Pittsburgh Post-Gazette from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania • Page 34

a 1 1 i a 1 Steve Allen in a different light oi eta I I 554 r- tw -f -i- i 4 i va 'I i I i A i Jim Jackson gives his audiences a lesson in being messy By Rebecca Sodergrer Post-Gazette Staff Writer third-grade class in Vancouver once dubbed Jim Jackson the "Master of Disaster." At the time, he was performing a show called "The Impossible Balance," in which everything on the set including a 17-foot teeter-totter ended up falling down. "The clown character tends to cause a lot of chaos, and the story comes out of the mess." Jackson, who will perform in Pittsburgh starting tomorrow under the auspices of Pittsburgh International Children's Theater, has been clowning around for more than 20 years. As a student, he spent time in Germany and France, where he saw small European-style circuses. Already interested in mime and movement, he was inspired to run off and join the circus himself. After spending about five years with small circuses in America and England, Jackson suffered an injury when he fell from a tight wire and was unable to perform for six months.

When he recovered, Jackson began performing one-man clown shows, such as "The Impossible Balance." He writes the shows and builds the sets primarily by himself. The show he will perform here is titled "Art Guffaw." He plays a house painter who answers an ad only to discover that the employers want him to paint pictures, not houses. "The show is about what art is like for somebody who's not in that world at all how strange and bizarre it can be." Puppets come to life, a still life becomes objects for juggling and the house painter gets stuck in a mask. All the while, Jackson is using his juggling, magic and puppetry skills, plus interacting with the audience and creating giant soap bubbles. But he tries to reach the adults in the au- Jim Jackson will be performing throughout the area for the next week under the auspices of Pittsburgh International Children's Theater.

oat-Gazette SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 4, 2000 Page B-18 ating a mess in this show, too. "I think that's the message of this show art is not neat. You should wear old clothes and get your hands dirty." Jackson will perform at 1:30 and 3:30 p.m. tomorrow at Gateway High School, Mon-roeville; 5:30 and 7:30 p.m. Thursday at Pine-Richland High School, Gibsonia; 5:30 and 7:30 p.m.

Friday at Moon High School; 11 a.m. and 2 p.m. next Saturday at Mt. Lebanon High School; and 1:30 p.m. Nov.

12 at Byham Theater, Downtown. Tickets: 412-321-5520. dience, as well as the children. "I try to add elements that adults and kids will like so that it's not too much of a chore for the adults to come." His director for this show helped with creating some of the sets, as well as shaping some of the story line during improvisa-tional rehearsals. "You don't usually think of a clown having a director, but this is actually a theater piece that happens to be done by an odd actor, a clown." And, true to form, the clown ends up ere- By Bob Hoover Post-Gazette Book Editor The tributes are still warm and fuzzy for Steve Allen, who departed a world he found increasingly distasteful (and uninterested in him) last weekend at 78.

Because Allen was a star in the 1950s, the so-called "golden age of television," the accounts of his passing were reverential and glowing. Humor "tumbled effortlessly from his lips," wrote one admirer. "Has anyone on the popular entertainment scene been as versatile?" asked another. Steverino impressed everybody. He was television's Renaissance man performer, pianist, composer (5,000 songs), playwright, mystery novelist and nonfic-tion writer (more than 51 books).

But Allen, like so many performers, was not the same guy in private that he played in front of an audience. It's a lesson most of us in this disillusioning business learn early on, but it's never an easy one to take. My meeting with Steve and what followed made such an impression that I'm taking the opportunity that this sad moment offers to present my side of the man. Call it the truth, revenge or heresy, but here's my story: On June 13, 1990, Allen was in town to speak at a charity fund raiser. He also found time to flog one of those 50-odd books, something he called "Dumbth," published by a small company in Buffalo.

(Steve, as it turned out, was no longer the major writer he thought he was.) It sounded like fun when I was dispatched to interview the legend at a mall bookstore. A child of the Fifties, I still considered Steverino one of the greats. I know what you're thinking, but it was worse. I found Allen slumped at a card table outside the store, a large stack of books at his elbow. Despite my enthusiastic introduction, he barely glanced at me, instead scanning the mall for book buyers.

My shirt was reasonably fresh, my fly zipped, my shoes free of dog droppings, but I felt distinctly unwanted. "Gee, Mr. Allen, I'll just ask a few questions and get out of your hair which by then looked like it was a bad rug," I promised. Slowly, painfully, I dragged out of him his cranky assessment of American culture, a view that was to get more tiresome and shrill as he grew older. He never volunteered the name of the charity that brought him to town, only concentrating on himself as the topic of our conversation.

Finally, I gave up, returned to the office and wrote a rather routine account of our uncomfortable half-hour. I made several mistakes, including misspelling the title of his book. The worst, however, was the tossing off of a remark Jack Paar made of Allen "a man of many small talents." Several days later, Allen's four-page letter hit my desk. I fished it out after he died, but it's still hard to read. He had seen my story and produced a response that was longer than my article.

It contained 10 points which included: The headline, "Steve Allen turns to writing," was wrong because he "turned to writing at about the age of 10." As for his "small talent" of songwrit-ing, he could recognize "no contemporary composer of popular music as my superior, though Stephen Sondheim is a better lyricist." As a humorist, there is literally no other entertainer who has his "spontaneous creation of wit." There was no point in mentioning the Pittsburgh charity event because these appearances draw "a few hundred people" and "are not open to the public." He concluded, "I would have little doubt that the instruction this letter provides will be of help to you as regards future assignments. Cordially, Steve Allen." Am I speaking ill of the dead? I prefer to think of it as "honestly." She appeared in the play "Avenue at City Theatre and has had bit parts in three Spike Lee movies: "He Got Game," "Summer of Sam" and the director's current film, "Bamboozled." In "Blair Witch 2," she plays a black-clad woman who seems to have the ability to read 'WITCH' WATCH You may not recognize her under all that make-up, but the Goth girl in the movie "Book of Shadows: Blair Witch 2" hails from Pittsburgh. Kim Director is a 1993 graduate of Upper St. Clair High School and a 1997 graduate of Carnegie Mellon University. minds.

She is one of four people who sign up for a Blair Witch tour in the Maryland woods. Along with their tour guide, they get History Channel Tunc Mac! line Tour slops in cily The History Channel's Time Machine Tour has arrived in Pittsburgh. The exhibit, which features an interactive look at major events, people and accomplishments that nave shaped our society, is open from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. today and tomorrow at the Carnegie Science Center on the North Side.

The mobile museum covers such topics as the invention of the Internet, the building of the Hoover Dam, the creation of Silly Putty, the founding fathers and man-made structures. Admission is free. (Rebecca Sodergren) Kim Director caught up in a Central's "Indecision 2000" election coverage. Ament will be back tomorrow still in time for Election Day. Rebecca Sodergren, Post-Gazette Staff Writer PEOPLE PICKS PITT People magazine has named its Sexiest Man Alive 2000, and once again, it's Brad Pitt, to the surprise of approximately four women.

It's the second time the actor has been honored with the coveted title, the first being in 1995. The 36-year-old Pitt's rugged looks and charm have captured the hearts of millions since his big splash in 1991's "Thelma and Louise." More recently, Pitt captured the heart of actress Jennifer Aniston, 31, whom he married in August so much so that the actress has officially changed her name to Jennifer Joanne Pitt, inside.com reports. The "Friends" Emmy nominee was spotted at the Santa Monica Department of Motor Vehicle's office last week, where a clerk spilled the beans. The actress' rep, however, says Anis- SEE BUZZ, PAGE B-11 Ik w(j I if I night of horror that defies explanation. You mean like trying to cross Forbes Avenue in Oakland at rush hour? RonWeiskind, Post-Gazette Movie Editor JAMAICA JAUNT New Kensington resident Gail Ament is missing all the mudslinging of this year's presidential campaign.

She's in Jamaica. As the grand-prize winner in Comedy Central's "Unconventional Convention" sweepstakes, Ament and a guest were selected for a vacation at Swept Away Resort in Jamaica, including air fare, three nights' accommodations and $500 spending money. The sweepstakes was party of Comedy Disney animation experts "Flying" John Culhane and Lock Wolverton will speak at the Engineer's Society of Western Pennsylvania, Downtown, on Monday. Culhane will discuss "The Joy of Animation" from 1 to 4 p.m. He was the emotion-study model for Flying John and Mr.

Snoops in Disney's 1977 animated feature, "The Rescuers." Wolverton, an animator, producer and director, will speak from 6 to 9 p.m. He has worked on "Mu-lan," "Tinkerbell Classic" and other films. Both speakers will address Art Institute students, but the public may also attend. For information: 412-291-6340. (R.S.) Norman NgNBC It's not over yet Darrell Hammond, left, as Vice President Al Gore and Will Ferrell as Texas Gov.

George W. Bush will parody the presidential race in tonight's "Saturday Night Live." The candidates themselves are part of the fun. Review, Page B-9. mm With Election Day three days away, candidates are getting nastier in the name ofupbeat campaigning and giving the American people the truth about their opponents. The Scorpio Institute for Checking Things Out has been tracking the more flagrant charges and slurs, starting with the most recent.

Besides getting nailed for a DUI when he was 30 and only now admitting George W. Bush was nailed for sailing across the Maine-New Hampshire line with a megaphone stuffed with $100 bills and a boatload of University of Texas cheerleaders dressed in nothing but 10-gallon hats. When he by aliens, given a new brain, and returned to Earth with the instructions: "Go, seek, invent the Internet." Ralph Nader is the illegitimate son of a large sycamore tree. Hillary Clinton is having an affair with Osama bin Laden. Bush is so dumb he thinks the three branches of government are the executive, legislative and olive.

Gore will confiscate all guns, put their owners in confiscation camps and force them into slave labor manufacturing long billowy caftans. Bush is so dumb he thinks the capital of China is Beirut. Gore is a vampire who keeps a stash of beautiful victims locked in the basement of the vice presidential mansion. While Clinton played tag with Monica Lewinsky in the Oval Office, Gore played Peeping Tom from the Rose Garden. Hillary is pregnant by Keith Richards.

Gore will require everyone making more than $1 million to give half his salary directly to people living under a bridge, then disclose their phone numbers so the middle class can call them for free financial advice. Pat Buchanan secretly fathered a two-headed baby. Bush parades around his house dressed up as Madonna. Gore gets high sniffing ground coriander. Bush has terminal psoriasis.

Gore keeps a stash of porn in his lock box. Bush is so dumb he flunked crayon class. Max The Eax Dog Sez: A chicken in every pot, a rumor in every spot. was little, Al Gore Gore got tanked with three Viet Cong was Two poetry readings are on tap this weekend. Patricia Dobler, one of the founders of Madwomen in the Attic, the poetry writing workshop at Carlow College, marks the 20th anniversary of the workshop with a reading at 1 p.m.

today at the Carnegie Library, Oakland. Dobler is the author of two poetry collections, "Talking to Strangers" and "UXB," and continues her role as a poetry writing instructor at Carlow. Ed Ochester, poet and editor of the Pitt Poetry Series at the University of Pittsburgh, will read at 7 p.m. tomorrow at St. Vincent College, Latrobe.

St. Vincent and the Masters Poetry Series are sponsors of the reading, which is free, but reservations are suggested. Call 724-836-4085 to reserve a seat. (Bob Hoover) The Association for Women in Communications and the Women's Press Club of Pittsburgh will present a breakfast program on "How the Make-Up of the Supreme Court Affects Me Professionally and Personally" at 8:30 a.m. Thursday at the Engineer's Club, Downtown.

Ken G. Gormley, author, professor of law at Duquesne University and mayor of Forest Hills, and Michael McGough, Post-Gazette editorial page editor, will speak. Cost for members and students is $7.75 and for nonmem-bers is $10. 412-421-9360. (R.S.) Adoring fans.

Magazines that promise interviews on your terms. Sycophants. Ah, the life of the rich and famous. Every once in a while people need to be taken down a peg or two. MADONNA: The superstar has no problem with Britney Spears being called the new Madonna, but "There's a lot more to being Madonna than taking off your clothes, so I hope she can live up to it." First of all, she has to be "like" a virgin, not a real one.

CAMERON DIAZ: The star of "Charlie's Angels" tells TV Guide that she doesn't think her revealing costumes are exploitative: "Any woman who says she doesn't use her feminine abilities at any point in her life to get something she wants probably is not being honest." Don't ask how she got her role. MACAULAY CULKIN: The 20-year-old, who is split from his wife of two years, Rachel Miner, speaks fondly of her: "We love each other no matter what. She taught me a lot about being a man and the responsibilities men have." He needs remedial education. WINONA RYDER: On the heels of her latest critically panned film "Lost Souls," the actress says she's cutting back: "From now on, I want to do maybe one movie a year, if even that." Must be a shortage of bad scripts. BRIAN LITTRELL: The Backstreet Boy tells Launch magazine that the cover of their new album is going to be different: "We decided not to go with the picture on the cover, just to kinda differentiate ourselves once again from the normal picture on the front." So what creative idea do they have for the cover? "The album is titled 'Black and it's just gonna be half black and half blue." How did they ever think of that? sappers at a Saigon NCO Club "Country Western Night." I III TY f-lH Hillary is having an affair with Yassar Arafat.

Bill Clinton and Gore emasculated the military by making it buy all its parts at Wal- Mart, Pep Boys and from Washington Post want ads. Bush is addicted to spice cake and recently spent a week at the Betty Crocker Center. Although he's not running, JFK is still being kept alive in a Dallas hospital. Clinton-Gore sold our nuclear secrets to the Chinese for a can't-miss land deal on the banks of the Yangzte River. i iWiwai i maim) atWfteiB.