An evening with "Old Yeller"

             

      An evening with "Old Yeller"

Lewis Black

        Our son and son in law, David & Scott, gave Emily and me tickets to see “Old Yeller” (as he styles himself), Lewis Black,  at the Bob Carr theater in Orlando, last night. Much more on the show in a moment.

       The Carr, completed in 1926, was the venue in Orlando for touring shows. Over the years we lived in Orlando, we saw a fair number of excellent stage productions, ranging from the sublime - Book of Mormon - to the lyrical – Les Mis, Wicked, Phantom – to the mundane and banal - Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, my personal nominee for the “musical which should never have left tryouts” award.

       Fortunately, O-town now has a real world-class facility in the Dr. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts. The Carr built in 1925-26 has a lovely atrium, courteous staff and decent bar. The audio system seems to have been reworked recently, as well. These attributes make it a nice second tier venue for the city.

      Unfortunately, the Bob Carr also has orchestra rows 60 seats across with no center aisle. Let me make this clear: if you are in good seats (we were, thanks, guys!) in orchestra left (16 and 17) there are at least 14 more seats which can only be reached by people crawling past you. this is made worse by the paucity of space beween rows front to back. It’s a case of either stand up multiple times or remain seated and get ass in your face. The auditoriums in every high school in Orlando are superior in seating design. 

       Please understand, this isn’t a rap on the entire facility, which benefits from great staff, great parking accessibility and a stream of good attractions, one of which Mr. Black certainly is! While the City of Orlando has obviously spent significantly to update the outside (new easy entrance, nice lobby, etc. they have been remiss in failing to address the seating issue, which has remained the same since the first time we went to the venue, about 43 years ago.

        This may sound a bit nit-picky, but I assure you, we were far from the only persons who found the lack of center aisle a serious pain in the butt. We were again treated to facefuls of ass at intermission as several Lizzo sized people in the center clambered out to the lobby and back. This nice, classic venue needs new modern, accessible, seating.

      That off my chest, the pre-show was comic Jeff Stilson, with whom we were unfamiliar. Stilson, while not exactly a household name, has killer creds as writer producer for such as The Daily show, Letterman, Chris Rock and others. He is also a multiple Emmy winner and nominee for half a dozen Emmy and Oscar awards shows. His 30 minutes was far from a "warm-up". I’d have paid to see him headline!

       Lewis Black was, as expected, brilliant, outrageous and hilarious. He also dealt deftly with several unrequested audience "shout outs" of the embarassing kind which makes you reflect, "Yeah, I remember my first beer."

        His was a rant for all seasons, with material ranging from the current tour’s first stop- Rapid City South Dakota - and why the f**k would anyone choose to live there?, I-4 traffic, drug costs and catchy adverts, to aging parents (his mom is 101!) and on to, as expected, impeachment. The last was all new material which he used last night for the first time. Not unexpectedly, Mr. Black is less than fond of the President. All in all, a great night of standup …until.

       One feature of Black’s tours for several years is that Stilson, who acts as emcee as well, urges the audience members (After his "open" and before Black begins, during a 15 minute intermission, to feel free to text their own “rants” to him for use after the routine. After he does his standard routine, he (Black)leaves the stage for a moment and Stilson reintroduces him,  for a live streamed podcast, entitled "The Rant is Due" during which he reads that audience’s submitted rants with his own commentary. One can see how this might be funny, weird or both.  
      
      To put this in perspective, the first submission read  “To the slob sitting in front of me: you stink and the cheap perfume you have on doesn’t begin to cover it. Take a bath”  (ouch!)  Another was a rant about Orlando traffic, on which Lewis amplified appropriately. So far, so good.

       Then Mr. Black read one from a Staff Sergeant who was, as am I, less than complimentary to the current C in C vis a vis the military. In truth he was downright derisive but made his points well. Still ok… until an audience member stood up and, interrupted Mr. Black in mid-sentence, announcing he was a former military guy, and began to yell. And here it became a classic example of a “But Whaddabout?”

       For the uninitiated, a “But Whaddabout?” is a fatally flawed discourse device in which, when presented something negative about (anything), an individual attempts to deflect the question by diverting attention to something irrelevant. It goes like this (as an extreme example) “Adolph Hitler sure was a wicked man” “Oh yeah? But whaddabout that Idi Amin?”

       We saw this all during the Trump impeachment proceedings. Usually as Republicans responding to factual statements regarding Trump’s extortion of Ukraine by whining, “But whaddabout Hunter Biden?” It’s that old childhood ploy grown large …. “But, they did it!”


       Lewis was, initially, very patient, repeatedly urging the man to “write it down,” but the guy was unstoppable. He then resorted to the “whaddabout,” yelling that Obama had “reduced the authority of battlefield commanders” and he had friends killed as result, then he yelled something to the effect of “had anyone else in the audience ever had that experience?.”

        First, the allegation is blatantly false. Obama had differences of opinion on priority with various overall commanders in Afghanistan but never modified the rules of engagement, endangering troops. In fact, it was Obama who urged increased use of drones, vice manned aircraft, to reduce personnel risks. On the other hand, Trump after proudly proclaiming troop drawdown in Syria to allow his Turkish friends to slaughter Kurds (which they did with alacrity), has since sent over 28,000 more troops to the region.

      As this guy raved on, undaunted by Mr. Black’s repeated requests for him to “write it down.” Audience members, us among them, began to get up and leave, so I have no idea how the incident resolved, but there is no news of another mass shooting, so I will assume he was unarmed. 

       This use of the whaddabout was ill timed, as most of the audience, on the same page with the sergeant and Mr. Black, were embarrassed to be in the same audience with the aforementioned jackass.

Coda:

       In looking at Trump’s relationship with the military one would be forced to find an off the record source, because it is against the individual’s and The Pentagon’s interest to opine for publication due to Trump’s well known penchant for vindictive response to any truth not fitting his narrative. (just ask Lt.Col. Vindeman!)

        That said, what follows is excerpted from an article in the Atlantic Monthly of November of 2019. The author, Mark Bowden, has written on military issues for over 20 years, and written 13 best sellers (including "BlackHawk Down") involving military issues, acknowledges this difficulty and therefore discussed the issue with service members know to him personally on  condition of anonymity.

       “In 20 years of writing about the military, I have never heard officers in high positions express such alarm about a president. Trump’s pronouncements and orders have already risked catastrophic and unnecessary wars in the Middle East and Asia and have created severe problems for field commanders engaged in combat operations. Frequently caught unawares by Trump’s statements, senior military officers have scrambled, in their aftermath, to steer the country away from tragedy. How many times can they successfully do that before faltering?”

Mark Bowden The Atlantic, November 2019

https://www.facebook.com/thelewisblack/videos/626643527906822/

The link above is to the actual "The Rant is Due" segment referenced above