

So if the local theater where you shared your first kiss is on the verge of closing its doors forever, the Movie Heroes might be able to help save it… one subscription at a time. For more info visit MovieHeroes.com.

Concetta Antico Sees a World of Colors Beyond Your Wildest Imagination

Photo courtesy of Concetta Antico 

When Concetta Antico was a seven-year-old girl growing up in Sydney, Australia, she started painting with oils. She soon became interested in the works of the great Impressionists. Inspired by the masters, she reproduced a Cezanne in one of her earliest works. 

But a typical canvas wasn’t big enough for her vision, so the preschooler took to working on a larger scale — painting the fence in the backyard of her home along a local golf course. As she recounted, “I have a very vivid memory that they used to give me a bucket of water and a brush. And you know the old wood fences that you see around old homes? There was one in the backyard and I would just stand there all day with this bucket of water and a big brush and I’d be painting the wood.”

She went on to cover the walls in her room and recreate famous album covers. Her skills and passion were so clear then when she was just eight or nine years old, she says her mother told her, “‘Concetta, you’re going to be a great artist and an art teacher.’ The reason that has stayed with me is that just a few years after that she passed away very suddenly of cancer… I never forgot it. She became this beacon for me that I would think of her and think of what she said. And, of course, I loved her, so I would think about what she told me and try to guide myself that way because she wasn’t around anymore.”

Hallie Jordan: Possibly the Hardest Working Woman in Show Business

Photo courtesy of Hallie Jordan

If you think you’re busy, you should meet Hallie Jordan. The young actress and producer has a lot on her plate, but that’s been her goal from a very early age when she was inspired to follow her father and grandfather into show business.

As she explained during a recent one-on-one interview, “My family has always been in entertainment. My grandfather was a publicist for RKO. My father was an inventor and a pioneer in cable television in the ‘80s. So it’s always been encouraged.”

Although she was born in New York City, Jordan moved around a lot growing up. She recounted, “I went to a new school every year between fifth grade and college. I lived in Orange County, in Florida. I did Second City Chicago for a little while. And then I graduated from the University of Redlands out here in California.”

Elissa Tracy: Pop Art with a Twist

Photo courtesy of Elissa Tracy

While we are fans of a great variety of artistic styles, it should come as no surprise that we are especially drawn to pop art (our name might give that away). So when we saw the art of Elissa Tracy we were more than intrigued.

Elissa, originally a photographer and designer, paints in several styles but is moving more towards her Andy Warhol-esque pieces. Yet whether she is bringing a pop icon like Elizabeth Taylor or Jimi Hendrix to life or creating a stunning abstract work, her highly stylized pieces evoke an emotional reaction. The viewer can sense Elissa’s fearlessness and rebellion in each brush stroke.

In a recent interview she told us, “I call it industrial pop art because I mix the pop art and the narrative and the abstract all together as one. I do some abstracts that are by themselves but the path I’ve been going down lately is mixing all three — graffiti, abstract and pop art.”

Her subjects have ranged from Marilyn Monroe to Frank Sinatra to Jimi Hendrix. She told us, “I’m really drawn toward old Hollywood. I read a lot about, do a lot of research on, whoever I’m going to paint. I don’t really have a rhyme or reason to [how I pick a subject]. I tend to be drawn to the old Hollywood glamour. There isn’t a lot of people now, to me, that I find that interesting. I find the older icons way more dynamic and interesting than who our icons are now.”

While she enjoys doing a straight abstract piece, she leans more towards creating this iconic imagery. She stated, “I love the abstract because it’s more of an emotional outlet for me. The pop art is very detailed and I’m structured with it. And I’m trying to grasp something from that person.”

She continued, “As a photographer, I mostly photographed models, actors and musicians. So it’s always trying to capture the essence of that person. You’re capturing it in one still life photo… and for me it’s the same way with painting.”

When she created her portrait of Elizabeth Taylor she said it was about her eyes and the expression that we have all seen so many times in Dame Elizabeth’s photos.

Elissa noted that she gets a great deal of feedback on her Marilyn Monroe painting and discovered people were reacting to the addition of the narrative — the date of her death, her age, the $.19 cost of the Life magazine cover. This collage-like feel to her paintings sets her apart from other pop artists.

The artist sites some of the greats as her influences including Georgia O’Keefe, Van Gogh
Tamara de Lempicka and, of course, Andy Warhol. So it was no surprise to us when she said he is the pop culture icon she would choose to be for one day. “I read his diary several times and I’m really intrigued by his personality. His marketing was incredible. He had definitely something to say. He liked being around people as an observer and then would take from that. And I relate to that. I liked that he would be in the limelight but when he was in interviews he said very little but what he said was profound. I would like to be in his head and see what he was actually thinking.”

Elissa also has another pop culture influence, but this one is fictional — GI Joe. In fact she has created an entire series devoted to the plastic doll. She was inspired by the art cards that came with each action figure in the 1980s. She said, “They’re really comical and interesting and I got intrigued by that. There are so many characters to choose from.”

As an avid collectibles fan and seller, she found that there was a lack of GI Joe art and so she decided to fill that void. She also began to cosplay as a GI Joe character — The Baroness.

She began dressing as leather-clad femme fatale, and despite her blonde tresses, bore a great resemblance. While some die-hard fans could not get past the hair color, she adopted the persona of the Blonde Baroness and began painting self-portraits in character.

She recalled, “I painted the self-portrait and I started doing a twist on things. And I did it with the narrative with one of the other GI Joe characters, Cobra Commander. I put a sign with him and I started playing around with that as well. I’m going down that road with my new series. I’m not just painting the action figure, I’m trying to put a narrative with it that’s a twist or comical off the art cards from the ‘80s… It’s another dimension of performance art, another outlet really.”

Elissa would like one thing when people view her art, “I hope that they’re inspired. The feedback that I’m getting is that they find the narrative part integrated with the pop art and the abstract interesting and it makes it more personalized for them. I hope people are inspired. I hope that my painting evokes some sort of emotion. That’s all I can ask for.”

She also has one other goal with her art. “I am hoping to pave the way of artists being more understood. We’re individuals but we still have something to say and maybe it’s not out loud, maybe its through our paintings, or through our expressions of something… A lot of people misinterpret artists either as being shy and unapproachable, but we have a lot to say but it may just be in a different way.”

See Elissa’s work at ElissaTracy.com.

David Bromstad — From Design Star to Shoe Mogul

Photo by Andrew Aronsohn

We've been big fans of David Bromstad's ever since he won HGTV Design Star back in 2006. From the moment he used items purchased at a pet store to decorate a room any human would be proud to live in, he stole our hearts. He's gone on to become an HGTV darling, as well as a successful interior designer and fine artist. This month his career took another twist when he launched a brand of women's shoes for Naturalizer.

We had a chance to meet David at a recent press event to promote the new line. And he did not disappoint. He was charming, funny and confidant with just the right amount of humble to make him blush whenever he got a compliment.

He told us he had never considered expanding into the fashion world but, "When Naturalizer came to me they wanted to revitalize their brand. Everyone loves comfort and they obviously have that down… But they wanted to make it a little more fresh and I was like, 'Hell, yeah! Let's do this.' I love a challenge and working with this team has been the best experience I've ever had with a collaboration."

David, whose original paintings are always a feature in his HGTV show Color Splash, created a work of art called North Meets South featuring peonies and hibiscus. The image is used as the print for an entire collection of wedges, sandals, ballet flats and even handbags.

Scott Macom Hosts Fire N Ice Every Sunday Night on WOND

Scott Macom has had one of the most diverse career paths of any person we've ever interviewed. After attending Villanova University he worked as a trader on Wall Street right as the bottom fell out of the market in 1987. Then it was off to Law School at the University of Akron. He practiced law in Ohio until becoming the youngest judge ever appointed to the bench in that state. After his three year term he moved to New Jersey where he set up a law practice. He has written several books, is fluent in Russian, is a member of the National Ski Patrol and a Volunteer Firefighter.

But it's his love of cooking that lead him to his current position as a radio DJ. Through the years Scott began writing for a cooking magazine and became immersed in the food world. He was invited by New Jersey AM radio station WOND as a recurring guest on a cooking show for Table for One and did such a good job, the station made him an offer.

In a  recent interview with Scott he recalled the day they approached him. "Eventually the staff upstairs came down and said, 'Hey you're really good on the radio. Do you want your own show?' And I said, 'What would that be about?' They said, 'Do you want to do a law show?' And I said, 'Oh god no, I do that all week.'"

Scott began thinking about the kind of show he could do. While at a Chowder Fest in Long Beach Island, he ran into a fellow food journalist, Rich Dobbins, with whom he shared a similar sense of humor. Scott got a crazy idea. "I asked him if he wanted to do a radio show together. He said, 'What would it be about?' I said, 'Well I'm definitely fire and you're definitely ice so why don't we call it Fire N Ice?'"

So now they had a name, but what would they talk about? "We ended up going with intellectual humor… the smart side of humor, kind of like The Big Bang Theory on radio. There's no sports, there's no politics, there's no smut. You can learn something but at the same time have a really, really good time."

There's no rhyme or reason to the guests on Fire N Ice. They have ranged from rocker Ted Nugent to Space Shuttle Commander Terry Hart. He's interviewed artists, museum curators, photographers, authors, scientist, announcers and more.

Scott enjoys talking to all his interviewees but has a soft spot for one. "My favorite guest probably was Ted Nugent because we got to talk about hunting for the first 15 minutes of his interview to promote his show. My dream interview is Steven Hawkins, but I've got so many different people I would love to talk to."

With all this pop culture knowledge we knew Scott would have an interesting answer to our question, which pop culture icon would he choose to walk in their shoes for one day. "Andy Warhol. Because I think it would be so fantastic to be in that weird, weird world that he lived in. I would love to be in there. It would only be for one day because I don't think you could take it for more than one… I think I would also have loved to have been a fly in the Oval Office when Richard Nixon was wiping out those tapes. I think that would have been an awful lot of fun to watch that, too."

And with all his varied interests, we wondered what he would choose to say he was most passionate about. "I am the most passionate about sucking the marrow out of life."

Tune in to Fire N Ice on WOND 1400 am or listen live online at www.wondradio.com Sunday nights from 5-7 p.m. EST.

Patton Oswalt Will Be the Biggest Fan at the Film Independent Spirit Awards

Photo Courtesy of IFC

While some mega-stars will spend Saturday night getting their beauty sleep for Oscar day, a far hipper band of movie-making brethren will be gathered to celebrate the Film Independent Spirit Awards. Although it seems each year, the crossover between the two events gets larger, this is still the place for the lesser known (and funded) fare to get their dues, too. In a recent conference call, host Patton Oswalt, explained what sets this show apart from all the others. “This awards show digs pretty deep in trying to find movies that took risks and rolled the dice… It rewards people that are clearly emerging and are going to be doing great stuff with their careers.  You get to see them early.”  

Of course, with the ever-changing entertainment climate, a lot of veteran actors will be popping up at the award show as well. “What I also love is that they keep an eye open for veterans like Robert Redford and Bruce Dern who continue to take risks and seek out challenging, different materials.”

Being a cinefile himself, Oswalt has his own opens about what projects he think deserve a flying bird this year. “The Spectacular Now, I thought was fantastic. Enough Said.  I hope Enough Said wins everything that it gets nominated for.  The documentary, The Act of Killing, I thought it was crucial — hard to watch, but crucial.  Then I really hope that Bruce Dern gets wins for ‘Nebraska’ because I thought he was just amazing.  That guy has had awards coming for a long time in my opinion.  That would be great.”

Matthew Rhys Dons Many Disguises on The Americans

Photo by Frank Ockenfels/FX

Don’t get us wrong, we’re happy that Matthew Rhys took one of the starring roles in the FX series The Americans last year. We loved him so much as Kevin Walker on the tear-jerking drama Brothers and Sisters, that we were happy to see him again. But we wondered before the show aired, if we’d believe the lovable lawyer as a KGB sleeper agent. Needless to say, Rhys did not disappoint as Philip Jennings.
 

But in a recent conference call interview the Welsh actor discussed his own initial trepidations about signing on to the show. While he acknowledged that he appreciated what he called FX being “bold in their casting” of both himself and co-star Keri Russell who plays his wife Elizabeth, the 39-year-old conceded, “I’m not the big, macho, butt kicking person. But I think as a cover we work well in that we blend into Americana suburbia, and therefore there’s a sort of twist to it. So that element I was nervous about as to sort of being credible in that role with someone who does all those things.”

A Conversation with Eric McCormack from Perception

Photo courtesy of ABC/TNT

Tomorrow night Perception returns for the second half of Season 2 on TNT. At the heart of the series is Eric McCormack, who has left Will Truman from Will & Grace in the dust to create a very complex, character in Daniel Pierce, a neuroscientist and professor who is also battling schizophrenia.

We had the chance to talk one-on-one with Eric last week about the challenges of playing such a complicated role. “Getting it right from the beginning was crucial to me. And setting the templates for his symptoms, his passions, his behaviors, his fears. It’s keeping true to that.”

Since they often shoot two episodes concurrently, it is sometimes difficult for the actor to keep track of which crime and which hallucination he is preparing for. He stated, “In the midst of all the basic keeping up with the plots, I have to remind myself to keep true to who he is. Remind myself that he’s not comfortable anywhere and not fall into the trap of just solving crimes.”

Lucas Grabeel Rounds Up the Fun on Sheriff Callie's Wild West

(Photo by Disney Junior/Rick Rockwell)

In Disney Junior's new animated creation, Sheriff Callie's Wild West, the 3D titular character, voiced by Mandy Moore, keeps the town safe and doles out pearls of wisdom to young viewers. Helping the law-enforcing kitten Sheriff Callie maintain peace and order the best he can is her faithful sidekick Peck. Lucas Grabeel plays the lovable, albeit sometimes inept, woodpecker. In a recent one-on-one interview, the 29-year-old told us a bit about what he calls the “super dear, country western show.”

Shaun White Feels Secure About (most of) the Sochi Experience

Photo by NBC

When we spoke with iconic snowboarder Shaun White on a conference call in late January about his upcoming trip to the Winter Olympics, he was feeling very positive about what lay ahead. Despite all the speculation that the Sochi games might be unusually dangerous, the two-time Olympic gold medalist seemed undaunted, “I can't remember when there wasn't some sort of threat or some scare or something to be worried about. And I've never felt more secure.”

While athletes are being warned not to wear their U.S. uniforms or leave the safety of the competitors compound, White seemed to believe that everything is under control. “They really take care of the athletes and the staff and the people around and [do] checks and searches and all sorts of stuff. The Olympic Village is one of the hardest places to get into,” White acknowledged. “I'm bringing my whole family if that says anything. I feel very confident that we're going to be well looked after.”

Although he obviously wasn’t concerned about terrorist threats, a new issue put a snag in White’s Sochi plans. Just a few days before the Opening Ceremonies, the 27-year-old athlete decided the slopestyle course might be where the center of possible peril in Russia. Citing the potential risk of injury, White dropped out of the new event on Wednesday.

John Henson Counts Down the Funniest Commercials of the Year

Courtesy of truTV

Every year TV viewers tune in to the Super Bowl not only to see the action on the gridiron but to catch the cutting edge commercials peppered throughout the big game. But fans of clever ads don’t have to wait until February 2 to see the best the small screen has to offer thanks to truTV’s Funniest Commercials of the Year!

In a recent one-on-one interview, two-time host John Henson explained why he was back to emcee the countdown once again, “First of all, the clip show format of showing amusing video clips and having fun with them is a genre that is near and dear to my heart. That was how my career began on Talk Soup. And something about the format and the tone of these specials feels like a little bit of a throwback to the beginning stages of my career. So it’s like a bit of a past life regression. I really enjoy it. It’s a nice change of pace creatively and the team is a lot of fun to work with.”

And the special has more to offer than just the top ads of 2013. “There are clips of funny commercials from years past, there are runners up and honorable mentions,” noted Henson, “and a variety of glimpses of really creative and humorous advertising from not just here in the United States but all over Europe and Asia and South America. So it’s a very interesting, eclectic mix.”