Thursday, July 03, 2008
Shep's Great July 4.
I got out my old VHS of Jean Shepherd's "Great American Fourth of July." Forgive the tired cliche' but I have to say it: It's a laugh riot. I'm almost ready to go out on a limb and declare Shep the best storytelling humorist of his time ... maybe the whole 20th century. Funny, funny FUNNY. And not as predictable as Keillor or Sedaris. You know what to expect from them and that's part of their appeal. But Shep has what for lack of a better term, I will call range. He can surprise me.
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Yes, Shep's "Great American 34th" is wonderful, yet I prefer "Josephine Cosnowski." Finest of all are his radio programs, easily available for little or no cost. One shoul;d listen to many of them in order to get a sense of his amazing range. (He did what's estimated at 5,000 broadcasts from NYC.)
ReplyDeleteYou can read about his entire career in my book, EXCELSIOR, YOU FATHEAD THE ART AND ENIGMA OF JEAN SHEPHERD. I love to talk about him--I'm primarily a fan, secondarily the author of the book.
--Eugene Bergmann
Eugene, I go to sleep almost every night listening to one of Shep's WOR shows that I taped from Max Schmid's great site.
ReplyDeleteClifton