After work, I hit up Limewire and downloaded the first Caliendo bit I could find, a half hour riot from the O&A show in 2001. I made all my friends listen, told everyone I knew about him, and for the next year or so we laughed over a virtually unlimited supply of Brett Favre jokes.
Fast-forward 4-1/2 years, and Caliendo is nothing more than a one-hit wonder, someone who cashed in on his rising celebrity and now has his own show, 'FrankTV', on TBS. You can hardly fault the guy for trying. Many times, 'making it' as a comedian comes when a network calls upon you to deliver your very own show, ie Seinfeld or Newhart. Some shine, some crap the bed, it just depends.
As it turns out, Caliendo can't act or write a funny sketch ... all he can do are voices. Shouldn't we have seen this coming? The biggest abomination is when he tries to dress up like his characters. A short, fat guy w/ a round face hardly makes Pacino, DeNiro or Michael Richards the least bit funny. Voice is Caliendo's money maker, not his butterball appearance.
His cause was not helped by the seemingly endless parade (or charade) of ads we saw during the baseball playoffs. As we know, overexposure kills. Go on the DVE Morning Show, hit up Bob and Tom, but please, get off my TV.
3 comments:
You know what is getting really old, the "...For Dummies" series of how-to books.
Boyd, I finally signed on here and I'm getting caught up on some of the reading. Frank Caliendo is a classic example of someone beating a dead horse. You can only listen to his impressions for so long. He had his time in the sun, he should be happy with that and move the fuck on.
You know it occured to me that I really misused the phrase 'beating a dead horse'. I guess I'm not really good with idioms. That's what that fancy education at BC3 will get ya. The point I was trying to make is, I've laughed more at funerals than at 'Frank TV'.
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