Rick Rockwell
5
I don't know if I OUGHT to post my opinion HERE, considering that most posts HERE are nasty.<BR>
I'm going to rate Rick as a club comedian, as that is his job. <BR>
Rick is not the same as his fellow comics, in that comics of today tend to prefer to write their OWN jokes, instead of relying upon stock jokes, and their own jokes, of 20 years ago, as Rick does. There was a MAJOR uproar over the conflict Buddy Hackett had with Joe Rogan, on the show "Last Comic Standing." Joe had dissed a comic, for using a stock joke, while Buddy thought it was perefctly OK-that it's NOT the joke, but the way you tell it! Exactly so. Old-time comedians, like Hackett, and Jack Benny, and George Burns said the same thing: a COMIC says funny things--a COMEDIAN says them funny. <br>
Rick Rockwell doesn't fit in with his peer group, because he IS a comedian. When I went to see him, I realized that he reminded me of comedians of the 1940's-60s era. He COULD'VE been a latter-day Bob Hope-- who IS one of his heroes--Rick tends to emulate him, in speech cadence, and rythm, as well as mannerisms; such as the hand to the necktie, the GRRRRR--ROWL sound, and this manner of --I'm not sure how to describe it--a sort of comical breathing, whilst telling a joke. Rick, indeed used to do Hope and Groucho impressions, before turning to his dead-on Ross Perot ( which I enjoy! I always thought Perot should've just gotten his own TV series, instead of running for office! ), and Droopy Dog, et.al., etc.<BR>
Rick's problem, is, that he refuses to update his act, which makes it difficult, in that he endures cruelty from his fellow modern-day comics, who take a pride in writing their own topical, risky, risqué material. Like Joe Rogan, most of them work blue; did any of you hear Rogan's risqué routine--first heard nationally, on Howard Stern's show--where he and another man had --um--impromptu anal sex? Likewise, the talented Craig Gass, who also guest-co-hosted Stern, who can morph into ANY impression, on the spur of the moment. I saw Gass live; and the difference between, and his type of comic, is that THEY DON'T CARE if the audience HATES them, OR are OFFENDED--RICK DOES! <br> Rick wants to be LOVED--that's why he won't take a risk, trying new material. He only will do what's tried and true, and gets laughs. He plays it SAFE. Gass and others take RISKS, and are proud of it. BUT the feeling and mood of between they and the audience is DIFFERENT than it is with RICK and HIS: Rick gets the audience into a powerful connection, more like a singer -- like Frank Sinatra, himself, whom I was privileged to see --and like Frank, Rick FILLS the room with his presence. Rick HAS talent. It's his personal magnetism, which may NOT come through, except if you see/meet him live. <BR> But his sad "frugality" P-offs too many people--and left him in the sad state of affairs, whence too many of his colleagues dissed him, instead of defending him.
RE: the sad TV show: Rick was in a state of midlife crisis: his dad had been diagnosed with diabetes ( and had a heart attack ); his hair was fallen out drastically; he'd had 20 years of various relationships that had gone badly, ending; and he was the last of his 5 siblings to be single. He thought he'd give it a try, considering it Kismet/Karma that an invite to be on WWTMMM came as he was perusing a dating site/researching for a "book" he was compiling on dating. BUT he was screwed over by the latter-day Chuck Barrisses ( Mike Darnell and Mike Fleiss ), who loaded up the show with wanna-be actresses, and not enough serious wannabe-wives.
