Copie's Choice for the weekend of June 10

Published: Fri, 06/10/22

Happy Friday!

I hope you had a good week and that you’re staying healthy.

I’m doing staged readings of my new solo play, "Grandma & Me, An Ode to Single Parents," tonight and the next few Fridays at the Marsh in San Francisco. It’s going to be a strange experience tonight as it’ll be the first time I’ve set foot in that theater since 2020, before the shut down.

It’s so weird to have lost all of this time. I find myself referring to things that happened last year. Only to realize they happened two years ago. It’s like 2020 didn’t exist. Like I’ve been in a cryogenic freeze or something.

That said, I am anxious to get back on the Marsh stage. It’s been my home theater for almost 20 years now and it’s the first place I present all of my new works.

If you’re not familiar with staged readings, what they are is the actor standing on stage and going through the blocking and the characterizations of the piece with script in hand. Its purpose is to see how it sounds in front of an audience and what lines and jokes land and which ones don’t. The final production of the show will open in October with previews beginning in September. I hope that you’ll come out and help me with the creative process!

I’ve just got a couple of things to recommend to you this week:

READING

SO THAT HAPPENED
By Jon Cryer

I’ve been a fan of Jon Cryer’s since I saw him play Ducky in PRETTY IN PINK when I was a kid. This great bio traces his life and career from Broadway (where he replaced Matthew Broderick in Neil Simon’s BRIGHTON BEACH MEMOIRS) to his Hollywood film career where he met his first love, Demi Moore (I’ll be honest and tell you that I just don’t see it), to the juggernaut that was TWO AND A HALF MEN.

And yes, he gives us all of the inside dirt on Charlie Sheen’s infamous meltdown. It’s a great read. Check it out!

READ

WATCHING

The most exciting thing I saw all week was the first installment of the January 6 Congressional Hearings on Thursday night. The House committee is presenting damning evidence that the the 1/6/2021 insurrection was not a spontaneous riot spurred on by angry demonstrators unhappy with the result of the 2020 election, but a planned and organized coup attempt led by white supremacist groups aided by elected and appointed officials at the highest level of our government.

The words from the mouths of Donald Trump’s own advisors, including Attorney General Bill Barr and his own daughter Ivanka on video saying that the election was lost fair and square should be enough to make your blood boil. The never before scene footage of the violence against the capital police by self described “patriots” is enough to bring you to tears.

Why aren’t the co-conspirators in jail?? The Justice Department has prosecuted hundreds of the low level insurrectionists. Why isn’t Attorney General Merrick Garland prosecuting the architects of this atrocity?

We came close to losing our democracy that day. I’m not being hyperbolic. We almost lost our right to have our votes and our voices heard. And, if we aren’t vigilant, it can happen again…

The second of the scheduled six hearings takes place on Monday morning. If you aren’t home, record it. Every broadcast network and every cable news outlet is carrying it gavel to gavel. All except Fox News. That fact alone should tell you everything you need to know.

WATCH

LISTEN

The COPELAND’S CORNER podcast is now dropping on Thursday afternoons. Check out the political analysis of me and a different group of comics each week!

You can listen to the latest episode here.

That’s it for this week. Have a great weekend and, stay safe!

Copie