From the big screen to the stage

Harry Basil is back, and it's about time. Having a movie cohort like Basil here is like attending the Oscars - and pray that they do happen, after all.

His comedy act also mirrors his love for movies, re-creating scenes with wardrobe changes and lines as if the movie were on the big screen instead of onstage. Some of Harry's memorable scenes include both classic and not-so-classic films, from Tom Cruise's tribute to jockey shorts in "Risky Business" to Barbra Streisand's candlelit ballad to the father in "Yentl" to the dance scene in "Flashdance" - and many others. Sort of ironic, too, since Basil lampoons the industry where he works: writing, producing and directing.

Basil owes a lot of his film career to a man who never received respect: the late, great Rodney Dangerfield. It was Dangerfield who first took note of his talent, giving him a role in HBO's "Young Comedians Special." Would you believe that Basil soon would be co-writing and co-producing Dangerfield in movies? Dangerfield vehicles such as "Ladybugs," "Meet Wally Sparks" and "My 5 Wives" put Basil on the film industry map. Basil appeared in two of the three films and worked closely with director Sidney Furie and Peter Baldwin in all three.

I first recognized him on the big screen though way back when he was in the Nicolas Cage-Kathleen Turner movie "Peggy Sue Got Married." He's also starred in the movies "Martians Go Home" and "The Seventh Sign" with Demi Moore. Harry is also quite adept at directing horror movies, too, with cult favorites "Soul's Midnight" and the recent "Fingerprints," which won him Best Feature at the New York Horror Film Festival. The movie's trailer on YouTube received so many hits that it shut down from overuse. Basil did a killer job directing the movie, about a young woman (Leah Pipes) fresh out of rehab who moves back in with her parents and sister (Kristin Cavallari) before all hell breaks loose: literally.

Kristin is hot, too, I must add.

Basil's second, "The 4th Tenor," a romantic opera comedy, is still one of my favs because it stars Harland Williams and Dangerfield, along with actors Dennis Quaid, Kirstie Alley and a host of others.

Basil has worked on stage with the likes of Chuck Berry, the Beach Boys, Liza Minnelli, the Pointer Sisters and Julio Iglesias.



Veteran Connolly reporting for duty

Working with James P. Connolly is like working with several greats in the business: He's sort of a cross between a young Steve Martin and a Ted Baxter with Bobby Darin thrown in.

Connolly was first runner-up in the annual San Francisco International Stand Up Comedy Competition and a finalist in the Boston Comedy Festival. He always does great at comedy festivals, too - even though his last names gets misspelled probably more than mine ever does.

He's been on Comedy Central, the Jerry Lewis telethon, Ed McMahon's "The Next Big Star" and has been host of VH-1's "Movie Obsessions," and so many others I forget to list them because it's almost like name-dropping, and who wants that? Seriously, though, if you ask James his proudest achievement, it is entertaining our troops in Iraq: not just once and during the offseason, but over Thanksgiving and Christmas. He has a unique take, too, because Lt. James P. Connolly of the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force out of Camp Pendleton is a veteran of Operation Desert Storm.

It was the first Persian Gulf war that launched Connolly's comedy career. While en route to the Persian Gulf in 1991, Lt. Connolly was asked to write one-liners skewering fellow officers for a dinner roast hosted by his commanding officer.

"The next day, I was called into his office, and I assumed I had crossed the line. I was bracing for an ass chewing. Instead, I found the colonel laughing and asking me for suggestions on how to deliver the jokes."

Not too many comics can attest to poking fun of a superior officer and getting high praise for it. After watching the colonel's success, Connolly knew he wanted to perform when his tour of duty was up, and soon he traded in his M-16 for a microphone, barnstorming across Iraq before entertaining civilians here back home. He still makes regular performances and loves it when an opportunity to entertain his old battalion comes up.

When not overseas, Connolly performs regularly in Las Vegas, Los Angeles, New York, and at The Improv and Catch A Rising Star.

Entertainment bookers have called him "an extraordinary talent" and "funny, quick and fresh as any comedian around today," and he has made TV appearances on Comedy Central, HBO, FOX, PAX, UPN, SiTV, the Jerry Lewis Labor Day telethon and many others.

Connolly recently performed with the "Comics On Duty World Tour" at military bases around Washington, D.C. His other credits include commercials, theater, voice-over and headlining engagements across the country.