January 5, 2001      10 Tevet 5761

It's Me, Al Franken

America's leading political satirist, who combines personality, education and religion, comes to Atlanta.

Tom Singer / Special to the Jewish Times

Political satirists had a field day as the 2000 presidential election degenerated into a clinic on counting (and recounting and counting some more). For Al Franken, who makes his living and reputation throwing darts at the inflated balloons of politicians, this was like hitting the jackpot.

These are political satirists' salad days. And the dressing? A George W. Bush victory.

"I think there is sort of a rooting interest of satirists for Bush," Franken said in an interview with ABC prior to the election. "He's not, shall we say, an intellectually curious person, and I think if he makes it ¿ and I don't think he will, by the way ¿ he'll be good fodder."

But for Franken, the enduring monarch of them all, there are more important things to attend to. He is on his way from his New York home to Boston, where he will check up on the proudest accomplishment of his considerable body of work, which includes:

• Fifteen years as a "Saturday Night Live" writer and producer, which earned him five Emmy Awards.
• An unforgettable "SNL" character, Stuart Smalley, who sired a critically acclaimed movie and the first of Franken's three best-selling books.
• The book "Rush Limbaugh is a Big Fat Idiot," which sat on The New York Times best-seller list for 23 consecutive weeks and spun off into a Grammy Award-winning record. It drew the kind of review from one-time U.N. Ambassador Jean Kirkpatrick for which political satirists would die. "My goodness," Kirkpatrick said, "if this is the kind of mindless tripe that passes for political satire these days, I fear for this nation."
• Irreverent coverage of national political conventions that moved one New York paper to anoint him the "Walter Cronkite of the '90s."

For Franken, however, family takes priority over show-biz achievements. This trip, he is on his way to visit with daughter Thomasin, a Harvard University sophomore who spends her quality spare time teaching a first-grade class in one of Boston's more dismal neighborhoods.

"I'm proudest of my kids. My kids are smart, decent, kind and do good things," says Franken, a doting 49-year-old pop, the day after celebrating his son Joe's 16th birthday. "I've always thought that, on my death bed, the foremost question in my mind will be, 'How did my kids turn out?' I'll judge my life more by that than by anything else."

That seems to be a very Jewish thing, he is told.

"Really?" Al Franken responds. "I think it's more of a human thing."

It feels natural to refer to Al Franken by his full name. One almost cannot help it.

Most anyone who watched "Saturday Night Live "during the "Me Decade" of the 1980s recalls the way Franken used to come on "Weekend Update" to promote turning those egoist years into a celebration of the most deserving American, "Me, Al Franken."

He'd begin with a political-style commentary and segue into his signature shenanigan, proposing ways for viewers to raise money to support him, such as buying commemorative gold coins that featured the face of, "Me, Al Franken." It was this character that brought him out of the anonymity of a behind-the-scenes writer and catapulted him to fame.

Lately, Franken has been appearing at Jewish fund-raising events. His Jan. 16 appearance at the Jewish Federation of Greater Atlanta's annual campaign kickoff event is only the latest.

"They tend to be a good audience in the sense that I do talk about politics, and Jews tend to know and care a lot about politics," he says. Pause. Then the quick postscript, "Not that gentiles are stupid." Comics, better than most, know the perils of letting others fill in the blanks, so you don't want to leave any.

Rita LeVine, who is chairing the federation event with Jeff Levy, says Franken was a good choice to headline the campaign kickoff, because his political satire was fitting in an election year.

"Al Franken was a frontrunner from the get go ¿ he's one of the best political satirists around today, with a broad appeal to people of all ages," she says. "We're sure that Al Franken will be a huge draw. This was a major consideration, as a primary purpose of the community event is to reach out to Atlanta's Jewish community and let them know just what it is that Federation does."

Franken says he likes Jewish audiences because he can use his entire repertoire.

"I can also talk about things that I relate to that only Jews can relate to, being Jewish myself," adds Franken, who is not a particularly devout Member of the Tribe.

As a youngster growing up in Minnesota, he wrestled with the theological 'Big One' common to many of his generation: "I sort of had the Holocaust pounded into my head ¿ and I think there was a good reason. But because of that, I had trouble accepting a powerful and just God that could allow that to happen.

"As a Jew," he goes on, "I'm not very observant. We do go to seder every year. But I married a Roman Catholic [he and Franni recently marked their 25th anniversary]. I got her to renounce the pope, but that's as far as that went."

Franken says his "kids think of themselves as Jewish," though neither has a Jewish education. "They grew up on the Upper West Side of New York City, so I guess they're Jewish by osmosis."

Some comic performers are always "on." It's hard to think of someone like Robin Williams or Jon Stewart having a private side. Franken, though, successfully separates his personas. It isn't easy, for instance, to visualize him as a PTA meeting cut-up.

"When I'm with my kids and I want to annoy them, I try to be funny," he says. "And they get mad."

For the most part, Franken uses world news and newsmakers to his advantage. What he does combines the dominant aspects of his personality * performer and educator. He was a gregarious showman even as grade-schooler and dedicated political science major at Harvard.

But comedy may have been just a brief post-school phase, had he and buddy Tom Davis not met Lorne Michaels in 1974.

Michaels, a Canadian producer searching for an American version of Monty Python, the scathing British comedy troupe at the height of its popularity, was casting the 1975 debut of "Saturday Night Live." Franken became part of the show's near-legendary original writing staff.

While others struggled with the often-suffocating pressure of creating edgy, provocative, funny stuff every week, Franken chose to have others create the ideas for his weekly material, the luxury afforded by his bent for political satire.

"I took advantage of what was happening and that it was a live show. It was a great thing to be able to sit back and just react," says Franken, who stayed with the show through its first five seasons, left to pursue other projects, and returned in 1985 for another 10-year run.

Then he bolted for good to "do other stuff" resisting all the invitations, with isolated exceptions to return. A recent exception was his writing contributions to the show's pre-election prime-time special where he re-teamed with Jim Downey, an original "SNL" cohort. Downey's return to the "SNL" staff for the 2000-2001 season has helped the show regain luster.

"He put the show back on the map for political stuff. The show has done some great stuff this year," says Franken, whose personal career has paralleled "Saturday Night Live's" hot-and-cold quarter-century.

His books, including his latest, "Why Not Me," is his third to sell more than a million copies. His albums have been giants in the dying breed of comedy recordings.

But there also have been misses. The movie "One More Saturday Night" virtually closed before Sunday morning, and other projects never made it to the box office.

And, there are parts of his life that aren't funny at all ¿ those he'll never spoof or discuss publicly. His involvement with Al-Anon, the program for families and friends of alcoholics, is one such chapter about which he declines to speak.

Yet his credits include one project that must have been personal. He co-wrote the screenplay for "When a Man Loves a Woman," a deep, touching alcohol-abuse drama that starred Meg Ryan and Andy Garcia.

Being able to make us laugh is valuable. Sometimes, being able to make us think is invaluable.

"Yeah, well, there have been a few things that I haven't done well," Franken says, lightly. "But I'm proud of most things. I'm happy."

A Satirical Event

What: Jewish Federation of Greater Atlanta Community-Wide Campaign Event, featuring political satirist Al Franken

When: 7 p.m. Tuesday, Jan. 16

Where: Coca-Cola Roxy Theatre, 3110 Roswell Road, Atlanta

Cost: $30

Info: (678) 222-3703

Tom Singer is a Los Angeles-based free-lance writer.

Federation Launches Annual Campaign

The organization is already halfway to its goal.

Dana Dratch / Senior Staff Writer

A new year means a new fund-raising campaign for the Jewish Federation of Greater Atlanta. With 2001 not even a week old, indications are good that the organization will reach its $18 million goal.

While the Federation officially kicks off the annual campaign with a Jan. 16 performance by "Saturday Night Live" alum Al Franken, $9.5 million already has been received in 2001 pledges, giving the organization 53 percent of its goal.

Contributions are up 16.5 percent over the same time last year, says Campaign Director Dan Ginis. The national average is 9 percent.

"It's exceeding my expectations," says Federation President Eliot Arnovitz.

Leaders attribute campaign excitement to a new idea ¿ dubbed "The Chosen Program" ¿ which allows donors to direct the amount of their contribution that exceeds last year's gift toward one of four categories. This year, donors can elect to steer money to aid worldwide Jewry, strengthen local educational and cultural programs or help needy Atlanta Jews. Or they can let Federation leaders decide how best to spend the money ¿ which is what two-thirds of donors are doing, says Ginis.

The Federation uses funds raised in the annual campaign to contribute to 14 affiliated Jewish non-profit agencies, including local schools, community centers and services for the needy, infirm and elderly. While the agencies are not funded solely through Federation donations, the annual campaign is an important source of money. Last year, leaders set a goal of $16.5 million and raised $16.7 million.

This year, the average contribution so far has been $11,600 ¿ a figure Ginis says is skewed because most of the donations received early in the campaign are larger bequests. Last year, Federation received 8,630 pledges that averaged $1,900 each. This year, the organization is asking donors to increase their gifts by 20 percent ¿ and leaders say Atlantans are responding generously.

What's truly different in the 2001 campaign, according to Federation leaders, is that both solicitors and donors are focusing less on the gift and more on the type of community they want to build.

"This year we've spent a lot of time talking about what people want for the future," says Campaign Chair Linda Selig, the first woman to hold the post. "What is the role of community? How do we build community? Where do we go from here? We're helping people realize they do have a way to connect." (Please see Editor's column, page 20.)

Over the years, Selig had been privy to plenty of Federation discussions in which frustrated donors wanted more control over their contributions. On the other hand, as a volunteer with a large non-profit organization outside the Jewish world, she had witnessed how strings placed on directed gifts nearly crippled a charity as it tried to plan for and meet a spectrum of needs.

She decided that Federation would steer around both pitfalls ¿ and "The Chosen Program" was born.

Since $1.2 million of the $16.7 million pledged last year came with special requests, Federation professionals are estimating that if the organization meets its goal this year, $2.5 million will go into the directed giving program.

"Quite frankly, I think it's being done in the right way," says Michael Fischer, an assistant vice president with United Jewish Communities, the umbrella organization of 189 federations and 400 independent Jewish communities. "It allows people to express their particular interests."

Several other federation cities also are experimenting with limited forms of directed giving, he says.

Despite predictions of an economic downturn, contributions to the federation system are continuing to increase. And charitable experts expect the trend to continue ¿ at least for the time being.

"Personally, I think it's too soon [to feel the effect of a downturn]," says Debra Snider, communications director for Philanthropic Research Inc., a national database of non-profit information. "It hasn't caught up with anyone yet. We're all still riding the wave of prosperity."

Both local and national Jewish community leaders are bankng on the fact that no matter what the economy does, Jews will always give precedence to making federation gifts.

"Fund raising by the Jewish community, through the federation system, has never been based on economics," says Fischer. "The feelings are too strong."

Arnovitz agrees, noting, "It's more of a mental downturn now, rather than an actual downturn. And this is a priority for people."

The Chosen Program

The JFGA is allowing donors to steer contributions over and above last year's gift to one of four categories. They are:

Jewish Renaissance: Atlanta programs that reinforce Jewish identity and support Jewish education and culture.

Human and Social Services: Programs that help needy Atlantans, including the elderly, the disabled and families in crisis.

Worldwide Jewry: Relief, health care and aid to Jews around the world.

Traditional Giving: Before this year, the only choice. Traditional giving allows Federation leaders to direct the money toward any need.

Source: The Jewish Federation of Greater Atlanta