Close Encounters Of A Michael Silverblatt Kind

Let me set the scene for you: A lovely street cafe in Los Angeles. Clear blue skies. Three people sitting outside enjoying a lunch filled with hearty laughs, dark insidious secrets, literary gossip, plaintive begging for a spot in a prominent local reading series...good cheer up the ass, basically. Conversation turns to Bookworm, the popular literary program on NPR hosted by Michael Silverblatt. Knoweledge of my great impression of Silverblatt is discussed. We now join the program already in progress...

Me: Yes, it's true. I do a great Silverblatt impression. In fact, when I'm on Pinky's Paperhaus in June, I fully intend to interview myself as Silverblatt.

Woman 1: No!

Woman 2: Oh, for sure, you don't know Tod. He'll do it.

Woman 1: You have to let me hear you do it. Do it about me.

Me: Okay. Woman 1, in your transcendent novel, you touch on the sense that life is both a meditation on human sadness and...sadness...itself...a meditation on that life of what I consider to be a philospher of unequal...compare...and...sadness, alike my first experience with a prostitute in Spain, who, with her words, made me feel as if...I'd...meditated, in fact, found middle, and by middle I mean only the center of...love. True?

Woman 1: Yes! Oh my god!

Woman 2: I told you.

Me: Look, I just go out and give 110% and put the rest of my faith in Jesus and...

Because my imitation is such a hit, and because if one has the ability to sound reasonably like Michael Silverblatt, it's incredibly fun to say just about anything in the voice, I continue imitating the man for the better part of an hour. It remains quite a bit of fun until Woman 1 gets up to use the restroom and realizes, when he says hello to her (they know each other), that Michael Silverblatt is approximately 10 feet away.

If anyone asks, my name is Gregg Hurwitz.

Comments

[kitty]

HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA !!!!!!!

[kitty]

So, are you still going to interview yourself as Silverblatt on Pinky's?

[Dean]

Heh! (that's a genuine belly-heh).

You set that up well. I'll try to pick up Pinky's Paperhaus just so I can hear how Michael Silverblatt sounds.

[SKL]

Once upon a time, when I still wanted to be a NYC theater producer, I had house seats to ANNIE GET YOUR GUN. I was telling my date horrible, gossipy, mean stories about Barry and Fran Weissler, the producers, for most of intermission. After the show, an older lady tapped me on the shoulder. I turned around to see she was sitting with a small boy. "How did you like the show?" she asked me, and then introduced herself as Mrs. Weissler. She AND HER GRANDSON had been sitting behind me the entire time.

[kitty]

OMG! Talk about being mortified!

[Carolyn]

The question now becomes, Can Michael Silverblatt do a decent Tod Goldberg? Or can he do Tod Goldberg doing Michael Silverblatt?

[Leora Skolkin-Smith]

Having just had a strange encounter with Michael Silverblatt about my work this was precious. It was great to laugh. thanks.