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Zappa: Stereo
Review 1979 There are
slanderous rumors that Zappa was a jerk when he was a guest on
Saturday Night Live, back in 1979 or whenever it was. Here's what
FZ had to say about it.
Newsgroups: alt.fan.frank-zappa
From: windt@physics.att.com (David Windt)
Subject: Re: Zappa on Saturday Night Live
Organization: AT&T Bell Labs
Date: Wed, 22 Jun 1994 12:32:23 GMT
In article <2u3arh$oeg@panix.com>,
David Silver
wrote:
In interviews, I remember Zappa
saying that he was not an actor, and had trouble reading the cue
cards, and didn't understand why anyone would have expected him to
perform as if he were an experienced actor.
Well...
The following excerpt is from an
interview with Steve Simels, and was published in the April 1979
issue of Stereo Review.
On just having hosted Saturday
Night Live:
"It's a very difficult thing to do;
they never make it easy on anyone who hosts the show. All the
direction and attention goes to the sketches. They're not called
skits - they become _incensed_ if you call them skits - and it's
all designed to accommodate the people who are regulars on the
show, so anybody who goes on there to hosts is at a severe
disadvantage. Because they never tell you what camera is on, and
you're not supposed to memorize your script because they're
rewriting right up to show time. And so you're looking at the cue
cards, and unless you're used to acting live on TV, you haven't
got a prayer; you'll be looking at the wrong camera. It was really
hard.
"And the other thing that happened
was - and I didn't find out about it until the day after the show
- that the first day I went there for the meetings with them they
didn't like me and wanted to get rid of me. But no one said
anything to my face while I was working on the thing. So they had
written dialogue for me to say that I wouldn't normally say; they
wouldn't let me write any of my own stuff.
"I think I'd be a fantastic
television personality. I think I'd be a real good interviewer if
I had a talk show, or a variety show. I'd be really good at it.
But just to get up there and be the dumbbell in _A Night_On_Freak_
Mountain_ ...I mean, sure, I'll do that for a laugh, but I'm not
gonna build a life on it.
Always good to hear both sides,
dontcha think?
David Windt
windt@physics.att.com
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