Friday, January 30, 2015

Oh, MOTHER! (comedy)

Eds., Wisdom Quarterly; Maria Bamford, Marilyn Bamford, Alix Spiegel (Invisibilia, NPR.org)

Impersonating Her Mom, Comedian Grows Closer To Her
Alix SpiegelAll Things Considered
Like mother like daughter (Riot Fest, L.A.)
Think of human relationships as entanglements. How do they bind us; how do they reveal who we really are? In this episode of Invisibilia, NPR's new show about human behavior, we wanted to explore entanglements: the invisible ways we're entangled with each other. So we called a comedian. I'm a fan of Maria Bamford, who has done impressions of her mother throughout her career:
Host Alix Spiegel
"My mom told me before I went to my first girl-boy party in the eighth grade: 'Okay, remember what we talked about -- gonorrhea, syphilis, Herpes 1, 2. Watch the cold sores! Date rape is a lot more common than people think! You look so gorgeous! Oh, Jenny's mom's here to pick you up. Well, have a good time!'"
Sometimes the version of her mom she plays is just funny, because the mom can be so charmingly upbeat about the horrors of the world that it's hilarious. But sometimes it feels like it's about elements in their relationship that have a darker side. Like in this YouTube bit:
"'Sweetie, you taking a shower? Can I just get in there a little bit and just show you something? Oh, I didn't know you were naked. Oh sweetie -- listen -- if you want to get breast implants we will support you. Not financially -- but emotionally.'" More + AUDIO
We are here to overtake your planet through its mass media, our charm offensive.
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Stand-up Comedy and Mental Illness: Conversation with Bamford
David Haglund
Slate's Brow Beat blog
Over the last several years Maria Bamford has become one of the most acclaimed and original stand-up comics in the country. Along with Patton Oswalt, Zach Galifianakis, and Brian Posehn, Bamford was part of the Comedians of Comedy tour; she’s also released three solo albums and done two Comedy Central specials. Bamford’s voice (or rather, voices) can be heard regularly on Nickelodeon, Adult Swim, PBS, and elsewhere.
 
Voices of NPR: couple Edwards-Johnston
But her signature work may be The Maria Bamford Show, a brilliant Web series from 2009 that was screened at the Museum of Art + Design in New York. The premise of the series was that Bamford had had a nervous breakdown on stage and ended up back in Minnesota living with her parents. Bamford played every role in the series: her mother, father, sister, coworkers, and old high school acquaintances. More
The voice of National Public Radio (NPR)
No matter how you take your public radio -- a downloaded TED Radio Hour podcast or a Morning Edition show broadcast on your member station -- there's one voice familiar to all NPR listeners. That's the NPR announcer, who voices credit to the member stations, corporations and institutions that generously support NPR and public radio.

NPR Announcer Sabrina Farhi
Sabrina Farhi (D.R. Wolcheck/C. Mueller)
Come November, listeners will hear a new voice saying things such as "Support for NPR comes from..." and "This [pause] is NPR" (our personal favorite). Sabrina Farhi is joining us in Washington, D.C., as the NPR announcer alongside the iconic Frank Tavares, who has voiced NPR's funding credits for more than three decades. You'll get to know her quickly once her voice comes on the air in November.

COMMENT
Windsor Johnston, Bob Edwards' wife
Ed Sullivan: "I'm not as serious as I sound"? She doesn't sound serious at all and, apparently, neither is NPR in this case. After the brilliant articles posted on this site about professional voice artists, the management here has decided to go the other direction. It's hard enough to endure the aural assault from local news channels of untrained, immature types, who over-pronounce vowels, swallow compound consonants, and drops the end of every sentence into a tired gravel [called vocal fry]. But I'm sure teenage girls will love her. NPR has given me yet another reason to change the channel.

(Maria Bamford) "Dropout"

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