Jokes

by Robin Goldsworthy Practical jokes were abundant this past Tuesday. I don’t know if you had the chance to check out the banner on the construction site for the La Cañada Town Center at Angeles Crest Highway and Foothill Boulevard. The proclamation that a Hooters was coming to the area caused residents to burn the phone wires as they called city councilmembers to voice their concern. Turned out that the whole thing was the mother of all practical jokes, giving us with an overworked funny bone yet another reason to laugh.

Editor's note: Doug English, who graduated from Crescenta Valley High in 1999, began trying out for the U.S. World University Games team in Colorado Springs, Colo., on June 27. Well, I had a meeting with the coaches on Saturday, and they were supposed to tell us where we stood as far as making the team. But I still have no idea what is going on. I could be back as early as next Saturday, or in late August. I, as well as some other guys who are on the bubble, were disappointed in the meetings.

The bumbling cops from Reno, Nevada's Sheriff Department in Comedy Central's hit show "Reno 911" have now been unleashed on the big screen. When all the cops at an American Police Officer's Convention are quarantined, the only law enforcement officials not locked down are sent into action- Reno's Sheriff Department! The eight officers hit Miami with new cars, new locations, and new shorts. And Miami hits back. Resembling the "COPS" parody TV show that has been ongoing for four years, scenes are broken into individual disturbance calls with cameras following the officers into action.

  "Curious George" the movie based on beloved children books written by Margaret Rey, was quite a surprise. Many people might think this movie to be as childish and simple as the books were. But this film is great. The Man in the Yellow Hat (voiced by Will Ferrell), now named Ted, works at a museum that is going bankrupt. He has an idea to go to Africa and find a lost idol in the form of a 40 foot ruby monkey. When Ted gets to the spot where the idol is said to be hidden he finds a three inch tall ruby monkey.

Marla Martin Want something fun to do on a Monday or Tuesday evening? Something inexpensive, casual, local, with great parking, nice food and nonalcoholic coffee drinks? How about something you could even do with your (older) teen? Try the Laffter Effects comedy show at Higley's Coffee House in La Canada Flintridge. It's very entertaining, and you'll probably even leave laughing! On the evening I attended, there were four excellent comedians, one of whom acted as the master of ceremonies and did smaller sets in between the other performer's, then introduced them.

Clowns on bikes, corny jokes and Monty Python references ? what else could this be but teacher Lynn McGinnis's summer school class at Rosemont Middle School? McGinnis took a break from his normal teaching of eighth-grade history to have some fun in the field of drama. The class "...And The Oscar Goes To..." was part of the Glendale Community College Summer Enrichment program, fee-based courses at Rosemont Middle School. "The kids designed and built the sets. They wrote some of the skits.

If you're in the mood for laughs and have cash to blow, round up some friends and see "Scary Movie 4." Parents and grandparents can skip this flick. They won't be amused. "Scary Movie 4" is a comedy-spoof mix of horror movies and pop culture. If you've seen the previous three films, you know what I'm talking about. As expected, there isn't much of a plot, just a bunch of jokes thrown together making fun of films ranging from "The Village" to "War of the Worlds." Even though the film has "Scary Movie," in the title, the only scary things are the bad jokes and the dull humor.

Gary Moskowitz The Rev. James Whitcomb Brougher Jr., a longtime pastor at the First Baptist Church of Glendale, died Sunday in his sleep. Brougher, who had been receiving 24-hour home care for nearly two years, was 101. Family and friends this week remembered Brougher as a devoted, hard-working man who loved to tell jokes. "Dad had a phenomenal life," said Brougher's son, Frank. "He loved to tell stories and jokes with a lot of humor, and loved to throw in truths and lessons for life.

Marlene Hitt At a program given by speaker Willis Osborne, it came to the attention of the Little Landers Historical Society that on the old Ridge Route cars used to have to back up hills. And why would that be? About the Ridge Road: "This 20-foot ribbon of concrete wound over ridges and through canyons so steep that cars and trucks with no fuel pumps often had to back up the hills." So that's why gran-daddy backed up hills. It wasn't an eccentric habit!

The revival of “Fellowship!” at the Falcon Theatre touches down this week amid extremely friendly surroundings. The Burbank venue has recently become a showcase almost exclusively for musical parodies of pop culture benchmarks. After a show about “Happy Days” and lampoons of Shakespeare and other classic stories set to Billboard hits, J.R.R. Tolkien’s endless saga about a magical ring is the latest to get the royal mistreatment. Maybe I’ve been overly spoiled by the scorched-earth anything-goes mash-ups from Matt Walker’s Troubadour Theater Company, but the featherweight and obvious satire of “Fellowship!

Road pictures come, off the shelf, with an automatic story arc: the characters must get from point A to point B, not just geographically but thematically. More often than not, they end up at a different point B than they had intended or hoped for. The genre is available in three major flavors: person or persons on the run from pursuers (cops, gangsters, or both); unlikely heroes desperately trying to deliver something (like the rare vaccine for a pandemic); romantic comedy odd couple thrown together by chance, then learning how to get along.

Requests from two developers to include public space in their downtown projects in exchange for taller buildings opened a can of worms at City Hall on Tuesday, with several City Council members calling for a complete review of the incentive. The planned public spaces - relatively small areas featuring seating, water fountains and plants - were billed as respites for pedestrians, but some council members on Tuesday said they were concerned passersby wouldn't realize the areas were open to the public, and not just building tenants.

Moments before two Love Ride participants were killed Sunday in a freeway traffic collision, the event's grand marshal, “The Tonight Show” host Jay Leno, told a crowd of bikers that he wanted to see “somebody go down.” “Every year, [the organizer] says 'Drive safe,'” Leno told the crowd in kicking off the 28th annual Love Ride in Glendale. “I'm gonna say, 'Don't drive safe.' I wanna see somebody go down. So it'll be fun. I want it to be in front or behind me and see a whole row of bikes go down.

On any weekday morning, you’ll find Wanda Bergstrom at Montrose’s City Hall Coffee Shop, where she’s waited on customers for 41 years. It’s 5:30 a.m., and her regulars won’t arrive for another 15 minutes, so she has time to dish a few stories. She starts the three pots of coffee she keeps flowing at all times and brings up the mugs that customers keep on the wall. “I had this big huge guy that would come in every morning and gripe to me that these mugs were too small for his big hand,” she says of the shop’s white mugs.

Matt Walker’s Troubies have been mashing up pop culture with the back catalogs of music icons since 1995. The well is running dry on worthy source material, but “Frosty the Snow Manilow” at the Falcon Theatre in Burbank proves that barely matters anymore. Walker and his impressive company take their game up a notch and reach a state of grace forever balanced between reverence and rudeness. His players take no prisoners in their pursuit of laughter, even if it’s at the expense of audience members or fellow cast-mates.

Devoted followers of Mike Myers will gain some inspirational comedy and romantic guidance by making an appointment to see ?The Love Guru.? It?s a polarizing and harmless little film that some will love and others will loathe. Guru Pitka (Myers) is the second most popular guru in the world and he has lived his entire life in the shadow of his nemesis, Deepak Chopra. Pitka thinks he can dethrone Deepak by appearing on ?The Oprah Winfrey Show,? but he needs a hook to get booked. In order to score some positive press, Pitka goes to work for the Toronto Maple Leafs to help reconcile the marriage of their star hockey player, Darren Roanoke.

by Robin Goldsworthy Practical jokes were abundant this past Tuesday. I don’t know if you had the chance to check out the banner on the construction site for the La Cañada Town Center at Angeles Crest Highway and Foothill Boulevard. The proclamation that a Hooters was coming to the area caused residents to burn the phone wires as they called city councilmembers to voice their concern. Turned out that the whole thing was the mother of all practical jokes, giving us with an overworked funny bone yet another reason to laugh.

The Falcon Theatre’s weekend children’s show, “The Enchanted Nightingale,” was originally one of Hans Christian Andersen’s fairy tales. Unfortunately, when it comes to the moral of this tale, the Falcon’s version has strayed a little too far from the original. But while leading you down its alternate path, the Falcon’s “Enchanted Nightingale” offers a few other riches along the way. The greatest share of the praise belongs to set designer Sherry Santillano and composer Rachael Lawrence.

MONTROSE -- StarPoint Properties, LLC, a property owner under investigation by the Glendale City Attorney's Office for retaliatory evictions of tenants at its Montrose apartment building, decided on Wednesday to give all current tenants a $200 rent rebate — a gesture some tenants likened to a "cruel joke." The letter, sent to tenants on Wednesday, referred to the $200 as a "token of [StarPoint's] appreciation" for tenants' cooperation during ongoing construction work at the 2121 Valderas Drive site.