Alec Baldwin: is he right for a talk show?

Alec Baldwin is in discussions with ABC about developing a talk show for the network. Whether Baldwin gets a daytime show or nighttime show has yet to be determined. Alec Baldwin may not be the right personality type to host a talk show.

Baldwin has a personal history fraught with beefs. The list of Baldwin adversaries includes quite a spectrum; from PETA-style confrontations with Central Park horse-drawn carriage drivers to a very nasty marital breakup with Kim Basinger.

In the space of just the last few months we have 3 Alec Baldwin incidents to report:

1)  Alec called a guy in a black SUV a “meatball” and for apparently driving his car down a New York City street in a manner Alec found displeasing.

2)  Alec got arrested for riding his bike the wrong way on Fifth Avenue. He got angry with the arresting officer. An Irish-American like Baldwin should know better than to denigrate New York City cops.

3)  Alec took on the #MeToo movement and got in an inflammatory email exchange with Asia Argento, Rose McGowan, and Anthony Bourdain. Any male taking on the Me Too movement in a less than supportive way reveals his masochistic tendencies. Or maybe, Alec is just argumentative….?

The “hot” side of Alec Baldwin may not work for the role of talk show host. By “hot” I don’t mean good-looking. Baldwin looks great on TV. The “hot-headed side of Baldwin hints he is not a good fit for the interviewer’s spot in the world of TV talk. The hot attributes I see in Alec Baldwin mean that his presentation style may be too intense for the talk show format.

Here is what Marshall McLuhan said on the topic of the talk:

·      The talk show host offers a “low-pressure style of presentation.”

(Understanding Media 310)

·      The talk show welcomes the viewer through the use of “spontaneous casualness.” The viewer, deeply involved in a cool medium, closes the TV image.

(Understanding Media 317)

Think about the Late Night talk show hosts through history and you get a list of low pressure presenters:

Steve Allen

Johnny Carson

Merv Griffin

David Letterman

Jay Leno

Jimmy Kimmel

Jimmy Fallon

Seth Meyers

Stephen Colbert is not a classic low-key presenter. On The Daily Show, Colbert developed a high-intensity persona, a faux right wing, Bill O’Reilly knock-off. Colbert got his own show. The show moved at a NASCAR pace. Doing his rapid fire interviews on the Colbert Report Colbert steam rolled guests, always going for the comedy jugular.

Alec Baldwin’s suitability as a talk show host remains to be seen. He has moved into the spotlight. Doing Donald Trump on SNL Baldwin has achieved cult status across America. Alec’s confidence is flying high, but he must come down to earth to become a skilled talk show host.

Baldwin’s personality traits will determine the outcome. Success does not hinge solely on good looks; nor  even on intelligence and a great sense of humor. Baldwin is strong in all these regards.

More important than comic brilliance, is the tone of the show emanating from the host. Baldwin goes awry if gets too opinionated and self-centered. A self-centered, grandiose host does not win the love of the audience.

The overly opinionated host brands himself as just too hot for the medium. The Rush Limbaughs of the world do not work on TV. David Letterman mastered the art of interviewing guests without pre-judging. Dave’s opinions came across subtly, especially as he matured as a performer. 

Alec Baldwin, must come across as a low key presenter. The nurturant male host supports and listens to his guests. There must be genuine interest in the other person.

Baldwin’s approach to his guests will determine his show’s ratings and success. He cannot be that guy that argues with guys in the street and gets in disputes with cops.

Time will tell. Stay tuned…

Donald Trump vs the Comedians

Donald Trump's most powerful adversaries, the comedians,  come from the same place where Mr. Trump engineered his presidential victory-- the world of television. Trump established a TV foothold with his reality shows. Then he mastered the TV medium during the Republican primaries.

Trump triumphed with his Low energy Jeb Bush comment. Jeb came down like a house of cards. Many followed-- including Little Marco, Lyin' Ted Cruz and eventually Crooked Hillary. Trump's street fighter talent for seeing weakness in a foe made for fun television viewing.

Trump took over the game at this point. It kept happening on TV. Trump went back for every interview. He even survived his own skeletons-- like walking in on Miss Universe dressing rooms to groping women and bragging about  it. But not a single candidates matched Trump, mano-a-mano, insult for insult.

Trump spoke in rhythmims that sounded more like a stand-up comedian than a politician. Comedians say the truth-- always. We laugh when we hear it-- because it is the truth told creatively. His followers loved his lack of political correctness. That's the same reason we love comedians. They spout and shout what we cannot say.

Trump's biggest adversaries are now the comedians: SNL's Alec Baldwin, Kate McKinnon, and Mary McCarthy, the late night talk show hosts: including Stephen Colbert, Jimmy Kimmel, Seth Myers, Jimmy Fallon and others, cable stars, Bill Maher, Samantha Bee and John Oliver. They challenge Trump their comedy assaults. They have no concern for political correctness either.

Trump probably hates the comics and late night talk show hosts. We always hate the things that resemble us most. Trump claims to hate the media, but media is his oxygen.

If Trump's adversaries, TV comedians and journalists, need him for their success he many not have any serious rivals. He recently added Rocket Man to his list of enemies.

Kim Jong Un from the mysterious land of North Korea answered by calling Trump a dotard. Dotard, a strangely effective insult, almost gets lost in translation. Dotard does have a ring to it!

Stephen Colbert: healing a pained nation

The talk show host serves the role of an electronic shaman, a healer of society’s wounds, using a gentle nature and the toolkit of comedy, full of pun, metaphor and sleight-of-hand wordplay. He (almost always a male) brings up the painful issues while adding salve to these raw areas. He makes sense of sensitive subjects not yet suitable for polite discussion and not fully understood or absorbed.

The starting point for my understanding of the talk show host came from a single source: 

1) a single passage by Camille Paglia in Sexual Personae

Camille Paglia speaks of “a category of androgyne, the nurturant male or male mother. He can be found in sculptures of the river gods, in Romantic poetry ((Wordsworth and Keats) and in modern popular culture (television talk show hosts).”

Paglia’s discussion moves to the transsexual qualities of the Delphic oracle and the mixture of male and female voices in the prophesying of the Oracle of Delphi. The medium assumes multiple personalities much like the “ventriloquism Frazer ascribes to entranced shamans.” (Sexual Personae, p. 46) 

The phrase “nurturant male” offers a dazzling insight into the funny men in control of the late night airwaves. The late night host is a different kind of comic, more gentle in spirit and supportive by nature than the aggressive standup with the take-no-prisoners mentality. 

In recent months Stephen Colbert has played the role of healer in the era of Trump. Donald Trump does not have a serious political rival from the Democratic party. Bernie Sanders plays a leadership role from the left, but Trump's true adversaries are the comedians. Alec Baldwin, playing Trump on SNL, played a significant role in the political dialogue with his brilliant mockery of Trump's hair, mannerisms, speech, narcissistic demeanor, and all-around bluster. Baldwin could not don (pun) the Don Trump wig forever. The job fell to Stephen Colbert to take the Trump bull by the horns. Colbert would wrestle the bull downward using the comedian's toolkit.

Colbert earned his stripes with Jon Stewart Daily Show and on the Colbert Report playing his Bill O'Reilly sendup, a faux conservative done totally tongue-in-cheek. As Tonight Show host, Colbert could emerge as the real Colbert, closer to his personal beliefs and a more nurturant male. He has used the opening monologues and his comedic talents to calm some of the nation's angst. Colbert, as late night shaman, offers a enlightened man's sensibilities as a contrast to harsh worldview of Donald Trump. Colbert's rise in the rankings proves the talk show host remains relevant, perhaps now more than ever-- in our totally electrified universe. Trump tweets all day and Colbert answers at night.

SNL spoofs Trump/ Holt interview-- Struggling to Keep Up

Watched Saturday Night Live (SNL) last night. Melissa McCarthy was guest host and her opening theme was Mothers Day and she even brought a middle-aged Mom out of the audience, probably planted there, as part of her opening routine. She provided a backstage tour for the Mom and offered a glimpse of the inner workings SNL, Lorne Michael's amazingly durable comedy show. That was fun, and reminded the viewers that the show really is theater, somewhat reminiscent of any other kind of live theater but with the addition of TV cameras and a national audience.

Alec Baldwin as Donald Trump has become a regular feature of the opening minutes of the show and last night was no exception. Trump's interview with Lester Holt about the firing of James Comey was recreated-- an event that happened only a day or two earlier. Things move faster. The real Donald Trump felt the need to get quickly to the airwaves when he saw the country meltdown in reaction to the Comey decision. The Trump/Holt interview went out to the entire country, maybe the world, and was rapidly absorbed into the nation's collective conscious. The news volley, much like a tennis match, flies quickly and comedy must follow suit. Anything too old in the 24/7 news cycle would not work well for the SNL parody.

Michael Che playing Lester Holt did an awesome job capturing the even-keeled television newsman. The comic summoned up Holt  so accurately-- big forehead, cool, friendly, but always professional, the expressionless expression, had a certain hysterical quality. The real Lester Holt must be about as far as you can get from a SNL skit. And Michael Che actually does the "Weekend Update" segment for SNL so has some of the news anchor instincts already built in.

Baldwin was good as always and made the point that Trump is kind of a mini-Nixon, not exactly my position on the issue. But having Speaker Paul Ryan show up as an overly solicitous, ass-kissing soda fountain jerk with two scoops of ice-cream for Donald Trump was ingenious. Donald insists on two scoops of ice-cream because Richard Nixon only got one scoop of ice-cream. Baldwin and the writers had captured the Donald Trump narcissism and the Republicans fear of offending Trump with great comic efficiency.

So this skit earned an A grade-- but made me wonder about the hurry up nature of our existence-- even comedy must reflect events from only a day or two ago... or it becomes old news.

Commander Chaos: Trump moves faster

Marshall McLuhan, the great Canadian media guru, explains that a faster system destroys a slower system. The faster medium circles around the slower medium, surrounds it, consumes it and destroys it. Television moves faster than film. The Internet surrounded newspapers and destroyed them. The Internet destroyed bookstores; digital music did away with record stores; bookstores, likewise, fell out of sight. The cellphone moves around the desktop computer and personal computers decrease in number.

Donald Trump learned the television world as an insider with his own show. Cable TV moves faster than the networks. Twitter moves faster than cable TV and Trump keeps several steps ahead of the "mainstream media" through his Twitter account.

I laugh to hear people, including cables news media pundits, exclaim "can't somebody take that cellphone out of Trump's hand." That's like saying Robin Hood should put down his bow and arrow. What-- and pick up a spear and shield. Robin moved lightly and stayed ahead of the king's men.

Trump has a tool, his Twitter account, for getting to people faster than any of the cable outlets allows. He has a knack for moving quickly. He tries a strategy. If it fails, he never admits failure, just steps to the side, tweaks it, spins the story long enough for the story to get muddled and moves to the next thing. The man is a master of movement. His campaign struggled. He changed campaign managers. The next crew, including Steve Bannon and Kellyanne Conway did better and stayed. He found his audience, responded to the narrative they liked and moved ahead like a bull in a china shop.

Trump runs roughshod. His casino business didn't work. He went bankrupt and kept moving. We all wonder if this modus operandi works for running the free world. The story goes that his White House staff is in a state of constant turmoil. To quote a book of a few years back, he doesn't sweat the small stuff.

Presidents usually reassure us. President Franklin Roosevelt had his fireside chats and reassured the nation across the radio waves. That soothed anxieties through a Depression and a World War. How does the Trump method of stirring the hornet's nest compare to the peacefulness of a Barack Obama? A chorus of angry people, from the Tea Party rabble rousers to the Republican congressmen, hurled a constant chant of invectives at Obama. The right wing radio crowd led by Rush Limbaugh gnawed on Obama like he was a kind of satanic, malevolent force and never relented. Steve Bannon falls into that category. Be careful what you wish for--

Now Commander Chaos is in power. Trump sleeps 4 hours a night and wakes each morning stirring for a fight. Remember "speak softly and carry a big stick" came from Teddy Roosevelt, another master of imagery.

Trump insulted a Judge who rejected his Muslim ban. He called the man a "so-called judge." That move upset me. He spit in the face of the American system, the balance of powers between the executive, legislative and judicial branches. Trump knows no boundaries-- hence the Commander Chaos moniker.

He continues to move at warp speed and exhausts everybody, even in the media hounds who thrive on the campaign trail. They love the jab and parry of electoral politics. That election season, the horse race of politics, was supposed to slow down with the election of a new president. Not for Trump, he enjoys King Lear's blasted heath. He refuses to slow down. We all suck wind to keep up and long for quieter days.

Melissa McCarthy's parody of Sean Spicer, White House press secretary, on Saturday Night Live, captured the insane, fever pitch of the present situation better than just about any rational analysis presented these last few weeks. She captured the Alice in Wonderland aspect of Mr. Trump's White House with brilliance and Trump-like intensity. Alec Baldwin has done a great job as Trump. SNL 
seems like a voice of sanity in this whirlwind. Is this the new normal? That's the question we all must ask ourselves. Just look at that cellphone in your hand.

Top 5 Donald Trump stand-ins (for Debate Practice)

Hillary Clinton searches for a good Donald Trump stand-in as she prepares for the debate.  Some top candidates could be...

1) Zach Galifianakis-- a true surrealist, with an unbridled id, like Trump. Hillary appeared on his cable show "Between Two Ferns" and appeared pretty flummoxed by Zach's line of questioning. Maybe they should work together some more.

2) Alec Baldwin-- narcissistic like Trump and self-important. Baldwin, from Long Island, understands the New York attitude.

3) Mark Cuban-- Alec Baldwin with more money. Trump is sensitive to Cuban's accusations that the Trump is not a real billionaire.

4) Stephen Colbert-- Colbert has the right-wing persona down pat. He stared down Bill O'Reilly and never flinched. Apparently, Stephen Colbert unearthed the actually role-player, a Hillary aide named Philippe Reines, (see below)

5) Chris Rock-- not sure why, but Rock might get Hillary to smile and she needs to do that.  He could prod Hillary on the subject of racism and Hillary could use that same technique on the Donald.

Ah, what the hell-- let's take a reach and add #6.

6) Nancy Grace (in drag)-- Nancy is no-holds barred, no slave to objectivity. She could just move her healthy head of hair around to capture the Trump orange-hued chignon.

"Philippe Reines, a longtime aide to Hillary Clinton and one of the most astute observers of her personal and political vulnerabilities, is playing Donald J. Trump in her mock debate sessions, according to people familiar with Mr. Reines’s involvement." (New York Times, Sept. 23)

Reines may be an expert on Hillary's vulnerabilities but already he sounds way too smart and bookish. He's been on Hillary's payroll. Employees defer to their bosses, understandably, and hopefully this does not inhibit Reines during their mock debates. 

Trump claims not to be preparing-- but who would he pick as a stand-in for Hillary Clinton? She's a bit schoolmarmish, maybe more like the school principal. He could look to Melissa McCarthy, actually she's got the id for a Trump stand-in. Elizabeth Warren has potential but wouldn't take the job. Rosie O'Donnell? Fuhgedaboutit...