Christmas in Ju...uh August!

This is a long overdue post and for that I deeply apologize. My thanks to 'Ange' and the rest of the regular 7SD bloggers for being patient with me as I finally tell my tale.

Back in December of 2007 I became Andy's Secret Santa. An honor I'm sure many would kill for was bestowed upon me. Oh, the pressure. What to get the man who doesn't want any interaction with us 'lonely hippies'.

I finally decided upon a out of print book called Songs In The Rough which has copies of first drafts of some of the most popular songs written. It even includes James Taylor. Maybe not a winner, but it showed I thought about it.

In Early January of 2008, I received a phone call from Andy. He's very nice and polite and speaks clearly over the phone. This is the infamous call where he gave me several of his jokes to use on stage. He also asked for my mailing address to send me my Secret Santa gift. I gave him my P.O. Box because I don't give out my home address to writers. I just don't.

Several days later...a package arrived....
The return address (obscured for this picture) informed me it was from Andy and I raced home to open it.

Before I tore into it I noticed something odd. Namely, who the package was addressed to. It read: Greg Baciocco. I'm Grant Baciocco. My father is Greg Baciocco. Was Andy now sending mail to my father?

I figured, no, it's probably meant for me. So I opened it and found the following note lovingly written to me on the inside of the package.

In case it's not clear the note inside reads:

Grant- It was great finally talking to you. Here, belatedly, is a holiday gift. I bought it for you. I'm not just regifting something I found in the basement. I went out and shopped and bought it. You have to believe me. It's not the first thing I found just sitting, forgotten, on some shelf, downstairs. I swear to God, I went out and shopped. Anyway I hope you have some batteries and play chess. Merry Christmas, Andy

And inside....

A vintage Excaliber Electronics Touch Chess game. I say vintage only in that it's no longer available. The amount of throught put into this gift, given Andy's busy schedule is nothing short of amazing! This must have been sitting on the store shelf for awhile as it's dusty. It's new, never been used. But it is the perfect gift. I do not know how to play chess and do not have friends. Now I can learn! I know, I know jealousy abounds. Thank you Andy Breckman! Merry Christmas!

Menstruation Tunnel Mystery Show

August 27, 2008: Andy Breckman and Kelly Jones (Ken and his show titles are missed)

This week's Seven Second Delay trainwreck has the distinct privilege of coinciding with an actual car wreck. Call Screener Jeff was laid out following some run-in with an SUV that makes for a pretty boring story.

Andy, Kelly and Andrea found lots of time for boring stories this week as they cycled through various half-conceived topics: Andy's menstruation divinity, the definition of underpass, premonitions, black-outs and the strangest place you ever slept. Sometimes, when the show really starts to drift away, as it does with repeated and extended Grandma Phyllis calls, Andy's inveterate sarcasm is like this wonderful anchor keeping the whole thing in place. It's the only reminder you have of what show you're actually listening to.

Other listening highlights this week: the broadcasting of Jeff's phone number and Andy's sarcastic vomit-sounding gasping. Classic.

Start over.

Reflecting on Past Fill-ins

While Ken and Andy are away, here's a little something I've been meaning to post here for quite some time now. Remember when Dave and Andy filled in for Seven Second Delay after pitching Ken on the Speed Auditions episode? I ran into the guys around WFMU after the experience and tricked them into letting me interview them for the blog. Here's how it went.



Also, if you're fiending terribly for the show, I strongly recommend listening to Ken's recent broadcast of his show from a rowboat on Lake Owassa.

Vacation Plans

It has been rough for a lot of us. No new shows until September.

What to do?

How about using the newish officially sanctioned exhaustive episode guide? This online version is the crossbreed of Duncan's diligent list, Archive.org's records, and the recently acquired DAT list straight from Ken's files.

USE! Links to archived and blogged shows.
CLICK! Tabs to peruse by year.
LEARN! When shows were rebroadcasted.
DISCUSS! With other viewers (like that's necessary).
COMPLAIN! To me (aclomeli at gmail dot com) if you find errors.

Any input to fill in the gaps will be greatly appreciated. In coming days, look for a perma-link on our site's right margin.

For the record (at least for now):
http://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=pwLzEUohn7uiPwIxaM6SiaQ

Seven Second History

To help celebrate WFMU's 50th anniversary, old FMU greats returned to the airwaves this past weekend. David Newgarden, former Program Director/Music Director and, in 1991, occasional Seven Second Delay co-host, visited with Terre T of the Cherry Blossom Clinic. For a very brief amount of time you can hear David reminisce about some very early Seven Second Delay history.

Listen to it here. You can also listen to David with a young(er) Andy Breckman here.

Off-off-off-off-off-off.....

Making the Band Laugh: Andy's SNL Years
Part I: Off-Broadway (a cut sketch)

In all of my time as a faithful listener to Seven Second Delay, and a contributor to the bloggity-blog, and a compatriot to this faction of faithful 7SD listeners (time which I now realize should have been put to better use toward this nation and its future taxpayers), it has surprised me to find so many l.t.l.'s who first knew Andy Breckman as a composer/performer of o' so many hilarious folksongs, not to mention a bolt of energy to see live on stage.

For me, it was one night in 1983 when I was a 13-year-old lanky social leper in Salisbury Maryland, where my scope of musical stimulation didn't go past Friday Night Videos ( I actually added 50 cents to my folk's phonebill by dialing in a 1-900 vote toward Duran Duran's "Hungry Like the Wolf" over David Bowie's "Let's Dance.") I was finally allowed by the elders to stay up to watch Saturday Night Live, starring EDDIE MURPHY and... others.

So this show is going okay as far as I can tell; then-NBC President Brandon Tartikoff was the host (whoever he was to me then; now may he rest in peace), Joe Piscopo played then-Secretary of Interior James Watt in a scathing piece of political satire (following his "I have a black, a woman..." speech) , Eddie brought out Gumby to a thunderous welcome, Julia Louis-Dreyfus' comedic instinct was yet to be trusted judging from the pie-in-the-face zinger in her bit. But nothing that night compared to the outburst from me, my family and the audience at studio 8-H when milk feverishly spouted out of the nose of some rotund, bearded man (see above) who I could not recognize from the opening credits, only to be consumed without hesitation by the impish Tim Kazurinsky; no doubt the most hilarious non-Eddie-Murphy moment on SNL of that period.

I'd later recognize him as a walk-on in other sketches, then placed name-to-face as Andy Breckman and recognize his name in the closing credits, then actually paid to see Moving, IQ, and Sgt. Bilko in the theaters because his name was stamped on it, and now I found him here on WFMU, and the rest is the rest-OKAY, MY LONG STORY IS OVER! COME BACK FROM SEA-WORLD!!!

Andy continued to write sketches for this network comedy monolith, on-staff til 1987 then a handful of visits as a guest-writer up through to the mid-nineties. If anything I hope this series of blogs will remind you loyal readers how Andy earned the street cred, not to mention "handsome living," as the comedy writer's comedy writer.

To start, here is a little gem I unearthed from an eBay purchase five years ago, a sketch Andy co-wrote with SNL stalwart James Downey (who's finally getting the well-publicized credit he deserves) on December of 1986 called "Off-Broadway." This surreal piece starred that week's host Steve Guttenberg along with show regulars Jon Lovitz, A. Whitney Brown, and the late Phil Hartman. At least it would've if it aired; Unfortunately this sketch didn't make the cut after dress rehearsal.

Enjoy. (I did.)

Page One/Page Two/Page Three/Page Four/Page Five

Special Guest Scott Powers

August 6, 2008: Andy Learns To Act

The guest tonight was Scott Powers of Scott Powers Studios. In addition to being an accomplished figure in the entertainment world, he's also the author of Here's Looking at You: The Actor's Guide to Commercial Print, a MENSA member, and a hand model. Yes, a hand model. It's his lovely finger that once tickled the Pillsbury Doughboy! I know!

Right now he is casting for an Alexander Kogan music video, and looking for actors 18-30 year olds. For more information, you should visit Scott Powers Studios, and sign up for his mailing list.