Dave Barry to Judge Robert Benchley Society Award for Humor

by Horace J. Digby

FEBRUARY 23, 2006, BOSTON -- Dave Barry, Pulitzer Prize winning humorist, author of the New York Times best seller, Dave Barry's Money Secrets, and life-long fan of Robert Benchley, has agreed to judge finalist entries in the 2006 Robert Benchley Society Award for Humor competition sponsored by the Robert Benchley Society.

"We're looking for the next Robert Benchley," said David Trumbull, chairman of the Robert Benchley Society, and Dave Barry, America's leading Humorist, has agreed to help."

"If you have a funny bone and can write, you can be a part of it. All you have to do is write a short original article (500 words or less), in the style of Robert Benchley and send it to the Robert Benchley Society, no later than April 15th. We and Dave Barry will do the rest," Trumbull said.

The Robert Benchley Society, a not-for-profit organization, was founded in Boston, Massachusetts in 2003. It has since grown to include members in several countries. Information about the Society may be found at http://www.robertbenchley.org/.

Robert Benchley (Grandfather of Peter Benchley who wrote Jaws ) rose to fame as a leading humorist in the 1920s writing for Harvard Lampoon, The New Yorker, Vanity Fair, where he shared an office with Dorothy Parker, Life magazine, and as a humor columnist for the Hearst Newspapers. Benchley was also notorious as a member of the Algonquin Round Table. Today's leading humorists, including Dave Barry, Woody Allen, Bob Newhart, Russell Baker, and Steve Martin, gratefully acknowledge Robert Benchley's influence on their work. http://nrbench.home.mindspring.com/ http://www.answers.com/topic/robert-benchley

It is easy to find quotations by Barry extolling Benchley as his humor hero.
"Robert Benchley is my idol," Barry told The Writer Magazine. "I've been reading him since I was a kid, and still return to his essays regularly for inspiration." http://www.writermag.com/wrt/default.aspx?c=a&id=850

In an interview for Time Magazine, Barry told Jeff Chu that the biggest influence, by far, on his humor, besides his mother was Robert Benchley. "I always wanted to write like him . . ." Barry said. http://www.iaisnd.com/archivednews.cfm?id=533
In a review of Nathaniel Benchley's book, The Benchley Round Up, Barry said, "My favorite book is any collection of the columns of the great Robert Benchley. My dad had a bunch of Benchley books around the house when I was a boy, and I read them voraciously - that's when I realized I wanted to be a humor writer." http://www.readersclub.org/reviews/tresults.asp?id=2353
Barry's own website, http://www.davebarry.com/, ranks the influences on the Dave Barry style of humor in the following order: 1) his parents, especially his mom; 2) Robert Benchley; and 3) Mad Magazine. http://www.davebarry.com/faq_for_students.html
The Annenberg Media Foundation quotes Barry as saying, "The guy who made me laugh the most of all is dead. Is Robert Benchley. I always wanted to be like Robert Benchley. Um, not in the sense of being dead. I'd like to be Robert Benchley, but not dead." http://www.learner.org/catalog/
extras/interviews/dbarry/db02.html

Horace J. Digby, the 2005 Robert Benchley Society Award for Humor winner, has a story remarkably similar to Dave Barry's.

"I found my first Benchley book in my parents attic. I was eight years old, pretending to be too sick to go to school. I never knew adults wrote books like that. It was love at first sight. I read it over and over. That's when I knew I wanted to be a humor writer when I grew up, just like Robert Benchley," Digby said.

While Dave Barry and Horace J. Digby both spent their lives wanting to be like Benchley, it seems that for many today, Robert Benchley is considered "The Dave Barry of his day." http://www.answers.com/topic/robert-benchley



Here is how Mike Gerber, a Robert Benchley fan and best selling author of Barry Trotter and the Shameless Parody, put it. "Benchley’s stylistic influence has probably been greater than any other American humorist . . . Benchley-esque offhandedness is almost a prerequisite of writing humor in American English. He’s the Dave Barry of a more literate—and thoughtful—era. " http://www.mikegerber.com/CoreCollection.html

For more information about Robert Benchley and how you can win the 2006 Robert Benchley Society Award for Humor, go to http://www.robertbenchley.org/ or http://www.lexingtonfilm.com/barrytojudge.htm.


ROBERT BENCHLEY SOCIETY 2006 HUMOR WRITING COMPETITION OFFICIAL RULES AND DEADLINES:
Entries may be submitted by mail, postmarked on or before APRIL 15, 2006, to:
The Robert Benchley Societyc/o David Trumbull130 Bowdoin St., #1110 Boston, Massachusetts 02108.
or by E-mail on or before APRIL 15, 2006 as attached MS Word document with "Benchley Writing Completion in subject line of E-mail to david@robertbenchley.org
Entries must be: 1) Original; 2) Benchleyesque (in the sense of reflecting the Benchley style and humor); 3) Not more than 500 words in length (times height times width); 4) In the English language, such as it is these days; 5) All of the above; 6) Accompanied by a large number of small unmarked bills (optional).

All judging will be done in accordance with WBC rules: 1) There is no standing 8 count and no 3 knockdown rule; 2) Fighter can be saved by the bell in the last round only; 3) A 10 point must system is in effect; 4) Accidental head butt goes to the scorecard after the fourth round. 5) None of the above; 6) Officers and family members of officers of the National RBS, and judges are excluded;

PLEASE NOTE, The first page of the entry shall include ONLY the name, address, and other contact information for the entrant; the essay shall appear on the following page(s) with NO NAME OR OTHER IDENTIFYING INFORMATION.

The top four finalist entries will be ranked 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th by finalist judge, Dave Barry, who has agreed to provide his comments regarding the top four entries.

Winners will be announced in June of 2006, by the Robert Benchley Society

The Robert Benchley Society Award for Humor is sponsored by the Robert Benchley Society, David Trumbull Chairperson.
http://www.robertbenchley.org/
For more information contact: lolalane@lexingtonfilm.com

Partisan Politics

by Horace J. Digby

Last year I joined a group of humor columnists. We meet somewhere cyber space (no parking meters to feed).

This fellowship, of writers who had abandoned all forms of honest work, promised great benefit to the members friends and families. To the extent they had not already abandoned us, our loved ones would enjoy a respite from our continuing struggle to improve the "knock knock joke," as we Knights of this Algonquin Round Table in cyber-space verbally joust with each other instead of with them.

Recently there has been a change of tempo of this brave little Camelot. Some members are posting aggressively rancorous diatribes in support of various political beliefs.

At first it was amusing that established humor columnists could totally miss the irony of arguing over the insanity of our national political system. Sure, we are on the brink of disaster. Sure we all need to support our president, right or wrong. Sure our president lacks the oratory skills of say, Winston Churchill and the literary skills of Homer (or for that matter Homer Simpson), but these are the facts. It falls on the humorist to make fun of these facts. Let others deny they exist, or try to spin them into fool's gold.

It was bad enough when our Supreme Court became partisan. They preside over our nation's highest court of law. But humor columnists have a higher calling. They preside over our nation's highest court of public opinion.

Art Buchwald, who, according to the flyleaf on one of his books, spent decades chronicling our leaders' foibles, "in the elegant tradition of Oscar Wild and Snoopy," was asked where he got ideas for his columns.

"I steal them from the newspapers," Buchwald admitted, ". . . whatever is on the front pages is far funnier than anything I could possibly make up."

When I worked in communications for a major corporation I was asked to photograph ceremonies surrounding installation of a new American Flag at their corporate headquarters. Cultural conditioning and lack of experience as a photographer nearly caused me to join in the flag salute. Fortunately it occurred to me that if I saluted the flag, there would have been no one to record the image of our corporate president, our chairman of the board and whoever that fellow was in the expensive top coat, with hands over their hearts, observing that solemn but joyous ceremony (and photo op).

Humor columnists, like photographers, must observe and to report what they see. If we join in the ceremony or become part of the photo op, who will record the image?

The United States is a bold experiment in self leadership. Our founding fathers knew this. They also knew it would work best if we all remained mindful of our own shortcomings and those of our chosen leaders. Men like Franklin, Lincoln, Kennedy and Reagan realized that the sharpest arrow in their quiver was often their sense of humor. These men led our nation in war and in peace, with a clear eye, and with the honesty to laugh at life's perplexing ironies, even when those irony pointed at themselves or their most cherished beliefs.

We, as humorists, should do the same. We should learn from this lesson. We, as Americans, can not afford to let Art Buchwald down.

-- Horace J. Digby

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