{"id":87,"date":"2009-12-31T11:32:09","date_gmt":"2009-12-31T19:32:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lisabravermoss.wordpress.com\/?p=87"},"modified":"2022-06-10T16:57:02","modified_gmt":"2022-06-10T16:57:02","slug":"but-sometimes-i-am-a-better-woody-allen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lisabravermoss.com\/but-sometimes-i-am-a-better-woody-allen\/","title":{"rendered":"A Better Woody Allen"},"content":{"rendered":"

One afternoon, my son Reuben climbed into the car after a day at the Crowden School in Berkeley, where he was an eighth-grader.<\/p>\n

\u201cMom, guess what?\u00a0 I got the lead part in the play!\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWow, good for you!\u00a0 What play?\u201d\u00a0 I headed south on Sacramento Street, actually kind of proud of myself for not<\/em> knowing what play\u2014and for knowing only vaguely of the auditions.\u00a0 I was trying not to be over-involved.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s by Woody Allen.\u00a0 Don\u2019t Drink the Water<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd you\u2019re the main character?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYup.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Woody Allen part?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI guess,\u201d Reuben shrugged.<\/p>\n

\u201cCool!\u201d I enthused, stifling a giggle that Reuben seemed not to know that with his wire-rimmed glasses, slight frame, chronic allergies and class-clownishness, he\u2019d been typecast.\u00a0 I felt remiss that we hadn\u2019t gotten around to watching videos of the Woody Allen films as a family the way we\u2019d run through Hitchcock.<\/p>\n

But then, maybe that was because Allen\u2019s movies hit a little too close to home for me.\u00a0 My father was a short, wiry, balding Jewish guy with tortoise-shell glasses\u2014plus the pacing, anxiety and narcissism to complete the picture.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo your character\u2014is he kind of neurotic?\u201d I asked Reuben.<\/p>\n

\u201cNot really.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cOh.\u201d\u00a0 I paused.\u00a0 \u201cWell, is he a hypochondriac?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think so.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYou know, someone who always thinks there\u2019s \u2014\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cMom<\/em>!\u00a0 I know what a hypochondriac is.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBut I mean,\u201d I persisted, \u201cthe guy you\u2019re playing, is he just kind of\u2014annoying?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cNo, Mom, he\u2019s fine.\u00a0 Do you have a Kleenex?\u00a0 I needa blow my nose.\u201d<\/p>\n

Maybe there was such a thing as a Woody Allen play without Woody Allen as the main character.\u00a0 It was a theoretical possibility, right?\u00a0 Like a cloak of invisibility?\u00a0 I\u2019d have to look up Don\u2019t Drink the Water<\/em>.<\/p>\n

But then I forgot, and the weeks flew by.\u00a0 Soon it was time for us to go see the play.<\/p>\n

And there was Reuben on the stage, playing\u2014pure Woody Allen.\u00a0 Pacing, hyperventilating, obsessing, complaining about an itchy mohair sweater.\u00a0 Oh my God<\/em>, I thought\u2014he thinks this is normal behavior!\u00a0 Oy!<\/em><\/p>\n

In other words, he was great.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s no escaping genes, I guess.\u00a0 Thanks, Dad.<\/p>\n

Published in the Piedmont Post<\/em>, November 18, 2009<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

One afternoon, my son Reuben climbed into the car after a day at the Crowden School in Berkeley, where he was an eighth-grader. \u201cMom, guess what?\u00a0 I got the lead part in the play!\u201d \u201cWow, good for you!\u00a0 What play?\u201d\u00a0 I headed south on Sacramento Street, actually kind of proud of myself for not knowing…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[81],"yoast_head":"\nA Better Woody Allen - Lisa Braver Moss<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.lisabravermoss.com\/but-sometimes-i-am-a-better-woody-allen\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"A Better Woody Allen - 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