Chapter 18: Skipper Skete's Beef Baloney

Under interrogation by the League of Acolytes for Televisual Emcees and Raconteurs, Mitch finally comes clean about what went down on the SS Mayhem at the afterparty to end all afterparties.Endnotes:Mike Myers, Canada (Canada, Doubleday Canada, 2016) p207. Capsule Review: Barely a memoir, more a celebration of Canadianness, Myers must be among the most patriotic citizens of the largely unenthusiastic (in my experience) nation. Lots of semi-interesting trivia and observations for southern Ontario residents and enthusiasts. Relevant information about Myer’s career exposes a ridiculous amount of privilege and fortune, which is reasonably acknowledged but not examined critically. Myers easy confidence/sense of entitlement seems to have played a significant part of his overall trajectory. Slack Score: 15; Snark Score: 9.3; Overall FCA ranking: 84Richard Pryor, Pryor Convictions; and Other Life Sentences; The Official Autobiography (Los Angeles, Pantheon, 1997) p.97 Capsule Review: One of the most tragic/upsetting of all FCAs, much of the story has been told in bits and pieces either in standup sets or Jo Jo Dancer, and the written word doesn’t quite convey the conflicted nuance of Pryor’s voice. Nonetheless, a traumatic moving confessional. Interjections by Mudbone provide a welcome alterity and distancing from the heartbreak of the main narrative and a poetic flourish I didn’t expect going in** Slack Score: -15; Snark Score: 4; Overall FCA ranking: 5Tom Shales & James Andrew Miller, Live from New York: An Uncensored History of Saturday Night Live (New York, Little, Brown and Company, 2014) p16; (see original citation for Chapter 11)Dick Ebersol, From Saturday Night to Sunday Night (New York, Simon & Schuster, 2022) p.98. Capsule Review: I only read through the SNL relevant sections, so can’t comment on the whole Ebersol enchilada, but he’s not a comedian by any measure so it’s outside of the scope of this project. Writing is just so-so. He’s clearly just trying to get his side of the story out there, probably takes a bit too much credit or deflects blame when possible. Doug Hill & Jeff Weingrad, Saturday Night: A Backstage History of Saturday Night Live (San Francisco, Unread Reads, 1986) p.511 (general anecdote widely repeated) Earlier, much more compelling behind-the-scenes story of The Show’s  inception until the return of Lorne Michaels creation and first decade than the more wide-ranging oral history by Shales and Miller. Not technically an FCA, so no rankings given.