| Subject: If you think that's bad... |
Author:
Kristen
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Date Posted: 13:11:07 07/30/01 Mon
In reply to:
Vanyanna
's message, "WHO ARE THESE ASSHOLES?!!!" on 14:56:14 07/28/01 Sat
This is from 1996, but it's so horrible that I'm putting it my story about Jon and berating it!
Funny, but weren't you once Jon Lovitz?
Stephen Hunter, Baltimore Sun, October 25, 1996 , p. 1E .
Oh, no! What is this? An image remake for Jon Lovitz? Does he think he's suddenly cool or something?
Well, maybe. Lovitz, who's made a career playing delusional schlumphs and self-important nerd kings, puts in his appearance in a
downtown hotel in the jet black of L.A. after 2 a.m. and the little out-of-the-way club bars like the Viper where only the hippest of the
hip can get in to sip drinks so obscure Details doesn't know what's in them yet. Who's dressing him, Elvira, Queen of the Night? He's
got black turtleneck black jeans black cowboy boots (black cowboy boots?) and even a black goatee. Who does he think he is, Brad
Pitt?
But it's still the same old Jon Lovitz, under the skin-tight noir thing. A sort of big, flubby body that probably hasn't racked up too many
reps in the Nautilus room lately. The hair thinning weakly, as if it's already given up. The schnozola that could front for a '49 Pontiac,
and the little chinny-chin-chin that's hardly there to be seen, even though the muff of bristly black hairs tries to disguise its
anti-grandeur. And the eyes. They're so sensitive they could make a cowboy puke!
Lovitz is out pounding the pavement in the sticks to drum up sweetness for his film "High School High," his very first complete
starring role, complete to his getting the babe and everything. Alas, he turns out to be one of those guys who's not too funny unless
he's in character. When he's being Jon Lovitz, he says things like, "And could I get some butter for my English muffin, please?"
But he tries hard, as if he finds himself as boring as others do; he always bumps into a character when he feels the laugh quotient
thinning. "I get to do all different things in this movie," he says grandly, the world's greatest Thespian, turning each syllable into a
cymbal smash. "I get to get the girl. I get to be drunk. I get a fight scene. I get to carry the movie. It's something I've always wanted
to do."
Lovitz traces his desire for a show-biz career back to a traumatic event. He got lost in a summer camp, somehow found his way back,
and "suddenly everyone knew who I was. It was kind of like being famous. I was somebody!"
Lovitz hit the national scene after a time in the L.A. improvisational troupe, the Groundhogs, which had already sent Phil Hartman to
"Saturday Night Live." Lorraine Newman, a first generation "SNL" alum, recommended him to Lorne Michaels, the "SNL" guru.
But he struggled on the show at first.
"I would go up into the old prop room, which is sort of a `Saturday Night Live' museum, and think, `I can't do what they do.' I'll just
do my own thing and see if the audience likes it. But Lorne said, `Write for yourself. You are the audience.' So I wrote what was really
funny to me."
That way, he came up with the characters who are still dearly remembered, the Lying Guy, a chronic dissembler whose fibs get
weaker and more desperate the longer they are sustained, and the World's Greatest Thespian, a complete blowhard who's so in love
with himself that he turns everything into a soliloquy.
"It's silly, corny and immature. But it's funny to be a grown man and say these silly things. I mean, I'm 39! But you know when
something's funny. If you're in comedy, you have certain instincts. I did 500 sketches and so I learned what works and what doesn't.
You just know."
Though he left the show somewhat reluctantly, when Michaels wouldn't give him enough flex-time for movie commitments, he
remains grateful. "It's the only show where if you do well, you can have a major career. It's not a show. It's an institution."
But what bugs him the most is the lack of respect comic actors get. "I always hear, oh, you're naturally funny. Yeah, I am -- after 26
years!"
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