Glen here...

MR. BIGGLESWORTH recently attended the taping of Michale Moore's new show, The Awful Truth. As I've got nothing more to say about it, we'll let Mr. Bigglesworth's adventure speak for itself.

Here's what Mr. Bigglesworth had to say:

As a central Illinoisan I'm not exactly in much of a position to find much movie or TV related info. Last night, though, I finally had an opportunity. I saw the first taping of Michael Moore's new show, "The Awful Truth," in Chicago.

The taping experience itself wasn't the greatest. We were in line about an hour before they started letting people through the door. The line was a mess, but there was some general direction to it. There was a front, a back and an in-between... That is, until an usher tried to direct the crowd down a hall, and the line became a chaotic blob.

Somehow we all made it through the line. Then came the metal detectors. I guess they need them to screen out the hitmen sent by GM and Nike. Anyhow, I took off my coat, handed it to the security guard, walked through the metal detector, and my coat was handed back to me on the other side. If I had a gun, I could have just kept it in my coat and it never would have been detected. So much for security.

((Glen Note: Ummmmmmm - Coaxial in no way endorces hiding firearms in apparel which does not get scanned when passing through metal detectors.))

Anyway, I got a primo aisle seat about 5 rows back from the front. And at 8:00, an hour after the taping was scheduled to start, it finally got underway.

Before I comment on the show itself, I'll tell you right now that I'm a HUGE fun of Michael Moore. I'm a bleeding heart liberal that agrees with about 85% of what he has to say. I just thought I'd let you know my bias right off the bat.

The format of the show: Michael talks for a while in front of the microphone in a psuedo-stand up comedy style (similar to the bookstore bits in "The Big One.") After he rants for a while, he introduces a "TV Nation" style sketch, and the audience watches, presumably to serve as the laugh track. There's two of these sketches per show, and a question and answer session from the audience to end the show.

The opening credits are amusing. I won't tell you much about them, other than that they are the only credits I know of that contain the word "vagina."

The highlight of the show is clearly the sketches. Two shows were taped that night.

The first sketch was a contest between rich New Yorkers and working class Pittsburgh-ites to see who were smarter. He asked people on the streets questions such as "what is your zip code" and "how do you change the bag in a vacuum cleaner?" You can guess the results.

Second was the sketch mentioned earlier on your website about the "Sodomobile," A big pink bus full of gay men on a mission to break sodomy laws in every state where they exist, crossing the path of Fred Phelps (the preacher who pickets gay funerals) a few times. This was the funniest bit of the night.

The first bit of the second show was the triumphant return of Crackers, the Corporate Crime Fighting Chicken. Crackers takes a trip to Disney World to try to talk to Mickey Mouse about sweatshop labor in the making of Disney merchandise and the treatment of Disney World workers.

After the bit, Crackers showed up in person (or is that "in bird?"). He came running down the aisle where I was seated, and I reached my hand out for him to give me five. He tried, but he was running, and he missed my hand. Oh well. At least I got to have a "near-Crackers experience."

I don't want to ruin the surprise of the final bit, so lets just say Michael has an interesting way to bring Christmas joy to big tobacco companies.

So will the show be good? That depends on the work that goes on in the editing room. His rants were long. They will need to be cut down quite a bit. Also, I wonder if he was catering to his bleeding-heart audience a little much.

His rants included mention of things that will be over the head of everyone but us leftists, such as the Free-Mumia campaign (If you don't know who Mumia is... that's exactly my point. Most people don't.). But the sketches were put together well, which leads me to believe that he has a good crew that can make this thing work. I know I'll be watching it every week.

Will the show last? I think so. It might not get great ratings, but how good do ratings have to be to make it on Bravo?