Comedic life and times
11:10 PM PST on Saturday, January 28, 2006
By WES WOODS II / The Press-Enterprise
Bruce Vilanch, the comedian, writer and current participant in VH1’s “Celebrity Fit Club 3,” is looking forward to Palm Springs.
“I will do my world-famous impression of Mary Bono,” he deadpanned in a recent telephone interview.
Vilanch is scheduled to perform at 8 p.m. Friday at the Annenberg Theater in Palm Springs. Tickets are $45 for nonmembers, $42 for museum members and $38 for Performing Arts Council members.
His show will be “sit down comedy” about his life and times and his show business career. He’ll also perform some music.
Vilanch was on “Hollywood Squares” as a panelist from 1998 to 2003 and has written comedy material for the Oscars — mainly for Billy Crystal — among other award shows.
He was scheduled to meet with host Jon Stewart to write comedy for this year’s Oscars on Thursday, he said.
“It’s a great political year,” he said. While nominations aren’t revealed until Jan. 31, he said he has a few ideas, but nothing is finalized.
He said the current crop of late-night hosts — from Jay Leno to Jimmy Kimmel — are determined to create good comedic material every night so “it’ll be hard to come up with a new ‘Brokeback Mountain’ joke. You got to find a new take on that stuff.”
Vilanch said the VH1 show stopped taping just before Christmas.
While he said he is not supposed to talk about the reality show, he did anyway.
Former “Taxi” star Jeff Conway, who left the show to treat an apparent drug problem, makes a “semi-surprise” appearance after going through treatment, he said.
Vilanch, who is known for his thick glasses and long hair, added he “lost a bundle” of weight on the show and still follows a strict diet and exercises. Formerly at 300 pounds, he said he could not reveal how much weight he has lost.
