Music and Comedy

The U.S. Post Office Piaf Forever stamp was 2012, and even then we were worried about how snail-like "snail mail" was. (The snail makes a guest appearance at 0:30 and this is believed to be the post office snail's only appearance in a La Môme parody video.)

Thursday, December 7, 2023

For start of Hannukah, our song "Put Your Pain In the Hands of a Jew" - video with Hannukah images

In the spirit of the old line about what many Jewish holidays have in common, "They tried to destroy us, they didn't destroy us, let's eat!" -

"Put Your Pain In the Hands of a Jew (or a Few)" - with Hannukah images

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=53wvYwGE9Z8

Music by Skip Kennon, lyric by Fred Landau - sung here by Neal Mayer

(The expression "oy and vey" is thanks to Bruce Kimmel)

We wrote this song about the soothing aspects of Jewish humor in the face of thousand of years of tsouris, and it turned out not to be right for project we auditioned for. (When we wrote the song, the show's script that we got had been about humor as essentially Jewish novocaine, and that changed a great deal by the time that show opened.)

But the song survives on YouTube! :) And we get nice reaction to the audition song. even separate from the show for which it had been written, and I wanted to share it here, on this video with Hannukah images.

Friday, December 1, 2023

Remembering my late Aunt Sarah Friedler on her birthday, including a favorite theater-related story about her

Remembering my dear late aunt Sarah Friedler on her birthday, here in this photo with my dad, my brother and me at what seems to be my nephew David Landau's bris in 1988. My aunt and my dad were both Holocaust survivors. We all called her Aunt Sunia (pronounced "Shoon-ya"). The camera caught her while she was talking, probably making a joke, but it's such a happy photo of a happy occasion.

We have so many happy memories of her, including a good amount of theatergoing and theater-watching and listening with her and my Uncle Jonah. One of my favorite theater-related memories of her was after Kathie Lee Gifford performed Sondheim's "Getting Married Today" on TV, my Aunt Sunia did an impromptu impression, with hand motions, of Kathie Lee singing at the wedding "Go! Can't you go? Why is nobody listening?" (This was while Kathie Lee was the alternate for Carol Burnett in "Putting It Together.")

Saturday, November 25, 2023

My tribute to the New York shopping & tree lighting time of year

If you're in the mood for holiday music you've never heard before, this is my tribute to New York in the shopping and tree lighting time of year. Hope you like it, whatever you celebrate!

"In the Season We Love"- music and lyric by Fred Landau, sung in this video by Jan Horvath

(first section is a happy shopper, then a grumpy shopper, then harmony between the two)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2oyosuNj1jE

Sunday, November 12, 2023

New draft of description of the value of parody as preface for upcoming volume of 21st CENTURY OLDIES

Facebook calls it starting a "new job," but maybe it's more like a new venture, or even a new adventure! What it is is that I have a full draft of this new volume of my "21st Century Oldies" series of books.

Here's a new draft of the description about the value of parody for the upcoming volume 6 of 21ST CENTURY OLDIES: The First Quarter Century, 2001-2025.

More about Volume 6 is here https://music-and-comedy.blogspot.com/2023/11/starting-to-promote-volume-6-of-my-21st.html

If you have any thoughts, please feel free to email me at my AOL address FJL1960, or leave a comment if that works for you.

There are three small words to one simple truth: Parody is popular.

It’s so popular in contemporary society that you don’t even have to go to a comedy club or find a Broadway stage to enjoy this unique type of humor. Just flick on your TV or click, toggle, and swipe away at your laptop, tablet, or other digital must-have device.

Parody is everywhere…because it has to be.

We need it. In itself, parody is one of the most comforting forms of humor out there. It takes an event, topic, or medium to which the common, everyday person already has a strong emotional response and then reshapes it in a way that stirs an entirely different emotion.

Parody, along with satire, help us make sense of the absurd, bring fun to the mundane, and allow us to laugh when we might otherwise want to cry or throw our hands up in the air in defeat. They lift us up when we are down and give a new spin to things that frustrate us, offend our beliefs, or leave us wondering what could possibly come next. In other words, parody can help us digest what is going on in the world around us.

To the memorable music of tried and true artists such as the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, Stephen Sondheim, Richard Rodgers, Stephen Schwartz, Gloria Estefan, Whitney Houston, Katy Perry, Adele, and Barbra Streisand, topics parodied in this book include American Idol meltdowns, Mark Sanford’s Argentina saga and his later political rebound, skyrocketing Broadway theater prices, the AIG bailout mess, the Covid crisis and, of course, Donald Trump,

Turn on whatever you use to play music these days—and start reading this book. In no time, you’ll be singing along, laughing, and feeling a whole lot better about life.

Saturday, November 11, 2023

Reviving our pitch for DOWNTOWN ABBY/UPTOWN ANN LANDERS, with Dear Abby's grandson officially running for President

With Rep. Dean Phillips (who is Dear Abby's grandson - really!) officially running for President,