Word: magician
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1970-1979
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...adapted for the stage by Richard Selden. In it, Sidney Kugelmass (Joel Levin), a professor of humanities at the City College of New York with a balding pate and a "chubby cheesecake choked body," tries to add adventure and romance to his life. He enlists help from a magician (Tom Blumenfield) with a contraption that can catapult a person into the novel of his choice and decides to have an affair with Emma Bovary (Troy Segal...
Levin is unconvincing as a middle-aged professor, although he does improve when he berates the magician. Often rushing through lines in a whining tone, Levin fails to employ vocal variety and facial expressions to add humor to his part. Neither does he work to age his voice and stage actions...
...with his secretary and runs off to save the circus. Back at the top, Maureen Bad--"the second thinnest woman in the world" (recurring joke)--schemes and connives to burst Natalie's balloon and steal the show. Throw in an FBI detective hot on the embezzler's trail, a magician reminiscent of Bullwinkle and a chorus of circus clones and you've got the show...
Maury Leiter as "Ozzie" the magician is too cute for his own good, not quite capturing the look-at-me-and-laugh-at-a-real-moron role he is given. But George Melrod--easily the star of the show--as "Nick, Sam Nick", the detective, is the quintessential Columbo parody, from that cultivated unshaven look to his rapid-fire delivery. Nicks' exchange with Natalie in the interrogation room is really the funniest scene in the show; it makes you forget that he can't sing. Jay Bacal as the broker is aggressively mediocre, weighed down by an insecure voice...
...painting like The Magician's Accomplices, 1926, with its weak drawing and fumbled tones, is not the work of a "natural" talent. An idea is there, but the hand does not yet know what to do with...