Penn & Teller at the Rio ’09 – Five New Illusions (!)
Tuesday, August 11th, 2009
From the hours of 9pm – 11pm on the evening of Monday, July 13, 2009, all was right with the world. I was sitting alone next to two strangers in the front row of the balcony at the Rio in Las Vegas enjoying my third show in this very room. I hadn’t intended on seeing Penn & Teller during my most recent Las Vegas trip. After all I had already seen them four times – in Columbus in 1994, in Dayton in 1995, and twice at the Rio in Vegas in 2005 and 2007. The last time I saw them, I felt like their routines were getting a little old. Read the rest of this entry »
In addition to his voice-over work in such cool cartoons as Tennessee Tuxedo, The Brady Kids, and Scooby-Doo, Larry Storch has made appearances in numerous sitcoms. Among my favorites are I Dream of Jeannie, Gilligan’s Island, All in the Family, and a recurring role in Car 54, Where Are You? Unfortunately, the TV show that is he is most associated with is F Troop, in which he played Corporal Agarn, is one that I have never cared for at all. 
Michael Chapin came from a family of show business siblings. His brother and sister were both rather well known – Lauren for her role as Kathy in the popular family sitcom Father Knows Best, and his brother Billy for his starring role in The Night of the Hunter with Shelly Winters and Robert Mitchum – as well as numerous TV roles. Michael’s career had the least fanfare of the three, but he did star in his own series of low budget Republic westerns starring the Rough Ridin’ Kids. Among his other roles – albeit uncredited – were small parts in The Night of the Hunter with his brother and It’s a Wonderful Life. 
I consider Pulp Fiction to be one of the true classics of modern cinema – so although I haven’t seen many films starring Amanda Plummer (daughter of Christopher Plummer), the fact that she starred in this one as Yolanda (aka Honey Bunny) was quite enough. If you are familiar with the film, you may recall the prologue in which a couple are poised to rob a diner and then returns in the epilogue to show how the robbery went. In essence, this extended scene is the glue which holds the film together as Amanda Plummer and Tim Roth both discuss and then act out the robbery. 
After having failed twice to meet acclaimed science fiction writer Ray Bradbury in 2007 (first in