We Got Bruce
Podcast: Bruce Vilanch’s 2024 HOLIDAY Movies/Oscar Special
By Mister D
December 23, 2024

In this special holiday edition of ‘The Oscars: What Were They Thinking?‘, co-hosts Adam “Tex” Davis and Bruce Vilanch dive into their favorite holiday movies and examine how many of them garnered the attention of the Oscars. The discussion starts with Adam’s Christmas cult classic ‘Just Friends and highlights various holiday-themed films like ‘It Nearly Wasn’t Christmas,’ including a clip of Bruce’s performance as a giant Elf named Philpot. Discussion includes ‘White Christmas,’ ‘A Christmas Story,’ ‘Scrooged,’ ‘Home Alone,’ ‘The Polar Express’ and ‘Die Hard.’ They also touch on the rare Hanukkah movies such as ‘Eight Crazy Nights’ and ‘An American Tail,’. Notable Oscar mentions include the heartwarming classics like ‘It’s a Wonderful Life’ and ‘Miracle on 34th Street’ and modern favorites like ‘The Holdovers.’, with a detour into Siskel and Ebert’s trashing of “Silent Night, Deadly Night”.

Movies mentioned:

Just Friends

It Nearly Wasn’t Christmas

White Christmas

A Christmas Story

Gremlins

Krampus

Bad Santa

Trading Places

Silent Night, Deadly Night

Black Christmas

Die Hard

(*Deck the Halls-referenced)

Jingle All the Way

Christmas with the Kranks

It’s a Wonderful Life

Miracle on 34th Street

Holiday Land

The Night Before Christmas

Toy Tinkers

Scrooge

Scrooged

Home Alone

The Nightmare Before Christmas

The Preacher’s Wife

The Bishop’s Wife

How the Grinch Stole Christmas

The Polar Express

The Holdovers

8 Crazy Nights

An American Tail

The Night Before

The post Podcast: Bruce Vilanch’s 2024 HOLIDAY Movies/Oscar Special first appeared on We Got Bruce!.

Feast of Fun: Gay Talk Show
Bruce Vilanch on The Paul Lynde Halloween Special
By FOF #2798
January 11, 2024

One of the strangest shows ever broadcast on TV is the Paul Lynde Halloween Special. The musical variety show featuring a campy highway pile-up of the top stars of the day with Margaret Hamilton reprising her Wicked Witch from the Izard of Oz aired only once on ABC in 1976.

Today comedy writer Bruce Vilanch, best known for writing for the Oscars and for his appearance on Hollywood Squares joins us to talk about being a head writer for the Paul Lynde Halloween Special.

The post Feast of Fun: Gay Talk Show – Bruce Vilanch on The Paul Lynde Halloween Special first appeared on We Got Bruce!.

Daps Magic
Tickets Now On Sale for ‘A Disturbance in the Force: How the Star Wars Holiday Special Happened’
Nov 10, 2023
By Mr. Daps

In 1978, George Lucas was talked into cashing in on the Star Wars craze by producing a holiday variety TV special.  What could possibly go wrong?

ANSWER: Everything…

From the filmmakers behind Napoleon Dynamite and Raiders! The Story of the Greatest Fan Film Ever Made comes A Disturbance in the Force, the documentary about the infamous Star Wars Holiday Special.

The Star Wars Holiday Special is infamous among Star Wars fans. Now, a documentary takes a deeper look at this special. It also will soon be in theaters on different dates in November. Tickets are now on sale for this documentary. A trailer for the film can also be seen below.

About A Disturbance in the Force

Travel back to a galaxy far, far away – the infamous Star Wars Holiday Special.  This documentary dives into the mystery of how it happened and why 45 years later it has become, much to the chagrin of George Lucas, the ultimate cult classic among Star Wars fans.

Featuring interviews with Bruce Vilanch, Seth Green, Kevin Smith, Patton Oswalt, Paul Scheer, Weird Al Yankovic, Donny Osmond, and many more.

Where To Buy Tickets

More details about this film, where it is screening, and tickets sales can all be found at HolidaySpecialDoc.com. What do you think of this documentary? Are you excited to see it? Share your thoughts and opinions in the comments below!

To Buy Tickets, Check Out

The post Buy Tickets To A Disturbance In The Force Documentary first appeared on We Got Bruce!.

Out & About Nashville
“Aladdin and His Winter Wish” at TPAC in Nashville, TN
By William Shutes
December 20, 2019

If you’ve felt a near-seismic eye rolling ripple through Middle Tennessee, oft accompanied by a low, roaring groan, in the evenings since last weekend, rest assured that the twin phenomena are neither harmful nor long-lasting.  Usually, the mention of rolling eyes and groans in a theatre review would mean that the show on the boards is a real stinker.  Or, as this show would put it, “Sugly” – a portmanteau of Smelly and Ugly.  While there are certainly prettier shows out there, if you’re in the market for bad dad jokes accompanied by a “Ba-dum-CHING!” on the trap set, hie thineself to TPAC’s Polk Theatre with all haste, for Aladdin and His Winter Wish will have you laughing at the utterly absurd, peculiarly English humor that is Panto.

Chances are you don’t have the faintest idea what Panto is.  In short, it’s a fairy tale that has been moderately bastardized.  In fact, it’s a virtual theatrical turducken of star actors, bad jokes, pop songs, a smidgeon of cross dressing, visual gags, and a thin veneer of Christmas spirit all lobbed into a fairy tale picture frame.  What you’re left with this year is a rip-snorting good time with more inside jokes than you can count.

Now, a warning… (in my best Meryl Streep in Death Becomes Her impression, “NOW, a warning?”):  Do not enter the Polk Theatre expecting Disney’s Aladdin.  If you are, you’re going to be disappointed and, folks, it’d be cheaper to pop in the Blu Ray and sing a couple Christmas songs throughout the evening.  Besides, Father Disney does not take kindly to folks stepping on its creative toes.  There will be only a sideways mention that Disney exists and it’s one of the night’s best jokes.

Leading the show as Aladdin is television and stage star Damon J. Gillespie, a veteran of Disney’s Broadway mounting of their Aladdin musical.  As his Princess is Nickelodeon starlet Kira Kosarin, known for her work on The Thundermans.  They’re a sweet couple with evident chemistry.  Not that it’s deeply necessary.  This is a fairytale and the ending is rather a foregone conclusion.

As the Sultan, Home Improvement and Family Feud legend Richard Karn struts his stuff admirably, though he should have a big song and dance number.  There’s more than enough to go around.  As resident baddie, Josh Adamson’s Abanazar is hammier and cheesier than a good croque monsieur.  If you go, please boo him loudly, as befits the panto villain.  He’ll just chew on the scenery and tell a few more really terrible jokes and you’ll thank him for it.

The comic relief comes in the forms of Aladdin’s brother Wishee Washee (a smashing Jonathan Meza), Bruce Vilanch as the Widow Twankey (mother to both Aladdin and Wishee), and Mykal Kilgore’s superb Genie.  Meza’s Wishee keeps the show moving as narrator and sometimes village idiot and his physical comedy game is tip-top.  Vilanch’s Widow Twankey is the traditional Panto Dame, a male star whose female character is exaggerated in about every way possible.  But it’s not the widow’s T&A game that wows as much as the Tease-it-to-Jesus bouffant wig that would make Marge Simpson and the B-52’s a little envious.

But then there’s the Genie and… Geezus Christmas… Mykal Kilgore is a staggering talent.  The man has more pipes than a water plant, kids.  A veteran of Broadway’s The Book of Mormon and Hair as well as NBC’s recent live mounting of Jesus Christ Superstar, Kilgore is the real real.  Seriously, I’ve seen Disney’s Aladdin onstage.  Dear Disney Theatrical and Thomas Schumacher:  CALL HIM.  This man should be your Genie, too.  The voice… my god… I refuse to spoil any of the numbers he throws into the rafters, but they’re all incredible.

The set is simple (and in desperate need of a good steaming to get out the wrinkles), but it’s deeply effective.  Magic Carpet?  You betcha.  The costumes don’t really break any new ground for the majority of the company, but Bruce Vilanch’s Widow Twankey gets some wonderfully weird togs to strut around in.

If you’re expecting Shakespeare, please just don’t.  If you yearn for the melodies of Rodgers and Hammerstein… check your batteries, Alma.  But if you want a groaning good time that will leave you with a goofy smile on your face, Aladdin and His Winter Wish will probably be the perfect holiday kick-off for you.

Aladdin and His Winter Wish continues through Sunday, December 22 at TPAC’s Polk Theatre.  Tickets are available at TPAC’s website and box office.

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