Neil Simon

Right now on Channel 21 they're showing The Kennedy Center Presents: Neil Simon. I couldn't name another playwright if you had a Pat's cheesesteak to my head, but ever since I was a kid I've always loved Neil Simon - certainly, it can be said he is the most accessible of the all-time greats, which surely has something to do with it. Neil Simon is a desert-island thing for me.

Which is kinda strange, since here I was a 10 year-old boy in the backwoods of Bumfuck Redneck, USA in the early 80's and I found this collection of plays set in Manhattan in the early 60's, yet I loved these fucking plays and wore them out as I read them over and over. I think I've mentioned it here before, but The Star Spangled Girl is still my all time favorite. But they're all great, including Barefoot in the Park, Come Blow Your Horn, Plaza Suite, The Odd Couple among others. Later on I loved the Brighton Beach trilogy and many others, but I'll always have a special place in my heart for this first batch of plays - both HIS first and my own. I have no idea how I even stumbled upon this first collection; I guess my mother being a librarian might be a clue. Was laying round somewhere I guess.

I remember once in 6th grade we were supposed to write a 3-page play. I lifted line after line from The Star Spangled Girl and Seems Like Old Times, and got so many laughs the class asked me to read it again the next day. Prolly my greatest achievement, after inventing the armpit fart.

He is of such a specific moment in time, which I love. Here's to Neil Simon!