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• Friday, February 10, 2006 01:22 PM

  It's the money, honey.....

  It's really very simple -- artists can only create when they are "hungry", whether that's a hunger for fame, money, recognition, applause, etc. It doesn't really matter whether we are talking comedians here, or musicans, painters, writers, movie directors.

  The structure of our society is such that one or two successes early on bring great wealth....not just some well-deserved reward but really huge sums of money, millions of dollars. And rich people, frankly, are not funny. They aren't hungry, there isn't anything they want and yearn for. Their lives are basically one long shopping spree.

  There isn't much chance you will be angry or feeling any pain on that big shopping spree, so artists that succeed in this way quickly discover they have nothing to make jokes about, nothing to complain about, nothing to angst about....and nothing to paint or film.

  So we end up with dull comics, taking totally unfunny projects (Pink Panther, etc.) simply because there is a $10 million check attached to said project. How can you say "no" to such instant and extreme wealth, the culmination of all your earthly desires? And yet it is this that destroys career after career....with an Emperor's New Clothes sort of situation, because the same desperately unfunny comics keep getting cast in films by the same desperately untalented directors and screenwriters....and pundits wonder why movie attendance declines year after year.

  —Laurel
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