Lili Von Shtupp has left the stage... one last time

I've had a very odd day today. The discovery of a hairy tumor pushing it's way out of Quint's sailor gut, watching Robogeek enter my room and rusting... Then getting together with a group of friends while they planned out a parody involving my life. Very strange.

SO I come home at about 4:30 in the A.M. Listen to Moriarty rub in the fact that he's seen MAGNOLIA... and I haven't. And ya know... I check my ol email... and as it has happened way too often in my watch here at AICN I have to sit there and watch an email open up to tell me one of my deities has passed on.

Madeline Kahn...

If you asked me... before... what my reaction would have been to Madeline Kahn dying... I might very well of simply stated... Ehhh... I dunno.

I was on the phone to Robogeek... and I just started to choke up and tear. I instantly began going into her numbers from BLAZING SADDLES... "Let's face it folks... Everything below the waist... is Kaput!" and "yaaaa yaaaaaaaaaaaa ya yaaaaaaaaaaaa." And then there "Oh it twue it is twue" And with every memory... every line and second and ion of memory... I cried.

There is literally none other like her... she combined the sternness of Margaret Dumont and the sensuality of Marlene Dietrich with the comic timing of... well... Madeline Kahn. For me... she is and always will be Lili Von Shtupp. I watched the character sing and sing and entertain over and over again with my mother. It was her favorite comedy... and Kahn was her favorite comedienne. She reminds me of the best of Mel Brooks, Gene Wilder and Cleavon Little and Peter Boyle. I can hear her voice and Jim Henson's Kermit... and folks... I can see her in a whole history of roles spread throughout my life.

And.. there was still so much she had to offer. Her career was back in an upswing... she was doing really wonderful work... and friggin cancer has robbed us of another great soul and entertainer and all around human being. She is mourned. Go put on YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN, BLAZING SADDLES, THE MUPPET MOVIE, PAPER MOON or for one last fond memory... Listen to the Gypsy moth in A BUG'S LIFE... she is and shall remain... magical..