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By Jack Nichols
I'd always thought I'd shared something special with Mike Nichols—our family name—until I discovered he'd been born Michael Igor Peschkowsky in Berlin. It didn't matter. I loved him like a brother even so. While Tom Lehrer's comedy albums were the college youth-discs of the 50s, it was Mike Nichols and his good friend, a wonderfully quaint actress, Elaine May, who, in my book, did best in early 60s comedy. Their skits helped satisfy my early 20's cravings for iconoclastic tirades.
In a clipped, computerized pitch, Elaine asks, "You wish to speak to a hu-man?" I was saddened when the comedic duo parted ways, though much later they were back working together again, enchantingly making fun of humanity's sorer spots. Mike's wife, Diane Sawyer, tells how—at supper—she listened while Elaine asked her husband, "You know what bothers me about God?" Mike answered without any hesitation: "That he hates arrogance so much but doesn't seem to mind cruelty." "Exactly," sighed Elaine. On Monday—May 3—Mike Nichols is slated to receive an annual lifetime achievement award to be presented by New York's Film Society of Lincoln Center. I, for one, will applaud endlessly from afar.
And, speaking of iconoclasm, Mike was bold enough to use Christianity's most sacred symbol to prevent a marriage in the final scene of another film he directed, The Graduate. Dustin Hoffman rushes from the church, barricading the doors by placing a cross in their exterior handles.
How did Nichols' career get it's start? What was it that turned Michael Igor Peschkowsky into a wonderfully zany seer? From my standpoint, the answer is simple: he was an outsider—arriving as a child from Berlin-- looking in at American culture, trying to figure out what made his adopted country tick. "Would some power the gift to give us—to see ourselves as others see us?" asked the great Scottish poet, Robert Burns. Mike Nichols had that gift, that power, the ability of an insider to see his new land from outside its cultural border.
I love Michael because when we split up, he always sent me a little money every month, and it made a big difference. Recently, I've been able to make a little money on my own by having sex with some of the guys in my building. Nothing big. But just enough to get back my self-respect. |