Ep. 118 Larry Dorf Pt. 2 - Parenting a junior comedian, Auditioning post pandemic, HBO’s Winning Time, Unattractive NBA Players and Poor Batgirl

Welcome to NPR’s Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me!  I’m Bill Curtis… Today’s episode titled “Wait Wait Don't’ Tell me it’s not Wait Wait Don’t Tell but actually The Modern Moron…”  I’m still Bill Curtis and here’s your host of the Modern Moron… who is neither straight form a Hemingway Novel nor from the Sea… please welcome, The Old Man…

Thank you Bill Curtis for that lovely introduction of The Modern Moron and The Old Man dot Show.  I know what you’re asking yourself right now and the answer is yes, you can now find The Modern Moron on NPR by simply going to NPR dot ORG in your browser and then typing “The Modern Moron dot COM” into that same browser.

This is part 2 of my conversation with my LA friend Larry Dorf.  Larry is my personal version of an Albert Brooks type and I tell him so.  I have a couple of those in my life and Larry is one of them.  He’s a little… how do I say this… particular?  A little particular about how certain things are.  And somehow, to me, it’s endearing and entertaining.  I love it.  Maybe it’s the Goldylocks syndrome

In the beginning of our conversation and a little bit into it, Larry… who I may earn the nickname “Goldylocks” for this show, has a little trouble getting comfortable as we chat about his son and dealing with his comic antics in the classroom.  

We talk post pandemic virtual connecting via zoom and MicroSoft Teams if you’re at work perhaps, and the requirements for an actor auditioning for roles and how that has changed drastically.  Whereas before, if you had an audition, they would send you the part of the script they wanted you to read, commonly called “the sides”, you would memorize the lines, go into the studio or casting office and read with the casting agent, where they would record you on camera and submit that to the producers, the director and the show runner.  But now, you’re expected to be able to record yourself, at home and submit electronically.  This means you need to find someone to read the other parts, off camera, while you’re recording yourself.  The upside is that you can do as many takes as you want and send in the best take, but you also don’t have the opportunity to take direction from the casting director if they see something and would like to give you some direction.

So Larry tells me about the challenges of auditioning post pandemic, and he drops a line that starts out as something that could be a great quote that you might hear from a great author or philosopher, and to me, it’s one of those gems I can only get from my friend Larry.  But as I’m giving him a bad  time about it, I mention the great author of Moby Dick, James Melville.  Only there is no James Melville… it’s Herman Mellville.  So in the moment that I am criticizing someone in their lack of eloquence, I boldly show what an idiot I am by calling Herman Melville, James Melville.

And you know what?  I could have edited it out… I’m sorry had someone edit it out, we have a staff here at The Modern Moron.    But then it wouldn’t be the Modern Moron.  This is exactly why the show has it’s name.  

We get to the meat of this episode when Larry tells me about an audition he had recently for a show on HBO Max about the Los Angeles Lakers during the 80’s, the era that I believe was called “Showtime” but since there’s a cable channel with that name already, the show on HBO is called,  “Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty” about  Magic Johnson, Kareem Abdul Jabar, James Worthy, Byron Scott, Kurt Rambis,  their coach Pat Riley, and owner Dr. Jerry Buss.  One of the Executive Producers, and the writer of the first episode is Adam McKay, who has created so many great movies, we should do a whole episode on him and his partner Will Farrell.  The only problem is… I don’t get HBO.  Rats.  I’m a cable cutter and HBO is one luxury I have to live without… for now.

Larry tells me that he auditions to play the part of Larry Bird’s father, but he’s concerned that Larry Bird was not considered a very attractive man in the NBA, so I go on to assure him there are many more unattractive guys in the NBA and we start going down the list.  Mean spirited?  Cruel?  How can I say this isn’t cruel.  Of course it is.  Basketball players are not trying to be models even though some of them do.  Mainly, they just want to play ball, but being in the public’s eye leaves them vulnerable to articles like the one we found in this podcast and is below this episode’s description and vulnerable to moron’s like us, neither of whom have been asked to appear in any fashion magazines.  

One thing I will say about the cowardice of this article is that there is no author.  In fact this moron of a sports website gives the lame excuse that it was written by a combination of a few writers and editors and that’s why there no name associated with the article which is a bullshit way of evading the horrible things users would have said about them.  Not here at the modern Moron.  Feel free to let us have it at TheModernMoron.com or theoldman.show.

The entertainment industry is going through a mass restructuring.  This leads us to Warner Brothers canceling the release of what was going to be a major DC Comics film “Batgirl”. 

CLOSE - As it should be.  If your going to get rid of animation, get rid of the stuff that’s for kids.  Kids don’t need to be watching cartoons.  They should be working.  Making t-shirts and shoes and mining coal.  

Poor Leslie Grace… or is it?  I’m sure she got paid, but to do all that work and not have it come out has to be extremely disappointing.  I read one excuse, I’m sorry quote from a studio executive that said the DCEU, which stands for the DC Comics Extended Universe, was compromised in terms of telling the correct origin story for one of the DC characters that somehow hinged on the character The Flash.  And you thought daytime soap operas got sticky?  

I think Larry… or Goldylocks had some great insight into the potential positive effects of pressure.  In his example it was the additional pressure of going in to a casting office for an audition rather than doing it from the comfort of your own home.  Always staying in your comfort zone is not a good thing, it’s not a productive thing and it’s when you leave that comfort zone that you challenge yourself to grow and maybe be a little better than you thought.  Wow…  That’s some deep stuff.  

I can actually tease our next episode as we will be having a long wonderful chat with the Senator’s daughter!  She is attending Graduate School at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland.  That’s right, The Modern Moron goes global.  She is getting her masters degree in art history specifically in the accessibility to art history… that has a lot more to it than wider doorways and ramps.  Maybe wider doorways in a metaphorical sense.  Very excited about that episode coming up next.  

Thank you for listening to The Modern Moron and the Old Man dot Show.  We’ll see you next time.    

Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty | Official Website for the HBO Series - HBO.com 

25 Ugliest NBA Players | SportyTell - sportytell.com

Everything Revealed About Batgirl's Canceled Story - Screenrant.com

Batgirl Star Leslie Grace Breaks Silence On DC Movie's Cancellation - Screenrant.com