Brother Theodore

[porphyry]

Brother Theodore was probably the best commedian since...well, Aristophanes (Shakespeare has too much of New Comedy about him for my taste). Unfortunately his dialogues were very little filmed. The best film clip I am aware of was on the David letterman show in 1983, in which he uses the philosophy of Fitznan Bokanovsky (a colleague of Immanual Quatschkopf) to argue against the need to eat. This has rectly been posted to YouTube:

Comments

[leopold-paula-b.livejournal.com]

Brilliant! Thank you for introducing.(But I also love New Comedy.)

[benicek.livejournal.com]

I wonder if members of the Breatharain cult saw this and took it literally.

[malkhos.livejournal.com]

Oh, I doubt it. This is simply a single doctrine of Quadrapedalim, Theordore's belief that mankind is by nature a four-footed animal,a nd that true happiness and well-being can only come from re-adopting that posture, along with a few corrolaries such as not eating..

[siamhussein.livejournal.com]

Ever since I saw the original broadcast, the line "I live on the scent of daffodils" has been with me. It was not even extinguished by the fact of meeting Theodore years later, in a rat-infested theatre in West Village. I had the pleasure of knowing his stage manager and co-conspirator, Tom. This was a lifetime ago. And yet I still miss Theodore and wish very much he were still in the world.

I am often so full of butcherous thoughts. And it is true. THEY WON'T COME HOME, THEY CAN'T COME HOME, for we have torn their legs off and eaten them.

[malkhos.livejournal.com]

I have almost that whole speech memorized. But the one time I was in New York was in the Summer when he was not performing.

[malkhos.livejournal.com]

You met him? What was that like--meaning, is what we see a stage persona or did he act like that in person? Also, did he spray spittle all over you when he talked to you?