Monday, April 30, 2007
Scene & Herd The transparency of Ira Glass
Posted by David Lee Simmons on Mon, Apr 30, 2007 at 7:32 PM
As he once again proved Sunday night at his WABE-FM-sponsored appearance at the fairly packed Atlanta Symphony Hall, Ira Glass is a master interloper who revels in counter-intuitiveness. Supposedly cursed with a radio-unfriendly voice — with all its nasally nerdiness and stutters and mumbles — Glass sounds oddly comfortable behind the microphone because he favors naturalness over the predictable stiltedness of the anchorman or reporter in the field. And in a popular culture cursed with short attention spans, “This American Life†succeeds with a winning combination of intimacy and sense of scale for its subjects, offering humor when you expect the somber, and reflection from the seemingly mundane.
When he’s not hosting the popular public-radio program “This American Life†(Sundays at 6 p.m.) or its new Showtime spin-off (which just completed its first season Thursday) and working on various compilations and book projects, Glass often hits the road to promote public radio, “This American Life†and its primary mission: thought-provoking, narrative storytelling that offers surprises and revelations.
So there he was Sunday night, fiddling with possessed CD players and clearly annoyed that his trademark sense of rhythm and pacing (his experience as an editor keeps “TAL†moving at a deceivingly brisk clip) was being challenged. For Glass, though, the challenge becomes the opportunity, as he talked back at the stubborn equipment and used the “dead air†to expand on his self-deprecating demeanor and penchant for digression. “How many of you have never heard of me or ‘This American Life,’†he asked at one point, and was surprised at the number of hands clapping. With a charming grimace, he responded, “I hope you get some sex out of this,†and thanked the newbies for being patient with him.
At various intervals, he played clips from the show to illustrate a particular “TAL†nuance, like how his producers left in a contributor’s initial shocked reaction to the devastation she witnessed in coastal Mississippi after Hurricane Katrina to give her piece a more personal feel.
He seemed obsessively conscious of the clock, asking at one point, “How are we for time?†and muttered some anxiety about babysitters working overtime. So maybe that’s why there were a few stumbles: In an interview, he’d half-promised he’d talk about the ridiculousness of the Federal Communications Commission’s regulation policies. (He more than made up for it during the Q&A session in answer to audience member’s question by playing an old essay from David Sedaris about discovering a formidable turd in the toilet of a friend’s bathroom during an Easter dinner — a clip that would be banned today by the FCC. And, at the beginning of the evening he promised to bring out WABE’s recently hired news director, Mike Fields (like Glass, a former NPR newsman) to talk about the good old days, but left the stage before Fields could come out.
His conclusion instead came in the form of a retelling of the famous 1,001 nights fable about King Shahryar and his bride Scheherazade, and how her capacity for storytelling not only saved her life but also cured the cuckolded king of his madness. It was all to explain the life-affirming value of storytelling, and if it bordered on the portentous— that rare “TAL†flaw — you could hear a pin drop as he turned the knob on the CD player, the volume rising of an acoustic flourish that so often underscores the final thoughts on a segment of the program.
The CD player complied. The volume rose. The music played. Glass delivered his punctuating punchline, the audience replied with a standing ovation, and he sauntered off the stage.
Ira Glass kills. Again.
P.S.
For those who may or may not have read my piece in last week’s CL and/or missed Sunday’s show, here’s some stuff that bears mention:
* While Showtime announced a couple weeks ago that it was renewing “TAL†for a second season (without first checking with the show’s producers, Glass sheepishly noted Sunday), the two sides are still trying to work out the production schedule. Glass says he and his crew were exhausted trying to juggle the TV and radio gigs, and the result was only 17 new shows in 2006 compared to the regular 26. Glass maintains hope that Showtime will be more accommodating so that he and his staff can get at least closer to the number of original programs.
* Glass reports that the TV show reached about half the audience that the radio program reaches (about 1.7 million listeners each week). He marveled at how, despite cable television’s reputation, it doesn’t do nearly as well as public radio. Interesting.
* And for those who believe “TAL†is one of public radio’s top-rated programs, Glass noted that the 1.7 million listeners put the program in the middle of the pack compared to programs like “All Things Considered†(about 12 million listeners) or even “Fresh Air†(about 4.4 million) and “Car Talk†(ditto).
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