Elaine and Ellen

Today was the day when Elaine's doctor removed the 4 screws holding her foot together since December. She is keeping the nice long and shiny screws that were removed as souvenirs. While she was in surgery I watched the Ellen Degeneris Show and was amazed at what I saw.

During the show, Ellen gave away a lot of stuff to an audience of screaming, jumping, yelling 40ish women. Older than 40ish , there would probably be lots of broken hips; younger than 40ish, the ladies would probably not be interested at all. But that is my (maybe sexist) take on the audience. They must have a wonderful advance man that is able to get all of these women keyed up and wild. Perhaps they hand out free very strong coffee before the show.

At one point she mentioned giving some of the audience their money back if they weren't laughing. Does she charge an entrance fee? If so, it still would be a bargain because of the vast amount of stuff she gives away. I thought only Oprah did that.

To get some of the freebies as prizes, four screaming and bouncing women (all dressed almost exactly alike) came out of the audience and donned eye masks and raincoats. They were told that there was a lot of ice cream on the table in front of them, and two of the ladies had the two other ladies stand behind them and reach through and shovel ice cream into the mouths of the ladies in front. Gross! They all won gifts.

Then Ellen interviewed Ben Stiller who is plugging his latest "movie" that takes place in the middle of the night in the Smithsonian. (Managers at the Smithsonian are praising this movie because they feel it will lure more 12 year olds to visit.) Yes, like all of Ben's movies (in my opinion) it is geared to 12-year olds, or adults with that degree of intelligence. Those "movies" of his that I have seen, seemed to be very concerned with human excrement and gaseous emissions. And, of course, these are the topics that make pre-teens giggle with glee. We've all been through it, right?

Ellen presented Ben with some sexy short (hot?) pants for him and his wife. That exchange used up ten minutes of the show. However, they did get to discuss a project that Ben is involved in that concerns poor African children, and I'm glad to know that his "ill-gotten gains" are being used to good effect.

A guy named David Cook played the guitar and sang on the show. He was last year's Idol winner and of course, everyone is keyed up to find out who will survive tonight's Idol show and be this year's winner. Naturally, both of the finalists will earn record contracts after coming through so many weeks of singing. I'm getting old and it seems to me that these guys are singing the same songs week after week (even though I don't really listen.. but Elaine does and I can't help hearing the sound.)

Something bothers me about TV singers. Most sing with the stationary microphone right up in their faces. That way, nobody can really see their faces when they sing. Why not use the little clip-ons? I used them in some of the videos I have made here in Carroll County Maryland. I feel it is more conducive to a conversational method of communication. However, I do know that using the mike like an ice cream cone is better if you want to breathe and sigh audibly while engaging the audience.. especially during stand-up comedy. It does create more intimacy.

David Cook mentioned that he was doing a gig for a Cancer Cure program. That's good. More power to him.

Ellen introduced a family that is having some problems. I believe they have lost their jobs. They own two cars, both of which have 120,000 miles of wear, and need new brakes, batteries, tires, etc. They also had recently lost all of their furniture in a flood. They had other problems as well. Ellen presented them with a Jetta diesel automobile and a gift card for $5,000 to Sears.

Ellen gave each member of the audience DVD's, CD's, cosmetics, $100 gift cards, and show tickets. Someone in the audience won a trip to Hawaii.

I was a nervous wreck after watching the hour-long show... all of those women yelling and jumping and expending all of that energy.. each person must have lost 20 pounds of weight. It was quite an experience learning what millions of American housewives probably watch and participate in every day of the week. I was lucky, most men probably don't ever see (or care about) what their ladies are interested in.