Episode 36: Jimmy Mak - "Horse Feathers"

What’s funny? It’s subjective, right? Before television, before movies, traveling vaudeville acts carried the same humor from coast to coast. When motion pictures (later with sound) showed up, these acts became recorded history. The Marx Brothers packaged their brand of vaudeville humor inside this cinematic Trojan horse. These brothers, each displaying a unique character, did it with unmatched genius. “Horse Feathers” is a film I still laugh with to the point of snot bubbles. It’s debatable whether this film could be made today given a certain perpetually “offended” audience, but it was done yesterday and it’s damn funny.

It has been over 20 years since I met Jimmy Mak. I was a live TV director and he was a budding writer with Shadowbox Live. Jimmy has the challenging task of writing comedy for today’s kind of funny. To know the Marx Brothers is to know brother Mak. Through the years their influence has shown up in his work. I was not surprised when he chose to share his fondness for their film “Horse Feathers”. Moving Music invites you to listen as we discuss Marx Brother humor, Shadowbox Live, and life.

TC