#Studio 54 busboy

[steven-myself]

"54" - Adel Bouteldja photographed by Baldovino Barani for FACTORY Fanzine

[pinerbill]

Studio 54 busboy

It attracted many heterosexual luminaries as well as such gay and bisexual men as Truman Capote, Roy Cohn, Salvador Dalí, Divine, Bob Fosse, Halston, Mick Jagger, Rick James, Elton John, Calvin Klein, Karl Lagerfeld, Yves Saint-Laurent, Francesco Scavullo, Valentino, and Andy Warhol.Īrtists who made live appearances included frequent patrons Grace Jones and Donna Summer as well as Sylvester, James Brown, Gloria Gaynor, and the Village People. Well-built bartenders and busboys dressed in gym shorts and sneakers added to the sexual energy of the music and crowd. Special effects included fluttering fabric flames, floating aluminum strips, neon wheels, strobe lights, and the legendary animated Man in the Moon with a Cocaine Spoon sculpture. At capacity, the club could accommodate 2,000 patrons with a 5,400 square-foot dance floor and 85-foot high ceilings. The club was known for its velvet rope door policy where Rubell hand selected guests ranging from unknowns to high-profile gay, bisexual, and straight celebrities. Among the design team were many gay men that included architect Scott Bromley and those who later died of AIDS: interior designer Ron Doud, sound designer Richard Long (also for the Paradise Garage), and graphic designer Gil Lesser (known for his award-winning poster for “Equus”). Studio 54 was transformed into a disco in six weeks with a modest investment of $400,000. They were inspired after visiting Le Jardin at 110 West 43rd Street (in the basement of the now-demolished Diplomat Hotel), a gay nightclub that became one of the first to blur the line between gay, bisexual, and straight spaces. Rubell and Schrager wanted to create a new nightclub that replicated the energy of New York’s gay clubs, which were more dance oriented and sexually charged. The two sold the business in 1980 and the club soon reopened operating until 1986, but without the glamour of its heyday.īy 1976, discomania was sweeping the nation with over 8,000 dance clubs throughout the country. Legendary nightclub Studio 54, the brainchild of Brooklyn-born Steve Rubell and Ian Schrager, operated here during its first incarnation from April 1977 to February 1980. It became the Casino de Paris nightclub in 1933, the New Yorker Theater again in 1939 under the Federal Theater Project of the Works Progress Administration, and was a CBS television studio from 1942 to 1972. There was one production here with LGBT associations – Rainbow (1928), with singer/actor Libby Holman. Opened as the Gallo Opera House in 1927, it was foreclosed after the stock market crash in 1929, and became the New Yorker Theater.

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Busboy at Studio 54, 1979

[the-golden-purple-box]

Margaret Trudeau and a busboy of Studio 54

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Check out this listing I just added to my Poshmark closet: The Trident Sausalito, “Summer Of Love Forever” T-shirt, Black, M, Rare, History.

[dislocatedskeleton]

A busboy and a patron about to make out at Studio 54 by Tod Papageorge, 1978

[brooklynmuseum]

Join us for a preview of Studio 54: Night Magic—the first museum exhibition devoted to one nightclub.  Enter and Sparkle! Virtual tour created by Matthew Yokobosky, Senior Curator of Fashion and Material Culture. 

SETTING:  NYC in the 1970s was rundown, almost bankrupt, and in need of escapism.  Because rents were low though, many artists and musicians flocked to the city.  It was during this time that three genres of music emerged: punk, hip-hop and especially disco.

THE CREATORS:  Two Brooklyn-born entrepreneurs Ian Schrager (right)  and Steve Rubell (left) created Studio 54 in 1977, the same year the I Love (insert red heart) New York campaign began and Saturday Night Fever was released--together they helped to re-brand NYC.

THE PLACE:  The building at 254 West 54th Street first opened in 1928 as the Fortune Gallo Opera House, became a CBS television studio for three decades (What’s My Line), and in 1966 “The Velvet Underground and Nico” album, produced by Andy Warhol, was recorded here at Scepter Studios..  

DECOR: In 1977, the designer Ron Doud and lighting wizards Jules Fisher and Paul Marantz transformed the theater/soundstage into a discotheque--replacing the stage with a dancefloor but keeping the balcony for viewing, and so that everyone could be seen and become a star for that moment. Voyeuristic architecture.

LOGO and MUSIC:  LIFE magazine art director #GilbertLesser with Schrager created the iconic tilted 54 logo—one of the most widely recognized logos of the ‘70s.  Later, 54 became the cover of the double-album “A Night at Studio 54”, mixed by DJ Roy Thode.  Along with the album, Thode’s custom headphone, original reel-to-reel recordings,  and “beats-per-minute” bible are also on display.  Each gallery of the exhibition has a soundtrack based on original Studio 54 mixes.

OPENING NIGHT:  On  April 26, 1977, The Alvin Ailey Dance Company performed to a disco soundtrack, with choreography by Kay Thompson and costumes designed by the legendary illustrator Antonio Lopez for Fioirucci.

WHO GOT IN:  Studio 54 soon became a must-see destination for celebrities, fashion designers, and New York’s most interesting residents--as doorman Marc Benecke described: “people who could bring energy to the room”.   

One such person was performance artist Richard Gallo, who wore outrageous costumes designed by Phillip Haight and Ronald Kolodzie. 

BUSBOYS: Kolodzie was also the designer of the “eye-catching” busboy uniforms composed of  satin shorts one size too small, knee-high tube socks and sneakers. Many photographs in the exhibition are by @miestorm1 who himself was a busboy known as “Lenny 54”.

STARS:  The exhibition features over 650 works, including twenty original paintings by Richard Bernstein of Studio 54 regulars featured on Interview magazine covers.  Studio hosted the 10th Anniversary Party on June 7, 1979.

DIVERSITY:  Truman Capote on The David Susskind Show, February 1979:   Studio 54-- “Its everything the way it ought to be.  Its very democratic.  It’s all kinds of colors.  All kinds of sizes.  Boys and boys together.  Girls and girls together.  Girls and boys together.  Poor people. Rich people.  Taxi drivers.  Anything you want.  It's all mixed up together and that’s what I like about it.”

Truman Capote, 1979 by Roxanne Lowit

NEW YEARS EVE: The nightclub became known for extravagant décor by Renny Reynolds, Richie Williamson (Moon and the Spoon), and Tony-award winning designer Tony Walton (Neon Fan).  Schrager’s most favorite party of all was New Year’s Eve 1978-79 which he described as “Standing on Stardust”.  Reynolds brought in 4 tons of diamond dust: two for the floor, and two to sprinkle on the dancefloor throughout the night.

Background: Stroke of Midnight at Studio, 1978-79 by Dustin Pop, with dresses by Zandra Rhodes Giorgio DiSantAngelo and Kenny Bonavitacola in foreground.

DISCO FASHION: Fashion designer Halston installed disco lighting in his atelier, so that he could see how his designs would look at Studio 54 and other nightclub settings. His clients included Liza Minnelli, Elizabeth Taylor and Lauren Bacall.

ICONS: Elizabeth Taylor famously wore her Bulgari 62-carat sapphire necklace to Studio, for Martha Graham’s 1979 benefit honoring Halston.  Other attendees included past Graham students: former First Lady BettyFord, DorisDuke and LizaMInnelli.

COMING SOON:  Though it only lasted for 33 months, Studio 54 –  known for its legendary parties that attracted the most diverse, famous and glamorous clientele of its day  –  is considered to be the most important nightclub of the Twentieth Century. 

See why at the Brooklyn Museum. Stay tuned for more updates about Studio 54: Night Magic.

Thank you for joining us on our tour of Studio 54: Night Magic. Join us next Sunday for another virtual tour of our galleries!

Installation view of Studio 54: Night Magic. (Photo: Jonathon Dorado)

(Source: brooklynmuseum.org)

[mamapriest]

Studio 54: Candid Moments Captured from the World’s Greatest Disco

Opening Night

On April 26, 1977, New York City was introduced to the beloved Studio 54; theater turn nightclub. No one was prepared for what debauchery would take place behind its treasured doors. On opening day, mobs of hipsters crowded the front entrance, flowing even over police barricades.

Heart of the Disco

Little did anyone know, in mere weeks, Studio 54 would become  the most admired nightclub in the world. The venue would become the epicenter of the worldwide disco craze. Its sinful and carefree attitude welcomed all those that could get in.

Steve Bubell & Ian Schrager

Steve Rubell and Ian Schrager, two former fraternity brothers from Syracuse University, transformed the former CBS radio station and theatre property on a paltry $400,000 budget. They kept the theatre’s infrastructure to consistently mix up the look and feel of the club on a moment’s notice.

Carmen D'Alessio: VIP

The sinful club was a hit from the start thanks to PR entrepreneur genius, Carmen D’Alessio. Her contact list, grown from her time in the fashion industry, included names like Andy Warhol, Liza Minnelli, and even Truman Capote. Before even opening, New York gossip columns blossomed about this upcoming nightclub experience.  She’s pictured here (center), celebrating Michael Jackson’s 30th Birthday. 

A Grand Entrance from Bianca Jagger

Her PR efforts were instant (and huge) hits. For her 30th birthday party, Bianca Jagger was allowed to ride a noble white stead into the club. Public curiosity of the club only grew. When celebrities began to regularly party here, there was no stopping its success.

Bette the Medler

In just a matter of weeks, Studio 54 beckoned a name for itself. Catching the hearts of locals and celebrities, alike. Notice the hootin’ and hollerin’ Bette Midler? Not only is she welcomed by a literal circle of joyous guests, she’s getting pumped herself.

Stars Were Born

Upon the release of “A Star Is Born,” Barbara Streisand made waves when she began to visit. Her fans followed the comedy queen… and then danced the night away. She was a hot commodity and she knew it. 

Anything You Wanted

A person could be gay, straight, or quite honestly, anything they wanted to be when they were here. In fact, clothes were essentially optional. No one was going to tell you right from wrong. In fact, no one was going to tell you what to wear… if anything at all.

Entertaining Staff

In fact, the flirty nature of the club was so prominent, its busboys wore nothing more than bottoms. Although we hate to admit this one is wearing a suit and bowtie, the feeling between these two men is unmistakable. What happened next is anyone’s guess.

Elton, Ross, & Cher

Just like other achievements, the club’s popularity, acceptance, and success only grew as more and more celebrities gave their stamp of approval. This photographer caught a chipper Elton John, the glowing Cher, and beautiful Diana Ross.

View more candid photos here: http://definition.org/studio-54/11/

[blogdungsroman]

As Scott Bitterman, a  former busboy and then assistant manger at Studio 54, recalls,

"My favorite regular at the club was a bright, funny elderly woman who came several nights a week and danced much of the night. I attended several dinner parties at her apartment with friends--but the film  [54] reduced her to an insipid caricature as 'Disco Dottie.' In real life, 'Disco Sally' was Sally Lippman--a witty and brilliant attorney admitted to the New York State Bar in the 1920s. Sally represented the best of the club for me: she was neither rich nor famous. She was a woman who loved to dance and have fun with her friends in the evening."

Proof that there’s no age limit to having fun.

[notyourmothersplaylist]

England’s Forgotten Club Kids: The Rum Runner

There’s a lot to be said about the Club Kids of the 1980/1990s. Too much for films, documentaries, books, and certainly too much for a short blog post that’ll certainly be more photos than words. Simply put, the true ‘Club Kids’ were a group of misfits in the late 80s/90s who f*cked up New York City. There were so many I can’t name them, and they liked drugs, electronic music, and the scene culminated in a grisly murder of one of their own, by one of their own.

Before them, however, there were the Blitz Kids in London—named for the Blitz Club, where Boy George was a cloak attendant and Spandau Ballet was the house band—and the new-romantics who frequented the Rum Runner just short 2-hour train north in Birmingham, where the boys of Duran Duran were bussing tables at 8 and took the stage by 10. There’s quite an amount of literature on the Blitz Club, but not as much on the Rum Runner; so for the first post in a vintage club series I may never finish, let’s take a look at the history of Birmingham’s Rum Runner and some of its most exciting patrons.

The Rum Runner was a casino before Paul and Michael Berrow, the two sons of the club’s original founder, renovated the place after a particularly exciting trip to New York City wherein they visited Studio 54 (Brits may not admit it all that often, but they’re kinda obsessed with America, in the same way Americans are obsessed with Brits). The Berrows wallpapered the place with mirrored glass resembling of what it might look like to step inside a disco ball, painted any other visible walls black, and opened the doors with visions of David Bowie dancing in their heads (they hosted club nights spotlighting tunes from Roxy Music, Chic, Bowie, and many other glam rock giants, which attracted all the coolest kids in Birmingham, naturally). In 1978, cool kids Nicholas Bates and Nigel Taylor (who would then become Nick Rhodes and John Taylor) handed the Berrows a demo tape for their fledgling band Duran Duran and the rest is history; they held auditions until D-Squared became a full-fledged band with a guitarist and everything, and the Berrows became their managers.

Guitarist Andy Taylor recounts many interesting things in his book “Wild Boy” (a fantastic read) about the Rum Runner. He writes about working with the Berrows, helping maintain the interior of the club by polishing the mirrors, touching up paint, and whipping up burgers in the kitchen in exchange for free rehearsal space. He talks about the wild behavior of the club-goers—how flamboyantly they dressed, how they acted like rules and behavior norms didn’t apply, and how sex, drugs, and glam rock were paramount. He also talks about the aptly named ‘Sex Offender’s Room’ (“People weren’t politically correct, then”, he writes), where the Durans and the Berrows dragged in a nice fluffy bed in a vacant corner…and then would purposefully walk in on one another when they were enjoying the, uh, intimate company of their guests.

Yeah, they truly did that.

(All-around handyman Andy Taylor, busboy Roger Taylor, and deejay Nick Rhodes, from the Rum Runner Facebook page)

Another thing they did is run their official Fan Club upstairs from the f*ck room in the club they also worked at. I can confirm this because I have the card to prove it:

(Yes, this is a hand-me-down from my Duranie Aunt, and now something that is in my possession and that I cherish dearly).

Through the years, Dexy’s Midnight Runners, Ub40 and the English Beat would also become regulars there, amongst others, and the English Beat would go on to film their video for “Mirror in the Bathroom” with the Rum Runner as the setting, aptly named for the mirrors that swallowed the entire club (these are some of the best interior shots of the club I’ve seen, and the song is a killer ska jam!). The Berrows would go on to manage Duran Duran until the mid ‘80s, just before the release of 1986’s Notorious. The Rum Runner would also face its final curtain in 1986, where they hosted a ‘Demolition Party’ before the club closed for good, and now a Hyatt hotel stands on its former grounds on Broad St (so don’t go looking for it).

The Rum Runner held happy memories for many. Jeremy Green writes on an old Duran video showcasing clips from the club about one of his contemporaries, Gay John (who was a prolific member of the new romantic scene/gay community in Birmingham, more on him later): “I remember one night Gay John went around The Rum Runner Club sticking his vibrator in people's drinks.. Fun times. :p :p :P” (Gay John sounds like fun. Where is Gay John now?). Keith Hill, probably also a dude from Birmingham, writes “Had my 21st Birthday party here...how cool is that?...I believe John Taylor was seen there, love to say I invited him, but maybe cooler to say…he crashed my party! Hiding in barrels, dodgy goings on in barrels…& the toilets of course, the multi sexual toilets.”

What he might have meant was, there was a unisex area where men and women could apply makeup at the club, but he also...could have meant other things.

In fact, he most certainly also meant other things, if Andy’s accounts of the club’s wild party-goers are to be trusted. Also, there were barrels. Was this place even real?

A patron named Rob goes on to write he met his wife at the Rum Runner, and now they’ve got grown children, which is a fun and unnecessary fact to share, I suppose, but the internet is full of that; Andy Taylor also claims to have spent much time with his then-girlfriend-current-wife Tracey there, as well (seriously, they’ve been married for ages, which is incredibly sweet), even asking her to be his wife after throwing back one too many drinks within the mirrored walls. For a joint with a f*ck room, the place seems pretty damn wholesome.

(He also did cocaine there on Christmas Eve, though, so let’s not get ahead of ourselves.)

Going back to Gay John, though-- I’ve grown incredibly obsessed with him in the short time I’ve been researching the Rum Runner and I’d love to find more information on him. Gay John is almost always mentioned in reminiscent comments by the old Rum Runner club-goers on chat boards/comment spaces, although only by means of a sentence or passing mention; that being said, video footage of Gay John does exist, as he’s featured in Duran Duran’s Planet Earth video doing the ‘New Romantic Shuffle’ with fellow Brummie clubgoer who went by the name ‘Lavinya’. 

(Who’s who? I can’t even say.)

Gay John was, as you might guess, a member of the gay community in Birmingham who worked with many drag artists and was also apparently involved in the Rocky Horror community; he also owned a strip-club called the Tin Can in Birmingham’s Digbeth area, where glam/goth tyrants like Sisters of Mercy, the Jesus and Mary Chain and Flesh for Lulu would go on to play. Apparently someone died there during a show, though, so who’s to say what really happened there or when it closed (nobody’s said anything otherwise, so I’m guessing it’s closed). If anyone has information on the Tin Can Club or Gay John, please let me know!

I’ve not got much else to say other than the internet was kind to me when I started searching for Rum Runner lore, and it sounds like a fantastic place to have frequented in its day. It might not be the Limelight or the Blitz, but for a bunch of working-class kids, it was a place of decadence and self-indulgence. Because we can’t see it for ourselves, I’ll try to paint a picture as best I can for you to the tune of the Rum Runner Playlist, with songs hand-picked by resident DJ Nick Rhodes to evoke memories of when he was still pressed for cash and most likely dying his own hair.

   All photos below will be credited to their owners as best I can. Enjoy!

Sources: The Guardian, Carpenter & Joiner, Birmingham_81 on Twitter, BirminghamLive / a second article from BirminghamLive, Duran Duran Wiki, Shapers of the 80′s, Gay Birmingham Remembered, Birmingham Music Archive, John Taylor’s and Andy Taylor’s books, and last but certainly not least, the community-run Facebook page for the Rum Runner

[steven-myself]

"54" - Adel Bouteldja photographed by Baldovino Barani for FACTORY Fanzine

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Margaret Trudeau dances with a busboy at Studio 54, 1980s.

[funface2]

The Best Jokes from the Alec Baldwin Roast on Comedy Central – Collider.com

To some, Comedy Central’s annual roast is like the Super Bowl of comedy. And this year’s distinguished honoree, Alec Baldwin, makes for a particularly great football to kick around. Not only has he endured as an award-winning film and television star for more than 30 years, but he has survived all kinds of tabloid incidents, from fistfights with photographers, to the embarrassing voicemail he once left for his “rude, thoughtless” daughter. He has also hosted Saturday Night Live, America’s foremost comedy institution, more than anyone else in its history. The point is that Baldwin’s remarkable life offers a lot of material to work with. The Comedy Central Roast of Alec Baldwin airs Sunday night, but Collider was invited to the live taping last week, and with a dais that included acting legend Robert De Niro, transgender icon Caitlyn Jenner and controversial comedian Adam Carolla, you can bet there was plenty of friendly shade thrown and shots fired.

Sean Hayes served as a surprisingly strong Roast Master for the evening, and joining him and the aforementioned trio on stage were doctor-turned-actor Ken Jeong, NBA star Blake Griffin, SNL‘s Chris Redd, Sabrina the Teenage Witch star Carolina Rhea, roast ringer Nikki Glaser, and the Roastmaster General himself, Jeff Ross. Plus, there were two surprise roasters, Alec’s daughter, Ireland Baldwin, and Triumph the Insult Comic Dog, who may need to be put down soon, as his shtick is getting a little long in the canine. And yes, that is a tooth joke, for all the dentists who read Collider.

At one point, I thought Lady Gaga was going to roast Baldwin (who introduces Ally’s SNL performance in A Star Is Born), via video, but she was just announcing that she and Comedy Central had a made a cool million-dollar donation to Exploring the Arts, a charity that supports arts funding. That’s always the first thing to go when there are budgets cuts at schools, so it’s a worthy cause, and hey, isn’t that worth it to get Lady Gaga on your broadcast? Methinks so.

Image via Warner Bros.

Glaser brought her A-game, as you’ll see below, but that’s what I expected from a pro. Griffin, on the other hand, dunked on everyone with the kind of confidence that only a jock can muster, and truly surprised me with his ease and timing on stage. I should’ve seen it coming, too, as Griffin once held his own in a roast battle against Ross, who underestimated his competition and was lucky to squeak by the All-Star forward back in the day.

Jenner deserves a medal for what she was put through during this roast, but she gave as good as she got, and went toe-to-toe with some much more experienced roasters. De Niro did his thing, but at that point, he’d been on stage for close to three hours and it was getting late, so the energy — both his and the crowd’s — wasn’t quite there. And Carolla stayed right on brand, using most of his time to rail against #CancelCulture instead of Baldwin. Speaking of whom, when it was Baldwin’s turn for rebuttal, he showed everyone why he won two Emmys for 30 Rock — he can deliver a hell of a zinger.

So put that remote down — remotes are for closers — and check out the #BaldwinRoast on Comedy Central on Sunday night. Here’s a little sneak peek of my three favorite jokes from each roaster. Naturally, parental discretion is advised…

Sean Hayes

“No offense, Blake, but I’m a better ball handler than you.”

“Caitlyn, being here tonight is the bravest thing you’ve ever done, but don’t worry, any parts you don’t like will be cut.”

“Alec once said I was like a brother to him, which is why we haven’t talked in 10 years.”

“Alec, this will be the funniest thing you’ve been a part of that Tina Fey didn’t carry you through.”

Grade: A Hayes made for a surprisingly solid Roast Master and his introductions for each roaster were some of his funniest jokes, especially his intros for Redd and Jenner. I thought he did a good job setting the tone for the evening with his strong opening set.

Nikki Glaser

“Blake, you look like a black guy made by a printer that was running out of ink.”

“Robert De Niro… I can’t believe I get to share this stage with you, and by that I mean the final one of your life.”

“Stevie Wonder sees his sons more than you do, Caitlyn. I mean, even Casey Anthony knows the current location of her daughter!”

“Alec, you’ve had four kids with Hilaria, which is incredible, because isn’t your semen just oatmeal at this point? Oooh, Robert got excited when I said ‘oatmeal!’”

Grade: A Glaser was really the ringer of the evening, as she’s really the only one flexing that comedy muscle every night. It showed, as her set was absolutely vicious.

Image via Warner Bros. Pitures

Ken Jeong

“Chris Redd… just like on SNL, your jokes have been cut for time. Let’s move on! Scroll, scroll, scroll!”

“Alec, you have five kids with two different women. Why can’t you be more like the investors in your films and just pull out?”

“Robert, I’m a great doctor, but even I can’t resuscitate your career.”

Grade: A- Ken Jeong’s jokes alternated between network sitcom and edgy cable series, so to speak. Some were a little corny, but the clever ones really hit the mark, especially Jeong’s delivery of the Redd joke above. Hopefully that one makes its way into the broadcast, which will inevitably leave some punchlines on the cutting room floor.

Chris Redd

“If you wanna hide something from Robert De Niro, just put it on a SNL cue card, because he can’t read that shit!”

“I’m excited to watch an old man figure out trans pronouns in front of a live studio audience.”

“Caroline looks like she leaves her baby in a hot car to meet firemen.”

Grade: B+ Chris Redd got off to a rough start but he recovered and finished strong.

Caitlyn Jenner

“Back in the day, Alec and Bruce were like brothers. That’s one more brother he’ll never talk to again.”

“Adam Carolla is so boring. I’ve never seen a drier pussy in my life, and that’s coming from me. See Adam, women are funny!”

Grade: B+ Jenner closed her set with an inspirational message, telling trans viewers ‘if I’m strong enough to sit up here all night, you can handle anything,” and telling her critics “if you have a problem with that then you can suck my dick… if you can find it!”

Caroline Rhea

“Jeff Ross, you are one fat Jewish man. I feel like you took “Let my people go!” out of context.”

“Alec Baldwin worked as a busboy at Studio 54, where he had to clean up jizz and coke every night. That’s exactly what Nikki looks for in a shampoo!”

“Where are your brothers tonight? God knows they’re not working!”

Grade: B Rhea may have stuck out like a sore thumb on the dais but she held her own onstage and took all the jokes about her weight in stride.

Blake Griffin

“Caroline, if you’re here then Salem the Cat must’ve turned it down. Sorry Robert, I know how much you like black pussy.”

“Caitlyn Jenner’s pussy is so young that Alec just called it a “rude, thoughtless little pig.”

“On behalf of the entire NBA and half the rappers on the Billboard charts, thanks for giving your daughters daddy issues.”

Grade: A Griffin showed his roast experience, dunking on the entire dais, and forcing the industry to wonder, should he be starring in Space Jam 2 instead of LeBron James? Could he be the next Dwayne Johnson or Dave Bautista? The charisma is there…

Adam Carolla

“Ken Jeong showed his dick in The Hangover, and Ken, I haven’t seen a dick that small since I took my nephew ice-fishing!”

“If you were offended tonight, please give a reach-around to your emotional support dog and shut the fuck up!”

Grade: B Carolla works a bit better in longer-form, where he can build up a head of steam. His jokes were good, and I liked how he pushed back against the Comedy Police, but it felt like he left a few punchlines on the table.

Ireland Baldwin

“It’s hard being the daughter of an iconic movie star, but I’m not here to talk about my mother… or her Oscar.”

“It’s nice to be on a runway without starting beef with American Airlines. I mean, why would you start shit with the one place still playing your movies?”

“At least you taught someone the ABC’s!”

Grade: B+ Ireland was the surprise roaster of the night, and frankly, she deserved a few minutes of revenge years after her father left that terribly mean voice mail on her phone. She has grown up to be a beautiful woman, and she showed a lot of poise on stage considering the fact that she isn’t paid to deliver lines, and many other roasters struggled in front of the live audience.

Triumph the Insult Comic Dog

“I thought Jimmy Kimmel was here but I was just smelling Adam Carolla’s finger!”

“Alec, your fuse is almost as short as Chris Redd’s IMDb page!”

“Alec Baldwin once made an appearance on Sesame Street. It was the only way he could get close to an Oscar.”

Grade: C I’ve gotta be honest… Triumph’s shtick is getting a little old… in terms of both human and dog years. When an actual dog is stealing the show from you, what does that say? 

Image via Warner Bros.

Robert De Niro

“After tonight, Rocky and Bullwinkle won’t be the worst thing I’ve ever done!”

“I was in Goodfellas, and I bet Sean has also been in some good fellas.”

“Comedy Central wouldn’t put Caitlyn Jenner on a roast until after her transition so they could pay her 20 percent less.”

Grade: C+ I just don’t think this was the right format for De Niro, who struggled with the teleprompter. He was OK, but his timing wasn’t 100 percent. Too bad Comedy Central couldn’t afford to de-age him like Netflix. I heard enough Old De Niro jokes to last me a lifetime. The man is the greatest actor ever, and it just felt weird watching everyone tee off on him like that, but at least he’s a good sport!

Jeff Ross

“It’s a Saturday Night Live reunion! Alec Baldwin plays Donald Trump. Robert De Niro plays Robert Mueller. Chris Redd plays Kanye. And Caitlyn Jenner donated the dick in the box!”

“Robert De Niro is a method actor. I just wish that method involved reading the script, Bob!”

“Caroline, you look like the schoolteacher all the kids hide behind during a shooting.”

“Adam, you once said that women aren’t funny. Well, they are, and let me tell you, you should’ve hired some to write your jokes tonight!”

Grade: A- The Roastmaster General was pretty damn great, and his set was consistently good. It didn’t have quite the same highs as, say, Nikki Glaser or Blake Griffin’s, but he didn’t have many stinkers in the bunch, and he definitely seemed to get extra camera time.

Alec Baldwin

“Blake, moving from LA to Detroit is so sad. That only happens when a prostitute’s body is sent back to her family.”

“Nikki, were you the flight attendant I was rude to? What devastating comment can I make that Nikki hasn’t already muttered to herself in front of a mirror at Equinox?”

“Ken, the hardest possible title for you to pronounce is Glengarry Glen Ross.”

Grade: B+ Baldwin got some good licks in when it was his turn to respond, but the roaster is always in a tough position at these things, because we’ve already heard 3 hours of jokes about each individual on stage, so it becomes harder to surprise the audience as the night wears on. Still, for a guy who made ‘Always Be Closing’ famous, he scored as the evening’s closer.

Image via New Line Cinema

Image via NBC

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Interview: Matt Tyrnauer Lets Us Behind the Velvet Rope in ‘Studio 54’

For 33 months, from 1977 to 1980, the nightclub Studio 54 was the place to be seen in Manhattan. A haven of hedonism, tolerance, glitz, and glamour, Studio was very hard to gain entrance to and impossible to ignore, with news of the celebrities on the dance floor filling the gossip columns daily. Steve Rubell and Ian Schrager, two college friends from Brooklyn, succeeded in creating the ultimate escapist fantasy in the heart of the theater district. Rubell was the outgoing bon vivant who wanted to be everybody’s friend and was photographed with every celebrity who entered the club, and Schrager was the behind-the-scenes creative mastermind who shunned the limelight. Studio 54 was an instant success and a cash cow, but the drug-and-sex-fueled dream soon imploded in financial scandal and the club’s demise. Steve Rubell died in 1989, but now, for the first time, Ian Schrager tells the whole unvarnished story in his own words. Using Schrager’s revelations and a treasure-trove of rare footage shot inside Studio 54, Matt Tyrnauer (Valentino: The Last Emperorand Scotty and the Secret History of Hollywood) constructs a vivid, glorious portrait of a disco-era phenomenon, and tells the story of two friends who stuck together through an incredible series of highs and lows. I sat down with Matt Tyrnaeur to discuss his riveting and provocative new documentary.

Danny Miller: I’ve always been so fascinated by Studio 54. Fascinated and a bit repulsed by the  whole velvet rope mystique and knowing I probably never would have been allowed in. But the dichotomy between the exclusivity of the club and its reputation as a “haven for inclusivity and acceptance” is so interesting.

Matt Tyrnauer: It’s a contradictory premise. Andy Warhol said that Studio 54 was a dictatorship and the outside and a democracy on the inside. I think that’s relatively true and that the velvet rope aspect of the place might have been one of the seeds that led to its demise. But there were many seeds including Steve and Ian being completely blinded by success and greed.

At least the exclusion wasn’t just based on the old standard of who was rich enough to get in.

No, not at all. While the premise of the velvet rope may have been inherently undemocratic, they were not choosing the predictable power people in New York. Many of those people, the Rockefellers and the Astors, the denizens of gentlemen’s clubs, and the preppies from the Hamptons were blatantly turned away at the door. These were the establishment people who had always had carte blanche in the city and were not used to being turned away. But Studio also turned away the “B and T” group, the “bridge and tunnel people” who would head to Manhattan on the weekends.

They were snobs and anti-snobs at the same time.

Yes, but there were so many ironies, because Steve and Ian were basically bridge and tunnel people themselves. Their first nightclub was in Queens. I mean, it was FOR the bridge and tunnel crowd! They had cut their teeth on the Saturday Night Fever crowd. But the whole Tony Manero culture had nothing to do with Studio 54. This was a completely different exploitation of disco that was on a different track from the glorification of the outer borough polyester shirt and gold chain kind of clientele.

I wonder what kind of guidelines the people manning the door at Studio 54 were given. If you were a certain type of celebrity, you were obviously getting in, but were they also told to welcome the gay and trans community?

I think the door policy was a bit of a mystery. But look, the whole thing came from underground club culture which Steve and Ian knew about it. This was their swerve from that — they took the energy, the excitement, and the naughtiness of the underground club scene and repackaged and  rebranded it in a way that made them multimillionaires. In a way, they invented the iPhone version of a nightclub! They built a better mousetrap and then rode that rocket into the stratosphere for 33 months.

Steve Rubell (left) and Ian Schrager stand outside the door of Studio 54 in New York City, December 14, 1978. Credit: Photofest.

It seems like they really changed the social fabric of New York at that time.

It’s really astounding, because Steve and Ian were these schlubs from Brooklyn who overnight became the social arbiters of New York. Such a thing was probably not possible until that very moment. Before that, Mrs. Rockefeller was the social arbiter of New York City, but Steve and Ian detected a shift in the culture and they rode that for all it was worth. So one day, the old families of New York are ruling New York, and the next day, Steve Rubell is — with Andy Warhol, who understood the changes that were happening, right at his side.

Seeing how unbelievably successful they were, I’m stunned at the way they crashed and burned. Do you think their downfall was mostly because of greed? Naiveté? Stupidity?

I think it was all of those things. Plus the fact that while all that was happening, society was shifting again during those 33 months.  New York went from being an anarchistic Taxi Driver kind of place to a much more buttoned-down city during this time. In a way, Studio 54 was heralding the recovery of New York from the low depths of the 1970s.

I can’t help but think that they could have avoided most of their troubles if they just weren’t so greedy.

Skimming off the top was pretty endemic at that time, but as the prosecutor in the film said, skim 10 percent, not 80 percent! They were really pigs about it and were still playing by the old rules. I think they sensed that they needed to clean up their act, and Ian told me, it’s not in the film, that they were going to try to make it all right and clean up the books but that they never got a chance to because they were caught.

I wonder if it had just been Ian alone if that would have happened sooner.

We’ll never know. They were all skimming, but it’s true that Ian was more of a businessman. They both got drunk on their own success but Steve was the one shooting his mouth off. Ian didn’t talk to anybody, he was an introvert then and he still is. But Steve talked to everybody. It was one of the charms of Steve Rubell that he treated everyone the same, so he was just as likely to whisper how much money they were making into Calvin Klein’s ear as he was the busboy or his latest trick and who knows where that information was going to go.

I did find Ian Schrager to be a very compelling, sympathetic character in the film. Were you surprised by his honesty?

Well, I’d asked him to be honest and I said I wouldn’t make the movie unless he told me the whole story. Most of what he says in this movie are things he never said before.

When he talks about going to prison, you can just see the agony in his face.

Yeah. He never wanted to talk about that stuff again, which is why he waited 40 years to do it. And then I think he regretted having done it.

Really?

We were fighting for months after he saw the first cut. But one of his adult daughters finally sad, “Dad, everything you object to in this film is the best thing in the film.”

Were you already familiar with his father, “Max the Jew,” and his underworld connections to Meyer Lansky?

No, not at all! On the day he agreed to do the film, Ian whispered to me, “I’ll tell you about my father, I’ve never done that before.”

Do you think his family’s connection to the mob is what allowed Studio 54 to operate without all of their licenses in place?

Well, I don’t think that Studio 54 was a mafia operation, not at all. But I do think that while many nightclubs had to pay “protection,” and even those that did were still vulnerable to the mob, Studio might have gotten a pass because Ian’s father’s friends were probably saying, “Leave those kids alone.” I think they had a kind of nudge-wink from the mafia underworld.

But in the end they seemed to be their own worst enemies, and having the infamous Roy Cohn as their lawyer didn’t seem to help very much.

There was a time when I think Cohn could have gotten them off, but their problems were so complex and always getting worse. I think Roy Cohn gave them bad advice and then Steve went rogue and started implicating the Carter White House in a big cocaine scandal which made the whole thing into a federal case. It was a real mess.

And the times were changing so fast, especially with the advent of the AIDS crisis, that it also seemed like they were some kind of sacrificial offering by politicians.

Studio 54 was the epitome of the culture of decadence and promiscuity that defined the late 1970s that hit a brick wall with the HIV/AIDS crisis. All of that coincided with Steve and Ian’s demise. Looking back on it, it seems like there were these historical forces that merged create a totally different society: the rise of Ronald Reagan and the conservative political movement, a kind of light McCarthyism that policed social mores including the Just Say No anti-drug initiative, and then the unspeakable horror of AIDS which was a tear in the human fabric that was exploited by politicians like Rudy Giuliani who wanted to “clean up” gay culture, close the bath houses, and so on. The country was suddenly imposing a poliltician-driven morality against what people saw as our permissive society. The world seemed to change very quickly.

From left: Liza Minnelli, Bianca Jagger, Andy Warhol, and Halston at Studio 54. Photographer: Adam Scull.

Fascinating. Such a hard right turn. I know you were going for a very different story here, but were you ever tempted to sit down with some of the surviving regulars of Studio 54 like Liza Minnelli or Bianca Jagger?

Yes and no. Bianca is on the record as saying she’d rather die than talk about Studio 54 these days. She’s a human rights activist and doesn’t want to go there. And Liza has spoken about it before but in the end I thought that celebrity interviews would be a kind of trap. I wanted to tell the story of these two men who have this enormous rise and fall. These celebrities who frequented the club were almost a footnote. For me, it’s better to see them in the archival footage such as the Michael Jackson interview in the film than to have a famous person 40 years later not saying much of interest and having the audience pulled out of the film as they sit there and contemplate the plastic surgery the celebrities have had.

The archival footage in the film is just remarkable. Did you find that before you began shooting?

I found out about it after we started but before we started editing. It was several hours of 16 mm. film shot by NYU film students inside Studio 54. The film had never even been processed, it was found in a barn in upstate New York! We processed it and were thrilled by the wonderful footage that we found.

It really made me feel like I was there, even though I never would have been allowed into that damn club! Do you think if Steve Rubell were still alive that he would have participated?

Oh God, yes, if Steve were around, Ian probably wouldn’t have gotten a word in!

Studio 54 is currently playing in New York and Los Angeles and will be opening in other cities. Director Matt Tyrnauer will be doing Q&As following the 7:00 pm screening on Friday, October 12, at the L.A.’s Nuart Theater. He’ll also be at the 1:50 and 7:00 pm screenings on Saturday, October 13, and the 1:50 and 4:40 screenings on Sunday, October 14. Click here for more details.

[robbialy]

Maggie Trudeau, ex-wife of former Canadian Prime Minister Pierre, and mother of current Canadian Prime Minister Justin, dances with a Studio 54 busboy, New York City, March 1981. Photo © Allan Tannenbaum

[steven-myself]

"54" - Adel Bouteldja photographed by Baldovino Barani for FACTORY Fanzine