Alan Ilagan

Last month, before we attended the Carol Burnett show at Proctor’s, Andy and I had dinner at the Bangkok Bistro in Schenectady for the first time. Friends of mine have been recommending it for a while, and we finally got to see why.

The above is their “Schenectady-tini” – a name which doesn’t quite roll as easily off the tongue as the drink does down the throat. It’s basically a pear martini, and a pretty potent one at that.

But the big hit for me was this pad Thai, which I don’t order as much as I should.

If you’re in the area, or seeing a show at Proctor’s, this is worth a stop. The food was amazing, there’s a full bar up front, and a sushi bar in the back.

Last night Andy and I attended the Carol Burnett show at Proctor’s. I got the tickets last year for Andy’s birthday since he has loved her forever. I went with him because marriage is about compromise, and I wanted to see what balcony box seats were like. (I did not, contrary to some predictions, wave grandly to the crowd a la Eva Peron, but it did take all the self-control I had.)

To be honest, I’ve never been a huge Carol Burnett fan. It’s not that I don’t like her, she’s just never registered on my comedic radar. Re-runs of the show were on the television in the background of my childhood, but I was too young to get all the innuendo, and too inexperienced to follow the pop-culture references. (If you’ve never seen Gone With The Wind or Scarlett O’Hara, how can you possibly get the curtain rod dress?)

I also do not find physical comedy that funny, and from what little I recall of her variety show, there was a lot of physical comedy. I prefer humor in the same vein as my martinis – bone dry and stylishly sophisticated.

That said, she has an undeniable comedic legacy, and I’ve always liked her immensely as a person, so it’s not like I had to sit through some grating performance by Pantera (opening for Skid Row circa 1991 at the Glens Falls Civic Center – yeah, I was there.) And the format of the show was intriguing – Ms. Burnett spent the majority of time answering questions from the audience, which was always the most interesting part of her show.

I think a big part of her appeal, both comedic and otherwise, comes from her genuine warmth as a person. You watch her and want her to do well, so you forgive some of the mainstream material that might not be so funny in the hands of someone else.

One thing I’ll never get is that jungle scream. I’m sure there’s a story and explanation behind it, but without knowing that, it’s all just senseless screaming to these ignorant ears. That said, I came away from the show liking her even more (and now I actually get all the film references, thank you Norma Desmond via Andrew Lloyd Webber.)