travsd

“The Great Buster” Opens Tomorrow

Today is Buster Keaton’s birthday. See my biographical article on the great silent comedian’s early years here and the Buster Keaton section of Travalanche, containing close to 50 articles related to the comedy genius here. The Big Buster news at the moment, though, is the release tomorrow of Peter Bogdanovich’s new documentary, The Great Buster: A Celebration. I’m expecting big things from the guy who made Directed by John Ford, and was pals with Orson Welles and Jerry Lewis (not to mention his own great narrative films, the most relevent of which here would be What’s Up Doc? and Nickelodeon...) He got some great interviews: Mel Brooks and Carl Reiner, Werner Herzog, Quentin Tarantino, Bill Hader, Richard Lewis. Actually, come to think of it, these aren’t necessarily the people I’d go to on the subject, nor are Cybil Shepard or Johnny Knoxville or French Stewart, So, um, we’ll see. We’ll see what we shall see.

Published by travsd

Writer and performer Trav S.D. (www.travsd.com) is best known for his books "No Applause, Just Throw Money: The Book That Made Vaudeville Famous" (2005) and "Chain of Fools: Silent Comedy and Its Legacies from Nickelodeons to Youtube" (2013). He has written for the NY Times, the Village Voice, American Theatre, Time Out NY, Reason, the Villager and numerous other publications. Trav has been in the vanguard of New York’s vaudeville and burlesque scenes since 1995 when he launched his company Mountebanks, presenting hundreds of acts ranging from Todd Robbins to Dirty Martini to Tammy Faye Starlite to the Flying Karamazov Brothers. He has directed his own plays, revues and solo pieces at such venues as Joe’s Pub, La Mama, HERE, Dixon Place, Theater for the New City, the Ohio Theatre, the Brick, and 6 separate shows in the NY International Fringe Festival. In 2014 he produced and directed the smash-hit "I’ll Say She Is", the first ever revival of the Marx Brothers hit 1924 Broadway show in the NY International Fringe Festival.