Imitation as Flattery

Not Quite the Classics by Colin Mochrie is Colin Mochrie doing what he does best. Improv! This is really very clever. Mochrie takes the first and last line of classic novels and he makes up the rest. His take on Moby Dick - Moby: toupee or not toupee - begins not with the invitation, Call me Ishmael, but with the command, Call me, Ishmael. Ishmael is an out of work, prematurely bald actor going audition after audition, being cruelly rejected, unfairly he feels, because of his folically challenged state. On the way to a casting call, he is drawn to Hair by Rachel with its lovely window display of wigs, toupees and extensions. Rachel's toupees are her babies, she does not sell them, rather they are adopted, for a mere $10,000. Of course, these are not ordinary toupees. What happens next brings to mind that episode of the Simpsons, you know the one, Snake is executed, under the three strikes law,  for robbing the Quickie Mart. Homer is the transplant recipient of his hair (Barney says "dibs on the liver") and the hair takes control of his brain and he commits some heinous crimes. It was a lot like that. Great fun!

Ian Doescher has completed his trilogy of Star Wars in the style of Shakespeare, or Shakespeare with a Star Wars theme, depending upon your perspective, with his trilogy which consists of Verily, a New Hope, The Empire Striketh Back and The Jedi Doth Return. What did The Reader have to say? "Doescher has lovingly translated this epic story into Shakespeare's iambic pentameter creating a play which is crying out to be read and performed in the homes of geeks all over. Verily, a new hope has all the fantastic qualities of Shakespearean drama: valour, villainy, mistaken identities, long detailed death soliloquies, magic, political intrigue and a chorus to fill in the visual gaps." Yep, still quite true.


In Alice in Tumblr-land: and other fairy tales for a new generation by Tim Manley, we learn that "happily ever after" does not necessarily mean forever, and your fairy tale favourites are back, are looking for love and are on social media. "The Ugly Duckling still feels gross compared to everyone else, but now she’s got Instagram, and there’s this one filter that makes her look awesome. Cinderella swaps her glass slippers for Crocs. The Tortoise and the Hare Facebook stalk each other. Goldilocks goes gluten free. And Peter Pan finally has to grow up and get a job, or at least start paying rent. Here are more than one hundred fairy tales, illustrated and re-imagined for today. Instead of fairy godmothers, there’s Siri. And rather than big bad wolves, there are creepy dudes on OkCupid. In our brave new world of social networking, YouTube, and texting, fairy tales can once again lead us to “happily ever after”—and have us laughing all the way." publisher