chimesfreedom

Biff from “Back to the Future” Is Doing Stand-Up Shows

Tom Wilson, who famously played Biff in the Back to the Future movie series, now has a career as a stand-up comic. He had started out doing stand-up comedy as a teenager while he was launching his acting career. In addition to his work in the Back to the Future films, he has worked in a number of movies and TV shows, including doing voices for the SpongeBob Squarepants series. According to his website, though, he is most at home doing comedy on stage.

In the video below from one of his stand-up performances, Wilson makes fun of his work at sci-fi conventions with a song. Check it out.

Wilson earlier wrote a song “Biff’s Question Song” to address the annoying questions he constantly gets about the Back to the Future trilogy.

If you want to know more about Wilson’s thoughts on Back to the Future (his favorite was the third in the series), he put together a “Fact Sheet” to address all of the most common questions about the movies. For more on his stand-up career, check out his website.

Leave your two cents in the comments.

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What if William Randolph Hearst Could Hack?

For a short time, it looked like hackers (initially reported to be from North Korea) might prevent Sony from releasing the movie The Interview in theaters. According to early reports, out of fear, Sony was going to pull the Seth Rogen-James Franco comedy from distribution. Meanwhile, commentators debated the possibility of censoring the movie out of fear. But ultimately, freedom prevailed and Sony released the movie both in theaters and online.

The controversy surrounding The Interview reminds me of William Randolph Hearst’s attempts to prevent the release of Citizen Kane (1941). Hearst did not like the way Orson Welles re-imagined Hearst’s career and relationship with Marion Davies (who in real life was a talented actress), so he took a number of measures to try to prevent the release of the film. Fortunately for us, he was unsuccessful, and one of the greatest movies of all time sits in a DVD case on my shelf.

One good version of the story behind Citizen Kane is from The American Experience series on PBS. Check out the episode The Battle Over Citizen Kane. [Update: Unfortunately it is no longer available for embedding.] Another funnier source is Drunk History‘s retelling of the Citizen Kane story featuring Jack Black as Welles.

Unfortunately, technology has given censors a new avenue of attack, which is sad. But I suspect that humor and satire will find a way to survive.

What do you think of Sony’s decision? Leave your two cents in the comments.

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(Some related Chimesfreedom posts.)

Sam Smith: “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas”

Sam Smith had a great year, and he ended is ending the year by giving us a moving new version of an old classic. Check out Sam Smith singing “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas” and have a merry Christmas.

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(Some related Chimesfreedom posts.)

New Christmas Classic from The Killers: “Joel the Lump of Coal”

The Killers sought some help from Jimmy Kimmel in putting together their annual Christmas song. The result is a catchy and surprisingly touching song, “Joel the Lump of Coal.” The song tells the story of a lump of coal named Joel who is excited to be a Christmas present before learning the disappointing news that Santa Claus’s plan is to use him to teach a naughty boy a lesson. But, since this song is a Christmas song, it ends with a heart-warming twist.

Below is a video of The Killers playing the new Christmas classic, “Joel the Lump of Coal.” Check it out.

The video of Jimmy Kimmel working with The Killers to write the song is on YouTube too. The Killers’ “Joel the Lump of Coal” benefits the RED campaign to raise awareness about AIDS.

What do you think of “Joel the Lump of Coal”? Leave your two cents in the comments.

Buy from Amazon

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(Some related Chimesfreedom posts.)

Darlene Love’s Final Letterman Performance of “Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)”

Chimesfreedom has previously noted that Darlene Love‘s “Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)” is among our favorite Christmas songs and favorite pop songs of all time. So, with David Letterman retiring, we will miss Love’s annual appearance on CBS’s Late Show with David Letterman to sing the song written by Phil Spector, Ellie Greenwich, and Jeff Barry.

Unfortunately, Love has stated that out of respect for Letterman, she will not take the annual tradition to another talk show. Fortunately for us, Friday night we got one more massive performance of the song, which started out as a tradition on Letterman’s NBC Late Night show back in 1986 when she was only accompanied by Paul Shaffer and a four-piece rock band. Check out the final Late Show performance of the song that originally appeared on the 1963 album A Christmas Gift for You from Phil Spector.

Why did Love stay on top of the piano after the song? Love explained to the New York Times that she knew she would start crying if Letterman hugged her, so she remained on top of the piano knowing “Dave ain’t coming up here.” Even so, you see her holding back the tears after Letterman shakes her hand. Thanks to both Love and Letterman for a wonderful tradition.

Leave your two cents in the comments.