Sunday, August 11, 2019 Wyoming Tribune Eagle Page C7

EntertainmentToday’s celebrity birthdays

Actress Arlene Dahl is 94. Songwriter-producer Kenny Gamble is 76. Wrestler-actor Hulk Hogan is 66. Singer Joe Jackson is 65. Actress Viola Davis is 54. Actress Embeth Davidtz is 54. Actor Duane Martin is 54. Actress Anna Gunn is 51. Actress Ashley Jensen is 51. Actor

Nigel Harman is 46. Actor Will Friedle is 43. Actor Rob Kerkovich is 40. Actress Merritt Wever is 39. Actor Chris Hemsworth is 36. Actress Alyson Stoner is 26.

Ivanka Trump’s initiativeIvanka Trump will travel to South America in September to focus on issues that make it difficult for women in developing countries to prosper financially, including lack of access to credit and limits on employment. President Donald Trump’s daughter and

White House adviser plans to visit Paraguay and Argentina to promote the Women’s Global Development and Prosperity Initiative, a program started six months ago.

Rubin new academy head Casting director David Rubin has been elected

the new president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, the organization that bestows the Oscars. He is the first casting

director to ascend to the presidency. He succeeds cinematographer John Bailey, who has

served as the academy’s president since August 2017. Rubin has more than 100 credits, including films such as “The English Patient” and “Men in Black.”

A brief appreciation of Dwayne “The Rock” JohnsonBy Moira MacdonaldThe Seattle Times

Dwayne “The Rock” John-son returns to screens in “Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw,” an impres-sively double-ampersanded title that suggests that the “Fast & Furious” franchise is now just lying around wav-ing a hand and “presenting” things, like an imperious spokesmodel. There is, of course, nothing laid-back about the “F & F” franchise, in which people do things like steal cars from speeding trains, and which will cause you to drive home in your sad little Honda feeling very non-badass.

In honor of the return of Luke Hobbs, the impossible-to-kill character Johnson’s now played in five increas-ingly and enjoyably frenetic installments (the last one was so fast and furious it even had Helen Mirren in a cameo), here’s a quick ap-preciation of the massive wrestler-turned-actor. Johnson always plays more or less the same character – and he always saves the day.

The men Johnson plays are masters of transporta-

tion. There is nothing that a character played by Johnson can’t drive. (In 2010’s “Fast-er,” his character is appro-priately named “Driver.”) While he mostly sticks with cars in the “F & F” movies – which he drives with a cool nonchalance, like the vehicle is a mild annoyance that must be dealt with – he is also good with helicopters (“San Andreas,” “Rampage”), boats (“San Andreas”), con-struction cranes (“Sky-scraper”), taxis (“Return to Witch Mountain”), and, probably, Quidditch brooms, unicycles and space shuttles. Just wait.

Johnson’s characters have superhuman powers. To my knowledge, Johnson has never played an actual su-perhero, but he nonetheless can fly. Watch him in “Sky-scraper,” jumping from said construction crane – a mere mortal would plummet, but Johnson soars. (To be fair, he tries something similar in “The Other Guys” and things don’t work out quite so well, but that was 2010 and he wasn’t quite as big a star yet. Superpowers take time.) He is also an animal whisperer (“Rampage”), a manly time

traveler (“Jumanji: Wel-come to the Jungle”), and a person capable of redirect-ing a torpedo with one hand (“Fate of the Furious”). Somebody give this man a cape. Oh, and my editor wants me to add that he is ca-pable of doing distracting gyrations with his pectoral muscles (“Journey 2: The Mysterious Island”), as shown in a clip (titled “Pec Pop of Love!”) from the film. I ... might have watched this video.

They cannot be contained. If you are a character played by Dwayne Johnson, and you are in a hospital with your arm in a cast and you want to get back to action, you sim-ply flex your muscles and off pops the cast, just like that. (This happens in “Furious 7,” but I bet Johnson does it at parties.) If you try to im-prison him, he will throw the guards around like tennis balls (“Fate of the Furious”); if you think an earthquake of massive proportions can stop him from saving his family AND getting his ex-wife back while he’s at it (“San Andreas”), you haven’t seen enough of his movies.

They always know what to say. Let’s be honest here: Johnson is not the most nu-anced actor working today. (His range is basically a combination of Seething Wide-Eyed Glare, Serious I-Got-You Nod and Quietly Smoldering Intensity, inter-spersed with the odd roguish grin.) But this is a man who can assure a child who’s about to walk across a plank 100 stories above Hong Kong that everything will be OK (it’s in “Skyscraper”), and you believe him, abso-lutely. This is also a man who, in “Fu-

rious 7,” announces his ar-rival with “Woman, I am the cavalry.” Bow down.

In case of disaster, he’s your man. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, but when the apocalypse comes, I hope

I’m standing near The Rock. Because he will not only pre-vail against all odds (Enor-mous mutant animals! Towers aflame! Tsunami! Vin Diesel!), but he will

make you feel better while he does it. This

is Johnson’s great gift as a per-

former: he’s a charmer whose cha-risma is as big as his biceps ... and that is pretty big indeed.

(“Fate of the Furious”). Somebody give this man a cape. Oh, and my editor wants me to add that he is ca-pable of doing distracting gyrations with his pectoral muscles (“Journey 2: The Mysterious Island”), as shown in a clip (titled “Pec Pop of Love!”) from the film. I ... might have watched this

They cannot be contained. If you are a character played by Dwayne Johnson, and you are in a hospital with your arm in a cast and you want to get back to action, you sim-ply flex your muscles and off pops the cast, just like that. (This happens in “Furious 7,” but I bet Johnson does it at parties.) If you try to im-prison him, he will throw the guards around like tennis balls (“Fate of the Furious”); if you think an earthquake of massive proportions can stop him from saving his family AND getting his ex-wife back while he’s at it (“San Andreas”), you haven’t seen enough of his

(His range is basically a combination of Seething Wide-Eyed Glare, Serious I-Got-You Nod and Quietly Smoldering Intensity, inter-spersed with the odd roguish grin.) But this is a man who can assure a child who’s about to walk across a plank 100 stories above Hong Kong that everything will be OK (it’s in “Skyscraper”), and you believe him, abso-lutely. This is also a man who, in “Fu-

he’s your man. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, but when the apocalypse comes, I hope

Towers aflame! Tsunami! Vin Diesel!), but he will

make you feel better while he does it. This

is Johnson’s great gift as a per-

former: he’s a charmer whose cha-risma is as big as his biceps ... and that is pretty big indeed.

Dwayne Johnson in “Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw.” Tribune News Service

By Robert LloydLos Angeles Times

Sketch shows are the stealth bombers of televi-sion. Compared to the dra-mas and sitcoms that dominate the conversation in this Triple-Platinum Age of television, they can seem ephemeral, the well-fortified institution of “Saturday Night Live” notwithstanding – a fancy version of some-thing amateurs put on in cof-feehouses and YouTubers post with a smartphone and half an idea.

Yet this perceived lack of importance makes them an excellent vehicle for distinc-tive, even oddball points of view. Nothing on television in recent years has been more ambitious or radical than HBO’s “Random Acts of Fly-ness,” a sort of Afrocentric art-variety show by way of Jean-Luc Godard from the Brooklyn-based filmmaker Terence Nance; or Tim Heidecker and Eric Ware-heim’s Adult Swim series “Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job!” before it; or Ernie Kovacs’ surrealist blackouts way before that.

Often beginning with the question “What if?” sketch comedy is all about possibili-ty. It can be abstract, absurd, or shot through with topical urgency, expressing from se-

ries to series or sketch to sketch an individual vision or group dynamic. Freed from the demands of narrative and character development, sketch comedy tends to be more intellectual than emo-tional; perhaps it’s more ac-curate to say that even its emotions are rooted in ideas. It’s perfect for parody, satire, social commentary or exam-ining the small quirks of human nature. Sketch shows play with style; they are fast and fleet, highly maneuver-able and modular. Maintain-ing their integrity out of context, individual sketches

are easily plugged into online video platforms and social media regurgitation ma-chines. (Online humor is very much a thing of shreds and sketches.) The best have a puckish joyousness, even when the material is dark.

With all that in its favor, sketch comedy can still seem a secondary form, but its lin-eage is venerable, and the line is far from played out. Comedy Central has lately premiered “Alternatino With Arturo Castro,” which brings a Latinx sensibility to the form; two series with Af-rican American creators and

casts, HBO’s “A Black Lady Sketch Show,” and IFC’s “Sherman’s Showcase,” de-buted last week. (IFC is also home to “Baroness von Sketch Show,” a white Cana-dian lady sketch show, which returns in October.) There is a small but mighty tradition of black sketch comedy on television – “Key & Peele,” “Chapelle’s Show,” “In Liv-ing Color” and, going back, “The Flip Wilson Show” – among which these new se-ries sit well.

“Black Lady” was created by and stars Robin Thede, who was the head writer on

Larry Wilmore’s “The Night-ly Show” – Wilmore is among the famous faces, including Angela Bassett, David Alan Grier, Loretta Devine, La-verne Cox and Khandi Alex-ander, to guest on Thede’s show – and had her own cur-rent-events comedy, “The Rundown With Robin Thede,” on BET. She’s joined here, in an exceedingly nim-ble main cast, by Quinta Brunson, Gabrielle Dennis (“The Game”) and Ashley Nicole Black (“Full Frontal With Samantha Bee”). For an actor, sketch comedy is a chance to demonstrate both personality and range: an op-portunity to play many parts in a short time, where a sit-com star may spend years playing just one.

All sorts of ideas, big and little, spin about in “A Black Lady Sketch Show,” but there is a tendency for ordi-nary things to quickly be-come extraordinary.

Other sketches include “Invisible Spy,” with Black as a woman so ordinary-look-ing no one can remember her; the “Pose” parody “Basic Ball,” with “RuPaul’s Drag Race” winner Caldwell Tidicue in the Billy Porter role (“The category is: clini-cal depression ... make your way to the floor, if you can”); and “Church Open Mic,” in which a call for testimony

brings up congregants with their own agendas (stand-up comedy, market research, Instagram page promotion). All are exceptionally well re-alized – Dime Davis directs throughout – and winningly played.

When it comes to “A Black Lady Sketch Show,” certain-ly, I am not, demographically speaking, going to be able to nod at every joke and say, “That’s so true” – just as I am not the person in the comedy club to whom the line “You ladies know what I’m talking about” is addressed.

Who you are and what you know and where you’ve been of course affect how you hear a joke, and no good joke ever owes you an explanation. But I am a human being, watch-ing human beings, and I’m interested in what the ladies know, and what they’re talk-ing about. (Given how it priz-es point of view, no medium is more educational than comedy.) And while it’s true that some comedy is meant for specific eyes and ears, there is nothing particularly exclusive about “A Black Lady Sketch Show,” “Sher-man’s Showcase” or “Alter-natino.”

It would be a sad, static world, in any case, if we only listened to voices that sound-ed just like ours. That’s what Twitter is for.

In TV’s latest sketch comedies, an old form picks up new tricks

Quinta Brunson and Robin Thede in the HBO series, “A Black Lady Sketch Show.” HBO/courtesy

Casting director David Rubin has been elected Casting director David Rubin has been elected the new president of the Academy of Motion the new president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, the organization that Picture Arts and Sciences, the organization that bestows the Oscars. He is the first casting bestows the Oscars. He is the first casting

director to ascend to the presidency. He director to ascend to the presidency. He succeeds cinematographer John Bailey, who has succeeds cinematographer John Bailey, who has

served as the academy’s president since served as the academy’s president since