Hi

 

Happy Holiday Weekend!

 

I hear people say, “Happy Memorial Day” and that’s just weird to me. So many people don’t understand what Memorial Day truly is. It’s not about beer and barbecues. It’s not the day to thank military personnel for their service. In fact, many people I know in the service get upset when you do that. Veterans’ Day is when we express our gratitude to troops past and present. 

 

Memorial Day was designated for the purpose of honoring people who gave their lives while on active duty in defense of our country. Try to remember that between the Budweiser and bratwurst.

 

I hope that it’s been a good week and that you’re happy and healthy. 

 

It’s going to be a working weekend for me as I hunker down on rewrites on a couple of projects I’m developing. I’m also getting ready for a series of staged readings of my new solo play, GRANDMA & ME: An Ode to Single Parents. The readings will take place on Friday nights at 7:30 throughout the month of June at the Marsh theater in San Francisco. I’ve read the play to audiences about a dozen times as I continue to tinker with it. The crowds have been kind, giving me a mix of laughter and tears throughout the readings.

 

For tickets, go to themarsh.org. 

 

I’ll be upstairs in the studio and there will be plenty of room for social distancing. We are deliberately only selling a small portion of the available seats. Masks and proof of vaccination or a negative Covid test are required for entry.

 

GRANDMA & ME will officially open at the Marsh in September.

 

Speaking of the Marsh, you may recall that for a few years prior to the pandemic, the theater and I were presenting performances of my acclaimed show on depression, THE WAITING PERIOD, to audiences free of charge. The purposes for this are many: Suicide prevention,  to educate people about depression and mental illness, destigmatize it and let those who are suffering and near the brink of ending it all know that they aren’t alone and they need to reach out for help before it’s too late.

 

The performances have been a great success and they’ve been credited with literally saving lives. 

 

We’ve decided to bring the play back, again free to the public, if we can raise the money to fund the production. I’m asking for your help. We’ve started a GoFundMe for the project and if there’s anyway that you or your business can make a tax deductible contribution (the Marsh is a registered 501c3 nonprofit) we’d really appreciate it and, you’ll be helping us help a LOT of people.

 

The link for the GoFundMe is: 

 

https://gofund.me/4b2917e6

 

If you can contribute $1500 or more, I’ll take you to dinner at one of my favorite eateries in the Bay Area. I’d truly be appreciative of anything you can do.

 

I’ve got a few things to recommend to you this week:

 

WATCHING

 

OUR FATHER 

Netflix 

 

This documentary is both disturbing and infuriating. 

 

For over two decades, fertility doctor Don Cline of Indiana unknowingly used his own sperm To impregnate women who sought his help in becoming mothers. He did not have any woman’s consent. In fact, many of the woman thought that Cline was using the samples donated by their husbands. It’s only been in the last few years that these men have discovered that they are NOT the biological fathers of the children they raised. You can imagine how devastating that knowledge might be.

 

Cline has sired at least 94 kids and counting between the 1970s and the 1990s. There are still possibly dozens of unsuspecting women and children from the Indiana area who have no idea what he’s done.

 

The worst part is, that the practice of a fertility doctor using his own semen to inseminate a woman without her knowledge or consent is NOT illegal in most states. 44 fertility doctors have been discovered to have used their own specimens to impregnate unsuspecting patients. I’m calling this one a MUST WATCH.

 

CANDY

Hulu

 

You can get your true crime fix this weekend by checking out Hulu’s new miniseries, CANDY. It’s the true story of Candace Montgomery, a church going housewife and mother in Texas who was accused of murdering her friend (and wife of her lover) Betty Gore with an ax in 1980.

 

Jessica Biel gives an Emmy winning performance as Candy in the five parter and one of my favorite actresses, Melanie Lynskey (TWO AND A HALF MEN, YELLOWJACKETS), does the same as Betty Gore. Their real life husbands (Biel is married to Justin Timberlake, Lynskey to the late John Ritter’s son Jason) also have supporting roles.

 

It’s a compelling five parter that just flies by! WATCH.

 

READING

 

Ever since his recent death, I’ve been rediscovering all things Sidney Poitier. When I

was a kid, our family used to watch his films when they were on Network Television as movies of the week and, while I don’t really remember much of what I saw, I DO vividly remember the impression he left on me as an African American child used to primarily seeing people who looked like me playing maids and servants. Here was this incredible, cultured black man who spoke proper English (a must in our house per my mother’s rules) playing doctors and teachers and lawmen. He was something for an impressionable young black child to aspire to, and I did.

 

I was too young to fully appreciate his work in those days. Since his death, I’ve been doing a deep dive. 

 

I’m currently reading his autobiography, THIS LIFE, which traces his journey from humble beginnings to iconic status. I’ve also watched GUESS WHO’S COMING TO DINNER (the final Tracy-Hepburn film), TO SIR WITH LOVE (which brought me to tears) and THE DEFIANT ONES with Tony Curtis. A PATCH OF BLUE is next on my list to be followed by IN THE HEAT OF THE NIGHT and THEY CALL ME MISTER TIBBS.

 

Anything I’m missing? If so drop me a line at [email protected]. Also, tell me your favorite Poitier film.

 

On a different note, I just finished William Shatner’s wonderful autobiography, UP TILL NOW, which traces his life from working class Canada to his beginnings as an actor during the Golden Age of Television giving live performances on shows like PLAYHOUSE 90 and THE UNITED STATES STEEL HOUR to STAR TREK and TJ HOOKER and BOSTON LEGAL. If you can, listen to him read it on an audiobook. He’s fun!

 

By the way, all five seasons of BOSTON LEGAL are on Hulu. I’ve been watching them and I’m a HUGE fan. That show is a gem and it’s a sin and a shame the way ABC killed it by bouncing it around from time slot to time slot. It holds up well and the issues they dealt with in 2006 are the same ones we’re dealing with today from the impending doom of Roe v. Wade and reproductive rights of women to Supreme Court rulings that are conflicts of interest for some justices who refuse to recuse themselves. It stars Shatner, James Spader and Candace Bergen and in later seasons, Taraji P. Henson from EMPIRE and Kerry Washington from SCANDAL.

 

Plus…it’s laugh out loud funny. If you have Hulu, check it out!

 

EATS

 

My son Adam took me to dinner this week at PERRY’S on San Francisco’s Embarcadero. It’s so nice when your kid picks up the check.

 

We had the best ahi poke I’ve ever tasted. Adam had a great cheeseburger while I ate a terrific chopped salad. I REALLY wanted that burger but… still taking off Covid weight. Am I alone?

 

It’s moderately priced all American food and I highly recommend it.

 

LISTEN 

 

Didn’t get a chance to hear any new podcasts this week, but I did record mine. COPELAND’S CORNER is me and one to three comics talking about the news of the week. It’s serious as well as funny (depending on the topic of course) and there’s always interesting analysis. 

 

This week, comic Lauren Mayer and I discuss the tragedy in Texas and gun legislation, Bill Cosby’s return to court in a civil suit brought by a woman he is alleged to have abused as a teenager in the 70s, Kevin Spacey’s criminal charges in the UK for sexual misconduct with men against their will, the Johnny Depp and Amber Heard trial, and more.

 

New episodes drop Friday afternoons/evenings. Listen here.

 

That’s it for this week.

 

Have a great weekend and, stay safe!

 

Copie