"You Gotta Get A Gimmick" -- Why is this song funny?- Page 2

[GoSmileLaughCryClap]

Posted: 11/10/08 at 9:14am

The placement of the song is important. Rose is losing Herbie, and the act is reduced to playing burlesque. their world is collapsing. Having a comic number from supporting characters as the leads are in a downward spiral serves two purposes: Comic relief when it's needed, and intensifying the tough drama that's about to follow.

[Gothampc]

Posted: 11/10/08 at 9:54am

I love Marilyn Caskey in that clip. She acts like she's drunk. I don't ever remember any of the strippers as being played bombed before. It adds a great touch.

Posted: 11/10/08 at 10:11am

I always thought it was funny thinking that these women actually believe that anyone cares what they start out wearing.

[doodlenyc]

Posted: 11/10/08 at 10:19am

"I don't ever remember any of the strippers as being played bombed before."

Julie Halston in the Bernie revival played Electra drunk....she carried a martini glass.

[Gothampc]

Posted: 11/10/08 at 10:43am

"Julie Halston in the Bernie revival played Electra drunk"

I missed that revival.

[PalJoey]

Posted: 11/10/08 at 11:12am

A Director says "Many people would smile if Arthur Laurents died before the upcoming revival of West Side Story opened on Broadway."

My god, man. You ARE despicable. I happen one of those people who has been personally hurt by the man, and even I don't wish him DEAD and the production hurt.

Really.

Next time you think you're being clever, try reading your post before pressing Send.

Updated On: 11/10/08 at 11:12 AM

[amyfairycakes]

Posted: 11/10/08 at 11:35am

This song is one of my favourites from Gypsy, but I don't really find it that funny. But, it's just not my sense of humour. The women in that clip are phenomenal though.

[givesmevoice]

Posted: 11/10/08 at 11:45am

Julie Halston in the Bernie revival played Electra drunk....she carried a martini glass.
I believe Julie Halston played Electra as being drunk and bored and totally over it. Marilyn Caskey plays her as being the victim of one too many short circuits. Same limited movement, different motivations.

[PalJoey]

Posted: 11/10/08 at 12:02pm

I love me some Julie Halston, but the way the strippers in that revival were costumed and directed was so uglified as to be misogynistic.

It's one thing to make the point that they're over-the-hill, but they're still making a living giving the men in the audience sexual fantasies.

To make them look like the 3 witches in Macbeth, the way they did in that revival, is to miss the point entirely.

[Gothampc]

Posted: 11/10/08 at 12:20pm

"Marilyn Caskey plays her as being the victim of one too many short circuits."

Oh, I see that interpretation. I was reading it as drunk, but I do see the short circuits interpretation.

[TheaterBaby]

Posted: 11/10/08 at 12:21pm

One of my favorite performances of this song was on "Hey! Mr. Producer"

It was somewhat out of context, but there's something about 3 belters out on stage in formal-wear, all of a sudden bumping a trumpet, electrifying their private parts, and stripping into a butterfly ballet that has me laughing every time.

[BNN]

Posted: 11/10/08 at 12:25pm

I just always found it hysterical that anyone, anywhere could find any of these "gimmicks" sexual or arousing in anyway.

[morosco]

Posted: 11/10/08 at 12:37pm

I just always found it hysterical that anyone, anywhere could find any of these "gimmicks" sexual or arousing in anyway.

If you guys have Comcast go to On Demand and choose The Cutting Edge. There are (or at least there used to be) bunches of old films of strippers performing way back when. They have some ridiculous gimmicks and the actual striptease that each do is tame by today's standards.

[Gothampc]

Posted: 11/10/08 at 12:42pm

I think in Gypsy's original source book, she lists some different things she used. One of the things she did was buy a huge fan to blow her clothes off.

[Mister Matt]

Posted: 11/10/08 at 1:00pm

Next time you think you're being clever, try reading your post before pressing Send.

It wouldn't make any difference. He already chose to play out this rather tired and unoriginal cliche of a message board persona. It's like a goth girl attending a Halloween party dressed as Elvira.

[PalJoey]

Posted: 11/10/08 at 1:25pm

Well, I've said some nasty things about Arthur Laurents behind his back--and once even to his face!--but I've never wished him dead.

Besides, he'll never die. Vampires live forever.

[Patash]

Posted: 11/10/08 at 5:14pm

Interesting comment way above about Tessie Tura's turn being anti-climatic compared to the others. In one community theatre production I saw, it really worked. She was really a very good ballet dancer and did the thing very gracefully on point each big bump coming out of nowhere and totally out of character for a graceful ballerina. In fact, if I'm not mistaken her costume wasn't the usual butterfly, but more like a swan from Swan Lake. It switched back and forth so dramatically that it was terribly funny and raunchy all at the same time.

I love the current Elektra -- to me it's as if she's had those lights strapped to her head for too many years and her brain is a little fried -- almost like having too many shock treatments. I LOVED her!

[VonTussleGirl]

Posted: 11/10/08 at 5:27pm

The line "bump it with a trumpet" will never not be funny. Never.

[A Director]

Posted: 11/10/08 at 6:41pm

Maria Karnilova was the first Tessie Tura. Ms. Karnilova was a member of Jerome Robbins' Ballet USA.

[Kad]

Posted: 11/10/08 at 7:18pm

This song, although amusing, really depends on performances to really sell it. It's not all that funny without being seen, or out of context.

[sabrelady]

Posted: 11/10/08 at 8:10pm

I'll probably be dissed for this but I've always kinda seen these girls as the equivilent to Shakespeare's clowns. Vulgar,rude, crude, and a bit lewd, but w a tragic undercurrent. This is the best they can do or be but they carry on. Remember too- Tessie states "you think THEY have any talent?" and they prove it! but they do have a gimmick/identification and in ShowBiz( and other Biz's) that's enough- the Razzle Dazzle effect.
Givesmevoice- I like the electro shock interpretation- i kinda thought she just was very self medicated, but the eletroshock works better ( and still has that tragic undertone!)

[jeniferrenepatricia]

Posted: 11/10/08 at 11:45pm

Ericmontreal22- I know that Christine Ebersole was in the Bette Midler "Gypsy" movie. I love most of her work and think she's fabulous, but I didn't like her interpretation in that movie....

Posted: 11/11/08 at 2:38am

Oh I was just teasing--I was pretty sure you were an Ebersole fan mostly. The tv movie is a flawed animal for sure but I am glad we have it--to have on record a fairly faithful copy of basically the original staging (and choreography) done well. That may be faint praise--I don't think any of it is really *great* but compared to the original movie, or the way many musicals have been filmed for posterity it's pretty good.

Sabrelady why would you get flamed for saying that? I think it's pretty spot on, though it could probably be argued depending on production how much you play up that tragic undertone). It's hardly meant to be one of the top end Burlesque houses...

"Maria Karnilova was the first Tessie Tura. Ms. Karnilova was a member of Jerome Robbins' Ballet USA. "

not to mention Robbins again cast her as the first Golde in Fiddler (and she had a long life of character roles)

[B3TA07]

Posted: 11/11/08 at 2:46am

Although I don't agree with A Director's statement, I do feel like many are overlooking that he never stated that he himself would smile.

[Paul W. Thompson]

Posted: 11/11/08 at 12:20pm

As previously stated, the "Jerome Robbins' Broadway" version was especially hilarious.

This number is riotously funny when it is new to you, and if you've seen it a million times you marvel at what each new set of strippers brings to it.