Page 10 The Battalion Monday, March 20,1989
Reviews
Book chronicles sitcom providing
one of John Cleese’s wackiest roles
By Shane Hall
REVIEWER
In 1988, more American movie
goers became aware of the talents of
British comic John Cleese, thanks to
his role in the hit comedy, “A Fish
Called Wanda.”
Fans of British comedy are well
aware of Cleese’s hilarious antics in
the television series, “Monty Py
thon’s Flying Circus” and the several
movies the Python crew made.
Cleese’s roles as the frustrated cus
tomer who has been sold a dead par
rot and the Minister of Silly Works
are among his most memorable
works as part of Monty Python.
Fewer British comedy fans, how
ever, may be aware of a short-lived
sitcom Cleese starred in during the
mid-1970s. The series is “Fawlty
Towers,” and its 12 episodes show
case some of Cleese’s funniest and
most outrageous television work.
Pantheon Books has collected to
gether the material that made
“Fawlty Towers” the hilarious show
it was. The book, titled “The Com
plete Fawlty Towers,” is a collection
of the scripts to the 12 episodes,
which were written by Cleese and
Connie Booth, who starred in the se
ries as well.
While reading the scripts, the
reader will see that good screenwrit
ing was a key ingredient to the
show’s humor. The book is one that
those unfamiliar with the series will
find entertaining, but devoted fans
and enthusiasts of British humor will
find mandatory.
The series itself takes place at the
resort hotel, Fawlty Towers, which is
situated in the English town of Tor
quay. Cleese played Basil Fawlty, the
owner. Basil is a sarcastic bully
whose constant smart aleck remarks
make for many a great one-liner.
Readers of the book are sure to
agree.
Basil’s attitude toward the hotel’s
guests, in the words of his wife Sybil,
ranges from “crawling all over them
licking their boots” to “spitting poi
son at them like some benzedrine
puff-adder.”
As well as rude and boorish, Basil
is also viciously henpecked by Sybil.
Played by Prunella Scales, Sybil
Fawlty remains maddeningly sane
no matter how bad a situation gets.
The other cast members include
Polly (Connie Booth), an art student
who works as a maid at the hotel;
and Manuel (Andrew Sachs), the
Spanish waiter whose command of
English is between slim and none. It
is Manuel who is frequently the tar
get of Basil’s bullying.
The series’ episodes often center
around Basil getting into a nasty
predicament, only to sink deeper
into trouble as he tries in vain to get
out. In these situations, Basil Fawlty
is much like a drowning man clutch
ing at straws.
With “The Complete Fawlty Tow
ers,” fans will be able to relive the se
ries’ many hilarious moments. Those
unfamiliar with the show might not
enjoy the book as much, but they will
certainly find out what they’ve been
missing.
An example of what they’ve been
missing is the episode titled “The
Kipper and the Corpse,” in which a
guest at the hotel dies in his sleep.
Basil, always jumping to conclu
sions, is convinced the man has died
from the kippers that came with his
breakfast. It seems the kippers were
old, leading Fawlty to believe that he
is on his way to being responsible for
poisoning someone.
As the episode continues, Basil
and Manuel take extensive pains to
hide the corpse, but succeed only in
frightening an old lady resident and
throwing the entire hotel into chaos.
These and other comic moments
are included in ‘The Complete
Fawlty Towers,” a book that for
some is a good introduction to other
silliness from John Cleese. For oth
ers, namely those who enjoy the se
ries, the book is a worthwhile addi
tion to the bookshelf.
Late Night
(Continued from page 9)
well,” he said.
Nelson explained why the late-
night DJs are required to stick to the
station’s format.
“We want to sound like we’re part
of a team, and not be abruptly dif
ferent,” he said. “Also, you have to
follow format so you don’t end up
playing the same song another DJ
just played.”
One advantage of the late-night
shift is that the DJs do not have to
deal with the commotion and bustle
of the office that is present during
the day, so the atmosphere at night
is much less formal. However, that
does not mean that they can slack off
and not take the job seriously. There
is one listener they always must try to
please.
That listener, the one all of these
DJs are conscious of, the one who
they will hear from if they slip up on
the air or play something that is too
far removed from their format, is
their boss, the station’s program
ming director or manager.
Often, the late-nighters’ shows are
automatically taped, to be reviewed
by the boss later.
Nelson said the taping isn’t the
only check on their performance.
“The bosses can actually be listen
ing anytime,” he said.
“I think they’re always listening.”
SPRING BREAK
FILM DEVELOPING
AS LOW AS
ISdisc
GOOD ON A SINGLE SET OF STANDARD
^IZE PRINTS FROM YOUR 35MM, DISC.
110 OR 126 COLOR PRINT FILM (C-41
PROCESS ONLY) NO ROLL LIMIT.
OFFER GOOD MARCH 20 THROUGH 24, 1989
PHOTOGRAPHIC SERVICES
IN GOODWIN HALL and
THE TEXAS A&M BOOKSTORE
IN THE MSC
Morning
(Continued from page 9)
T do some stand-up (comedic)
work as an MC at Garfield’s (restau
rant.) and I stay up until about 12
a.m., then get up for work.
“I have to sleep some time during
the day,” Davis says. “I get four
hours of sleep here and there, which
becomes a bit straining. By the week
end, I’m beat because I haven’t had a
good eight hours of sleep.
“Luckily, I don’t do the stand-up
work every night.”
Davis says it is sometimes difficult
to drag himself out of bed and to not
come across tired on the air.
“It’s hard to fake listeners out,” he
says. “They can tell when I’m tired
or when I’m having a problem. It is
very tough to hide it, but I can some
times fake them out if I’m exhaus-
He says that listeners who are fa
miliar with his voice can tell when
he’s tired and occasionally call the
station to ask how he feels.
“They call and ask if I’m tired or
had a fight,” he says. “I’ve had listen
ers send balloons and flowers to say
‘cheer up’.
“I put a lot of myself into the
show, and I am the show. If I feel
mad about something, I tell the lis
teners.
“It is a very personable show, be
cause I’m not talking at the listeners
but with them. It’s not a distant rela
tionship.”
In addition to his work as a stand-
up comic and master of ceremonies
at Garfield’s comedy show, Davis is
working on putting together a game
show that will premiere in April on
Channel 24.
Davis will be the host of the show.
In the meantime, Davis says, he
goes home and takes a nap after
work before his work at Garfield’s or
when planning to go out with
friends.
“It’s really bizarre to have the
early morning show,” he says, “be
cause when I’ve finished work every
body else is out working or in class,”
he says.
“I wish I had the motivation to
work out, but I lost interest in it,”
Davis says.
“I watch a lot of TV; 1 really am a
TV-aholic. Usually I go home and
take care of what needs to be done
and kill the day.
“It sounds like such a waste to sit
around like that, but for now the
television show I’m working on will
be consuming most of my free time.
“If the show does well, we will
continue,” Davis says. “If not, we will
be breaking even. I think this town is
starving for. something like this, and
I hope it goes well,” he,says.
“It will keep me busy.”
Club DJ
(Continued from page 9)
is different from playing songs
for a radio show, Meeks says.
For club play, songs are classi
fied by beats per minute (bpm),
and DJs play songs of the same
speed in succession, gradually
getting faster. For a radio show,
there need not be an pattern to
the songs.
“It’s not set in stone, but gener
ally, you start slow, around 100
bpm, and gradually get faster,”
Meeks said. “It’s really a natural
progression, because you can’t
play a slow song, then a fast one,
then another slow one. That
would be confusing.”
He said after a while the music
reaches a point where it just can’t
get any faster, and the whole
chain starts over again on the
slow end.
“When I get to the fast point, I
usually play something random
—with a weird beat — like “Warm
Leatherette” (by the Normal) or
“Gold Rush” (by Yello),” Meeks
said. “Then I start again with
slower songs.”
Meeks says he likes his job and
would someday like to work at a
large club like Xcess in Houston,
which is his favorite because it is
“dark, with an overpowering,
crystal-clear sound system and
good lights,” all of which he
thinks make a perfect club.
“I’d like to work in a big club
because there are so many peo
ple,” he said. “You can play any
thing you want and someone is
going to like it.
“If I tried to play the same mu
sic at Parthenon, I’d be able to see
every little tile on_ the dance
floor.”
But Meeks’ musical tastes are
not much different than those of
the average club-goer, it is just
that he w'ould like to play a wider
variety of music.
“There are certain songs I get
asked to play every single night I
work,” he said. “After a while, it
just gets to the point where I
never want to hear that song
again.”
Meeks says a perfect example
of a too-often requested song is
“Bizarre Love Triangle” by New
Order. Although he likes the
song, he wishes he didn’t have to
play it every time he DJs in a club.
“It’s a great song,” he said.
“But no matter how much you
like it, you get sick of it after aw
hile.”
But Meeks can handle playing
a song he doesn’t like. One thing
he can’t handle is taking some re
quests.
“There’s an order to things,”
he said. “Some people come up
and demand to hear a song right
that minute, even telling me to
take the record I have ready off
and put on the one they want to
hear.
“That really bugs me, because
you can’t just play anything in any
order — that is if you care about
what you’re doing. And I do.”
Crabby requests are only a
small drawback to his job,
though, and Meeks says he
doesn’t mind getting them.
“A night without requests just
woudn’t be right,” he said. “Ac
tually, I like requests because they
help me decide what is popular
and what the people want to hear.
I just don’t like when people
think their requests are more im
portant than the requests of oth
ers who asked before them.”
Another reason Meeks would
like to work at a large club is the
fact that some large ones buy re
cords for the DJ in addition to
paying his salary.
Even though he already has
dose to 700 records, Meeks says it
would be nice to have the records
provided for him.
“It would help me keep up
with the latest releases,” he re
marked, adding that he hasn’t
bought many new releases be
cause of their prices.
Meeks is fond of special re
cords called “Razormaids,” which
are available for DJs. The records
contain special mixes of eight dif
ferent songs and are pressed in
colored vinyl. The only problem,
he says, is that they sell for up to
$25.
The “Razormaids” are popular
also because they sometimes in
crease in value. For each edition,
only a limited number are
pressed. Meeks has several older
discs which have sold elsewhere
for $200.
Meeks gets most of his records
through a mail-order service out
of San Francisco, but he was also
a member of a record club or
“pool,” in which he was sent re
cords to critique. Once he listened
to the music, he rated it on a scale
from zero to five and sent a com
ment sheet to the manufacturer,
keeping the record.
As might be expected, Meeks
had some bizarre experiences in
his two years as a DJ. He has seen
plenty of fights and people get
ting sick, abundant weird haircuts
and has even had requests, se
rious ones, for Lawrence Welk
music.
While he was working at Roc-
co’s, he saw a turntable ruined
when someone spilled a White
Russian drink on it. After that,
Meeks said, the turntable acted
strangely, sometimes playing
backwards and sometimes not
working at all.
There was also the time when
he forgot to clean the dust and
lint off the needle, which caused
the tonearm to slide straight
across Vicious Pink’s “Take Me
Now,” a popular song at the time.
“The music stopped, and ev
eryone stopped dancing, turned
and stared at me,” Meeks said.
“Luckily, I had another record
ready to go and got it started pre
tty fast.”
Meeks, who says he hates to be
the center of attention, also faced
a still dance floor a couple of
months after he started working
at Parthenon. It was his birthday,
and the bartenders found out
about it, took over the micro
phone and lead the entire club in
singing “Happy Birthday.”
“That made me feel pretty
good, but I was embarrassed as s—
t,” he said.
Meeks says memories like the
last one are the ones that keep
him working.
“I almost quit a couple of weeks
ago,” he said. “I’ve been really
busy with school and with job in
terviews (day jobs) for after I
graduate.”
Besides a need for money,
Meeks says he didn’t quit because
he likes the job, despite little
drawbacks like the nasty requests,
standing on your feet all night,
ringing ears and lost socializing
time.
“It’s a fun job,” he s^id. “If I
went and didn’t have fun, I would
quit.
“DJing is like a power trip, to
an extent, especially when you
first start out,” he said. “You’re
basically controlling what people
are listening to and dancing to.
It’s a great feeling.-”
Being a DJ has changed the
way Meeks looks at music as well.
He always has liked progressive
music, but once he started play
ing it at clubs, he didn’t want to
listen to anything else.
“Top 40 music is okay for the
radio,” he said. “But once you
start liking (progressive music)
you kind of block out Top 40 al
together.”
Meeks’ days as a club DJ in Col
lege Station are slowly drawing to
a close, as he will be graduating
and entering the “real world” in
August.
Still, he says he hopes to keep
on playing music at clubs on the
weekends wherever he gets ajob.
“I really hope I can,” he said.
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Although predictable,
‘Fletch Lives ’ Chase’s
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You co
By Shane Hall
REVIEWER
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“Fletch Lives”
Starring Chevy Chase
Directed by Michael Ritchie
Rated PG
★★★
Contrary to popular belief,
Chevy Chase does appear in good
movies every now and then, as
demonstrated by his latest,
“Fletch Lives.” This sequel to
1985’s “Fletch” is the funniest
film Chase has appeared in in
some time. Granted, this is not
saying a whole lot when consid
ering past films such as “Funny
Farm” and “Vacation.”
In “Fletch Lives,” Chase re
turns as investigative reporter Ir
win “Fletch” Fletcher. Here,
Fletch quits his newspaper job to
take over the southern Louisiana
mansion his late aunt has left him
in her will. He later has a rendez
vous with his aunt’s gorgeous at
torney, who is killed during the
night.
named Billy Gene King. Another
is a hilarious segment at the stu
dios of a television ministry.
Here, Fletch assumes theroleof t as becor
faith healer Claude Henry taken ove
Smoot. ind My G
ish music;
In addition to Chase’s hilarious "'ho inhet
antics, “Fletch Lives” boasts a fine
supporting cast, including Hal
Holbrook as the scheming lawyer
Hamilton Johnson and Cleavon
Little as Calculus, the black man
living on the property Fletch has
inherited.
R. Lee Ermey is noteworthy as
well l ot his role as television evan
gelist Jimmy Lee Farnsworth.
1 his role is a definite switch for
the man who played the brutal
Sgt. Hartman in Stanley Ku
brick's “Full Metal Jacket.”
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Naturally, Fletch is placed high
on the list of suspects.
The remainder of the movie is
mostly Fletch conducting his own
investigation into who the killer’s
identity and motive. While doing
this, Fletch assumes a number of
disguises and identities.
Scenes in which Fletch mas
querades himself make for some
of the movie’s funniest moments.
One scene features Fletch sport
ing protruding teeth and pre
tending to be an exterminator
Ermey’s performance is an el
Iciiiw p.uodv <>l iclevision evan-l
gelists, portraying them as a com I
bination of snake oil salesmen!
and game show hosts.
In addition to light satire, therel
is some hilarious slapstick amij
even a motorcycle chase sceneitl
which Fletch (this time in nerdtj
clothes pretending the preside®I
of Harley Davidson Motorcyclesil
being chased by a gang oil
bearded, leather-clad hikers.
In “Fletch Lives,” ChevyChastl
Hives Ins best performance on iktl
big screen since his role in “Seenul
Like Old T imes.” Despite beinpl
bit predictable (it doesn't take;!
genius to figure out who’s behincl
the murder in this movie), “FletdiJ
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KANM
(Continued from page 9)
semester and then are trained to
use the equipment.
“It’s pretty easy to get involved,”
Noreyko said.
He says he always has been inter
ested in music, but does not plan to
pursue disc jockeying as a career. He
just likes being able to play obscure
music for his listeners.
“I have been getting a lot of calls
in lately from people requesting
songs,” he said. “Some of them (the
songs) I know, but I just don't have
them.”
KANM is accessible to listeners
w'ho have cable stereo. But the sta
tion is making some changes that will
allow them to be heard by everyone
by next fall.
KANM is applying for an FCC li
cense and getting new equipment
and a new antenna “like at a real ra
dio station,” Noreyko said.
The station manager and the 12-
member staff also are going to be
come more stringent in their opera
tions.
“It’s going to make us seemmd
professional,” Noreyko said.
Station Managet Alex Lull
agrees. "WtZMvill lie making char
for the better,” he said.
Luke also has a New Age show.
Luke said the -station wants
sound “cleaner" and be able to rea'
larger audiences.
Dj Nic k Kinnebrew, a sophomi
horticulture major, said be beliej
the changes will increase the seal
audience.
He has been working with KAMI
of! and on since 1986 and nowjto
reggae show on Fridays front n«|
to 2 p.m.
“In 1986, nobody called in,’KiJ
nebrew said. “1 just figured nob"]
listened.
“But this semester, I’ve been^
ting many calls and lots of positi
feedback. I think I haveafewrej
lav listeners.”
Kinnebrew, like Noreyko,
some of his favorite songs froj
home and creates his own format.
His show is titled “Babyfejl
Nightmare.”
“Babylon represents aconuf
tern, like back in the old days,'
nebrew said.
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Photo by Steven M. iVorcj j
KANM station manager and DJ Alex Luke examines one of the
station’s turntables at KANM studio in the Pavilion
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