So our friend Jesse Merlin, a/k/a Mister Merlin (as he's best known to former disciples of jackassworld.rip and discerning ornithologists with an eye for well pecked wood), is part of an ensemble cast in a theatrical "musical comedy" presentation of Sketches From the National Lampoon that is currently running in Los Angeles, CA, and can be seen front-center-and-Roman in the above publicity shot.
If the "National Lampoon" aspect of the title sounds vagely familiar that's because it's the outfit that has been sowing tasteless, offensive seeds since the '70s, when National Lampoon first started out as a humor* magazine, then broke out big-time (hmm... parallels anyone?) with feature films such as Animal House, National Lampoon's Vacation
, the Griswalds' subsequent European Vacation
and Christmas Vacation
and, of course, the landmark TV: The Movie
, and now it's on the stage with musicial comedy overtures and sketch-based vignettes that are loud and in your face with irrepressible, frothy spurts of bad taste.
Sketches From the National Lampoon runs through March 17th at the Hayworth Theater at 2511 Wilshire Blvd., balls deep in Koreatown.
* That's "humour" to all you aluminium sniffing, tea baggers out there.
