Emmy-Winner Hugh Fink on The Zigory Show

In another Zigory Show about the art and business of entertainment, I recently interviewed Hugh Fink, a stand-up comedian, television writer and producer who has won an Emmy for NBC’s Saturday Night Live. He has also taught comedy at UCLA. This new episode of The Zigory Show will soon be available for listening and downloading on www.zigory.solidvox.com.

He was the subject of an article in the New York Times on October 17, 2006 about his plan to perform at his alma mater that went awry due to an attempt by authorities to alter his routine. We discuss this incident in the Zigory Show interview.

An article about David Spade’s Showbiz Show, with quotes from Hugh, its creator and producer, appeared in the New York Times on September 15, 2005 (reprinted in its entirety elsewhere on September 28, 2005) and Hugh is also quoted in a Times article about Saturday Night Live on January 2, 2005.

I have known Hugh since our college years at New York University. It was great fun catching up with him and fascinating to hear his views on what makes something funny, what is the most important element in writing good comedy, the different types of humor, what one motivation he believes all comedians have in common, and the steps of his career so far from class clown to stand-up comic to writer-producer. We discuss today’s edgy humor and what value it can have, what are its disvalues when mishandled, and compare it to softer, lighter comedy such as The Mary Tyler Moore Show.

Whether you agree with his opinions or not, he is a knowledgeable, experienced professional in comedy whose comments are of interest to anyone with a curiosity about entertainment and humor.

(To contact Zigory please email me at zigory@comcast.net.)

Kingdom of New York City

King Bloomberg and his Merry Board of Health Fascists now dictate restaurant recipes in all of New York City’s 24,000 food establishments.

What’s next, a gendarme in every home’s kitchen making sure at the point of a gun that you don’t cook with trans fats?

See http://www.nysun.com/article/44691 . Also see excellent comment by Dr. Mark A. Hurt at http://www.nysun.com/comments/3902 .

George Reisman wrote a good blog post on the topic of food-choice freedom at http://georgereisman.com/blog/2006/12/you-cant-have-trans-fats-because.html#links (although his request that libertarians become more like Objectivists is at best futile). He paints a vivid and believable picture of where this trend toward violating freedom of choice is headed — a snapshot of what life may be like one day soon — and what principles must be upheld as inviolable, in order to prevent it.

On my previous blog post topic, did you know that Rudy Giuliani had stepped down from the Baker-Hamilton commission (Iraq Study Group) early on? Here’s a good editorial about Baker vs. Giuliani: http://www.nysun.com/article/44790 . I continue to support Giuliani for President in 2008 unless an even stronger candidate comes along.

Iraq Study Group's Terrible Idea

Today’s bipartisan report by The Iraq Study Group regarding the Iraq War makes the exactly wrong recommendation: Talk to and negotiate with Iran and Syria. In other words, give them credibility.

See http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16068589/ .

Iran and Syria’s actions have been purely evil, consistently. Why pretend they will change now? Just “hope” they suddenly turn sane after being psychopaths? They are not simply psychopaths, but psychopaths on principle due to their beliefs! This hoping and wishing for the best is not a good plan if you want to live — or live free.

What could account for such illogical wrong-headedness on the part of supposedly intelligent, wise, accomplished men? It is the influence of their own religious beliefs, specifically its focus on altruism and forgiveness. It is also a long trend of intellectuals teaching moral relativism or equivalence, or the doctrine of diversity, which denies one’s right to make distinctions between cultures, including distinctions between good and evil! We are taught to put blinders on rather than see the full picture with utter clarity.