The king of observational humour has led a relatively quiet – if still phenomenally lucrative – life since his eponymous television show went off the air 12 years ago (except for a recent spat with Lady Gaga: he called her a “jerk” in June after she flipped the bird to a Mets fan at one of his beloved team’s home games). Seinfeld, winner of a Golden Globe award and three American Comedy Awards, has decided not to follow the trail of broken dreams of ex-sitcom stars into second TV acts, focusing instead on his stand-up comedy career. Between June 2009 and June 2010, Seinfeld earned US$75 million, making him the highest-paid comedian during that period. Aug. 19 and 20, Queen Elizabeth Theatre, ticketmaster.ca
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Long before “reality” became a staple of broadcast television, there was Allan King, the master Canadian documentarian who died last year at 79. King, a Vancouver native, was widely considered at the vanguard of the 1960s cinéma-vérité movement, with films that shied away from interviews, music, narration or sound effects. His unflinching treatment of a crumbling marriage in 1969’s A Married Couple is the focus of SFU professor Zoë Druick’s new book, which examines the film in the context of late 1960s culture and the influence it has since had on documentary filmmaking. CTV originally commissioned the piece but backed out fearful of “excessive nudity and obscenity” – a quaint concern given the anything-goes ethos of today’s reality TV. August, University of Toronto Press, utppublishing.com
“I’m all out of love, I’m so lost without you” – and probably, we suspect, all out of royalty cheques too. Air Supply, the pride of Sydney, Australia, was all over MOR radio in the early 1980s, with mega-mush classics such as “All Out of Love,” “The One That You Love” and “Even the Nights Are Better.” Today, if you’re really lucky, you can still find these titles buried in a beer-stained karaoke catalogue somewhere. The duo of Graham Russell and Russell Hitchcock, now both in their 60s, are back with a new record, “Mumbo Jumbo,” and touring the world to support it. The world, thankfully, includes Victoria, their only B.C. stop. Royal Theatre, August 7, rmts.bc.ca
