Monday, September 7, 2009

Smooth moves


I always get a little nervous when I shave these days.

I just don't recognize the guy in the mirror whose face I'm trying to shave. Beyond the shock of unfamiliarity, it's really difficult to get a close shave on the parts of my face that have premature rigor mortis. It's like shaving moss off of a rock. I'm horrified that I'm going to break the razor or chip part of my chin.

The night before a new work week begins, I give it my best shot. Around the middle of the week, I'll stand before the mirror again and give myself a maintenance shave but it never seems to do much good.

Which gives me another reason to admire Pee-wee Herman. Pee-wee sure is clean-shaven.

On Sunday, I went to the Silent Movie Theatre for a screening of "Pee-wee's Big Adventure," which was released almost 25 years ago and is just as funny now as it was then. If I could laugh, I would have laughed for the entire film —from the first scene, in which Pee-wee dreams that he wins the Tour de France, to the last, when he and his friend Dottie fly their bicycles, E.T.-like, in front of a drive-in movie screen.

Before the film, a few clips of Pee-wee's appearances on Late Night with David Letterman were shown. Man, how I wish I could laugh out loud. Maybe you can do that for me.

Pee-wee's humor may not be everyone's cup of tea —I get the feeling that Dave doesn't quite know what to make of him— but if nothing else, you gotta admire Pee-wee's clean shave.



2 comments:

  1. So Paul, thanks to your posting, I wasted a good 6 minutes of my work day watching Pee Wee. Later when my son came home from school, I ruefully told him what I had wasted my day doing. And I acted out the joke--and he assured me that for a joke like that, those 6 minutes were far from wasted.

    And of course, all afternoon we shook my heads and said "the face rings a bell..."

    So, thank you for making our day....(I miss Pee Wee in our lives).

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  2. Hey Jude (an appropriate salutation for this holy day for Beatles fans)

    Lucky for us, there is no need to be missing Pee-wee. He's doing the Pee-wee Herman Show at the Music Box at the Fonda between Nov. 8 and Dec. 19. Tickets went on sale a while back. If they're not sold out, you can find 'em at Ticketmaster.

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