BRUCE VILANCH IN PERSON! LEGENDARY COMEDY
WRITER FOR THE ACADEMY AWARDS
with a screening of the documentary, Get
Bruce!, and a discussion of his new memoir, It
Seemed Like a Bad Idea at the Time
Monday, March 3rd
at 7:30 PM
$52 Public with book | $46 Members with book
$28 Public film & discussion only | $22 Members film & discussion
only
The Cinema Arts Centre is delighted to present, as an exclusive post-Academy Awards treat, the one and only Bruce Vilanch - the two-time
Emmy Award winning Comedy Writer for 25 Academy Award spectacles. After
a screening of the hilarious and touching documentary about his life and
career, Get Bruce!, Bruce will help us dissect the Oscar show of
the night before and discuss his new, insider memoir, It Seemed Like a
Bad Idea at the Time. Tickets include the screening,
interview with audience Q&A, and book signing. Copies of his new memoir, It Seemed Like a Bad Idea at the Time, are available to bundle with the film program or at the
box office.
“Bruce is the name, the man, the person, who steadied the
Oscars for a hundred years. The go-to genius we all relied on.” —STEVE
MARTIN
“There’s no one like him. As they’ve been saying since I
discovered him as a cub reporter at the Chicago Tribune, when you’re in
a pinch . . . Get Bruce!” —BETTE MIDLER
Bruce Vilanch
collaborated on the Academy Award shows with such top-notch hosts as Whoopi
Goldberg, David Letterman and Billy Crystal – often working with
them feverishly off stage between commercials to create spontaneous jokes to
build on unexpected, now classic moments as the programs unfolded.
Among his many other credits, Bruce also occupied the prime
center box on Hollywood Squares, for four years. And no wonder
that box was the best – behind the scenes, Bruce was also the show’s head
comedy writer.
In addition to the Oscars, Bruce has co-written many Tonys,
Emmys, Grammys, People’s Choice, American Comedy Awards, TV Land Awards, SAG
Awards, and a ton of other pageants, roasts, tributes, and various
trumped-up reasons for people to strut a red carpet.
He has coauthored dozens of variety television shows and
written jokes for Cher, Whoopi Goldberg and Bette Midler, Robin
Williams, Lily Tomlin, Billy Crystal, Roseanne Barr, Rosie O’Donnell and Elizabeth
Taylor. He’s also a lyricist, scoring gold and platinum records for disco
songs he wrote for Eartha Kitt and the Village People. And of
course, he played the role of Edna Turnblad in the Broadway musical Hairspray
in 2005.
FILM:
Get Bruce! is a documentary tribute to Bruce Vilanch
and his career, starring Shirley MacLaine, Bette Midler, Carol Burnett,
Whoopi Goldberg, Robin Williams, Lily Tomlin and Michael Douglas. Tracing
Bruce’s life, from his childhood and writing for the Chicago Tribune to his
Hollywood career, the film shows Bruce in action, including his help in
preparing for Elizabeth Taylor’s 65th Birthday Party and Bill
Clinton’s 50th. Others who appear include Hillary Clinton,
Sigourney Weaver, Christine Baranski, Billy Crystal, Nathan Lane, Ted
Danson, Patrick Swayze, Margaret Cho, Paul Reiser, Tom Bergeron, David
Copperfield, Beverly D’Angelo, Lauren Bacall, Tim Curry –and of course,
Bruce’s mother, Henne Vilanch. (Dir. Andrew J. Kuehn, 1999, 82 min.)
BOOK: It Seemed Like a Bad Idea at the Time
As the go-to comedy writer for award shows, sitcoms, and
major variety specials, Bruce he has also been responsible for quite a few of
the worst shows ever put on television—legendary productions so bad they border
on hilarious. Well, everyone has screwed up a few times, or had their work
screwed up by others. It Seemed Like a Bad Idea at the Time is
a lifetime reflection of what Vilanch has experienced, learned, forgotten,
dismissed, and embraced in decades of working in show business. It involves
very famous people and people who were not very famous but should have been.
And it explains to the person in the audience who says to himself, once he has
gotten his jaw off the floor, “’How did this ever get made?” Don’t
we all want to know?
MORE REVIEWS:
“Master comedy writer Bruce Vilanch has created a
screamingly funny encyclopedia of show business failure that takes the joy of
schadenfreude to new heights. A laugh-out-loud autopsy of fiascos from
television to film to Broadway, all told with Bruce’s impeccable wit and huge
heart, it must be read to be believed. This deeply funny chronicle of debacles
proves to be an unqualified hit.” —NATHAN LANE
“Turns out that all those TV specials I watched as a kid—the
ones that not only delighted me but made me wince, groan, and squirm with
embarrassment—had Bruce Vilanch’s name on them. And he lived!” —JANE LYNCH
“These tales are not only hilarious but often shocking that
they took place at all. Bruce tells each with wild detail and an incredible
amount of heart!”—ANDREW RANNELLS
Produced and Curated
by Jud Newborn
Thanks to our
Sponsors
Christopher Appoldt,Portrait Photographer
Waldo Cabrera,National Video Journalists Network (NVJN)
1-800-FLOWERS