Can someone tell me about Woody Allen?
Who is Woody Allen? I’ve of course heard about him, but I want a different answer than something I could easily look up on Google, and that is too easy anyway. I heard today that he married his stepdaughter, (weird) and now I just want to know more about him.
Observing members:
0
Composing members:
0
25 Answers
Author, Director, Screenwriter, Stand-up comedian, contributor to the New Yorker magazine, focused on New York and Jewish humor, widely excoriated for having married one of his former wife’s adopted children, but now that years and years have passed and they are still happily married, some reasonable people are beginning to understand that it was their business all along.
@pdworkin
”...some reasonable people are beginning to understand that…”
Ad Hominem?
While I wouldn’t have done what he did, it probably isn’t any of my business. That’s between him, Ms Farrow and his now-wife.
I saw him shoot a scene from Celebrity late one night in TriBeCa on Franklin Street. He was directing Kenneth Branagh at the time. He knows exactly what he wants in a scene. And he will shoot until he gets what he wants. He was starting to get a little testy, IIRC, when Branagh wasn’t giving him what he wanted. It wasn’t that he shouted or anything like that, but you could feel the tenseness and people looking at each other.
It was a very instructive ½ hour for me as a storyteller, and all I was doing was walking to the 1 train from my friend’s house and there they all were. A fantastic “only in New York” moment.
I watched from about 15 -20 feet away from the camera and I feel so lucky that no one shooed me away. I didn’t have the nerve to get too close or say anything to him. I also saw him getting an ice cream with one of his sons on the West Side, as well, a couple of years after the scandal. People were giving him a very wide berth on the street.
He plays clarinet on Thursday nights in a club in Manhattan – free, but there was a two drink minimum. He’s a good amateur and plays there for fun. Look it up – I forget the club’s name – it’s been a while. Maybe he doesn’t do it anymore.
He plays at Michael’s Pub.
@aprilsimnel
@Zen_Again
@pdworkin
That’s awesome that you have seen him. I live in a really small town; is it normal to see celebrities just walking around and stuff?
Yes, a few times. It’s not for excitable Allen fans. He just plays fairly decent Dixieland with a nice group, gets up, and leaves without fanfare.
At the interestingly named @smartfart11 – it’s normal to see celebs in NEW YORK FUCKIN NEW YORK – the place so nice they named it twice.
Most celebrities who do reside in New York do so precisely because they can be let alone like they would be in LA, but it’s not “The Industry” all the live long day as LA is.
He has an annoying voice, and he’s not very funny…?
@cheebdragon :O – Do yourself a favour and read Without Feathers. Also, get (download?) his stand up from the 60–70’s.
@cheebdragon I think he is a comic genius. De gustibus non disputandem est.
His humor is very Jewish New York. His characters kind of drone on about life and its ironies, and trials.
If you’re interested in his film work I recommend Purple Rose of Cairo, Annie Hall, Manhatten Murder Mystery, and Shadows and Fog.
He is brilliant and neurotic. He is one of a kind. He is the uber New York Jew. He writes for the New Yorker because he thinks and speaks like the New Yorker. His real name is Allen Konigsberg. He broke into show business at the age of 15 as a joke writer. He tends to put himself in his movies as a thinly disguised, neurotic version of himself. He has won 3 Oscars, 83 other awards, and has been nominated for 86 more awards that he did not win. And yes, he married his ex-partner’s adopted daughter, Soon-Yi Previn, 12 years ago, which is longer than he has stayed together with anyone else.
His neuroses include: arachnophobia (spiders), entomophobia (insects), heliophobia (sunshine), cynophobia (dogs), altophobia (heights), demophobia (crowds), carcinophobia (cancer), thanatophobia (death), misophobia (germs). He also admits to being terrified of hotel bathrooms.
I liked some of his early movies very much: Bananas (1971), Play It Again, Sam (1972), Sleeper (1973) and Annie Hall (1977).
“I don’t want to achieve immortality through my work. I want to achieve it by not dying.” – Woody Allen
“I was in to bestiality, sado-masochism, and necrophilia, but I realized I was just beating a dead horse.”
Answer this question 
Composing members:
0
