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Anthony Jeselnik Is Evolving. But He’s Not Losing His Edge

When Anthony Jeselnik logs onto a Zoom chat to discuss his cutting new special, Bones and All, he does something I wasn’t anticipating: He smiles warmly. 

Fans of the 45-year-old comic have come to expect a certain onstage demeanor — that combative expression, the precise delivery, those straightforward setups about family members and loved ones that lead to horrible, surprising, utterly killer punchlines. Jeselnik is celebrating 20 years in stand-up, and by now most everyone knows that the person we see up there telling jokes is a character — an abrasive, sometimes obtuse jerk who shocks us with his nonchalant tales of dead grandmothers and abusive fathers. We realize that the real Jeselnik knows that it’s not good to drop a baby. The actual guy never took his self-proclaimed chocolate-addicted girlfriend to meet a junkie so he could ask her why she’s not as skinny. Still, the pleasant man I see contentedly sitting in his L.A. kitchen is the one we don’t encounter as often.

Mel Brooks Thought That Monty Python Stole One of Their Most Famous Sketches From Him

A lot of comedy fans love both Mel Brooks and Monty Python, and would presumably be thrilled if they all got along splendidly. Unfortunately, one of the very first meetings between the Blazing Saddles director and a Python member didn’t go so well.

Back in 1987, Brooks met Michael Palin, while the latter was in Los Angeles making A Fish Called Wanda. At the same time, Palin was trying to hire Brooks’ wife Anne Bancroft to star in his film American Friends, which eventually came out in 1991 (with no Anne Bancroft). Palin ran into Brooks at the studio commissary, and they immediately got off on the wrong foot.

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