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Daily News of Los Angeles (CA)
THE WRITING ON (AND OFF) THE WALL
UCLA AID OFFERS COMIC
RELIEFMarch 7, 2005
Tag: 0503090055
Section:
Sports
Edition: Valley
rop
Page: S2
Source: TOM HOFFARTH
Memo: Tom Hoffarth can be reached at
thomas.hoffarth@dailynews.com and (818) 713-3661.
Even without John Travolta's help, Karl Dorrell knows how to be cool.
But more important, the guy can laugh, too.
``He may be a little introspective, but I think he's a human being
who likes to have fun,'' Jolie Oliver, the administrative assistant for
the UCLA football head coach, insisted the other day. ``He enjoys
life. He high-fives us. All of the sudden, you could hear this roar, and
it's just him letting it out in the middle of his office.
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| ``I know he has this reputation, but he can really be raucous. We
laugh all the time.''
Oliver, we must note, is something of an expert in the field of
funny. She is a certified stand-up comic.
A UCLA grad (1979) who majored in theater, Oliver finally
decided to get an agent and, for the past 10 years, pursued movies, TV and
stand-up. She has hooked up with a comedy troupe (see the Web site
www.wholetthewhiteguyin.com), finished well in some recent comedy
contests, and, on Friday, jetted off for England to spend a week taping a
show for that country's version of Comedy Central.
On the weekends, Oliver is polishing punch lines at places such as
The Madrid Theatre in Canoga Park. Weekdays, she is trying to keep a
straight face keeping the football coaches' paperwork straight, running
errands and managing the office. She's been doing it since 1983, when
Terry Donahue and Bob Toledo - two guys who really knew how to yuk it up -
were her bosses.
Oliver admits she doesn't have one specific one-liner or pratfall
that can get Dorrell going from imperturbable to having milk come out of
his nose. But she will vouch for his ability to recognize humor in a good,
positive and productive manner.
``I think what makes him laugh are the same things that make anyone
laugh,'' said Oliver. ``Karl may not instigate it, but he lets it happen
around him. I wouldn't call him loud and outgoing, but he lets everyone
else do that.''
Especially Oliver, who deserves the last laugh. ...
--Olympic 200 breaststroke gold medalist Amanda Beard, who's doing
swimmingly as a student these days at the University of Arizona, drowns
the hopes of many BMOCs by admitting in the latest issue of Sports
Illustrated On Campus that she does have a boyfriend, although he lives
about 30 hours away by plane.
South African gold-medal swimmer Ryk Neethling, whom she hooked up
with in Athens a few months back, was recently voted ``Sexiest Man for
2005'' by his country's version of Cosmopolitan magazine.
Beard, meanwhile, was easily the winner (55 percent of 263,000
votes) in the recent ESPN.com Page 2's Hottest Female Athlete balloting.
...
--Deena Drossin Kastor, the former Agoura High star distance runner
who won the bronze in the women's marathon at the Athens Games last
summer, again skipped Sunday's L.A. Marathon and its cheesy 15-minute-plus
head start for the gals.
She says she is going to run in only one marathon this year, Oct. 9
in Chicago, where she thinks she has a far better chance of breaking her
U.S. women's record of 2 hours, 21 minutes, 16 seconds (or about five
minutes faster than the women's L.A. winner ran Sunday).
According to Kastor's Web site (www.deenadrossin.com), her first
competitive jaunt this year is the USA Women's 8K Championships in New
York later this month. ...
--Save the date: Future Los Angeles mayor Magic Johnson will impart
his wisdom on how to overcome obstacles and set goals to take charge of
your life during a seminar that's so huge it spans across two months -
April 30 and May 1 - at the L.A. Convention Center. Out-of-pocket cost:
$149.
The program is sponsored by The Learning Annex, which regularly
offers night classes on life-enriching issues such as how to cardio
striptease, heal yourself ``using guided imagery,'' speak ``any language
in just three hours,'' conquer attention deficit disorder ``without
drugs'' (maybe a ball-peen hammer?), get a ``non-surgical face lift''
(again, a ball-peen hammer?), ``snare'' a millionaire and ``Make $$ in the
Adult-Entertainment Business Online.''
When Magic starts talking about that stuff, alert the media.
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Keywords: COLUMN - SPORTS
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