Ben Curtis, the "Dell Dude"

https://www.broadwayworld.com/off-broadway/article/BWW-Interview-Ben-Curtis-From-Dell-Dude-to-Connor-Stephens-20160720

That story is full, really full, of typos. Copy editor needed.

Looks like someone fixed the "Louiseville, Kentucky" goof, but left these:

Lillian Hallamn

idiot savant (applied to doltish character, Oscar Hubbard, who has nothing of the savant about him.)

It was a comedy/farce based on dinner shows with a Southerrn kitsch," (no open quote, and 2 "r"s in "Southern?" And "kitsch" as a singular noun?)

He describes it as a work a la Tennessee Williams and Sam Shepard, It's written and directed by Dewey Moss; an award winning playwright. (I love the capital "I" in the middle of the sentence, following a comma.)

Dewey has proven himself to be an incredible writer and director, His work and his heart really show in this play." (Again, no open quote - does the writer have a phobia? And that pesky capitalized pronoun after a comma...)

Curtis continues, " It's important for New Yorkers to see this play. (What's that extra space doing, hiding there after the open quote?)

Obviously the theater-going public is sharing Curtis' enthusiasm of the play because The Crusade of Connor Stephens because all three performances are sold out. (What's better than 1 "because?" TWO!)

Curtis explains that they've " created a show based on Tom Waites' album "Mule Variations"... (There's that little extra space after the open quote again - maybe it's a crutch the writer needs to get over that Open Quote Phobia mentioned above. But then, there's a problem ending the quote with an album title - you've closed the title quotes, but not the actual quote from Curtis - aaaaggghhh!! Oh, and of course, the artist's name is Tom Waits, not "Waites," But at this point we're deep in a hole.)

W you re using our story... (Hmm? What?)

It's impo8rtant... (OK, the writer has just given up and climbed into the bottle, I think.)

We just performed in the Bronx and they had a whole room of musical instruments that they no longer sued because the music program had been eliminated.and the students were completely disconnected yet thirsty to perform. (They used to sue the instruments? What did they hope to get? And look at that funny little period lurking in the middle of two words. Cute!)

There's one more goof after those - should we have a contest to see who finds it?

I know, I know, BWW isn't "journalism," it isn't even paid; but these articles do pretend to be adult writing, and I've seen better work from English 100 students.

Updated On: 7/21/16 at 08:29 AM

Just because it's so hot today, I'm in a proofreading mood again.

To someone's credit, some of the goofs were actually corrected over the weekend; however, these remain:

It was a comedy/farce based on dinner shows with a Southerrn kitsch," (no open quote, and 2 "r"s in "Southern." And "kitsch" is still not a singular noun.)

He describes it as a work a la Tennessee Williams and Sam Shepard, It's written and directed by Dewey Moss; an award winning playwright. (The capital "I" remains in the middle of the sentence, following a comma.)

Dewey has proven himself to be an incredible writer and director,His work and his heart really show in this play." (Again, no open quote - does the writer have a phobia? And that pesky capitalized pronoun after a comma...)

Curtis continues, " It's important for New Yorkers to see this play. (Still that extra space doing, hiding there after the open quote.)

W you re using our story... (Hmm? What?)

We just performed in the Bronx and they had a whole room of musical instruments that they no longer sued because the music program had been eliminated.and the students were completely disconnected yet thirsty to perform. (Still suggesting that they used to sue the instruments, I see. And that funny little period still lurks in the middle of two words.)

Here are some new goofs (they may have been there before, and missed):

"I was the main producer for a film called We Are the Hartmans in which I also played a leading role opposite the legendary Richard Chamberlain. "Everyone on the film wound up winning some sort of award for it." (Hmmmmm, I think an open or close quote from somewhere in there has run off to start their own sentence.)

I played opposite Laura Bell Bundy and was cast as an abusive, alcoholic, boyfriend. (At least one too many commas in there.)

Obviously the theater-going public is sharing Curtis' enthusiasm of the play The Crusade of Connor Stephens because all three performances are sold out. (Congratulations on removing the extra "because" that was once in there; unfortunately you accidentally appear to have italicized the one you left.)

Curtis explains that they've " created a show based on Tom Waits' album "Mule Variations" and made it their own. (Well, you fixed the spelling of Waits' name, that's a good step. But somehow the close quote got lost - or ran off with the one noted missing above. And that weird space after the open quote just won't go away, will it?)

If there are no creative outlets, things like violence start to happen, Studies have shown that... (These "Studies" must be quite important to merit a capital "S" mid-sentence.)

All of this is a far cry from the character of Steve who promoted computers on the television screens across the country, As successful as that campaign was... (That capitalized "As" is as important - or "As important" - as the "Studies" above, I suppose.)

Updated On: 7/25/16 at 02:27 PM

Just to get this straight, someone went into the article and fixed parts but left others?

Not sure what is worse - this or the original article.