Brian McConnachie: Materials for Further Study (part one)
If, perchance, you enjoyed the new episode of LAUGHING AT OTHERS and want to delve further into the world (this one? Maybe not) of Brian McConnachie, I just might be able to help you on that score...
(Pictured above, L to R: Brian McConnachie, Kip [sometimes Buffy] Wilson, and Martin “Meathead” diBergi. Apparently a still from a drama about insomnia in the Pacific Northwest.)
A sure-to-be-overly-generous selection of items by/with/about Mr. McC follows:
SOME McCONNACHIE TALKING: INTERVIEWS AND SUCH
Brian appeared on Late Night with David Letterman on April 21, 1983, mostly to drum up interest in a new humor magazine he was hoping to start called The American Bystander. Dave, to his eternal credit, seemed to enjoy having some of the less-caustic writers from the salad days of the Lampoon on his show - the great Emily Prager appeared four times in less than a year, three of which were to promote the same book; the equally-great Bruce McCall turned up on both the NBC and CBS versions of the show and later collaborated with Dave on a book of their own; and the also-equivalent-in-terms-of-greatness Ed Subitzky originated a simple but effective recurring character on Letterman’s short-lived morning show funny enough to continue into the first season or two of Late Night (and, hey now, he’s got a book out too). Brian, conversely, only appeared this once1, and I guess it’s pretty easy to see why, as he seems a little uncomfortable in the hot seat (and Dave is nowhere near as adept an interviewer as he’d come to be). Too bad - he had the amiability and the wit to be a fine guest. Send him off to talk-show boot camp for six weeks or so2 and he’d have been a swell semi-regular. Easier to deal with than Brother Theodore or Harvey Pekar, that’d be for sure.
The only extended, comprehensive interview with Brian not swallowed whole by technical mishaps/general incompetence (ahem) occurred, appropriately, on Ian Fermaglich’s Ian Talks Comedy podcast, which I’d call essential listening for true humor fanatics even if I didn’t bear the distinction of being the least-accomplished interviewee in the history of his show. Seriously, Ian manages to snag a truly impressive roster of guests, about whom he knows his stuff and then some, resulting in some wonderfully exhaustive chats. As deep a dive as you could hope; bring your scuba gear.
And, because that damnable rule of three seems to apply to newsletters about comedy as well as comedy itself, some ragged but valuable footage of Brian in the wild, or at least the Creative Communications Club of Providence, which may have been as wild as it got for Mr. McC in his latter days. Video courtesy Rhode Island alt-bi-weekly Motif magazine.
“McCONNACHIE” AND “MARCONI” SOUND ALIKE IF YOU’RE A BIT OF A MUMBLER: RADIO
In late 1973, Michael O’Donoghue conceived the National Lampoon Radio Hour, an attempt to consolidate the magazine’s nascent success in other media (and also to show up a certain colleague/ex-friend who had overseen the Lampoon’s first, wildly successful stage show, but never mind that). In order to transfer the sensibility of the publication to this new venue (and to fill an hour’s airtime a week), O’D encouraged (almost) all of his fellow editors to contribute material and even get behind the mic if so inclined. Brian was one of the so-inclined, and both his words and his voice were heavily featured from the first episode through to the end of the Radio Hour’s run in December 1974. He even briefly assumed the mantle of Creative Director after O’D took a rancorous powder from all things Lampoon five months into its run. In tribute, I have put together a sort of all-Brian edition of the NLRH, comprised entirely of bits he either wrote, performed in, or both3. (Excuse the variable sound quality - working from source copies of wildly disparate fidelity.) Enjoy.4
Given Brian’s rather genteel manner and overall affect, it’s not terribly surprising that he would be tapped to provide periodic commentary for NPR’s All Things Considered, which he did from 2002 through 2015. Also unsurprising is how well his wry absurdism and unique turns of phrase play in far less hostile environs than the Lampoon’s. Again, I cobbled together a sampler of his pieces, in chronological order of broadcast5. A cursory web search will turn up several more, if you like what you hear here.
Perhaps emboldened by the above, Brian tried his hand at a potential weekly series for public radio in 2007. Big Ship Radio, the resulting pilot of which is herein presented, enlisted several former Lampooners and an SNLer or two to serve as the crew of a former warship turned luxury liner, to be augmented with a variety of other features that, if it had gone to series, would have likely played as a sort of American Bystander of the air. Unfortunately, it went the way of the ‘83 incarnation of the mag; I suppose there’s nothing preventing some inspired entrepreneur to similarly revive the concept in a decade or two, but without our hero at the helm, ‘twould hardly be the same.
And speaking of one-off seafaring adventures on the airwaves, we complete today’s journey with a return to the National Lampoon Radio Hour and McConnachie’s magnum opus for the program, Moby! The Musical, which, as you might surmise, is a musical adaptation of a certain Herman Melville novel of some note.6 McConnachie wrote the book, Louise Gikow the words and music (with a possible uncredited assist by Sean Kelly), and the cast - well, it’s ridiculous how much talent was gathered in the Lampoon’s radio studios to carry out this sustained blast of sublime silliness, so marvelous an example of the literate idiocy of the best seventies comedy that it gets me right in the nub spurlies.
And that seems like a good place to stop for the time being. There’s still Brian’s work in the print and video arenas to be assessed, but I think I might opine on other subjects in my next few entries, lest this become merely the Brian McConnachie Memorial Newsletter. Though there are worse things for this to be. Which I fully intend to prove with my next few entries. Until then, thanks for reading/listening/looking/just being you. Love on you all, y’all.
Well, okay, technically not just once - watch the last few minutes of the Subitzky video and you might be able to pick him out for a fun rainy-day activity.
I’m told the one at Camp Jejune did excellent work.
If not for the writer’s credits on Gold Turkey, the “Radio Hour Greatest Hits” collection compiled by McConnachie in 1975, I’d never have guessed that “My Husband” was a Brian piece - it’s undeniably funny, but more than a little cruel once you realize who it’s about. I’ll say no more, save to note that Chevy Chase’s Roald Dahl impersonation is almost as accurate as his Gerald Ford.
Track listing:
Show Intro (ep. #56)
Public Disservice Message: Salvation Army (ep. #48)
Classics of the Contemporary Drama: “Waiting for Godot” (ep. #1)
Quick Canada Quiz #1/2 (ep. #26)
Channel Surfing (excerpt #1) (ep. #53)
Lip Reading Expert (ep. #5)
Public Disservice Message: Hiring Veterans (ep. #20)
Nixon Recording Session (ep. #1)
Sponsor at the Door (ep. #45)
My Husband (ep. #5)
Sunnyvale Children’s Shelter: the National Lampoontones (ep. #6)
Public Disservice Message: Forest Fires (ep. #14)
Quick Canada Quiz #3 (ep. #26)
This Side of Parodies ad (ep. #18)
Quick Canada Quiz #4 (ep. #26)
Brian and Flash Bazbo Go to Lunch (ep. #45)
Channel Surfing (excerpt #2) (ep. #53)
Letters to the Lampoon (ep. #16)
Public Disservice Message: Mental Hospitals (ep. #24)
Brian Imitates Elizabeth Taylor (ep. #23)
We’ll Be Back (ep. #?)
Prison Farm (Gold Turkey edit; original from ep. #49)
Crossword Puzzle (ep. #1)
Public Disservice Message: Zip Codes (ep. #13)
Which of the Ten Commandments Am I Breaking? (ep. #2)
Brian Calls the Carpenter Dwarfs to Fix the Studio (ep. #45)
Brian and John Belushi Read the Closing Credits (ep. #47)
Track listing:
Our Town (3/29/02)
Who Am I (4/10/02)
Reduplicatives (5/12/05)
An Argument for Dumb Design (11/28/05)
This He Believes (4/6/07)
Summer Sounds: Cicadas (8/23/11)
Before Fighting Atop a Moving Train, Some Things to Consider (12/11/15)
Like SNL and The Simpsons before them, it would seem that the gents responsible for the rather hilarious 1997 Dave Foley vehicle The Wrong Guy (which, coincidentally, includes Brian’s Radio Hour/SCTV associate Joe Flaherty among its cast) may have purloined this concept from our man without attribution or acknowledgement, but, considering its utter failure to get a theatrical release in the States or do much for Foley’s movie career, I would begrudgingly advise against pestering Foley, co-writers David Anthony Higgins and Jay Kogen, or director David Steinberg for restitution on Brian’s behalf. But, should any of the four somehow be reading this: I know what you did. Unless it was a total coincidence. In which case, sorry for staring.