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Established 1961 31 Tuesday, October 24, 2017 Lifestyle Fashion TV host Letterman honored with Mark Twain Prize David Letterman was celebrated at the people, and occasionally their pets. “The Kennedy Center Sunday night for his record Johnny Carson show said, ‘Take a break from run on late-night TV, innovative comedy rou- your weird life and watch these famous people tines and for helping the nation start to heal by have fun in show business,’” Mulaney said. reassuring that it was OK to laugh again after “Dave’s show said, ‘Your weird life is just as the terrorist attacks of Sept 11, 2001. Fellow funny as show business.’” entertainers gathered to honor Letterman The 70-year-old Letterman spent 33 years David Letterman is honored with the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor at the Honoree David Letterman does an interview at the where he was receiving the Mark Twain Prize on late-night TV, hosting long-running shows Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts on Sunday in Washington. — AP photos 20th Annual Mark Twain Prize for American for American Humor. on NBC and then on CBS. His final broadcast Humor. Among those in attendance were previous on May 20, 2015, was episode No. 6028 that Mark Twain recipients Steve Martin and Bill Letterman hosted. It shattered the record of his Murray, and late-night host Jimmy Kimmel, who mentor, Carson. On Sunday, comedians Steve style that influenced a generation. His time slot a Velcro-covered wall, sticking in place. He you’re way up there,” he said. “You will be able recalled a monologue Letterman gave on his Martin and Martin Short honored him by immediately following Carson’s “The Tonight turned bizarre characters like Larry “Bud” to walk up to any man or woman on the street, show shortly after 9/11. “You let us know it was needling him about his bushy, white beard. Show” allowed Letterman to draw a huge fol- Melman and Biff Henderson into cult celebrities. take a lit cigar out of their mouth and finish it. OK to move on and OK to laugh again,” “Dave has always had excellent instincts. What lowing of young, largely college-age viewers You’ll be able to board any riverboat in this Kimmel said. “Dave, you led the way for all of better time that seeking an alter- ‘Good Times’ country.” us.” Kimmel jokingly blamed the election of now to choose to native to the Letterman started his career as a radio talk Murray then announced he was hungry President Donald Trump on Letterman’s retire- look like a somewhat staid show host and TV weatherman in Indiana. In and had a burger brought to him on stage. He ment in 2015. Confederate war Carson model. the mid-1970s he moved to Los Angeles, per- then ordered platters of burgers delivered to “It’s like you went out for cigarettes one day general,” Steve Letterman forming stand-up comedy and writing jokes for Letterman’s balcony and cajoled Letterman’s and left us in the hands of our abusive, orange Martin said. You let us know introduced the (at the time more famous) stand-up comic son Harry to toss a pickle to the masses stepfather,” Kimmel said. Speakers included Former First country to fringe Walker of “Good Times” fame. Eventually he below. Letterman ended the evening with a comedians John Mulaney, Amy Schumer and Lady Michelle it was OK to musical acts that caught the eye of “The Tonight Show” and brief speech and a bit of dark humor, saying, Jimmie Walker of the 1970s television series Obama sent in a might never have Carson, performing several times on the show “I kind of wish this award could be presented “Good Times.” Walker gave Letterman one of video tribute and move on, to received an and becoming a regular guest host starting in posthumously.” He thanked the “hundreds his first jobs as a joke writer in Hollywood. Pearl Jam lead opportunity on 1978. and hundreds, perhaps thousands” of people Schumer poked fun at Letterman’s famed repu- singer Eddie laugh again “The Tonight NBC gave Letterman his own show follow- who helped him along the way. He closed tation for grumpiness, saying she performed on Vedder thanked Show.” His humor ing Carson; “Late Night with David Letterman” with a politically tinged quote from Mark his show three times. Letterman for was undeniably debuted on Feb 1, 1982. Letterman’s first guest Twain himself on the subject of patriotism: being a longtime intelligent, but that night? Bill Murray, the Twain award recipi- “Patriotism is supporting your country all the Weird life “friend to music” and performed the song also at times surrealistic and silly. He pioneered ent in 2016. On Sunday, Murray stole the show time and supporting your government when it “By the end of my third appearance, Dave “Keep me in your heart” by the late Warren segments called Stupid Pet Tricks and Stupid with a surreal performance dressed as an deserves it.” — AP was no longer totally indifferent to me,” she Zevon, a Letterman favorite. Letterman’s run on Human Tricks. He tossed watermelons and other Elizabethan-era monarch. Murray said the said. Mulaney credited Letterman’s appeal with NBC in particular was hugely influential, intro- objects off a five-story building; at one point, perks of the Twain award elevate you above his determination to mine humor from ordinary ducing a sardonic, irony-drenched comedic he wore a suit made of Velcro and jumped onto normal humans. “You’re not exactly a god but tional airport for four days as technicians struggled to move the plane, the new museum feels surprisingly spacious. the plane. It was eventually dragged to a disused corner of The business class section of the plane will feature a Nepali pilot the airport where it sat rusting for two years-until pilot Bed model of the Wright Brothers’ first aircraft-the first Upreti had an idea. “It is unfortunate that the aircraft (had) machine to successfully take to the sky — and in the tail an accident and was grounded, but I saw a perfect opportu- there will be a cafe. revives crashed nity,” Upreti said. More than 150 miniature display planes will chart the his- He bought the metal carcass and has invested tory of aviation as well as the story of Nepal’s flying indus- Moustachioed $600,000 to turn it into an aviation museum. Upreti’s first try. Himalayan Nepal is heavily reliant on a network of task was moving the 63-metre plane across the road from domestic air routes to compensate for its limited road net- plane as aviation the airport to the museum’s lot-which proved harder than work, though the country’s airlines have a poor safety expected. He previously brought an abandoned Fokker record. For many in the impoverished country, the airfares Mona Lisa sells 100 — which is about half the size of an Airbus A330 — are also beyond their means. and transported it 500 kilometers to Dhangadi in Nepal’s “It (the museum) will give a chance to some Nepalis museum far west where he also set up a museum, though on a who might never fly to step into a plane,” said engineering for $750,000 smaller scale that this one. student Shyam Rauniyar, 22, who was part of the team that One of Marcel Duchamp’s reproductions of Leonardo A Turkish Airlines plane that crash landed at Kathmandu air- “Transporting that plane across districts was much easier put together the replica of the Wright Brother’s plane. than relocating the Airbus metres away from the airport,” Upreti hopes that the museum will inspire young minds to Da Vinci’s “Mona Lisa”, on to which he penciled a port two years ago will be welcoming ticket holders on beard and moustache, has sold for 632,500 euros board again-not for a flight but as the Nepali capital’s first Upreti said. Working only at night when the airport was become pilots and engineers, and is confident that it will closed, it took a team of engineers from Turkey six weeks to be a hit with visitors. “Passersby are already peeking to ($750,000) at Sotheby’s in Paris. It was part of the aviation museum. The Airbus A330 was carrying 224 pas- sale of a collection of surrealist works owned by sengers when it skidded off the runway at Kathmandu’s air- dismantle the plane into 10 pieces, before loading them onto get a glimpse,” he said. — AFP trucks for the 500 meter journey across the road. American Arthur Brandt, with 110 pieces fetching 3.9 port in March 2015, coming to a stop with its nose buried in million euros, including commission. However, some the grassy verge on the edge of the tarmac. It took another two months to put all the pieces back together. With all the seat stripped out of the belly of standout pieces, including a work by Francis Picabia, No one was hurt, but the crash shut Nepal’s only interna- which was estimated at 700,000 euros, did not find a buyer. Duchamp’s version of the “Mona Lisa” was one of nine works in the sale by the French artist, who is seen as the father of conceptual art. The “Mona Lisa” works are entitled “L.H.O.O.Q”, which in French sounds like the phrase “elle a chaud au cul”, roughly translated as “she’s horny”. It had a pre-sale estimate of 400,000 to 600,000 euros.

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