I'm still a big ol' hambone and an experienced soloist in matters both musical and social so it's no sweat for me to perform a Shel Silverstein poem with lots of drama for the Reading 01 kids and make little Baileen clap.
"I like how you put emotion into it."
"Thanks, Baileen!"
(Baileen is a bit of a kindred spirit; in her white gloves and black suit with purple bowtie today she was unusually silent, but handed the curious a pencil drawing of a marionette with the caption, "Don't break character.")
I will credit one of my favorite fearless comedians for her big and loud inspiration. I'm on a Catherine O'Hara kick of late, spurred by a late arrival to the Schitt's Creek party. (Try saying it with the "c" to make the name more, er, palatable.)
I've been a fan ever since her Lola Heatherton ("I wanna BEAR YOUR CHILDREN!") days at SCTV in the eighties. Apparently not enough of a fan though, to realize that CATHERINE O'HARE VOICED SALLY IN THE NIGHTMARE BEFORE CHRISTMAS! Did you know this? How could I not know this?
Sally's song
Are you watching O'Hara's new show? She plays Moira Rose, the mother of a family of filthy rich and selfish one-percenters who fall on hard times and retrench to the small town that her husband Johnny (played by Catherine O'Hara's long-time comic partner Eugene Levy) bought for their son as a joke birthday present.
Despite the expected hijinks and fish-out-of-water tropes and delicious schadenfreude for our hapless rich family, there's a rare moment of poignancy at the end of season one when the usually self-absorbed Moira calls David "as handsome as your father on the day I married him." I'm going to claim that the raw truth of that moment shook me and sent me to check my suspicion that Eugene Levy was related to the man who plays his son. But even I can't believe that I forgot or missed the fact that Eugene and Dan Levy were father and son! So so sweet.
And the fashion! DAMN! The running joke is that the entire family is always dressed to the nines, Johnny the father in a series of immaculate open-collared suits, daughter Alexis in bo-ho Coachella gear, David the son in androgynous sweaters in black and white, the same color scheme as his chic as hell mother.
via GIPHY
Alexis's beautiful big bowed blouse
So much to love here, including the dry exchanges between David and Stevie the desk clerk (Emily Hampshire) at the seedy motel where the Roses end up. Dry as dust, dry as desert, the two nearly out-wry each other in quiet, loaded delivery. Stevie wins every time.
It's heaven, though, to watch O'Hara as Moira. Comic genius.
Moira's bravura commercial for Fruit Wine
Watch Moira's reaction to her husband's suggestion to plant flowers.
