Ringing in the New Year with a real bang

LIKE MANY Filipino families, our “torrific” Torre tribe watched the old year tick away its final minutes and seconds on local TV—and we were sorely disappointed, because the televised send-offs we watched in alternation failed to stir and thrill us.

The hosts and performers involved were generally unable to rise to the important occasion, and left us thinking: There’s got to be a better way to kick out the old and ring in the new for the country’s televiewers than this!

Yes, but where could we find that better way? —Well, last Jan. 1 on CNN, we happily discovered it, when we caught the network’s New Year’s Eve remote “countdown to 2016” telecast from Times Square in New York City, as well as some other cities in the US.

The main anchors and hosts were Anderson Cooper and comedienne Kathy Griffin, and they were such a good team that they managed to keep the countdown interesting and entertaining—for hours on end!

Actually, when we thought back on the long coverage, it was Griffin who did the yeoman’s work to keep the extended telecast feisty and fun!

Foil and target

Cooper did his share, but he was more of a straight man to her; a “second banana” who served as a foil (and sometimes a target) for her comedic zingers and stingers!

Thus, the “countdown” telecast succeeded because it was a masterful mix of opposites—the buttoned-down Cooper, who did his (limited) best to “unbutton,” and the madcap, ack-ack Griffin, for whom absolutely nothing and nobody was sacred!

Cooper may have blushed and stammered throughout their long ad-lib chatter and patter fest, but he was obviously happy that Griffin was in top sassy and silly form, because viewers were entertained and definitely not bored—which they would not have been, if he had most cluelessly dared to “go solo.”

Viewers who were unfamiliar with Griffin were surprised and delighted to belatedly discover her breezy, brassy kind of “take no prisoners” comedy and pithy social comment and flair for humorous character assassination!

She talked a mile a minute and jumped from one topic to another with the skill and bravura of a star tap dancer and circus aerialist—combined !

She was a past master of the funny ad-lib, because she’s had lots of practice as a stand-up comic who topbills scores and scores of shows each year all over the US, in which she performs pretty much alone—for more than two hours!

Griffin and Cooper did so well that they made the countdown’s cohosts in other US cities look like chopped liver.

—In other words, like their Philippine TV counterparts, they simply went through the motions and dutifully followed the usual sequence of activities—while Griffin and Cooper (mostly Griffin) dished, dashed and sassed way beyond that. —Way to go!