It’s America’s Fastest Growing Party Sensation, AUDIENCE SHOW AND TELL.
Dave goes into the audience and mentions that outside on 53rd Street, we have a bit of the Show and Tell ourselves. It’s the world’s only husband-and-wife human cannonball team. From the Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus, it’s Brian and Tina Miser. They will be shot from a double-barrel cannon. Brian will travel 110 feet through the air; Tina will fly 90 feet. Dave wonders why Brian, the heavier of the two, will go farther? Shouldn’t the lighter Tina soar through the air longer and farther? Dave asks the question; I do a quick search. While I look, Audience Show and Tell takes place. I missed this, but I did see some of it in rehearsal.

AUDIENCE SHOW & TELL #1. Mandy Tartaglia of Freeport, New York.
She is a cinema advertising sales manager. What does Mandy have for us? The lovely young woman once harassed Keanu Reeves for photograph. And she has the photo of her and Keanu.

AUDIENCE SHOW & TELL #2: Michael Capri of Floral Park, New York.
When have we heard of Floral Park before? Yup, Biff visited a Jiffy Lube in Floral Park on Long Island, just outside the Queens border. Michael is a tower operator for New York City subways. What does Michael have for us? He was an extra in Al Pacino’s Carlito’s Way. We see a scene of Al Pacino exiting a subway car and walking through the station. In the background for a split second, we see Michael Capri.

AUDIENCE SHOW & TELL #3: Matthew Scowden of Edinboro, Pennsylvania.
Matthew is an EMT worker and a student of political science. Where is Edinboro? Near Ohio. What can Matthew do? He can chew the top off a soda can. Matthew demonstrates. As with most tricks like this, I wonder about the first time he ever tried this.

My idea: I suggested that if needed, we could have put Brian and Tina Miser, the human cannonballs as part of Audience Show & Tell. They could have had a short Q & A with Dave and explain what they do. They would then go outside and we would go to commercial. We would see the blastoff later in the show after Keri Russell. I was really hoping we would do it this way just to hear Dave ask, “And did you bring a cannon with you?”
- Brian and Tina Miser – the world’s only husband-and-wife cannonball team.
- Their hometown: Peru, Indiana --- Tina is a graduate of Ball State
- They will go from zero to 65 mph in a half-second
- Brian will fly 110 feet --- Tina will fly 90 feet.
- No helmets, pads, or earplugs will be worn.

GREAT MOMENTS IN PRESIDENTIAL SPEECHES:
- We see FDR’s “fear itself” speech
- We see JFK’s “what you can do for your country” speech
- We see George W. Bush listening to a woman complaining about her TV being on the fritz
That really wasn’t a Bush speech at all, was it.
I would like to know why the woman felt the need to tell the leader of the free world about her poor TV reception.

WILL IT FLOAT? Dave explains that before the show, producer Jude Brennan said that long ago, guilt or innocence was determined by whether a person sank or floated.
Sink = innocent.
Float = guilty.
Tonight’s item: a 4 pound, 8 ounce plastic jar of sweet and sour sauce. Dave and Paul both believe it will float, based on its plastic container. The LATE SHOW models drop the 4 pound, 8 ounce jar of sweet and sour sauce into the Will It Float tank and it . . . . . . sinks.

TOP TEN: Signs You’re At a Bad Prom

During the commercial break, I pitched this: ”If you’re just tuning in, the sweet and sour sauce is innocent.

KERI RUSSELL: She’s Felicity. And now she lives in New York City. Dave and Keri talk of her time as Felicity, and about the Dawson’s Creek. She has nothing to do with Dawson’s Creek, but they were on the same WB network. One of Keri first TV jobs was on the new Mickey Mouse Club. She was about 15 at the time. We see a short clip of the “M-I-C --- K-E-Y” song. We see Keri. And I believe we saw Britney Spears earlier in the clip. No mention of it was made. Two girls she met on the show remain her closest friends today. They live in New York and that was a big reason she moved here.
Dave tries to pry out of Keri how her new film, Mission Impossible 3 ends. She won’t budge. Dave guesses a few possibilities but Keri sheds no light. What was it like to work with Tom Cruise? She says she loved working with Tom and was a bit surprised that he wanted to do all his own stunts. And he was good at it! And she felt that if he was willing to do his stunts, she would have to do her own, too. Once scene had them jumping from an 8-story building onto a moving van. Dangerous? It certainly seemed so, but she trusted those in-the-know and knew they wouldn’t kill Tom Cruise, so she felt she was safe.
We see a clip from the Mission Impossible 3 film, which opens May 5th. Is the transmitter turned off? You got to see the movie.

THE HUMAN CANNONBALLS: They are ready to go. Will they be shot from cannon by explosion or hydraulic propulsion? They won’t say; it’s a trade secret. It’s time to go. Tina in the lower barrel; Brian in the one above. The countdown starts from 5. For a split-second, it sounded like something you’d hear at Disneyworld. At zero, the husband-and-wife cannonball team fly through the air; Tina 3/10 of a second behind Brian. The land 100 feet away. I was hoping for a little Evel Knievel “oh my gosh is he OK” finale, but Brian and Tina got up immediately from their landing with a wave and a smile.

ACT 5: slow motion shots of the human cannonballs on 53rd Street.

JERRY LEE LEWIS: singing “Great Balls of Fire.” Look for his CD, “Redemption,” in stores soon. I still remember the first time I heard “Great Balls of Fire.” I was in junior high school at Denise Dooley’s house for Tammy Kladis’ Goodbye Party – 1972. Tammy was moving from Spring Valley to Wingdale, New York. It may not have been the first time I heard it, but it was the first time I felt its excitement.

And that was our show for Friday April 28, 2006. Wahoo EXTRA!

Here’s my reasoning for why the human cannonballs, Brian and Tina, went different distances. First of all, they were shot from a double-barrel cannon. Brian went from the upper barrel; Tina from the lower. This resulted in different trajectories. The force was likely different. There was probably more force behind Brian. I’m guessing that was the main reason for the different distances. And they had to go different distances to prevent them from hitting themselves in the landing. That’s why Tina took off 3/10 of a second after Brian, to avoid a collision.

Earlier I mentioned that Floral Park, Long Island is just outside Queens. I always try to be careful not to assume others are as familiar with a topic as I am. For instance, when talking police work with a civilian, I would make sure I used common language and not “police lingo.” How about my reference to “Queens.” I know that New York City is made up of 5 counties, or boroughs, but do you know that? Do you know the 5 boroughs that make up New York City? This is off the top of my head.
Manhattan Island – New York, New York. The paramecium-shaped island that is the culture center of the world.
Brooklyn: the most populated of the boroughs, and I think the largest (may be Queens.) It borders Long Island and Queens. Also known as Kings County.
Queens – Long Island-ish. – home of the Mets and the airports
Bronx - north and east of Manhattan and south of Westchester – home of the Yankees.
Staten Island – also known as Richmond. Isolated; suburbia.

This is just a very general description of the boroughs of New York.

And during the Audience Show and Tell, we had a guy who chewed the top off a soda can. This talent came in handy back when you needed a can opener to open a can. Remember those days? That was before my drinking days, but I remember my dad would open his Schaeffer can with one hole on one side of the can top (12 o’clock) and two holes on the other side of the can top (6 o’clock). Since the hole in the can was no bigger than a dime, you needed to make another hole on the other side of the can to allow for air to replace the beer removed. I think most people made one hole on each side of the top; my dad made a double-hole in the drinking side to maximize the guzzle. By the time my drinking days arrived, my cans were the pull tab. You would find hundreds of these pull tabs wherever beer drinkers congregated. To simplify my clean-up, I would pull the tab off the can and then drop it inside, making sure not to accidentally swallow it when sipping. I feel a bit silly explaining this but I’m sure many of you are unfamiliar: one side of the can opener opened cans; the other side opened bottles. The twist off tops of a beer bottle came later; probably in the 80s.

And who invented the pull tab pop top? Ermal Fraze. http://www.rustycans.com/zips.html

http://www.bcca.com/history/overview4.php

From one website:

“Even if you've never heard of Ermal Fraze before, there is no doubt you've encountered his work.
Ermal Fraze was an Indiana farm boy, and a Schlitz drinker. He was also an inventor. According to DRT Manufacturing, "In 1949, Ermal (Ernie) Fraze founded Dayton Reliable Tool & Mfg. Co. (now DRT Mfg. Co.) as an independent designer and manufacturer of tool and die components and other manufactured products."
His revolutionary contribution was awarded US Patent 3,349,949 in 1967 for what we commonly call the "pop-top can."

Everything starts with the offensive line. Get that settled and everything else will fall into place.

Looking to make plans? Check out the Fab Faux at Webster Hall in NYC, May 30 and 31st. Get your tickets now.