About Steve :: Actor ::
Guest Appearance 
Aspen Comedy Festival 2000

 Every year in Aspen Colorado, funny people from around the world meet to discuss the biz, honor their own, and just plain perform at the US Comedy Festival.  Steve goes pretty much every year, and every year he is one of the participants and usually appears on a panel.

In 2000, he hosted a couple of panels and did some after hours playing with his friends.
 

    
    Monday, February 14, 2000
Yesterday's Yuks Still Echo; From Jerry Lewis to Nichols & May, veteran comics gather in Aspen for festival of screenings, sketches, tributes.
By HILARY STUNDA, Special to The Times

ASPEN, Colo. ... [omitted boring part about Jerry Lewis]

Aspen also paid tribute to Elaine May and Mike Nichols, the witty and urbane sketch duo who hit it big in the late '50s. They had split by 1962. It was a brief yet brilliant run. It changed comedy. The two met at the University of Chicago improv theater group the Compass Players, which would later become Second City. It was a casual meeting. They still hadn't been formally introduced when they ran into each other at a railroad station and without any preliminary conversation launched into improv "for the other people in the waiting room," May said at the Friday program.

Nichols and May's Wit, Sophistication Still Intact

Moderator Steve Martin was incredulous and asked, "Just like that? When you finished, did you introduce yourself, like 'Hi, I'm Elaine,' or 'Hi, I'm Mike?' " "No. We went straight to her house," said Nichols, deadpan. The audience got it.

"Elaine's brilliance was always to do the opposite of what you expected," said Nichols. When she would play the madam of a whorehouse, she would say, "Now don't forget, say hello to your mother for me."

The wit was still there. The aloof sophistication. Despite the fact that neither Nichols nor May likes giving interviews, Steve Martin gave it his best shot. "Were there moments of revelation either alone or together that you still recall as being significant in your lives or for your comedy?" Silence. "Well, or what's your favorite color?"

"Maybe you can ask me some questions," Martin tried. "I told you I would be awful at this," said May, as she reached for a bottle of Evian. "Now you're turning on me." "That's my water," said Martin.

"Chicago was not a fashion driven place. No one was like 'Come and see these fabulous people.' Nobody cares," Nichols said. "They come, they sort of fill the place, they laugh and they go home. They're not impressed with anything, which is the best possible training for anybody."

"Thank God none of them are here tonight," said Martin.

At the end of the evening, during the question and answer session, Tom Smothers stood and asked, "Were you lovers or not?" to which May replied, "Yes, we were lovers or not."

Tom and his brother Dick were honored earlier in the day, as 2000 marks their 30th anniversary of being fired from CBS, and losing their comedy variety show. But the dangerous thing about a "tribute" is that it makes the comedian take a seat, and brings in a panel of people to reminisce, who may or may not have something to say.

'Smothers Brothers'
Alumni Gather Onstage

Joined onstage by the original writers for "The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour" Steve Martin, Mason Williams, Bob Einstein with "Politically Incorrect" talk show host Bill Maher as moderator, Dick and Tom looked more like conventional men in their early 60s than comics.

"In these shows, you don't get to complete a thought," Dick said. "It's like watching a bunch of people who in so many minutes think they have to say a lot."

While the panel discussion oscillated between strained and genuine, there were some worthy anecdotes for die hard Smothers fans. How Williams gave Steve Martin his break as a writer, paying him $300 a week out of his own pocket. The time when they had Kate Smith dressed as Oliver Hardy, with Smith enraged, yelling to Einstein, "I'm walking off this stage because of you!" The time when Tom admitted to divesting himself of his properties so he could afford being sued. Einstein wailing, "Thanks for telling us! I was buying houses!" "I was driving a Jaguar when we got fired," Martin quipped.

The free for all memory lane became a little disjointed when former series writer Einstein became loud and started to interrupt Maher in mid sentence. He was on a roll and wasn't planning on stopping. Maher incorporated it into the "act," facing the packed audience in the converted gymnasium and saying, "Will someone please give Bob a job!"

Clips Show Smothers' Irreverent Style

The clips from their prime time show that rocked the establishment reminded those audience members who weren't born back then how irreverent the show was. One skit portrayed a black man and a white woman standing at the altar exchanging their wedding vows. The priest turns to the side and says, "The rope please."

The real highlight was their live show, "The Smothers Brothers Live," performed on Saturday. They were as good as they've ever been. Their banter was smooth, with Tom the rebel and Dick the straight man who "Mom always liked best." The show's guest lineup represented more of a '90s sense of humor, embodied by the self referential Spalding Gray, the four letter, sex driven comedy of Bobby Slayton and the political humor of Maher, who while commenting about a South American country wanting to replace coco crops with chrysanthemums and bananas said, "Did you ever try to get a hooker back to the room with a banana and a chrysanthemum?"

In addition to comedy, Williams played his Grammy winning instrumental "Classical Gas" with Ken Kesey's guitar, and Tom's Yo Yo Man made an appearance, to the delight of fans.
 		    
  The San Francisco Chronicle
FEBRUARY 12, 2000, SATURDAY, FINAL EDITION
Standing (Up) Room Only; Comedians both well known and obscure flock to Aspen festival
James Sullivan, Chronicle Staff Writer

Comedy producer Stu Smiley was on a cell phone yesterday, trying to persuade a showbiz acquaintance to be on a panel at the Comedy Arts Festival taking place here this week.

"You're not gonna bomb," says Smiley, the festival's founder who helped develop the careers of David Letterman and Robin Williams. "One laugh and you're over the top."

That's the goal of just about everyone, as the comedy industry makes its now mandatory yearly retreat to this Colorado ski town. Bay Area locals dominate the lineup, with tributes to Robin Williams and filmmaker Barry Levinson and a "Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour" reunion.

At yesterday's event in their honor, Tom and Dick Smothers looked nearly as young as they did when the show premiered 33 years ago. The panel, featuring former show writers Steve Martin, Mason Williams and Bob Einstein and moderated by Bill Maher, discussed the program's then radical politics.

"We were not political until we got the show," said Tommy.

"It had nothing to do with politics," said Einstein, better known to TV watchers as Super Dave Osborne. "(The show) just made no sense."

Later, the rambunctious Einstein complained that he hadn't been forewarned that highlights of the festival would be televised later.

"Don't worry," Tom cracked. "You'll be cut out."

Other events taking place over the four day festival ending today include tributes to Jerry Lewis and the team of Mike Nichols and Elaine May (the latter moderated by Steve Martin) and a first ever onstage reading by the cast of "The Simpsons."

Heavy snow almost stopped one "Simpsons" cast member from getting to the Thursday event. "He walked the last 10 miles on snowshoe to get here," joked executive producer Mike Scully about Harry Shearer, who does the voices of Mr. Burns; Homer's nuclear plant sidekick, Lenny; and others.

Emmy Award winners Dan Castellaneta and Nancy Cartwright, the voices of Homer and Bart Simpson respectively, drew big laughs from the standing room only Opera House crowd every time they opened their mouths. Sitting on tall stools in a semicircle, the cast read from scripts on music stands.
During a question and answer session, they took turns demonstrating the voices of various peripheral characters.

The audience groaned when Scully revealed the identity of the character who will die in tomorrow's show. "We can still change it!" joked series creator Matt Groening.

The talk of the hotel lounges has been surprise stand up appearances by Martin and Williams and a performance of "The Vagina Monologues" read by the Obie Award winning playwright Eve Ensler.

The Comedy Arts Festival strikes a balance between celebrity driven events and lower key opportunities for aspiring stand ups to showcase their acts. On Thursday, onetime Bay Area resident
Greg Proops hosted a wacky, well received "Alternative Hour" that included a Simon and Garfunkel parody envisioning the singers' hip hop comeback, and Second City cast member Susan Messing taking hilarious abuse from an insubordinate hand puppet she calls "Jolly."

Special guest Janeane Garofalo apologized for being "drunk ish" and tested some new material she'd jotted on a note pad. "Don't you think Chechen Rebels' sounds like a great name for a breakfast cereal?" she quipped.

The Levinson tribute was hosted by Craig T. Nelson ("Coach"), who began his career writing for TV shows alongside the budding director, who went on to win an Oscar for "Rain Man." Their long
acquaintance gave the presentation a looseness these things sometimes lack.

The Levinson tribute, top heavy with discussions about his most personal films ("Liberty Heights," "Diner,"), "made me think about that critical time when performers discover what it is they love," said Smiley.

Aspen, he said, gives the festival an appealing destination that has helped make it an easy sell. A 1998 reunion of the Monty Python cast took place "because they just wanted to come to Aspen, I think." 

Today's lineup includes the tributes to Lewis and Williams. Then there are the stand up showcases, where rising stars perform for crowds of well connected industry folks.

"If I were a young performer," Smiley said, "it would give me hope that you can have a career doing this." He told how one unknown had approached Martin after his surprise appearance Thursday. The only words he could muster: "Thank you!"
 
  The Denver Post
February 12, 2000 Saturday 2D EDITION
ENVER & THE WEST; Pg. B 03
Midnight is when the stars shine
By Bill Husted

ASPEN: The laughs start late at Aspen's U.S. Comedy Arts Festival, but if you can stay up, it's worth it.

At midnight Thursday, SCTV vet Catherine O'Hara corralled some comics to the basement of the St. Regis Hotel to perform musical numbers. It was SRO, with hundreds of night owls ready to chortle.

O'Hara must be pretty persuasive. Martin Short showed up, jumped into the piano and sang a song titled 'Aspen Is A Lady.' Then came Steve Martin with his banjo an act he probably hasn't done in decades. Where was the arrow in his head? The big star felt a little silly about it. 'Good evening,' he greeted the crowd. 'And I f-ing need this?'

Exccuuuuuuuuuuuuuse me!

Janeane Garofalo apologized that she couldn't sing but she couldn't tell jokes, either. She read from some notes she put down on the piano, but when few laughs came from her observations, she said, 'I'm too drunk to do standup. I could probably stand up and talk to a cop. I'm a cute drunk.'

Now that's funny.

D'OH! Watching the cast of 'The Simpsons' read through a script Thursday night was more fun than eating a bag of fresh doughnuts. There are a lot of 'Simpsons' fans out there and for them it was like a trip to the Land of Chocolate.

Creator Matt Groening came out first wearing boots, jeans and a varsity jacket. He told the full house, 'A lot of people are outside who couldn't get in, so I want you all to laugh really loudly.'

The only cast member missing was Julie Kavner, the voice of Marge. Different stories emerged: She was in a play in NYC is one version, the other says she declined to participate because she thinks a public performance forever ruins the magic. Maybe she's right. Actress Pamela Hayden spoke for Millhouse, and she's so beautiful we may never look at ol' Millhouse the same way again. At the end of the episode the audience had an empty feeling. What was it? Not once did Homer say 'D'oh!' A man yelled out from the back 'GIVE US A D'OH!' which Dan Castellaneta happily did.

CHUCKLES: Cartoonist Garry Trudeau slipped into town Friday to help Duke announce his run for the presidency. 'DUKE 2000 / Whatever it takes' is the slogan. Hope Duke's campaign is funnier than the press conference Sightem: Barry Levinson, Michael Ovitz and Robin Williams eating sushi and talking turkey together at Matsuhisa 'Politically Correct's' Bill Maher emceed the Smothers Brothers salute Friday afternoon. 'How many of you remember watching the Smothers Brothers Show?' he asked the full house. Huge applause. 'It's OK,' he yelled backstage to Dick and Tom. 'They're old!'
 
  DENVER ROCKY MOUNTAIN NEWS
February 13, 2000, Sunday
Local; Ed. Met 1; Pg. 11A
COMEDY ARTS FESTIVAL ALSO ABOUT BIG BUSINESS
DEALS, DEBATE FLOURISH AMID LAUGHTER, TRIBUTES
By Lisa Bornstein, News Staff Writer

Despite being filled with funny folk, the U.S. Comedy Arts Festival was as much business as pleasure.

Of the 3,000 people at the event, half were from the entertainment industry. They clustered in hotel lobbies and at late night parties, talking development deals, career trajectories and hot tickets.

When a live episode of The Simpsons was preceded by a ''turn off your cell phones'' announcement, the audience whooped and applauded.

Comedian Tommy Smothers faced his challenges during a tribute Friday to The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour. Bill Maher, host of Politically Incorrect, moderated the discussion, which included Tommy and Dick Smothers, Steve Martin (who got his break on the show) and writers Mason Williams and Bob ''Super Dave'' Einstein.

Einstein dominated the conversation, clearly exasperating Maher and leading Tommy Smothers to say, ''This isn't your show, Bob.''

Another Smothers tribute came late Friday night from Simpsons creator Matt Groening, who hugged Williams and Tommy Smothers in the St. Regis lobby, crying, ''I worship you guys!''

Saturday began with a session on the future of networks and the Internet, featuring such heavy hitters as ABC chief Stu Bloomberg, CBS President Leslie Moonves, New York magazine columnist Michael Wolff and moderator John Hockenberry. They were joined by Eduardo Sanchez and Dan Myrick, who built audiences for their film The Blair Witch Project on the Web.
 
  The Denver Post
February 13, 2000 Sunday 2D EDITION
Pg. A 02
Lewis, Williams are tops in over the top laughs
Bill Husted

ASPEN Jerry Lewis and Robin Williams honored on the same day at the U.S. Comedy Arts Festival! Could anything be more fitting, more funny, more scary?

People either love or hate these needy, over the top comics.

A full house greeted Lewis at the St. Regis Hotel on Saturday afternoon, a house that included Martin Short as moderator and Williams and Steve Martin. Lewis, a man who knows how to know his audience, looked more like Billy Kidd than Buddy Love, dressed in hiking boots, jeans and fleece.


Short's interview with Lewis covered the usual territory. Dean Martin ('The most under rated performer who ever lived in the history of show business'), critics ('Whores'), the award ('It's very humbling that there are people who think what you did was OK'), comedy ('It's really simple; it's about mischief and silliness') and advice to young comics ('Get the laugh, but not at the sake of losing your dignity').

Lewis washed down the better part of a bottle of red wine during the tribute and was clearly having fun with the crowd and Short. 'I love being here tonight,' he said. 'I don't have a problem telling you that I have the kind of heart that reminds me to be sensitive and enjoy the love that you get. Because for 68 years I have given out a lot of love.'

His one career regret? Not nailing Queen Elizabeth, Lewis confided.

Williams was honored later at a bigger venue and it was the hottest ticket of the festival.

A handful of sleepless fans got a preview of Williams' antics Thursday night in the basement of the St. Regis. All things come to those who wait, right? Williams took the stage by surprise at 1:45 a.m. He stuck the microphone down his pants. He worried that he had not seen Kevin Costner in two days. He also inferred that Aspen is an ancient Indian name for Prada. 'But I don't want to offend the heavy Indian population of Aspen.'

But, some wondered, why should this guy be honored by the American Film Institute after making movies as bad as 'Jack,' 'Father's Day,' 'Flubber,' 'Patch Adams,' 'Hook,' 'Club Paradise,' 'Toys,' 'Being Human,' 'Jacob the Liar,' 'What Dreams May Come,' and 'Bicentennial Man?'

Aspen Times arts editor Stewart Oksenhorn had this advice: 'If I were Williams, I'd take that star award and shove it way in the back of the closet, because 10 years from now, after another dozen of these sappy characters, the AFI is going to come looking for their award back.'

Run, Robin, run.

IMPROV: Elaine May and Mike Nichols popularized improv in the '60s then followed their own muses to separate successes. But there they were, together again, on stage with Steve Martin for a tribute Friday night. How did they start out? asked Martin.

'When we met, there was awkwardness and hostility,' said Nichols.

'Very much like tonight,' said May.

Later, Nichols said being on stage with May again was 'like coming home in a strange and wonderful way.'

As for improv, Nichols said May had one rule, which works in life as well as acting. Listen up. 'When in doubt, seduce.'

PUNCH LINES: Aspen Daily News columnist Jeremy Madden had a fictional interview with Homer Simpson and told him to try the food at Mezzaluna. 'Are you stupid?' Homer bellowed. 'Don't you know what happens when people named Simpson eat at Mezzaluna?' ... License plates in town: PWDRDAY on an Audi, YEEEHAA on a Lexus SUV Joke of the Day: 'We went back to our dressing room. It was a nail.' Jerry Lewis on his first night performing with Dean Martin.
 
  The San Francisco Chronicle
FEBRUARY 14, 2000, MONDAY, FINAL EDITION
DAILY DATEBOOK; Pg. D1
They Said It at the Comedy Festival; Slayton, Martin, Nichols do their bits
James Sullivan, Chronicle Staff Writer

Laugh riots and lesser disturbances seen and heard at the sixth annual U.S. Comedy Arts Festival, which ended in this ski getaway Saturday:

Just in time for Valentine's Day, Bobby Slayton had a few choice words for the holiday. First he complained that it was invented by the greeting card industry, then he said wives should stop asking husbands to show their feelings. "Yeah, we got feelings," he said. "We're either hungry or horny."

"This award is much more than a thing you stick in your underwear while singing What's New, Pussycat' " Steve Martin, quoted by Mike Nichols. Nichols, realizing that he and former partner Elaine May were struggling to answer Martin's abstract questions at a tribute in their honor, suddenly produced a copy of one of Martin's acceptance speeches and read from it. Martin covered his mouth in horror.

Eric Idle, introducing American Film Institute Star Award winner Robin Williams: He is what would have happened "if Einstein had dropped the whole math thing and gone into stand up."

Williams, later, responding to a question about roles he'd like: "I'd love to play Einstein. Or Ella Fitzgerald."

Bill Maher, after being told by the panel at the "Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour" reunion that doing the program was too hectic for them to be high on TV: "What a disappointment."

May, trying to tell Martin that she and Nichols didn't just cater to intellectuals: "We weren't really that . . ."

"Abstruse," Nichols finished.

"Thank you."

"In the sense of recondite.' "

"I understand," she said, to huge laughs.

Bizarre Brit Simon Munnery, a performance artist who calls his show the League Against Tedium, wore a ruffled shirt and inch thick glasses and talked into a handheld video camera mounted inside a tin foil sword. Men love breasts, he said, "because there are two of them and that represents good value."

More British absurdity: The Right Size, the flaky duo of Sean Foley and Hamish McColl, took the stage at a late night variety hour like two guys snoring in bed standing up, in hair nets, with a stiff blanket in front of them and pillows attached to the backs of their heads.

Jerry Lewis, explaining how his act with Dean Martin came together when a mobbed up nightclub owner insisted on it: "For him, a slash on the throat was like an afternoon."

"Two cannibals are sitting together feasting on a clown. One cannibal looks at the other and says, Does this taste funny to you?' " the winning gag chosen from hundreds submitted to Excite.com's "joke swap," chosen by Janeane Garofalo.

Williams, asked by Idle why he's so nice: "I have an anger. I've never been acknowledged for my ice skating."

Audience member Tommy Smothers, to Nichols & May: "I wasn't sure were you lovers or not?"

May: "I'll answer that. We were lovers, or not."

Lewis, berating high minded critics who trash his antic act: "Comedy really is simple. It's based on mischief and silliness."

Lewis, two beats after berating those critics: "T.S. Eliot said that simplicity is difficult because it requires nothing less than absolutely everything. That's comedy."

Martin, marveling at the vintage clips of Nichols & May laughing so hard they couldn't do their routines: "That's why comedians live so long that kind of happiness."
 
  Chicago Sun Times
March 06, 2000, MONDAY, Late Sports Final Edition
FTR; Pg. 31
Improv duo paved the way
PHIL ROSENTHAL

ASPEN, Colo. Steve Martin recalls, as a youth, listening to the improvisational comedy records of Mike Nichols and Elaine May late at night in his bedroom, being lulled to sleep by the rhythm of their clever byplay.

"I was listening to their voices, the sound, the intonation not so much the jokes," said Martin, moderating a tribute to the comedy team last month at the U.S. Comedy Arts Festival. "There was something in what they were doing."

What they do.

"What Planet Are You From?," the latest film directed by Nichols, starring Garry Shandling and Annette Bening, opened Friday. "Taller Than a Dwarf," the latest Broadway play written by May, directed by Alan Arkin and starring Matthew Broderick and Parker Posey, begins previews March 23.

"These two brilliant comedians who influenced all of us and changed the face of comedy have persevered," Martin said. "They're still working. They're still vital. They're still funny."

They're still making it up as they go along. 

They were students at the University of Chicago. Mid '50s.

"When we met, there was great awkwardness and hostility," recalled Nichols, 68.

"Yes," said May, a young 67. "Very much like tonight."

"I heard that she was great looking and very dangerous," Nichols said.

Paul Sills who would join them in launching the Compass, the pioneering improv group that would evolve into Second City brought them together. Nichols was in a play, and May remembers Sills saying she had to "meet the only person on the campus of the University of Chicago who is as hostile as you are."

It was the final performance of a perfectly awful production of "Miss Julie," which ran for several months because of "a misguided good review," according to Nichols, who still winces at the memory.

It was so bad that in one scene the woman playing Nichols' wife came in and said, "What are you doing up so early and with your hat on?"

Just one problem. He wasn't wearing a hat, something he didn't quite realize until he made eye contact with May in the first row.

"I hadn't had a hat on for the three months that we'd done this play, but we'd all been so bored that we hadn't noticed," Nichols said. "The actors, the audience we'd stopped listening.

"(May) had such an amused, contemptuous expression on (her) face. I thought: 'You're right. I know this is (garbage), but there is no way I can tell you while we're doing the play.' "

May doesn't recall being contemptuous. What she remembers is that the woman playing Nichols' wife was several inches taller than the 6 foot 1 actor.

"When he threatened her and when she pleaded and cringed and all, I did laugh," May said.

The next time the two saw each other was while waiting for a train. Nichols walked over to May. "May I sit down?" he asked.

May took on a Yiddish accent. "If you vish."

"We went into this long improv for the other passengers," Nichols said. "We went to her house just after that."

After graduation, Nichols left Chicago to study acting with Lee Strasberg. But he returned to Chicago and to May. By then, she was working with Sills and others in developing improvisational comedy at the Compass.

Martin: We should explain what the Compass is for people who don't know.

May: Second City.

Nichols: It was a cabaret.

May: It was really Second City.

Nichols: It was what became Second City. It started out called the Compass, and the idea was that it would be improvised. And there wasn't much of an idea after that, so there were weeks of desperation onstage. . . . What was nice about the Compass was that we were very near the lake, and when something went really badly wrong, you could just run out the back and jump in the lake.

Martin: In Chicago?

Nichols: In Chicago.

Martin: In February?

Nichols: More March.

New York would have eaten them alive. They would have been lost in Los Angeles. Chicago afforded the blossoming team of Nichols and May the comfort zone to experiment and work on their then unique, groundbreaking material.

"You could do that in Chicago and fail, and run out in the back to the lake," May said. "In New York, you'd have to be careful. But Chicago is a very sophisticated town."

"Chicago is not a fashion driven place," Nichols said. "Nobody says, 'Oh, you've got to come see these fabulous people!' Nobody cares. You know, they come and they laugh and then they go home. They're not impressed with anything, which is the best possible training for anybody."

Nichols and May based their characters on themselves and the people around them. They had new, reality based takes on sex and relationships. By 1957, when they took their act to New York, nightclubs and TV, they had perfected it.

"As Elaine says, it wasn't such a big deal in Chicago," Nichols said.

Martin: There's a quote you said, Elaine, and I'm sorry to do this because when people do it to me, I hate them.

May: Oh, I won't mind.

Martin: It's when you call up a quote someone said 20 years ago. Well, here it is. You said: "It is comedy, not drama or romance, that's about real life."

May: I don't think I said that. I could be wrong, but what I said very firmly was that the difference between comedy and romance and tragedy is that in comedy, you do every detail, and in romance and tragedy, you do a sweep.

Martin: And Mike, you said, "A laugh is like an orgasm."

Nichols: I'm sorry to hear that.

Nichols and May hit Broadway with their revue in 1960. The show ran a year before the two decided to go their separate ways.

He made his name primarily as a stage and movie director. His plays have included "The Odd Couple," "The Gin Game," and "Annie." Among his films are "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf," "The Graduate," "Catch 22," "Carnal Knowledge" and "Silkwood." He's married to newswoman Diane Sawyer.

She made her name as a writer and director. She directed "The Heartbreak Kid" and wrote "Heaven Can Wait."

They reunited to collaborate on "The Birdcage" and "Primary Colors." But it's not like the old days, when they created it from scratch every night.

"I guess it's not dissimilar to jazz," Nichols said. "Now and then you get hot, you don't know why, and it mostly consists of looking into your (partner's eyes) and thinking: 'Oh my God! I know what you're going to do, and when you get there, I'll be there, too!' "

It isn't clear whether Nichols and May were ever lovers. Maybe they weren't. Doesn't matter. The interplay, the passion, the energy were the same.

"Elaine had a great rule, which I've passed on to my acting students: When in doubt, seduce,"

Nichols said. "It's a great rule for life, too."

GRAPHIC: Elaine May and Mike Nichols met in Chicago in the mid '50s. May has written a play that begins previews this month on Broadway. Nichols recently directed the movie "What Planet Are You From?"
   
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