Happy Birthday Elaine May: Watch this Classic Nichols & May Sketch

If you’ve been haunting the AFS Cinema in recent years, you may have gotten the distinct (and correct) impression that we are fans of Elaine May’s work as a writer and director. We’ve shown A NEW LEAF and ISHTAR to audiences who have greeted these films with even more laughter than they received on first release, when mass audiences were perhaps less receptive to this style of comedy. In truth, her humor was always ahead of its time and the subtlety – and sublimeness – of the gags needs careful and intelligent reading. Those of us who feel that ISHTAR is a great comedy may have been in the minority for decades, but the reinforcements are arriving by the day, as younger audiences appreciate the freshness and modern qualities of that long-derided movie.

On that note, here’s a little discussion with Rick Linklater from a 2017 AFS Cinema Screening of ISHTAR.

The work of the comedy team Nichols & May – that’s her fellow great director Mike Nichols of course – is mostly known to us from their recorded audio work, though they also worked in nightclubs and halls. Their work has been preserved on video, but mostly it is of a sort keyed to family audiences. That’s why the following bit is such a treasure. It’s daring observational sketch comedy, from two people whose powers of observation border on the Herculean, and who have the acting skills to put it over.

So, in tribute to Elaine May, born on this date in 1932, we present this sketch. Note that the audio takes a few seconds to come in, and the motion stabilization that someone has applied to the video may induce seasickness, but we think you will agree that the material is worth it.