Bruce Vilanch at Queens Theatre May 7th
The six-time Emmy Award-winner is known to those ‘in the know’ in Hollywood and New York as “the fat guy who writes everyone’s jokes.”
He is best known as a writer for TV awards shows; he’s co-written 21 Oscar broadcasts, as well as a featured writer for the Tonys, Grammys and Emmys and his 4-year stint on Hollywood Squares, as both a performer and writer.
This years Oscars with James Franco – was a little…strange….
New York magazine caught up with Bruce Vilanch recently and asked him what happened.
“I have to call James Franco and tell him the show’s over,” Vilanch quipped. “He doesn’t know. He took a nap and he woke up in class.”
Was Vilanch saying Franco’s sleepy performance was due to an actual lack of sleep?
“He has so many balls in the air, he didn’t get to town till Thursday before the show on Sunday. And so we e-mailed a lot. But we had a lot of meetings. He had a bunch of people who were writing for him, and if it had been him alone, it would have been different. But it was him and Anne Hathaway, and they both had to be serviced. So there was a lot of communication beforehand. But he didn’t get there.”
Vilanch continued: “I don’t think he realized how big a deal it is to do it until he was actually confronted with it. I think he thought he would kind of … I don’t know what he thought. I thought maybe it was a performance-art prank, and then I realized he sincerely wanted to do it. But it’s outside of those guys’ comfort zones. The only people who know how to host those shows are people who get up onstage every night and say, ‘Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. A funny thing happened … ‘ Or people like Bette [Midler] who get up and sing all night and tell stories.”
Was Franco maybe stoned, as was rumored? “No, he wasn’t high,” Vilanch said. “I was with him, and he wasn’t high. And I asked him, ‘Are you high, and can I have some?’ And he said no to both.”
BRUCE is performing on May 7th at Queens Theatre in the Park.
Tickets are $37, Senior $35, Student $22 and are now available online at Queens Theatre or by calling 718-760-0064. Tickets may also be purchased in-person at the Box Office, 1 hour prior to performances, if available.
Running Time: 90 minutes
Bruce Vilanch Tribute site
We Got Bruce
Best Gay New York.com
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